To the editor:
Re: “Foster village for native youth opens,” Nov. 1.
The foster village for native youth is certainly a step in the right direction for foster children many of whom in B.C. are native. Perhaps in time, Canadian children’s villages modeled on the SOS Children’s Villages (and Pestalozzi Villages before that) will be established for all foster children, many of whom are being failed miserably by existing systems where it is not unknown for a child to have from 12 to 18 placements and find themselves eventually uneducated, disturbed, and alone on the streets.
Ideally, in the SOS Villages five to six children of various ages are placed in the family setting of a home in a “village” of homes, each run by an SOS parent. Supervising the village is a director.
The children attend local schools and activities, and this is their home in a village open to visitors.
It is a home to which they can return to visit even in later years. The idea is to prevent the child from being destroyed by many moves and lack of anything permanent in their lives. Moreover, siblings can remain together in such a setting.
There are over a thousand such villages in well over a hundred countries now, and for the most part they have been judged to be a successful means of fostering.
Perhaps the Aboriginal Village established here in Vancouver will lead the way to give hope of a permanent home to foster children across Canada, many of whom are falling through the cracks in the existing system.
Jennifer Wade,
Vancouver
