My foster carers became family, now I want to foster too
BBCA woman who was fostered as a child says she hopes to foster others in the future.
Aneesa Khan, 21, was born in Pakistan, but moved to north Wales with her family when she was five.
She said being fostered was "nerve-racking" at the start but now "they're like family to me".
Foster Wales is hoping to recruit new carers, as the latest figures on their website state 4,785 children were in foster care in 2024, an increase of 3.7% since 2018.
'They're like family to me'
"One of my parents died, so the other couldn't look after five of us at the same time, so we went into fostering, Ms Khan said.
She lived with a temporary foster family before she was moved to a permanent care setting. Her brothers moved to Manchester, but Ms Khan stayed in Wales.
"I didn't want to follow the religion, so the social worker took me to Pwllheli and introduced me to my foster carers that I now live with," she said.
"That was around 2016, so I've been living with them for nine years now."
Ms Khan said that her emotions "were everywhere".
"I was living with strangers at the time, but now they're like family to me... it's honestly the best experience I've ever had.
"I wouldn't refer to them as foster carers anymore, I would refer to them as their names, because they're family now."
Ms Khan said she was worried about trying to fit in with a new community to begin with.
She said: "It was a bit nerve-racking, because I'm brown... I found it hard to fit in at the start.
"I had social workers at the start, and they were amazing, they were helping with the contact with my brothers."
Ms Khan is now considering fostering herself in the future.
"The impact is has on children is amazing... the way you help them emotionally, mentally, physically. I would love to be one myself if I'm honest.
How many foster families are there in Wales?
According to Foster Wales, a national network of non-profit fostering services used by all Welsh local authorities:
- 7,200 children were looked after in Wales in 2024
- 4,785 of those were in foster care, a figure that has increased by 3.7% between 2018 and 2024.
Fôn Roberts, head of social services at Anglesey county council, said: "We've got 7,000 children in our care across Wales at the moment, and we've got approximately 3,800 foster families, so there's a short-fall of around 800 foster carers.
"It is a challenge for local authorities, because obviously, there are other fostering agencies across Wales and the UK.
"We want to keep our children local, the challenge we're finding is some foster carers decide to retire, so they end their period of fostering with us.
"However we're always on the lookout for new foster families, whatever that looks like really."
Mr Roberts said foster carers retiring was part of the reason for the increased recent figures. He also said there were a lot of misconceptions.
"People's beliefs that you have to be a married couple owning your own property, for example, to be able to foster, and that's completely not the case. You can be a single carer, you can be in rented accommodation.
"The fostering perception that people have out there isn't true.
"We have a range of different foster carers across Wales and we want to recruit more, so it's about breaking that misconception that people have".