Efforts by Appoġġ to encourage more people to take up fostering have seen the number of new foster parents registered triple over a three-month period.

The Foundation for Social Welfare Services had approved five new parents for fostering between April and July of 2017. That number increased to 16 between April and July of this year, FSWS CEO Alfred Grixti said on Wednesday.

The number of fostered children also increased from eight to 23 in the same period.

Appoġġ had last April launched a nationwide campaign urging people to become foster parents.

Mr Grixti noted that in the first three months following the launch of the €12,000 campaign, 46 people called Appoġġ to enquire about the process. Between April and July of 2017, there were 18 such calls.

However, while the number of foster carers increased, so did the number of children who need out-of-home care.

Watch: The reality of being a foster parent

Currently, there are 35 children whose families are receiving Appoġġ’s Home-Based Therapeutic Services. If this approach failed, these children would need a foster family, Mr Grixti said.

Despite the success of the campaign ‘Open your heart and your home – Choose fostering’, Appoġġ was bolstering its appeal for more “people with big hearts to open their homes” to children, rather than waiting for some tragedy that would require overnight fostering parents, he added.

Data released in April shows that 230 children out of the total 480 who are not living with their biological parents are being fostered by 208 carers.

There was a drop from 60 new foster carers in 2011 to 16 in 2015, while the number of new carers, which reached a low of seven in 2016, increased to 39 last year.

The fostering service within Aġenzija Appoġġ can be contacted on 2295 9000, 9901 0533 or 9955 7704 during office hours or through the Facebook page Fostering Service - Malta.

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