In the development and growth of our own family, we felt the need to share our family life with other children who, due to different reasons, could not live with their own family, acknowledging, at the same time, the existence of a big group of children and adolescents who, due to family or legal reasons, would spend their days institutionalized, deprived of living with their family.

In 1985, supported by a group of people aware of the topic and of professionals from different fields, we established Fundación Emmanuel, the first step that would make it possible to attain the project that more children could live with their families.

That is how in 1988 we fostered a group of siblings who did not have the possibility of living with their parents. In that sense, the first aim was to strengthen the experience, and then to start a slow call for other families which, many times, were not able to attain on their own the common ideal of welcoming a child in their homes.

Thus, and being aware of the need to strengthen the birth families, the activity at Fundación Emmanuel began to be directed towards community action.

Teaching and training were also developed, performed by the Professional Team, consultant professionals and foster families constituting our Fundación.

As regards teaching, Fundación Emmanuel organizes training and formation meetings about Foster Care and Support to the Family in Need for heads, professionals and volunteers of different governmental and non-governmental institutions working on the topic.

Fundación Emmanuel has made a bill, ‘Right to Foster Care’, which was presented to the Congress on 23rd September 2004. Between 27th July and 1st August 2003, Fundación Emmanuel organized in the City of La Plata—and for the first time in Latin America—the 13th IFCO International Biennial Conference Argentina 2003 ‘Spreading the Wings of Foster Care’, with 660 participants (professionals, children, foster families, birth families) coming from 32 countries.

Between 14th and 16th October 2004, we organized the 1st Foster Care Latin American Forum 'Foster Care: A Family Right...', in the City of Buenos Aires, with the presence of 124 participants from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Ecuador.

This meeting allowed to strengthen and to promote Foster Care in Argentina and in Latin America. Nowadays, Fundación Emmanuel is dedicated to an open call for more families and, aware of requests from other institutions, it favours, by means of different meetings, a reflection and promotion space for the experience.

Luis and María Elvira Nicora