ZAGREB, 5 April, 2021 - The foster parents' association "Život s osmijehom" (Life with a smile) from Karlovac on Monday called on Labour and Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrović to hold a meeting with foster parents, stop avoiding them and listen to what they have to say.
The association sent the minister an open letter prompted by the death of a 2.5-year-old girl from Nova Gradiška, who died in a Zagreb hospital on Sunday due to injuries caused by her mother.
Foster parent Marina Novaković Matanić from the Karlovac association said the latest tragedy showed that it was entirely wrong to believe that the worst biological family was better than no family, calling on the minister to do something in cooperation with foster parents' associations to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
The "Život s osmijehom" association is a member of the umbrella foster care association "Forum za kvalitetno udomiteljstvo" (Forum for Quality Foster Care).
Novaković Matanić said that two weeks ago Forum representatives got an appointment with the minister after trying to meet with him for a year, but when they showed up for the meeting, they were received by a state secretary.
"In the past two and a half years the former minister met with us for 15 minutes while her successor could not spare even 15 minutes," said Novaković Matanić.
Foster families often care for children who come from families with a criminal past, and they have suggestions but nobody in the social protection system hears those suggestions, she said.
Foster parents demand that parents' meetings with children not take place in foster families because "that puts at risk other foster children," she said.
The opinion of foster parents in mandatory reports that are submitted to social welfare centres is disregarded, Novaković Matanić said, adding that the number of foster parents was falling not because of finances but because they had been left to their own devices for years.
She recalled that foster families have a duty to submit a report every six months on the state of the foster child but that when a case ends up in court, those reports and foster parents' opinions are not taken into account.
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