The importance of family support and the need to increase the number of families eligible to receive children and adolescents were the main themes of the 1st Municipal Family Support Seminar in Porto Alegre, held this Tuesday, September 22.
The service aims to temporarily receive children and adolescents who have been separated from family life as a protective measure. Considered the most humanized form of support, family support ensures individualized attention, affection and adequate conditions for full development. This initiative is not about adoption: its goal is to ensure care, family life and healthy development during a period of vulnerability, while children and adolescents need to be separated from their families.
At the opening of the event, the coordinator of the Center for Operational Support for Education, Childhood and Youth, Cristiane Corrales, highlighted that currently, 5.8% of children and adolescents in support families in the state are in support families, but that it is necessary to expand the service: "It is necessary to maintain the permanent work of expanding the service, especially in Porto Alegre, where there is still a large number of children and adolescents in institutional care," said the prosecutor.
The program included a lecture on the importance of affective bonds and care in early childhood. Subsequently, the prosecutor for Childhood and Youth in Porto Alegre, Carla Souto, participated in the panel "The Justice System and integration with the municipal network for the protection of childhood," discussing inter-institutional coordination and the challenges for strengthening family support.
Carla Souto highlighted that Porto Alegre has more than 800 children and adolescents in foster care institutions, while only 15 are placed in foster families, with 18 families currently registered. "We need to significantly increase the number of foster families in the Capital to provide these children and adolescents with the opportunity to develop in a family environment, surrounded by care, affection, and strong bonds. This is a commitment that requires the mobilization of the entire society and the continuous strengthening of the protection network," Carla emphasized.
At the closing of the meeting, Rosana Chiappa Duarte shared her experience of fostering two siblings, aged 2 and 3, as well as having already opened her home and heart to foster a 4-year-old girl: "Offering love, affection, and security to those in need in such a delicate moment is deeply rewarding. Even knowing that this is a temporary arrangement, the certainty of reaching out and welcoming these children when they need it most makes it all worthwhile."
The Prosecutor for Child and Youth Affairs in Porto Alegre, Cinara Vianna Dutra Braga, attended the seminar organized by the Interinstitutional Management Committee of Foster Families, comprising the MPRS, the Court of Justice (TJRS), the Secretariat of Social Development (SEDES), and the Order of Lawyers of Brazil – Rio Grande do Sul Section (OAB/RS).
