Loving families for orphans in Thailand

Care for Children's project in Thailand, launched in 2012, has continued to make remarkable progress, with a focus on creating lasting impacts and sustainable practices in family-based care. Over the years, the project has conducted 228 workshops, providing valuable training to 4,387 government staff and facilitating the placement of approximately 165 children into loving families each year.

As it stands, the emphasis lies on empowering local workforces and ensuring a sustainable legacy of family-based care. This strategic approach will enable Care for Children to responsibly phase down direct project work delivery while leaving a lasting impact in the capable hands of the local community and government.

Recent workshops across various regions of Thailand have been instrumental in advancing this mission. From intensive coaching sessions with social workers and foster care staff in Chiang Mai to training new foster families in Buriram, each session has aimed at strengthening the foster care system and promoting the well-being of children in need.

A highlight of this year was the launch of the national media campaign, which involved bringing influential public figures together to encourage and promote family-based care as an alternative to institutional care. This was a remarkableevent with senior government ministers, foster families, child welfare staff, Care for Children staff, PR agency staff, media experts, national press and 'Key Opinion Leaders' in attendance. An estimated 2.7 million people were reached in this collaborative effort to recruit more foster families.

In Phuket, the team engaged with staff at a private care institution to re-establish parent-child relationships and highlight the challenges associated with residential care. Similarly, in Khon Kaen, collaboration with stakeholders emphasized the importance of family-based care and assessed the community's strengths and weaknesses affecting child separation and reunification.

Continuing this momentum, upcoming plans involve training Child Welfare Homes and Shelters for Children and Families in Chiang Mai Province on the significance of care plans. Additionally, there's a focus on collaborating with NGOs to reinforce family support and explore multiple pathways for children to return to family care.

The project's commitment to empowering local communities and promoting family-based care signifies a promising future for Thailand's child welfare system. As things progress, we’ll make sure to keep you updated! Thank you for your support and for staying connected to our work.

Foster care is one of those journeys that can feel a little bit like a roller coaster and families have to be ready to ride all the emotions and keep their focus on making the child feel loved and valued as a family member. 

The Care for Children training team recently had an opportunity to train eight new foster families in the Northeast region of Thailand. Eager to learn all they could from the trainers before their new foster child joined the family, these newly vetted foster parents had the added advantage of hearing from experienced foster carers throughout the training. They shared from the heart about the ups and the downs, and their stories were a clear indicator of how dedicated they are to the children in their care.

“Can you share with us a little bit about your first day together?”

“She didn’t want to go inside the house. She was only a year-and-a-half. She started to cry the minute she got out of the van, and she plonked herself on the ground and sobbed.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, she let me pick her up and I held her and gently patted her back and she quietened down. But this went on for about a week.”

“How did you feel?”

“I’ve got to admit it was hard and I felt discouraged, but each day I could see her feel a little bit brighter and trust started to build.”

It can take a while before the child feels truly settled within their new home. Once a child is matched with suitable foster carers, there is an important process of transition, which is integral to how they settle in and adapt to their new surroundings. This was a key part of the training that was delivered. 

Children must have a transition stage between meeting the foster carers and moving to live with them. This is an important time for children and carers as they get to know each other. There should be a gradual increase in the time spent in the foster carers’ home to help both the child and the family carers ensure that they are ready for the new family care arrangement.

“How did the children know they were part of your family now?”

“I told her the minute she stepped across the threshold to our house that she was one of our family now.”

“I prepared a room for her and told her that this was her very own bedroom and I showed her where she could put her things.”

“I told them (a brother and sister) that they were part of our family, but I also tried to show them with my actions.”

Care for Children’s Senior Trainer ‘Poy’ also shared the following:

“When we did the first two-day training the new foster parents hadn’t met their new foster child yet. They had already been given some background information about the child who would join their family, but they hadn’t seen a photo yet. It was so precious. You could feel their anticipation and excitement.

“A month or two later we got to go back and do a second training and by then the children had been in their new foster families for about a month. They had passed that initial adjustment period and you could just see the pride on their faces as they told us about their new family members. It is such a privilege to be involved in this work.”

Thank you for your support and for staying connected to our work!