Letter of the Day | Parent a child that is not your own

As an eight-year-old, my aunt bought me my first pair of khaki long pants as a reward for a quality she alone recognized in me. Her biblical admonition for high achievement remains etched in my memory: “Be faithful in small things.”
My aunt never considered herself my parent, yet parenting was exactly what she did – not only for me but also for 12 other children who lived under her roof for periods ranging from two to eight years. Her reward was the adults we became. As John Chrysostom observed, “What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?”
Parenting involves providing a nurturing relationship that prepares a child for adulthood. Such relationships usually arise through birth, adoption, or fostering. Foster care may be formal, regulated by the state, or informal through voluntary arrangements involving relatives or friends. While birth and adoptive parenting are permanent, foster parenting is, by definition, temporary.
The International Foster Care Organisation defines foster care as “a way of providing a family life for those children who cannot live with their own parents” .In Jamaica, at least 20 per cent of children live with persons other than their biological parents. The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) reported that at the end of 2021, four thousand four hundred and eighty-six children were wards of the State, of whom approximately 1,184 were in foster care.
Children deprived of the love, protection, and security of a family environment risk lifelong emotional and psychological instability. I, therefore, appeal to Jamaicans to remember children in state care and consider becoming foster parents.
Anaokar and colleagues, in Preparing Jamaican Children in State Care for Independent Living: A Situation Analysis, note that approximately 700 young people leave Jamaica’s child-protection system each year upon turning 18. Many struggle with the transition to adulthood, and lacking follow-up support, become an “invisible population”. Young people who are denied educational opportunities and meaningful engagement with society often become frustrated, anti-social, and unemployable.
Foster parenting offers the opportunity to be a transformational force in a child’s life. Pharaoh’s daughter had no idea she was preparing Moses for future leadership when she took him in as her son. Her example, like that of the Good Samaritan, reflects compassion in action.
When receiving the 2014 Gleaner Honour Award for Education, the late Glen Archer declared, “Each child is a precious gift from God with potential to be unlocked.” Children have the best chance of realising that potential when raised in loving families rather than state institutions.

Newton Duncan
Chairman of Family Life 
Ministries Jamaica/ Consultant 
Paediatric Surgeon at the 
UHWI.