News
The Latvian Foster Family Association turns 20!
20 years ago the Association had a membership of 20 families. Today, that number has grown to 175 families and 345 children! However, it is important to consider that in total, 8000 children in Latvia have lost the care of their biological parents and that 2000 children call orphanages their home. It is clear that our support has yet to reach many children in Latvia. At the time that the Association was founded, the popular belief in society was that children in orphanages were happy and fortunate.
We expressed then, our opinion that healthy child development needs to happen in a family atmosphere and not that of an orphanage. Unfortunately, arguments for the effectiveness of orphanages can be still heard today.
The main focus of the Association for the past 20 years has been the integration of orphans into society, because the loss of loving care of their biological parents has deeply scared these children. It is important to help these children understand that they are very much deserving of love, and that they are not responsible for being abandoned by their biological parents.
We thank all the Association’s supporters who have helped ensure the Association remained active all these years, and without whose assistance the Association could not have benefited these families and children for the past 20 years. We hope that with our combined efforts, every year we’ll be able to help even more families and children feel happy and deserving of love and care.
We would also like to thank the staff of “Graftik”, who have donated their time and skill in designing our new website www.labiedriba.lv and newsletter distribution.
— August 29, 2014
20 years ago the Association had a membership of 20 families. Today, that number has grown to 175 families and 345 children! However, it is important to consider that in total, 8000 children in Latvia have lost the care of their biological parents and that 2000 children call orphanages their home. It is clear that our support has yet to reach many children in Latvia. At the time that the Association was founded, the popular belief in society was that children in orphanages were happy and fortunate.
We expressed then, our opinion that healthy child development needs to happen in a family atmosphere and not that of an orphanage. Unfortunately, arguments for the effectiveness of orphanages can be still heard today.
The main focus of the Association for the past 20 years has been the integration of orphans into society, because the loss of loving care of their biological parents has deeply scared these children. It is important to help these children understand that they are very much deserving of love, and that they are not responsible for being abandoned by their biological parents.
We thank all the Association’s supporters who have helped ensure the Association remained active all these years, and without whose assistance the Association could not have benefited these families and children for the past 20 years. We hope that with our combined efforts, every year we’ll be able to help even more families and children feel happy and deserving of love and care.
We would also like to thank the staff of “Graftik”, who have donated their time and skill in designing our new website www.labiedriba.lv and newsletter distribution.