FOSTER FAMILIES IN BRASIL
I was at a meeting, which the Valley of Blessing organised, in São Paulo today. It was about Foster Families, which is something new in Brasil and which the Valley has been developing over the last few years. São Paulo is the only city in Brasil that has a law that says that Foster Care has to be developed, this law was passed in 2003. It is interesting how the Valley started this program, in 1998 there was a couple from England, Mick and Brenda, who came to work in the Valley for one year, after six months they needed to renew their visas so they went to Paraguay and then returned but they were told they had only 3 days to leave the country. They returned to the Valley and Mick was looking through the window of the office feeling very down when a man asked him, in English, what was the matter. This was Sam Solomon who was in the Valley with Baroness Cox. After talking to Mick, Sam said he had to go but that he wanted to speak to him again later as God was giving him somethings to say to him. When they talked again Sam told him that he need to go home and write a project about Foster Families for Brasil. Mick went back to England and then returned to Brasil, in 1999, for six months were he wrote this project.
He has since left his job as a social worker in Leeds and this year he has started a charity called Substitute Families for Abandoned Children