Feminine ForumloThWi I

FROM timc to time we read reports about children in foster homes and letters asking for more foster' homes. Yet I believe the average newspaper reader has only the vaguest idea of what they are or how they function. Last week, I was able to go behind the scenes and see the scheme working. I spent a whole day driving through one of the hone counties with one of the I.C.C. boarding-out officers. It was a routine day for her. For me it was a day charged with high drama. Each child we visited had a background of parental desertion, or neglect or criminal callousness. All of them had had their lives disrupted, their homes broken. The lucky ones are the very young, for they quickly adapt themselves to new surroundings. The older children are bound to suffer from a type of delayed shock which a broken home life brings. Small wonder that they arc sometimes "difficult " and the fact that so many of them are successfully and happily absorbed into these foster homes is a tribute to the patience, understanding and human kindness of women who undertake their salvage. How the " mothers " are helped. guided and advised by the boarding-out officer, I saw at first-hand during that day's tour.
We visited two types of houses—the small suburban one comfortably furnished itt the style that pre-war prices permitted to the modest income, and beautifully kept. The second type were farmhouses—set in lovely open country where the harvest was just beginning. Except in one case where a definite appointment had been made, the visits were unhetalded.
We went. round to the back door of the first house and found the fostermother in the kitchen having her " elevenses " with a young married daughter.• The 15-years-old boy woe out at work learning a trade. He was on probation for stealing—but has been going straight for some time now. The foster-mother seems quite happy about him. but is worried because he has to break into his week's work to attend a guidance clinic. The officer makes a note and will look into it,
"I'm afraid hell have to go." That was the sad situation we met at the fii
g res at t .f at hri:i. sky S tseupnh-ebn ( u rnneodt name wane hotm), at found vigorously cutting down thistles and docks en a meadow. has not got on with his foster-mother, although she has had other children who have
been quite happy there. His report from the village schoolmaster is poor. The officer decides. as he has been offered another home, to remove him. " You will send me another boy?" the woman asks. " Well, I have others-but I'm afraid they are all difficult like Stephen." is the answer. So once again, Stephen will move on.
The brother and sister are in the next home we visit. Their mother has not been to see them for years and no one knows where she is. They are both illegitimate—two lovely children. with the dark eyes and olive skin of their foreign father. Already the boy, who is the elder, is showing sensitiveness where mixing with other children is concerned. He won't go to the school doctor with the others. He pmfees to go alone. The officer makes a note to arrange a separate visit for him. The girl has no birth certificate —but nothing can be done about that.
Two more lovely children—brother and sister—three and six. Their grandmother took them to court because she did not approve of their mother's behaviour. A divorce is pending—and both parents say they are going to claim the children. Meantime, they played happily with the toys we brought theta from their grand-parents. I liked the house these children were in—it seemed to have a cross-section of all ages from old age down.
A girl of 14 (one of a family of four whose parents have long ago disappeared) has suddenly started to have fits and so can't go on with her training in domestic work until the doctor is satisfied she is not a chronic epileptic. So that is another problem for the officer to tackle.
HMV great this salvage work can be is proved by what the le.C.C.'s boarding-out officer told me. One girl in her area is going on to university next term; one has won a scholarship at one of London's famous art schools; and two arc going to Switzerland for a ne s t uodf the t -e foster-mothers
h ol da s itin f h ol da s itin f
g there, friends o f o Last word: there are far more Catholic children wanting homes than there are homes for. Only one of the children we visited was a Catholic. ductiona-that's what it amounts to. The other two-thirds are more economically produced at home or in a small workshop.' "