There are more than 8 101 children in Latvia whose parents no longer have parental rights for them. Around 2 000 of those children have been living in child care institutions for a long time, including 400 children under the age of three. Parental rights were taken from their parents because they hit, tortured, starved or just forgot about the very existence of their children.

There are currently 567 foster families and 6 000 guardians in the country; 100 families adopted children in the last several years, but there are still around 2 000 children who remain in social care centres, with around 400 children under the age of three. Latvia is currently one of the last countries in Europe where Soviet era children’s homes are still operational housing large numbers of children (20-100). There are children care centres in other countries, but they usually house around ten children at the same time, and quality specialist support to them.

«During the last six years, the foster families and guardianship movement has been developing very actively. The number of adopters is growing, but it is still not enough», – manager of the Teresa professional foster family union Arija Martukane points, adding that there are too few free families that can afford to take in children under the age of three. Current foster families are overburdened and they lack knowledge, emotional, psychological and social support from the state, local government and fellow humans. «Even though foster families receive a benefit of 80 LVL for the upbringing of small children and additional allowance for each child, these foster parents need to go to work. Combining work with raising small children is hard, and these children need special care, because they had once suffered from violence, whether it was physical or emotional», – Martukane says.

In order to attract society’s attention towards just how many children still live in child homes, and to increase the movement of foster families, the Social Service Agency will organize an event in Verman Garden on June 3: «Help a child to grow in a family», event organizers report.

It should be noted that since 1925, June 1 has been celebrated all over the world as the International Child Protection Day.

Ref: 102.109.109.1392