"Citizens showed great interest in providing a foster home for children without adequate parent care," said a representative of the ministry, Ana Butkovic.
Currently, around 3,000 children in Croatia lack adequate parent care, a half of them are in children's homes and the other half in foster families.
The purpose of the project, launched by UNICEF, is to provide foster care to the greatest possible number of children who had to be separated from their biological families for different reasons, said UNICEF Croatia Office head Tanja Radocaj, adding that this particularly referred to children under the age of three.
She added that UNICEF had raised 2.8 million kuna during the campaign, of which 70% had been spent for the setting up of seven regional county teams for support to foster parents, for the education of experts and foster parents, for mobile teams supporting families caring for mentally challenged children, and for financial assistance to families who take care of the youngest foster children.
The UNICEF program will continue.
Foster parents in Croatia receive only monthly allowances for child care and are not paid for their work, which should be changed with the new law on foster care, which is in preparation, Butkovic said.