Couple gets MBE award for fostering 117 kids over 32 years.Byline: ANI London, Jan 4 (ANI): A couple from Hexton, Hertfordshire, has been fostering 117 children over the last three decades. Their extraordinary efforts of foster carers Robert and Caroline Rejdak were recognised last week with the awarding of an MBE MBE (in Britain) Member of the Order of the British Empire MBE n abbr (BRIT) (= Member of the Order of the British Empire) → tÃtulo ceremonial MBE n abbr (Brit) (= in the New Year Honours list Noun 1. honours list - a list issued by examiners that categorizes students according to the class of honours they achieved in their degree examinations class list list, listing - a database containing an ordered array of items (names or topics) and now their remarkable story has been told for the first time. Since the late 1970s the pair have nurtured newborns and tearaway teenagers, reunited absent parents with their offspring and even become grandparents through an adopted son and daughter. Mrs Rejdak, 58, said she and her husband applied to become foster parents in 1976, inspired by their experiences of looking after the disabled son of another couple who were close friends. "I used to help out on odd days to give them a break and it got us thinking about other families in similar situations," the Telegraph quoted her, as saying. The couple, who are currently fostering two boys aged 12 and 18, said they had no intention of giving up their duties but that modern teenagers had become harder to deal with because of lower standards of discipline. Mr Rejdak, 63, an estate management worker, said: "We will carry on for as long as we physically can. You never stop getting pleasure from giving children a fresh start - they come here with a clean slate Noun 1. clean slate - an opportunity to start over without prejudice fresh start, tabula rasa chance, opportunity - a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances; "the holiday gave us the opportunity to visit Washington"; "now is your chance" as far as we are concerned. "No-one gets on with everyone and sometimes there isn't the right 'click' but it rarely happens. The teenagers we get now are very different to when we started 30 years ago - there isn't any discipline any more and they know all about their rights and what we can't make them do. "We don't have lots of rules but you do need boundaries. I think there is a shortage of foster parents because people want to look after babies and young children rather than teenagers who can be so difficult nowadays, even though it is more rewarding to help them," he added. (ANI) Copyright 2008 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion