Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Taking initiatives while working

Spoke with a businessperson who is also keen on the issues of foster homes. She wrote a book about a boy who is from a foster home and committed suicide. Yesterday, the best friend (also raised in a foster home) of the boy followed the same fate.

The biggest issue of children from foster homes is loneliness. They’re alone both when they go to foster homes and when they go out from the homes. When children go to foster homes, they are separated from all the social relationship they made. They cannot say hi to their friends, neighbors, teachers, etc. When they go out from the homes, they are again broken apart. In the name of “personal information protection”, they have no ways to know each other’s contact info. That loneliness, which we can definitely alter, is one reason of the suicide, I think.

The issues are structural, and political resolution should be in place. That said, individual initiatives are meaningful, as they promote the change to come. I will probably work with her to take some new actions.

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