Home from home

“My home is their home. They are part of me and they are part of my household.”
Ernestine John, foster carer

Three foster families have just been presented with special awards by Tower Hamlets Council in recognition of their efforts: Ernestine John, Patricia Marshall, and Helimun Nessa Miah and husband Shafique.

Ernestine John began fostering after sponsoring an orphaned boy in Gambia and realising she could make a difference to children’s lives. She said: “I have always felt that if I’m in a position to give a child a home I will do so. I have young people’s interests at heart. I work with teenagers and they have problems and everything but you are helping them. Everyone says ‘how can you foster teenagers?’ but I say it’s not a problem. Once they know the ground rules and everything, it’s great. My home is their home. They are part of me and they are part of my household. Once you have your boundaries in place I think it’s great. I’m doing it because I want to do it, I want to make a difference in a child’s life. I enjoy doing it and as long as I’ve got my health I can see me doing it for a long time.”

Mrs Marshall described fostering as “absolutely rewarding”. She added: “I treat them like my own children. Many have returned back to their family. A few have gone on to universities and some have kept in touch. On Mother’s Day I received a bouquet of flowers from one or two.”

Mr and Mrs Miah have fostered 13 children over the years. Mr Miah said: “Some people think ‘why are you doing this?’ and I say our children are grown up and are looking after themselves and we wanted some children in the house. We just love looking after children.” On receiving the award, Mr Miah said: “It’s fantastic and we are very happy. When we came home I called all our children and they all came and looked at it.”

These three families were among 81 to receive awards at Tower Hamlets Council’s annual celebration evening for long service and training achievements. The evening of dinner and dance was held at the Royal Regency, ManorPark. Four more families celebrated 10 years of foster caring and another eight marked five years’ service. They all received glass photo frames and shopping vouchers.

Dozens more carers were presented with certificates celebrating their completion of training courses in foster care. Training courses included a mandatory course for all foster carers as well as two others which carers are encouraged to complete. One, Fostering Changes, is focused on improving children’s behaviour and another, the KEEP Programme, is a support group programme for people with foster children aged between five and 12.

Robert McCulloch-Graham, corporate director for Education, Social Care and Wellbeing at the council, said: “Offering a loving home to a child in need is one of the most selfless acts imaginable.

“The council is enormously grateful for the efforts of these foster families but more importantly, the children in this borough are enormously grateful because they are the ones whose lives these families have saved.”

There are currently 120 fostering households in the borough. The council is always looking for more foster families, particularly ones from the Muslim community. It has recently launched a service aimed at recruiting more families who are able to foster siblings, to avoid brothers and sisters being separated when they go into care. The service, called choosefostering, is a partnership with adoption and fostering charity Parents And Children Together (PACT) and Oxfordshire County Council.

•For information about choosefostering, go to www.choosefostering.org.

•For information about fostering in the borough, contact the council’s experienced and friendly advisers on 0800 279 9850 or visit www.fosteringandadoption.co.uk.