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Jason Zerafa - President
 Jason is married to Monica. They have three children of their own;
Jessica 13, Janice 12 and Justine 11.
Jason is fond of music and together with his wife and kids, play the
clarinet with various Maltese traditional bands in various village
fiestas around the Island. Together with his wife, Jason has founded and
directs a 45 strong-hold children’s choir since these last 5 years. He
has been working with Bank of Valletta plc for the last 15 years.
Jason’s aim is to increase the awareness of Fostering in the Maltese
Islands, so that there are enough foster carers to cater for all the
children presently residing in the Maltese institutions. He strongly
believes that a family is the best place children must be brought up in,
and that they should never enter an institution in the first place.
Heidi Farrugia - Vice President
 My introduction to fostering came when I started doing some voluntary
work at a local children’s home. I started by going once a week and
inclusion in the system was not easy. I found it hard in the beginning
as I could feel the depravation of love these children had. In no way do
I want to blame the carers who were taking care of them at that time but
it is only natural that with so many children in one room they could not
have the individual attention they so craved. I ended up going there
every day except on the weekends.
A friend of mine introduced me to a new concept which I did not know
about and that was foster care.
We started the foster care course in 2001 and soon got really involved,
and now it is just our way of life. Our first placement was a boy who
had lived both in residential care and in foster care. He was 9 years
old when he came to live with us. A year later his sister joined us and
she was by this time 4 years old. Both are long term placements and we
love them to bits. Our families and friends are a great support for this
cause and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
I love to dance. I also love to cook, read and organising stuff like
parties, barbeques anything that needs organising basically. I am now 39
years old and my dream like most of us is to see a big increase in
foster families on the island and around the globe.
I believe dearly that it is every child’s right to have the love and
protection of a loving family.
John Role
 John has worked for 20years in a Residential Home for Boys and for these
last 11 years within Agenzija Appogg in the foster care team as a team
leader. He is married to Lina who is also social worker working with
children in residential care and foster care.
At present John is a board member of IFCO (International Foster Care
Organisation) and since 1998 board member on the Children & Young
Persons Advisory Board. John is part-time lecturer at the University of
Malta.
During the years 2003 and 2007 has participated in project named Quality
4 Children with it’s aim being to create European Standards for children
in Out of Home Care. John loves sports especially football and is an AC
Milan supporter. A dream of his is to see that all children who are at
present living in Maltese institutions be placed in foster care families
instead.
Mariella & Carmel Piscopo
  Ten years ago we started fostering on weekends only and now for the
past two years we are on full time basis. For us it was not an easy
decision to take. To foster full time we had to completely change our
life style. Though there is a lot of responsibility, commitment and
sometimes nerve wrecking situations, there is great satisfaction when we
see the progress of the child. Seeing the child building self esteem,
doing well in education, socializing and getting along with peers
encourages us.
We both like sports mainly Basketball and Football which we practiced
when we were of a younger age!!!! Now we limit ourselves to watch games.
Hopefully we aim to guide the child to grow into a self sufficient adult
and a good citizen.
Ruth Cassar
 I have been working as a social worker, within the Foster Care Service
at Agenzija Appogg for over five years.
In life, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, reading and
walking. I also enjoy learning about the history of art.
I like my job as a social worker, especially with the Foster Care Team.
I really think that foster care is very beneficial for children who
cannot live with their natural families. In foster care, children have
the opportunity to live in a family, to receive individual attention and
to receive the much needed love, care and stimulation. It is always a
great joy for me to witness the progress children make in various
aspects of their life while in foster care, thanks mostly to their
foster carers’ love, dedication and perseverance.
My dream is that there will be many more foster carers in Malta and all
over the world so that children could benefit. For a long time we have
been hoping that the IFCO conference would one day be held in Malta and
finally this will come true. I am really looking forward to this
conference, as it will be a great opportunity to meet international
foster carers and various professionals. I am sure it will be a great
learning experience for me.
Ruth Zarb - Secretary
I have been married for 5 years. I worked in the Police Force for 10
years and at the present I am helping my husband in our confectionery
shop during the morning.
We foster two boys, one is 6 years old and he has been living with us
for 4 years and the other boy is 13 years old and we've been fostering
him for these last 10 months.
We knew our first kid before we started fostering him as we used to
visit him at the residential home he was in, during weekends, and then
we got in touch with Appogg and decided to foster him. The second kid
was meant to stay with us for 3 months but things turned out
differently.
We have no kids of our own and these two boys are the apple of our eyes
even though they sometimes can be a nightmare too. My hobbies are
reading and watching a good DVD.
Mostly I read ladybird books with the youngest because by the time he
finally sleeps I am too exhausted to read my own,
My dream is that one day every child gets the right to grow in a decent
and healthy environment which can only be found in a family who can love
them and protect them. I also believe that foster careers should get all
the help and support they need.
Francis D'Amato
 We Francis and Lina D'Amato began to think about fostering in 1997. We
did the training programme that same year and we enjoyed it immensely.
We decided to start fostering soon after that.
In the year 2000 we fostered our first child. In 2003 we fostered the
second child. They are both girls. We have one child of our own too.
In 2004 Agenzija Appogg phoned us to help them because there was a boy
who needed a family to care for him for a short-time. We went in for
this challenge too. This fostered child stayed with us for five weeks
and after that he went back to his own family.
In these last 7 years we had a big support from our Social Workers and
from Agenzija Appogg. The support we got and are still getting of
course has helped us cope with the different
behaviours of these 2 children. They are still in our family to this
day.
I became a member of the Committee because I like being involved and
organising things. My wife Lina also sometimes helps out when we
organize some activities. We are very proud to help these children and
we hope to see more Maltese Families go into the challenge of foster
care.
Mark Pillow
 My name is Mark Pillow. I am 41 years old, married to my charming wife
Joanne. We are foster carers and have fostered two children. My role in
the National Foster Carers committee is took look after the finances.
My birthday is on the 9th of January. I am originally from Sliema but at
present living in B’Kara. I work with ‘Pillow Space Frames’ as a store
keeper. I have done this job for over 22 years. My hobbies are gardening
and watching movies.
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