feature BY JOHN DEGARMO, ED.D.
Child Welfare Around the World
In
May of 2017, the
Roots Research
Center in Athens,
Greece, held an historic
international adoption and
foster care conference. Child
welfare experts from across the
world came together during
the two-day conference for
one issue: the human rights of
children around the globe.
As the sole representative from the United
States, I was honored to be a part of this
important event. Indeed, I came away from
the conference gaining great insight into
how the foster care and adoption process
works in other parts of the world; insight
that I will be able to share with others
throughout the United States.
The theme of the first day centered around
adoption, with foster care focused upon
during the second day. Speakers from
Croatia, India, Romania, Belgium, Norway,
Greece, the Netherlands, Geneva, the United
Kingdom, Denmark, Hungary, Estonia, as
well as the United States, were featured.
As there are differences in foster care
services throughout the United States,
it comes as no surprise that there are
also vast and wide differences in the way
nations around the world implement
their foster care services and agencies. In
truth, the term foster care is one that has
tremendous differences in various areas of
the world.
In many industrialized nations, foster care
is commonly referred to as a temporary
placement, made by a state child welfare
agency, with a family. These foster families
undergo training by the government,
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and are closely monitored to ensure the
childs safety. Foster families in these
industrialized nations are compensated
by the state agency, though compensation
varies widely from one U.S. state to another,
and from one industrialized nation to
another. For example, foster families in
Australia are paid significantly more than
their counterparts in the United States. For
many third world and developing nations,
the term foster care is one that refers to
something that is quite different than the
system established in the industrialized
nations.
In many developing nations across the
globe, poor economic situations leave
little financial assistance for government
assistance. Lack of available health care,
adoption organizations and governmental
aid for families and children are the reality.
As a result, foster care agencies are not in
place, resulting in many displaced children.
Foster care in these parts of the world is
much more informal and often unregulated
by a state agency. Often, children are
placed with family members or even in
orphanages.
Throughout much of the African continent,
the practice of placing underprivileged
children into other homes is an old
tradition, and not an uncommon one. This
practice has been called many things,
I S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 I W W W. F O S T E R I N G FA M I L I E S T O D AY. C O M
including adoption, child
circulation, child rearing,
fosterage and fostering, with
the later term being the most
common one. The use of so
many terms creates confusion,
and certainly reflects different
practices. Children may be
placed in different homes for
an abundance of reasons: the
death of parents, divorce, illness, separation
of family members, and even for the
strengthening of family ties through future
arranged marriages. Girls are fostered
out far more than boys are in most African
nations. As educational opportunities
increase in many African nations, children
are also being fostered out to other
families, families that are closer to large
cities where schools are more readily
available. Sadly, many children in these
countries would not have access to school
and educational opportunities if it were not
for this type of fostering.
As there is no government financial
assistance in these nations, often the
foster child is expected, and required, to
perform a number of domestic chores
around the house as a source of payment/
reimbursement to their foster family. For
some foster children in this scenario, they
are thought of as domestic servants, not
children, and are treated in a harsh and
even abusive fashion. Large numbers of
those foster children placed in homes
for educational opportunities often fail
school, and even drop out, due to the poor
psychological conditions they live in.
As mentioned earlier, the poor economic
environment in Africa has severely affected
the fostering system. Child shifting, as
fostering is also known, is not financially
possible, as families are simply not
financially able to take another child into
their home. Coupled with the tremendous
increase in those children whose parents
have died from HIV/AIDS related diseases,
this leads to a large number of orphaned
children trying to survive without any
assistance from government or family
members in a form of foster care. Quite
simply, the high costs of properly installing
an effective foster care system prohibit
many African countries from developing it.
For the millions of orphan children in
Asian countries, the foster care system
offers little hope. Families are a deep
cornerstone for many Asian countries, and
children are highly valued. Fortunately,
many children whose parents have died
find outside parental care with extended
family members in a form of kinship
living arrangement, a type of family
preservation service. For some Asian
nations, this is the only option that is
supported by the government. As a result,
millions of children who have no living
extended family member find themselves
without a home. More often than not,
Asian governments are quick to place a
child into an orphanage. The majority of
these orphanages are overcrowded and
understaffed with children living in poor
conditions. For those children not living
in an orphanage or in kinship care, they
turn to the streets, where too often violence
awaits them. HIV/AIDS related diseases are
prevalent among children living in these
situations.
Foster care was first introduced in Japan
shortly after World War II, partly in
response to the large number of orphaned
children. Some 60-plus years later, the
foster care system is one that is seldom
used, with only 6 percent of children in
need placed in a foster home. Japans
culture may be an explanation for this low
number. Family typically is constrained
F O S T E R I N G F A M I L I E S T O D AY
to the strict ties of tradition of blood and
marriage. For those children who fall
outside these cultural traditions, it is often
difficult for them to find a home that is
welcoming. Disturbingly, Japans culture is
one that is resistant to foster children, as
there is a lack of understanding from all
portions of its society. Another struggle
that foster children face in Japan is the lack
of aftercare provisions. For those children
who have aged out of the foster care system,
they have little to no support, and often are
completely on their own.
European countries are generally
considered to have the most advanced
foster care systems available. However,
there are distinct differences between
regions throughout the continent. In the
Nordic, or Scandinavian nations, the system
is perhaps the most efficient and advanced.
The governments of these nations are
involved in the promotion of foster care,
In many industrialized nations, foster care
is commonly referred to as a temporary
placement, made by a state child welfare
agency, with a family. These foster families
undergo training by the government, and
are closely monitored to ensure the childs
safety.
and provide sufficient funds, staff and
training. Western European nations
have seen a reduction of government
involvement in foster care, though it is
still a highly developed child welfare
system. The lack of funds has led to a large
decrease in the placement of children
into care. Central and Eastern European
nations, perhaps due to those nations
suffering under Communism for decades,
have the weakest foster care system and
the fewest amount of foster homes on the
continent. Nevertheless, this region has the
I S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 I W W W. F O S T E R I N G FA M I L I E S T O D AY. C O M
greatest need for one, as more children are
feature
in need of placement into a foster home
than in any other region of Europe.
BY JOHN DEGARMO, ED.D.
With policy makers and child welfare
experts from all corners of the globe
taking part in this conference, it was a
time of great awareness, to be sure. I was
encouraged to find that those in attendance
were most interested in how the foster care
system functions here in America, and how
they can take some of those practices back
to their own country. I feel that there is an
international movement to improve foster
care around the world, and I am excited to
be a part of it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John DeGarmo,
Ed.D., is an international expert on foster
care. He has been a foster parent for 15
years now, and he and his wife have had
more than 50 children come through
their home. He is a consultant to foster
care agencies, child welfare organizations,
Royal Family Kids Camps, and legal firms,
as well as a speaker and trainer on many
topics about the foster care system. He is
the author of several foster care books,
including The Foster Parenting Manual:
A Practical Guide to Creating a Loving,
Safe, and Stable Home and writes for
several publications. He can be contacted
at drjohndegarmo@gmail.com, through
his Facebook page, Dr. John DeGarmo, or
at The Foster Care Institute.
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