The Social Policy Ministry has launched a campaign to promote foster care, with the target being to raise the number of foster carers by 50 this year. There are currently 180 such carers.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli said the campaign will include advertisements, participation in media discussions and distribution of literature.

Mr Dalli said the positive experiences of foster carers needed to be given greater publicity so that foster caring could grow.

Sina Bugeja, CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, said many persons wished to foster a child but feared the commitment that was involved. In many cases, she said, this stemmed for a lack of information or misinformation.

She sad that there were children and adolescents who had family problems and needed some time away from their families. Fostering gave them an opportunity to continue to live within a family environment until the situation in their natural family returned to normal.

Fostering, she said, could be short or long term and included kinship fostering - when children were cared for by relatives, emergency fostering, respite fostering, which often involved giving a rest to other foster parents, and specialised fostering, when the children had special needs.

Up to the end of 2009, there were 190 children in foster care with another 60 living in Homes until foster parents could be found for them.

Foster parents receive assistance of €70 per week while the children are supported through other social benefits.