Ian Forber-Pratt was adopted from India as an infant along with his sister. He led a great life with a loving
family and many achievements. One day Ian decided it was time to go back to his homeland in the hopes of
creating a foster care system for the lost children of India. He sold all his belongings, boarded a plane and
Foster Care India was born. A year after it's inception, Shannon Briggs, gives Foster Focus readers a look
into what it takes to pioneer in a country that struggles for change in child welfare reform.
Foster Care India is a not-for-profit organization that has taken on the immense task of forming a sustainable foster care system in India.
Founded by Ian Forber-Pratt in May 2011, Foster Care India commits to find, license, monitor, and nurture safe homes for abused,
abandoned, or orphaned children; the organization has already been recognized by Ashoka Institute as one of their global Changemakers.
Foster Care India directly impacts children’s lives, but their model is geared towards sustainable, effective, and forward thinking
endeavors in the form of public education and involvement. The “work has to be small in application and huge in impact”)—Foster
Care India is centered on its work in Udaipur and will use the impact in the city to model and re-access its direction for the rest of the
state and nation. Ian’s past, present, and future is what Cleve Steven’s advocates for in his book, The Best in Us; he is a transformative
leader in every sense of the title, and I am immensely grateful for the daily inspiration he breathes into our world. Let's delve into the
current foster care system in India, the history, status, and mission of Foster Care India and the incredible leadership Ian Forber-Pratt
instills upon the organization’s efforts.
The Problem: Foster Care in India
Since India’s independence in 1947, the family model has changed from joint (extended family all together under one roof) to a more nuclear (parents
and children only) approach, due to the migration from rural to urban settings for work. The industrialized circumstances have negatively impacted
parents and children, as neither are able to be regulated or provided the right solutions to a dynamic that seems to be changing too quickly. The main
reasons why children are orphaned are due to social and physical conditions: gender/caste discrimination, illiteracy, malnutrition, contaminated water,
malaria, and AIDS. According to UNICEF studies in India in 2009, over 31,000 children were orphaned in the single year alone; and with no other
alternative, children end up living in large government-run orphanages or small private facilities. The most recent study regarding foster care in India,
conducted in 2011 by Foster Care India, show that the vast majority are unaware of what foster care is which supports the undertaking for a unified
that provides abused, abandoned, or orphaned children with the opportunities for a greater life. Foster care nurtures cultural exploration and
introduces children to their family lineage—this knowledge of identity help promote a positive society that is witnesses decreasing patterns of mental
health or criminal lifestyles that may result from the lack of unity. The vision for an effective foster care system in India not only provides lost
children with a sense of home and belonging, but ensures that the future of India is making progress with each valued citizen.
The Solution: Foster Care India
Currently the only NGO in its field in Udaipur, Foster Care India acts as an exclusive solution to the absence of a foster care system. In collaboration
with the state, Foster Care India will ensure children suspected of being abused and neglected will receive temporary care; the primary goal is to
reunite the child with her family, as long as the safety of the child is secure in all circumstance. The founder of Foster Care India, Ian Forber-Pratt,
chose the location of Udaipur, because it simply, “chose” him. “The second I hit the ground I knew it would be home. Udaipur and its state Rajasthan
have a huge amount of social welfare issues"says Ian. The culture and challenges the environment posed were not overwhelming but instead made
him more excited to get started.
The creation of an organization, such as Foster Care India, begins with applications to government agencies in order to retain permission for its
presence as a social, private contractor. The immediate challenge that FCI faced and continues to face is the lack of acceptance in a society where a
foster care program has yet to be developed or viewed as. In addition, the NGO must be careful not to overstep child welfare laws or other groups
focused on similar issues (directly and indirectly associated with foster care). The following strategy was developed for Foster Care India to work
collaboratively with the community in its upcoming years: in the first year, conduct a survey of 650 households in the city to measure the community
perception of Foster Care (completed); in the second year, quality is the main priority as one Foster family and one Foster child is identified, licensed,
trained, and monitored; in the following years, the focus remains on quality but the system will expand as more information on the community’s
social tendencies (such as education) are collected and analyzed. As the organization becomes more familiar with the specific population in Udaipur,
their model will expand into and develop into a more sustainable organization with a positive opportunity for the rest of the state and nation.
