Fostering; the most spiritually rewarding career - Jehan and Ansar

Ansar and Jehan are long standing foster carers who support unaccompanied asylum seeking children. They have found being foster carers the most spiritually rewarding career they have done. The couple kindly share their fostering journey with everyone to inspire others to become foster carers.

We have a close family friend who introduced us to fostering as she was a foster carer herself. We had many discussions with her about the pros and cons and also saw how well her foster child was doing and the positive impact that foster carers can have on a child. We firmly believe in giving back to society and were confident that by becoming foster carers, we could do just that! Ansar, an electrical engineer, had various careers, from working on major projects in different countries to lecturing at universities. However, he feels that fostering has been the most spiritually rewarding. I have been a Teacher for the majority of my career. I have taught abroad and in both private and public schools over here.

The process was fairly straightforward. We didn’t encounter any curve balls or complexities – just a fair bit of paperwork! But once all of that was covered, the training began, which truly opened our eyes to the reality of children in care; their emotional struggles, the kind of mistreatment they face, their personal battles and what we can do to support them both during and after placement. In total, it took around six months for us to go from submitting the enquiry to being approved by panel.

The adaptation came with experience and the training that came from the agency. We are still learning and adapting as no two children are the same. We have had 15 children and two mothers in our care thus far, and we remember every single one of them, and always will. Our first foster child was actually a refugee who had could not speak or understand English, so we used Google translate and pictures of food, drinks, clothes etc to communicate. We were very excited about the child coming to live with us and had lots of support from our social worker so we felt as prepared as we could have been.

Our previous agency was absorbed by Nexus Fostering, but we chose to remain with Nexus Fostering and not transfer elsewhere. The main reasons were; Nexus Fostering is well-established in both processes and reputation. The support has come in the form of keeping us updated on changes and developments, regular supervision and by offering training that is relevant and informative.

One of our stand memories would be getting a sibling group through adoption and instilling key life skills into the children that we have cared for and seeing them put those skills to use. One of the lows would be having to manage three siblings in our care during COVID when everything, although we did still have support from Nexus Fostering virtually.

If you are considering fostering understand that it is a 24/7 commitment unlike any other job and that your whole family (anyone that lives with you) will be involved in one way or another. Ask any and every question that comes to mind – no such thing as a silly question! Absorb any of the material/information that you are given as it will come handy at some point in your fostering journey.

Find out more about the types of fostering we offer -  Types of Fostering | Nexus Fostering and see if you can make a positive difference like Ansar and Jehan.