LEGAZPI CITY – At least 25 foster parents in Albay province have received cash assistance from the provincial government through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO).
In an interview on Thursday, Maria Vivien Cea, Albay PSWDO officer-in-charge, said each foster parent received PHP5,000 through their family welfare program early this week.
“The government fully recognizes the 25 licensed foster parents to have temporary care of a child. Their contribution to society by providing children with basic needs, support, and emotional care truly shows unconditional love,” she said.
“We know how important family is to each of us. We want to reach out and give an additional incentive for these foster parents. Their sacrifices and concern to help the children entrusted to them deserved recognition,” she added.
Cea said they are encouraging couples or families who are legally allowed by the law to be foster parents.
“The children under foster care are being monitored by the city and municipality’s social welfare and development in the province. We want to ensure the safety of the children and the family,” she said.
Those allowed to foster children must be of legal age, at least 16 years older than the child unless the foster parent is a relative, must have a genuine interest, capacity, and commitment to parenting, and can provide a familial atmosphere for the child, with a healthy and harmonious relationship with each family member, and sufficient resources to be able to provide for the family’s needs, Cea said.
She also explained that a foster parent can become the adoptive parent of the child.
“There is no timeframe for the temporary care, but the foster parent can apply to the court to be the adoptive parent of the child. The children under foster care are abandoned by parents or the foundling children, also when the biological parents are temporarily unable to care due to family dysfunction, or medical, and economic reasons,” Cea said.
Foster care is a regular program of the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) that provides temporary, planned, and substitute parental care by a licensed foster parent. It terminates when a child is reunified with the birth family, adopted, or can independently live. | Connie Calipay (PNA)