The Government’s objective is to ensure that as many endangered children as possible are placed with foster families, Minister of State for Social Affairs and Inclusion Károly Czibere, from the Ministry of Human Resources, told Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday in Szeged.
On the occasion of the opening of the 18th Foundation to Support State Cared and Endangered Youth (Ágota) camp, Mr. Czibere also mentioned that following the new regulations introduced in January, the Ministry will collect and evaluate their experiences concerning foster parents and financing networks during the coming two or three months, in view of which there might be certain corrections, but no significant restructuring is expected, he added.
János Kothencz, founder of the Ágota Foundation and head of the national meeting, who was also raised in state care, said that last year the Foundation successfully carried out an effective promotion campaign with the support of the Ministry. By the end of the year, over one thousand children in specialist care were placed with families and the placement of a further five hundred children is still ongoing. Adoption has become easier, and several bureaucratic elements have been eliminated.
There are currently 21,500 children in special child protection care; the majority no longer live in institutions, as 60% of these children have been placed with foster families over the past four years. The most important task is to enable children to live as part of a family, he emphasised.
More than two hundred children and young people aged 6-18 from almost every county in Hungary were hosted by the Ágota camp in Szeged this year. The organising foundation supports children’s homes, orphans and children who have been removed from their families, as well as endangered youngsters. The participants can take part in hundreds of programmes during the ten day camp.
(Ministry of Human Resources)
