A child left for two months in the hospital waiting for a foster family, a woman – we imagine – in absolute solitude even in pregnancy, and institutions and civil society that struggle to provide support and responses to a certainly complex and painful situation. With Alessia Rossato, head of the minor and foster care of the Pope John XXIII communitywe try to better understand the story of the little Ivan, found with his mother last December in a construction site in Palermo and remained 60 days in the hospital, since his mother decided to leave leaving him in the health facility.
What reflections does the story of little Ivan cause?
«Unfortunately, the reflections to do are many. Let’s think of this woman, of whom perhaps no one noticed in 9 months, and ask ourselves: who cares about it? Then there is the absurdity of the bureaucratic times, so long that they cannot offer an adoptive family to a newborn in a state of abandonment. Inadmissible. With the little ones it is necessary to respond to primary needs, including emotional care, immediately “.
What would Ivan need?
«To experience a nourishment, a” hot “care, of the relationships and care of a family. It is an injustice to leave a newborn baby for two months without taking other temporary paths. Certainly it will have been treated with love and attention, but relationships with health workers are different from those that are established in the family. For children, the need for parenting figures is an acute and profound need: feeling welcomed, existing for someone, only in this way can you grow sure ».
In the absence of natural parents, who can make up for this need?
“The need can be satisfied with family assignment to couples or single willing to make a stretch of road with the little ones: those who in jargon are called” families-pses “. These are trained people, capable of experiencing warmth over time necessary to return to the family or looking for an adoptive family. It’s not easy but it’s a precious accompaniment ».
Is it not a further separation for the little ones?
«No, a separation is preferable rather than the absence of attachment experiences. The foster family, prepared, will also be able to accompany the children in the following entry into an adoptive family. The custody-ponte is required by law, I wonder if in the case of Palermo he tried to look for foster families, perhaps asking for help also the associations ».
What are, on this aspect, the difficulties of the minors courts?
«The immediate availability of families or, secondly, of a family of a family type. For this reason it is necessary that courts and associations network, so that you can ask for help in emergencies. Furthermore, if a family available outside the ordinary or even in a neighboring region was found, it would still be a better solution than staying two months in limbo. Someone could make objections on distances and consequent costs, but responding to the needs of the child is always a priority ».
What can be done because such situations do not reopen?
«The family assignment must be promoted among the nuclei interested as among the social and health workers, the togated and honorary judges. The goal is the temporary welcome in well -trained foster families, who know how to welcome, nourish and make a piece of road with children and then encourage a good passage to the adoptive family. The Pope John XXIII Community Association reiterates the need to insert children in the family early, in situations such as those of little Ivan the community cannot be the intermediate passage between hospital and adoptive family: the minors welcomed in the family do not feel assisted, but chosen and loved by the parenting figures and, as Don Oreste Benzi would say, regenerated in love every day. When they feel they exist for someone, when they feel chosen, life flows ».
