There are currently 100,000 children in care and away from their families in Poland, says the Helsinki Foundation.

Poland’s children’s homes are bursting at the seams, while the queue of kids waiting for a place in a foster family is getting longer.

Specialists are sounding an alarm: rather than snatch children away from problem families, give them help and support.

With poverty affecting over 40 percent of the Polish society, often financial support is enough for a disadvantaged family to recover. Families facing special problems need advice from psychologists, therapists and volunteers, who will show them how to take care of the children and the home.

“If a mother cannot cook soup, it’s better to show her how to do this, instead of taking children away to a care centre,” says Elzbieta Czyz from the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation.

This is beneficial for children and cheaper, specialists point out. They would like Poland to adopt a system of help to disadvantaged families through social workers and others modelled on a system which is in place in the UK and Scandinavian countries.

A pilot project was tested successfully in northern Poland, where families facing special problems were helped by assistants and specialists. After two years, only one of the participating families was still unable to fend for itself. (kk)

Source: rp.pl