Growing up in a business family, Janphen Phiromlapha set her sights on making money until she took a young girl, who is not related by blood, into her family.
"A welfare home was looking for a volunteer," she recalled a telephone conversation with her friend in 2006. "I just gave it a try."
Janphen spent an hour per week at Pakkred Babies Home, but when she left, one little girl would cry for her. It was such an emotional bond it motivated her to drop by every day to make her stop crying. When the girl moved to Rajvithi Home, Janphen followed and became a foster parent.
Despite a lack of experience, Janphen went through screening and training for the new role. After she discussed the matter with her husband and children, the family welcomed the girl into their home. It was not an easy job because the girl was stubborn, but she did not give up.
"I never cared for anyone, but when I shared love with her, it made me gentler and happier," she said.
Nirun Phiromlapha agreed with his wife. He witnessed several cases of child abuse and felt obliged to look after the girl in times of need. From his work experience, he interviewed juvenile delinquents and found that most of them did not receive proper care in childhood.
"It is very important to boost their self-esteem," he said. "When they grow up, they will be independent and contribute to society."
Foster care is a temporary arrangement where children are placed into the home of a family other than their own under the support of the government. On the other hand, adoption is a form of long-term care where children become the legal responsibility of an adoptive family.
"The family institution is facing multiple challenges, for example, disaster, pandemic, labour migration and domestic issues," said Anukul Peedkaew, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
The government has put in place emergency shelters, welfare homes and other support, but they need improvement and children under institutional care may be disadvantaged, he added. "We encourage families to understand child protection mechanisms through foster care."
Tuenjai Kongsombat, deputy director-general of the Department of Youth and Children, said those who are interested in foster care should have commitment because children placed into their homes are not "dolls" and should receive a healthy upbringing.
"Families should start with volunteer services at a welfare home," she advised.
Despite challenges, foster care is a rewarding experience. When she was a social worker, Tuenjai took on the case of a mother who abandoned a five-year-old boy. After a futile search, she had a foster family register to take him into their home.
"I have followed up with them. He received proper care and finished vocational education. Now, at 25, he ordained to show gratitude to his foster mother," Tuenjai said.
There are around 200 children placed into foster families, but around 5,000 are waiting to move into orphanages, according to official statistics.
Since 2012, the Department of Youth and Children has been collaborating with Care for Children, a child welfare and international development non-profit organisation based in the UK, to provide foster care for the orphaned and the abandoned in state-run welfare homes.
"John Bowlby, a psychologist, argues that parental attachment is qualitatively different. It is a primary attachment. If it is not developed in 2.5 years, it may not develop at all," said Robert Glover, founder and executive director of the charity.
"Children who start life without parents may end up with problems. Simply, if we want the child to grow up healthily, we need to make sure that they have the opportunity to feel those relationships."
The former social worker first visited China in 1996 to consult the government there. Founded in 1998, Care for Children has since rolled out family placement care across the region. It has grown from a pilot project in Shanghai to other cities nationwide, then spreading to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia with the long-term goal of global expansion.
Despite initial public doubt, Glover proved Bowlby's theory. A decade later, he returned to a village in China to follow up on the progress. A boy approached him with a stick and shouted in anger, talking about his school, dog, family and neighbourhood.
"These are what he couldn't have in an orphanage. Suddenly, I realised he thought they had brought me to take him back. He was ready to fight me to stay there because that is where he felt secure, loved and nurtured," he said.
So far, China has mostly adopted family placement instead of institutional care, he added.
In 2012, Care for Children launched a pilot project in Chiang Mai. Three years later, a tailor-made national training programme followed. To date, 17 welfare homes have successfully implemented family placement services. It also helps the government issue national foster care guidelines.
"Here, a major challenge is ensuring child protection. In China, the natural process of whistleblowing, a legacy of the Cultural Revolution, helps the government monitor the welfare of foster children. In Thailand, family placement staff visit foster families regularly," he said.
When asked about the impact of economic hardship on foster care, Glover said that under the scheme, the government pays parents some allowance. In fact, the best foster families may not be those from wealthy backgrounds. Carers should be able to devote time to children and cope with their complex emotions.
"This is what we call the honeymoon period. After three months, children start to feel loved and want to test their parents. We train them to be ready. What you say to them is, 'We don't like your behaviour, but we love you and are not giving up on you'. Keep reinforcing it and children will go through that."
Success lies in the transformation of thousands of vulnerable children. The documentary Children Of Shanghai follows the first generation of foster kids in China, who have now achieved success in their lives. One of them is a disabled girl who was placed with a family two decades ago.
"She couldn't walk, talk or eat solid food," he recalled. "When my wife and I revisited her, she presented me with the gold medal she won at the Sydney Paralympic Games!"
