2023-12-10 13:40:00
Foster families can change the lives of many children, but there aren’t enough of them. This Sunday, an event brought together these welcoming people in Marche-en-Famenne.
One of our teams went there and met three couples who are welcoming or have welcomed children. They tell us.
Claire and Bernard became a host family 17 years ago. They welcomed eight children and for them, this experience is the most humanly enriching there is. “When we saw the first Saint Nicholas Days, the first Christmases… You offer anything and it’s as if we were offering the whole world. It made us see things differently“, confides Bernard with emotion.
Irma and Déborah, host family for 2 years. The two women decided to take in a four-year-old child. “When we talked about the welcome, it seemed obvious“, says Irma. “I said to myself: ‘Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’ I myself grew up in a foster family. Before the little guy arrived home, we saw him five times, the bond was made very quickly and it seems obvious that we are a family.”
With Catherine and Adrien, it’s a little different. The couple has been an emergency foster family for 2 years. Emergency family status means that you have to be able to adapt to a certain uncertainty. They know that the children they welcome will not stay. Since they started, they have already welcomed four children. “It’s temporary, we know that. They’re not my children, but when they’re around, I defend them like I’m a wolf. That’s the urgency, we are 100% dedicated for a period then we return to life before.”
Every year, there is a shortage of more than 1,000 host families.
Host family
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