Foster Care India’s mission and vision emphasizes effective practices, constant research and reevaluation, and a commitment to a morally-founded
organization whose primary goal is to fill the community needs. FCI’s impact focuses primarily on the city of Udaipur, but the research and strategy
is shared across the ever-expanding global scope of foster care. Two leaders in foster care, IFCO (The International Foster Care Organisation) and
Core Assets, provide support and opportunity for organizational growth in Ian’s high-profile transformation in India and the immediate region of
Udaipur. Together, the organizations share the common objective of removing children from institutions which presently do not provide enough
resources for each child to receive individualized care.
The strategy of Foster Care India is practical and sustainable—an approach that has been assumed to be original to the field. Instead of first drafting
an orphanage plan (practice first), FCI begins with research and uses the results to evolve the practice. This reverse approach has been internationally
recognized as a constructive alternative to the common but not so effective orphanage policy. Because Foster Care India’s vision is founded with the
potential for great social changes, Core Assets Group (a for-profit/not-for-profit company that has offices in 30 countries with over 1,100 FTES) has
offered to fund some of FCI’s work and support the organization as it becomes a greater contractor for public services.
The international confidence in Foster Care India’s mission seems to be influenced by its vision and leadership. The specific followership in the city
and nation is a work in progress, but the recognition from international powers in Foster Care is most likely due to the founder’s commitment to
research and innovation.
The Founder of Foster Care India: Ian Forber-Pratt
A vision is no more a dream or an illusion if no one is willing to find mechanism in making it a reality. Stevens remarks, “…the creation of a
powerful, authentic vision is arguably the first and most important act in a process of exploding old worlds and bringing new and better ones into
being”. As the founder of Foster Care India, Ian Forber-Pratt’s vision to assess and shape the missing Foster Care system for the entire nation of
India, beginning with the community of Udaipur as the first model for change, is the basis to his leadership as a global citizen and change maker.
According to Stevens, leaders find solutions that begin with uncommon levels of honesty and are radical in comparison to previous practices.
Honesty and a demanding moral courage required of transformational individuals is exemplified through his humility, joy, and servitude as a student of
the foster care field. One could argue that his organization’s wide acceptance in the international framework of Foster Care is due to his dedication to
current research and reevaluation of an aged framework.
The studies conducted by Foster Care India and its partners have been internationally recognized by European Scientific Association on Residential
& Foster Care for Children and Adolescents conference in Glasgow—the event involved 600 child welfare delegates, presenting over 200 abstracts
on the present research regarding policy and foster care/child protection, as well as the International Foster Care Organization Conference in Sofia,
Bulgaria. Invited to attend and speak, his most recent presentation was entitled, “Foster Care in India: Developing services where 97% of people have
never heard of foster care!” The statistics were a result of a survey (done in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health) conducted in June
and July of 2012 in India; out of 653 respondents, 97% of the population is not familiar with the concept of foster care, and 32% reported that they
would be willing to foster, while 67% said they would be unwilling to foster. The manuscript from this study is in the process of being peer-reviewed
after its submission into the “Children and Youth Services Review”, an international journal. Ian’s immediate, future research endeavors, in
collaboration with Core Assets and Oxford University, will take place in four cities, focusing primarily on the perceptions of a foster care system and
the community’s willingness to foster children based on its perceptions of foster children. The “heart of wanting to help people” must not outweigh
the structural planning pieces of development. Ian’s approach in tackling the academic, practical, sustainable, business and strategic steps are a major
priority, because he believes these elements must be present in order to help others. The future of a foster care system in India is currently in its
planning stages but with Ian’s leadership, vision, and dedication, the research (with the help of collaborators and the international community) will
prove to be the foundation for a sustainable approach that already yields positive and successful results. - See more at: http://www.fosterfocusmag.com/fostercareindia.html#sthash.NrIXW1od.dpuf
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski