Become a foster parent, provide a home for positive upbringing – MOSP urges
― “There is a lot of children in the institutional care”
― “We would love for people to come and apply to be foster parents so that the children can become a part of a family setting for a positive life” – Snr. Probation Officer
By Neola Damon
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Residents within Region 5 (Mahaica-Berbice Region) are urged to take a leap of faith and become a foster parent.
Acting Senior Probation Officer, Lauristan Choy of the Ministry of Social Protection, at a recent ‘Government comes to you’ outreach, appealed for well-meaning persons to house the less fortunate, to provide them with a home for positive upbringing. “There is a lot of children in the institutional care and while we are equipped to provide them with necessary necessities… We would love for people to come and apply to be foster parents so that the children can become a part of a family setting for a positive life.”
Acting Senior Probation Officer of the Ministry of Social Protection, Lauristan Choy
Choy stressed that the ministry remains committed to bringing families together, and steps are being taken to achieve this goal.
According to the Acting Senior Probation Officer, child negligence is the highest form of child abuse within the region, and the ministry hopes to reduce it.
He explained that specialised parental training is one of the many programmes offered to parents to achieve the ministry’s goal of helping parents to understand their roles and responsibilities. It was highlighted that this training is set to tackle all forms of child abuse. “We [Ministry of Social Protect] are trying to move from corporal punishment. We want to push positive discipline hence, a focus on alternative discipline. We want to change that narrative where parents can see that those same punishments lead to violence. Whenever the child gets older, they exhibit the same kind of behaviour to their loved ones. This, often time lead to many unfortunate events because of that mindset.”
The Acting Senior Probation Officer is optimistic that this narrative will help to create positive young people and, by extension, a positive Guyana.
Image: Department of Public Information