Foster parents in Russia may undergo special training
By IANSFriday, January 7, 2011
MOSCOW - Terming parenting “a super serious matter”, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said prospective foster parents should undergo mandatory training.
At present, Russia does not have laws regulating training for foster parents.
Russian families wishing to adopt an orphan are not obliged to undergo any special psychological training prior to approval of a formal adoption.
“A (parental) candidate and the family (adoption) centres must realise this is a global responsibility,” Medvedev said during a visit to an orphanage in Russia’s Ivanovo region, Xinhua reported, quoting the Interfax news agency.
The president called parenting “a super serious matter”. He said that to obtain a driver’s licence one had to pass more rigorous exams than those who wish to adopt a child.
In 2010, the number of orphans in Russia reached 697,000.
This exceeded the 678,000 parentless children immediately after World War II, when Russia lost 27 million people.
Two thirds of present-day orphans have living parents who abandoned them.
However, to abandon a child in Russia, a parent needs only to produce a hand-written note to the local custody office.
