"Relatives of the abused usually take priority over others to provide foster care and the government will offer a monthly allowance of around NT$17,000 per child to ease the financial burden," said Vera Chen (陳美君), director of social resources department of CCF/Taiwan.
Naturally, the key purpose of the service is to help the fostered children return to their original families as soon as possible once concerns about abuse are removed. Otherwise, the children are placed at an orphanage, or will stay with their foster family until they are 18.
Taipei City Government figures show that 20 abused children have been adopted within the last three years. Five of these children were taken in by local Taiwanese families, nine by US families, four by Dutch families, and two by Australians.
Clearly, more can be done at home.
World Vision Taiwan and CCF/Taiwan
regularly recruit foster families in Taiwan. In 2004, the CCF/Taiwan accepted 108 applications from 228 families.
"Taiwan lags behind most Western countries by as much as 20 years in building a solid foster family system," said Lucy Chu (朱玉欣), deputy manager of World Vision Taipei.
The names of the children featured in this article have been changed to protect their identities.
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