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Become a Host
The Children
To become a host parent, you will need to be aware of what it is like to have one or two children from Belarus in your home.
The children may never have left home before, and may come from the city or country villages.. Their ages range from 8 to 15 and their knowledge of English varies from virtually nil to quite good, depending on their age. The children come from various backgrounds and their standard of housing varies from apartment blocks in the city with basic sanitary arrangements, to very primitive wooden cottages in the villages with no running water and an outside privy. In many of their homes, the father may be an alcoholic, and not working. The total income per week my be only equivalent to 4 or 5 pounds.
On arrival in UK the children may only have the minimal basic clothing, and toilet articles in their luggage which in itself may only be a plastic bag. Host parents will need to be aware of this and provide changes of underwear, nightwear, toiletry items such as soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste. It is a good idea in the first couple of days of their stay, to review their clothing and decide if additional clothing and shoes are required for their stay. There is no need to go and buy expensive clothing. There are many families with young children who have good cast off clothing which is quite acceptable. It may be that there will be an organised session where donated clothing can be distributed.
The Hosts
After you have made contact with the Link Chairman indicating that you are interested in becoming a Host, you will receive a visit from the chairman or other designated Link committee member who will assess your suitability to be a host. Once you have been selected as a possible host, you will need to fill in forms which are submitted for background checking for all adults and children over 16 in the household. Only on receipt of the suitable results of the background form will you be allowed to host the children. |
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