Foster care in Sicily

Over the last few course steps we learnt about foster care in refugee camps in Ethiopia. In this video we have the opportunity to look at foster care in another setting. We will meet two foster care families living on the Italian island of Sicily.

The first family have fostered a very young child who lost his mother as a result of an accident at sea. We respect that the courts in Sicily take the protection of vulnerable children very seriously. Therefore, as we did not have the permission of the court, for protection reasons, we are unable to identify the child. This is why you will not see him in the video. You will hear, however, how his foster carers take their responsibility very seriously. Although they care greatly for the child, they realise their role may be temporary if there is an opportunity to safely reunify him with members of his family.

In the video you will also meet Anna Lisa and Fabio Martello and the two 13-year-old unaccompanied children, Amara and Aly, they have fostered. Amara and Aly are unrelated but met during their journey to Sicily when they became very close friends. You will also hear from Carmelo De Leo, who has been appointed by the Juvenile Court as Amara’s guardian. We will learn more about the guardianship programme on Sicily later in the course. In this video we hear how Anna Lisa, Fabio and Carmelo worked together with the local authorities so they could foster Amara and Aly.