President of the Belgrade Foster Carers’ Association Vojka Lujic said that some of the organisation’s key goals are to promote foster care as a humane approach to child protection, create a positive image of foster families, as well as improve the status of foster parents, protect the interests of foster children and implement a certain level of standards to ensure better child care.

Ana Simic, Head of the Service for the Assessment, Monitoring, Support and Training of Foster Families and Improvement of Foster Care at the Belgrade Centre for Foster Care and Adoption, presented the Centre’s work, pointing out that there are over 4,460 foster families in Serbia caring for 6471 child. Within the Belgrade Centre for Foster Care and Adoption, which actually covers the territory of Kolubara Administrative District, Macva Administrative District and seventeen Belgrade municipalities, there are 956 foster families caring for 1046 children without parental care.

National Assembly Speaker and Chairman of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Ivica Dacic said that foster families are the source of love, compassion, respect and security for all our children and it is the duty of the state to contribute to the betterment of the position of foster families by ensuring a certain level of competence for the care of foster children, constant support and monitoring of the work of foster families, as well as by improving the professional work and competencies of the employees in relevant institutions. The Assembly Speaker said that this legislative institution would do everything in its power to ensure the improvement of the legal position of breadwinners, as well as provide support in making contacts with other state institutions.