FOSTER PARENTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

CARE FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN:
FOSTER PARENTS CHANGE LIVES

NEW YORK - May is National Foster Care Month - a time when many people around the world turn their attention to the children and youth in foster care, and honor foster families, relative caregivers, volunteers and professionals who work with them. Foster parents provide safe homes for thousands of children. Foster home care is a safe, temporary placement providing 24-hour-a-day substitute care for children. In Oklahoma, thousands of children each year are placed by the court, for various reasons, in state custody through the Department of Human Services. Children in the system range in age from birth to age 18 and are all races, cultures and religions. Each child has a story to tell. They have many strengths - and many needs. They may be physically, mentally or emotionally challenged. They may have suffered from physical, sexual or mental abuse, or been neglected by their caregiver. They may have a parent in jail. Dawn Cheshier and her husband, Ron, have two foster children, five adopted children and one biological child, ranging from ages 11 to 15.

Their children go to three different schools and participate in extracurricular youth groups, sports programs and community activities. Dawn said that many people are hesitant to become foster parents because they’re afraid of forming emotional attachments to a child they might not have long-term. Yet, it shouldn’t be a barrier to providing a home and stability to children in need. “It’s worth it,” she said. It was a natural step for Cheshier to become a foster parent because she, too, grew up in foster care. My foster mother inspired me,” Cheshier said. “She made a difference in my life.” You also have the power to do something: Support children in foster care. Say thank you to a foster parent you know. Find out more about foster care at www.fostercaremonth.org.


Contribute during National Foster Care Month is an opportunity to change the perception that children in foster care are the responsibility of someone else. They are our children, too. Their well-being depends on the willingness of our entire community to care for and about them. We must not forget that we all belong to God's family.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

So long as people do not understand that they are inseparably connected, and until the activities of the people are God-centered, mere sentimentalism or fictitious ideas will not be able to foster real love amongst individuals. If we know that the infliction of harm to other animate beings is detrimental to our own interest and will bring harm in return, we will not be encouraged to harm any individual, nay even any sentient being of the world. If we can love the Absolute Whole, I mean the Godhead, we cannot have the impetus to injure any of His parts. So, according to me or the teaching of Lord Gauranga, Divine Love is the best solution of all the problems of the worlds.

Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahārāja :
“Realistic Solution for Diverse Humanity”
Speech at a ‘Spiritual Summit Conference’ - 1968 Calcutta.
http://www.sreecgmath.org/scgmtimes/scgmsbdm.php