A word was put in for the poor orphans

At the end of 2024, the head of state signed a law that introduces a new institution - a professional foster family. Officially, the order regulating their activities will come into force on July 1, 2025. There is still time to prepare and understand the intricacies of the work, which was discussed at a press conference in Almaty on Tuesday.

The new system assumes that adoptive parents will undergo special training, work on a professional basis and receive a salary for this - 70 MCI (275,240 tenge) for each parent and 10 MCI (39,310 tenge) for the maintenance of the child.

Since 2016, the National Adoption Agency has existed in Kazakhstan - one of the areas of work of the public foundation "Ana џі", which actively promoted the idea of ​​​​professional families. During this time, 1,988 children were placed in 1,335 foster families. The number of orphans and children left without parental care decreased from 10,000 to 4,000.

- This is a figure that has hardly decreased in recent times, - shared her observations the conference speaker, head of the psychological service of the foundation "Ana џі" Laura AKATAEVA . - This is the so-called difficult to arrange category - children from large families (by law, siblings cannot be separated). And also teenagers with disabilities.

In order for such children to have a chance to live and be raised at home in the future, an institution of professional foster families is needed. The difference between such a family and an adoptive one is that here the parents do not choose the children. They are given children who need help and support here and now. Therefore, not only the candidates for professional parents themselves will undergo serious selection and training. Specialists must assess how ready other family members are for this - biological children, grandparents, if they live together.

- Professional foster parents will also undergo special training and work on a professional basis. The family will be supported, it will be able to receive legal, social and psychological assistance, - summed up Akataeva.

Of course, the new form of child placement will not solve all the problems. The number of girls and boys abandoned by their biological parents is unlikely to decrease. Children's homes and boarding schools will not disappear overnight. Most of the current pupils will most likely remain there until they reach adulthood. And yet, there is a chance to significantly change the current situation.

There are several types of professional foster families in the world. Emergency - the child stays here for three days. Let's say a teenager ran away from home, he was taken off the train somewhere in another city. And while they are looking for the parents of the "runaway" and finding out why he decided to go on a trip, they send him not to a juvenile adaptation center (a state institution - almost always psychological trauma), but to a professional family. There he should be accepted and warmed.

Short-term, where the child can live up to six months. And long-term - here there are no time limits. In Kazakhstan, they plan to develop the short-term form first. While the biological mothers and fathers have problems (with health, work, bad habits), the child is taken away, but sent not to a boarding school, as now, but to a professional family. It is assumed that the parents will soon get back on their feet and the child will be able to return home.

- The "Ana yii" project gave mothers who found themselves in a difficult situation the opportunity to improve their lives, stay with their baby, and not hand him over to the care of the state. We began working on prevention and we see that there is an effect, and it is tangible, - continues Laura Akataeva. - Previously, in each region there were two baby homes, from which children who reached three years old ended up in boarding schools. We see that the "Ana yii" project has stopped this flow.

There are fewer baby homes. Now there are two in Kostanay Oblast, one in other regions, none in Turkestan Oblast - and there are few children there. Experts hope that with the introduction of professional families, something similar will happen: fewer children will end up in boarding schools.

And one more important detail: now information about a child who is left without parental care is included in the database of orphans of Kazakhstan within 24 hours. The same will happen in the case of professional foster families. That is, this child can be taken under guardianship by an ordinary family from a professional one.

- Every year, about 6,000 children end up in support centers and adaptation centers for minors, - Farida RAKHMETOVA, head of the National Adoption Agency project, cites statistics. - True, we need to take into account the frequency: one child can end up in such institutions several times a year. Nevertheless, about 1,000 children are left without parental care and are transferred to boarding schools. This is the very flow we are talking about.

- Can you say how many professional families will appear in Kazakhstan this year?

- We even have precise calculations. It is planned that in 2025, 43 professional foster families will appear in our country. We are for this to happen gradually, without haste. We held round tables in all regions and everywhere we met people who are ready to become professional foster parents. Often these are educators from orphanages. And this is good, because they have the necessary experience and knowledge.

Oksana AKULOVA, Almaty