Foster Care Spotlight Mekonnen & Rahael

Why did you want to be a foster carer?

We wanted to help children who had come to the UK from other countries and cultures. We have friends who had been foster carers and had supported and looked after children and young people in similar circumstances and seeing them do it inspired to help and become foster carers ourselves. 

How have you found being a Foster Carer? 

We’ve fostered for over a year and it’s different to being a parent. The children that you foster may have had some really difficult experiences in their journey and may have lived in very different families to ours. We’ve learnt to approach things differently to how we did with our own children, perhaps coming from a different angle or asking a different way trying to understand the different culture or experience that they’ve had. 

It’s been rewarding to see the children develop healthy, close and appropriate relationships with our children. Specifically, my son is close in age to the young person that we foster and they enjoy each other’s company and share a passion for sports. It’s been really rewarding to do what we hoped we could and provide a young person with a home. 

Would you recommend fostering?

Yes, if you want to help children and feel that you have the time and space then I would definitely recommend fostering.