Like mentioned, it was an intensive training on how to identify a child abuse and learn a little on laws protecting the society and in the 3 days, something that caught my heart was this thing called Foster Parents.
I was asked a couple of years back this question "Would you adopt a child and love him/her as your own?"
It was a rather intriguing and thought-provoking question. I gave it a thought and thought too what if I had my own children. Would I still love the adopted one as much as I love my own?
After much thought, my answer was "Yes I could IF only the adopted one is adopted from birth."
Then again, I completely understood that I really wouldn't know till it's happening to me. For all I know, I really may be unfair to the adopted child as compared to my own.
Then during the 3-day training, a special speaker came to speak on Fostering. Then for that fleeting moment, I asked myself - What a BIG heart foster parents must have to accept the responsibility to care for a hurt child.
Fostering is alternative care arrangements for children who has been abandoned, ill-treated or neglected. And their duties are to provide the main needs of a child - Love, shelter, security and freedom to play with others.
Then I thought - Gosh..Must be REAL hard. I mean "Hey man! After a child who has not been treated well, that child must be in confusion. There'll be HUGE adaptation, there'll be extra love to give, etc" A GREAT BIG heart is what foster parents will need to have.
I went back home and remembered that years ago, mummy bought 3 books by Dave Pelzer - A Child called 'IT', The Lost Boy & A man named Dave. I took it out and I completed the 3 books in 3 days. Honestly, I just can't put down the book! I'll be reading while on train, before sleeping and yes... I have been losing sleep cause I can't keep my eyes off the books!
My colleagues and myself agree totally that reading the book speaks much more volume than the 3 days of training.
The books spoke volumes of the abuse that Dave Pelzer went through, the emotions that he felt, the struggles that he has to learn to overcome. As I read about the abuse, I could nearly feel my blood boiling. I kept asking "HOW COULD a mother do that?", I kept wondering HOW could anything like these be happening? I was very angry honestly and I was very frustrated that things such as these are still happening even though it's not made known to me.
Yet again, one thing that caught my attention in the 3 books are Foster Parents.
In the 2nd sequel of the book, it emphasized lots on how the author struggle as a Foster Child. How he often got into trouble and how much labelling there was as a Foster Child.
At the end, I like what he said "As for my foster parents, they made me the person I am today. They took in a heap of hideious mass and transformed a terrified child into a functional, responsible human being."
I was thinking that if it hadn't been for the intervention that has been injected in at all the right timings, if it hadn't been for the love and care by foster parents, I wonder, what will happen to Dave?
ChannelNewsAsia just had a short clip on Foster care in Singapore. They interviewed one of the oldest Foster parent and it showed selfless love, care and concern.
Kudos to them all!!! Angels that's God-sent!
No comments:
Post a Comment