Shoppers targeted by fostering campaign

SHOPPERS are being targeted in a campaign by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to recruit foster carers.

Members of the HSE’s fostering team in Dublin south-east were in Dundrum town centre yesterday where they also hosted a coffee morning.

Their campaign called Give a Child a Chance aims to highlight the improved life chances of children who have been successfully fostered.

The team will also be on hand to provide information in supermarkets and shopping centres in Dublin south east over the next two weeks.

General manager of HSE’s Dublin south-east office, Mary Kenny, said it was hoped that the campaign would encourage more people to foster children, either on a long or short-term basis.

Ms Kenny said they wanted to be in a position where they were able to put children’s needs, rather than the availability of carers at the heart of every foster placement decision.

Fostering is open to both singles and couples, those with children and without, and people who work inside and outside the home.

People from all religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds are eligible to work as foster carers.

The HSE pays a maintenance allowance of €312 to €339 per week for each child in foster care and the payment does not affect tax or State benefits.

At the end of June this year a total of 4,731 children were in foster care.

Putting up posters and giving out leaflets was not enough to encourage more people to foster children, said Ms Kenny.

“Fostering children is a big commitment and people need to be able to talk to people who have done it and those who oversee it,” she said.