War, natural disasters, diseases are alcoholism are some of the major causes that leave children without parents or separate children from parents. These are some of the reasons that force the responsibility of looking after these children into the hands of their relatives and the community.

A sudden surge of orphans in war ravaged countries has made it necessary for children to be placed in orphanages. This has lead to thousands of orphanages being established in a country. The children in orphanages become alienated from their environment, relatives and friends. Research evidence has revealed that the psychological and physical development becomes stunted in institutionalised individuals. Therefore, over time the problems faced and posed by these institutionalised individuals' necessitated gradual closure of orphanages.

Retention of the orphans in the community by implementing foster care was thought of as an alternative to institutionalising the children. Over time, this has been given importance in many countries. In some countries in Africa, where children became orphaned in large numbers as a result of diseases like AIDS and war, foster care programme has firmly taken root and is proving workable.

North and East regions of Sri Lanka have repeatedly seen large numbers of orphans as a result of the civil war. The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 and recent escalation of violence have brought another wave of orphans. Foster care has been in existence in Sri Lanka for a along time, but has been put into wider practice after the Tsunami.

Following the Tsunami, the Tsunami (special provisions) act No 16 of 2005 came into operation in June 2005. This encourages foster care and prevents placing children in institutions. There are provisions for relatives and friends who foster the children to legally adopt the child after one year. Department of Probation and Child Care along with National Child Protection Authority are responsible for finding a suitable foster parent. Following the Tsunami, Department of Probation and Child Care along with help from UNICEF placed the children who had lost the parents with suitable relatives or friends. These custodians were required to apply to the Magistrate's Court to gain permission for fostering (This is family and friends/Kinship fostering ). Foster care is being closely monitored. In the instance where a child is found to be not cared for satisfactorily, the Department of Probation and Child Care will take the necessary steps to find and place the child in alternative care. Placing a child in an orphanage could happen in extreme circumstances and as the last resort where fostering becomes impossible.

Most of us would have been cared for by grand parents or close relatives, at least once in our life time. This is common in our culture. Thus foster care is not a novel concept to us.

A survey reveals that over 54% of children in orphanages have both parents and 26.5% of children have single parent. These children are in institutional care due to poverty. Providing financial assistance to children with single parents or both parents will no doubt prevent unnecessary separation of the children from the parent and siblings. Orphanages should not be the solution for poverty .

Department of Probation and Child Care along with UNICEF is reuniting those children in orphanage and sending them back into the community if they have a parent, parents or close relatives by providing necessary assistance (Reunification project ).

Foster care endeavors to prevent further trauma for a child who has already lost one or both parents by keeping the child and siblings together in a familiar environment with known people. This will no doubt help the psychological well-being of the child.

A stable home environment will not only enable the orphans to overcome the trauma of loss sooner, but also, give the foster parents who have lost their loved ones a focus in life.

The axis of the foster care is close monitoring. AEDU Sri Lanka is taking the lead in monitoring. AEDU-International and AEDU-Sri Lanka aims to ensure the success of foster care in the North and East regions of Sri Lanka.

Nelson Mandela in his speech in London said that '.....help the poor by the rich....'