Tonny, Judith and Shanita, three women who tell their true story on the theater stage. It’s their experiences with foster care. One took care of 28 children, the other had to give up her children temporarily due to her addiction to cocaine. And Shanita, who saw her mother killed before her eyes by her own father, learned to play again in the safe environment of her foster home.
The stories about foster care that are in the news mean that the good experiences often remain underexposed. By sharing them in a cultural setting, accompanied by the appropriate songs by singer-songwriter Noraly, the three women from the Haarlem region hope to take a different look at foster parenting.
“If you drop the word youth care in people, the hairs on the back of the neck will already stand up,” says mother Judith in the report below. She is open about her drug and alcohol addictions, which prevented her from taking care of her children. But she kept that a secret from the aid workers for fear that her children would be taken away from her.
Her two young daughters watch in the front row as their mother briefly breaks, but quickly picks herself up again on the stage of the Verhalenhuis in Haarlem.
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Foster care on the shelves – NH News / Geja Sikma
Now Judith has her addiction under control and the children live in her home again. She is even an expert by experience at Kenter Jeugdhulp, where she assists parents who are struggling with similar problems.
She told about this on Friday in the NH radio program Lunchroom, where she was a guest together with Rianne van Huijstee from Kenter Youth Aid. Listen to the here podcast of that interview.