The many rewards of fostering children

President Sheikh Mohamed with a group of foster mothers and children associated with the Family Care Authority, in Abu Dhabi, in October last year. UAE Presidential Court

For more than a decade, the UAE has been known to harbour a progressive, practical and compassionate view towards fostering children in need of a nurturing home. That entails the social infrastructure of the country being in place. Abu Dhabi's Family Care Authority, for example, has a foster family service to support such child welfare services to alternative Emirati families.

Back in early 2013, there was a programme in the country where different Emirati families fostered 59 children. That year, Dubai's Community Development Authority also ran a foster care programme called Embrace through which orphaned children were placed in the care of families who met the criterion: of being Muslim, Emirati, living in the UAE, and where both parents were above the age of 25. Single mothers could apply, too, provided they were older than 30.

But even after several years of such projects, perhaps not enough is commonly known about fostering. It is thus a positive development that more Emiratis are openly talking about the concept, spreading awareness and encouraging others to follow suit. As Aysha Albusmait, foster mum of two girls, told The National last week: "It's important that more foster parents come forward to share their stories." Ms Albusmait is one of those enabling social change, by having established a community support group for foster parents across the Arab world.

Certainly, it is not a universal calling to embark on such a journey. To provide a safe, stable and loving home to a child or children who are not biologically one's own is not to everyone's ability or inclination. Even as foster mums and dads are often rewarded by the often joyous and fulfilling experience, prospective parents ought never to take the decision lightly or in haste, nor without serious considerations of the changes it brings to one's life – as well as to the life of a child.

Many of those changes, however, can be extraordinary. At a ceremony in Abu Dhabi six months ago, President Sheikh Mohamed honoured a group of foster mothers at Qasr Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi and spoke of his gratitude to them for providing a nurturing environment for young children. He said that offering foster care demonstrates a strong sense of social responsibility, and “upholds the values of generosity, compassion and social solidarity that define Emirati society”.

Emirati couples are thus encouraged to foster abandoned children by being their guardians. Adoption, which entails taking the name and lineage of a family is not permitted in Islam but unlike adoption, fostering is a transparent, kind and revocable arrangement and can be deeply meaningful to parents and the children fostered.

As it happens, not every person who may want to foster will be eligible to – and it is often just as well, for there could be several reasons for this. Be it applicants failing to clear psychiatric and emotional evaluations, or not meeting suitability criteria like cultural suitability, health and infectious disease, as well as income – these criteria are in place ultimately to protect minors from harm.

There are, however, other avenues for people to help and lend crucial support to some of the most unfortunate in ongoing conflicts around the world – as in Gaza, for instance. After a year of the Israel-Hamas war, Unicef estimates that by October 2024 at least 18,000 children were orphaned. That number would have climbed only higher since the collapse of the ceasefire.

Sharjah's Big Heart Foundation has thus taken steps to alleviate some of the suffering by launching a programme called "For Gaza" that would help provide long-term support for 20,000 orphans in the enclave, through a structured sponsorship model. This is just one of the many ways in the UAE for anyone who wants to help children to do so.

As the country grows more prosperous, and as society evolves to accommodate changing global realities, those UAE citizens and residents who want to foster children or support them, should be aware of what's within their reach, and the steps they can take to improve the lives of countless children, and in doing so, begin to transform their own.