Foster family applications exceed 380,000: Minister

ANKARA

The number of people who applied to become foster families has surpassed 328,000 following the Feb. 6 earthquakes, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş has stated.

"Prior to the Feb. 6 earthquakes, the number of applications for foster families stood at 669, but it has now exceeded 328,000. Similarly, the number of adoption applications, which was 560 before the earthquakes, has approached nearly 70,000. Our ultimate goal is to bring together our children, who are yearning for love and tenderness, with hundreds of families overflowing with affection, all with the warmth of a smile. We can see that not only the children but also the families are happy with these unions," Göktaş said during a press conference where the details of the ministry’s Strengthening the Foster Family System Project on Sept. 25 were shared.

UNICEF Türkiye Representative Paolo Marchi and EU Ambassador to Türkiye Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut also attended the conference in the capital Ankara.

Providing information about the new project, Göktaş said, "We have decided to improve our foster family services, which serve the happiness and well-being of both children and families as well as benefiting our nation and state."

Stating that the project will be carried out in collaboration with UNICEF and with the financial support of the European Union, Göktaş stressed that her ministry will build the three-year project on three main objectives.

"Firstly, we will focus on strengthening our foster family service. At this stage, we will primarily evaluate our existing resources. Simultaneously, we will enhance the infrastructure of efforts aimed at increasing the efficiency of our staff working in this field."

"In the second stage, we will conduct a pilot program with 122 foster families in 11 provinces. Finally, in the last stage, we will establish a coordinated inter-agency approach to make the project more efficient in collaboration with our stakeholders who contribute to our works," she added.