International (MNN) — Countries around the world are being encouraged to rethink how they care for their orphans. That counsel is coming from Buckner Orphan Care International .
The organization started providing foster care in Vladimir, Russia four years ago. Now it’s spreading to Latvia and other places according to Buckner’s Amy Norton. “We have now expanded it to over 14 children in Saint Petersburg, we now have 20 children in foster families in Kenya, and we have just completed foster care training in Guatemala and we’ve been asked by the government of Mexico to come in and do training.”
Norton says children respond better to foster care. She says, “They have the nurturing and the emotional care that they need. They’re doing better in school. The kids don’t have behavioral problems.” Norton says in many instances these families become permanent.
Norton says it’s important for them to seek out Christian families. “They’re seeing the Gospel presented to them by a loving Christian family. These children’s lives are changed. They become Christians themselves. But, not only that they see a mother and a father and they’re learning how to become future parents themselves.”
$75 a month can help pay for foster care for a child who could eventually end up on the street.
