A project that raises awareness about family foster care and promotes a culture of care, affection and the rights of the most vulnerable children.
At B-LIVE we believe that all children and adolescents have the right to grow up in a safe, caring and stable environment. Afectos is a social innovation project that aims to make visible a reality that often remains in the background: that of children and young people who, for different reasons, cannot live with their birth families and need a foster family to accompany them in a new stage of their lives. This project is funded by the Regional Ministry of Social Rights and Welfare of the Principality of Asturias within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan funded by the European Union (NextGeneration EU).
More than an information campaign, Afectos invites society to look closely at foster care, through emotions, real experiences and the voices of those who live it. Its motto clearly summarises its spirit: “In your embrace, a new beginning.”
Afectos is an awareness-raising and support project on family foster care that combines a documentary, an interactive web platform and various educational and outreach materials.
Its objective goes beyond informing:
The project is based on a concrete reality: although thousands of children live in foster care in Spain, there is still a lack of families, especially for adolescents and groups of siblings. Afectos helps to address this challenge through communication, training and community work.
1. Documentary and real-life stories
The project includes a central documentary that gathers real testimonies from fostered children and adolescents, foster families and child protection professionals. Their experiences, fears, doubts and achievements humanise foster care and present it as a transformative option, far removed from stereotypes.
2. Interactive web platform
The website www.afectos.es is conceived as a living space of resources, testimonies and guidance. It offers useful information for:
It includes practical guides, videos, FAQs and tools to facilitate the integration of children and young people into school, social and community environments, reducing stigma and barriers.
3. Awareness and training materials
Afectos develops specific materials for educational centres, community spaces and the media, such as:
The aim is to promote a rights-based approach founded on dignity and respect, avoiding assistentialist or oversimplified narratives.
4. Children at the centre
One of Afectos’ distinguishing values is that it places those who are least often heard — fostered children and adolescents — at the heart of the project. Their voices run throughout all the materials, helping to understand foster care not as something that “happens to them”, but as a process in which they play an active role.
5. A shared responsibility: families and professionals
The project also highlights the role of foster families, technical teams and child protection professionals, underlining that foster care is a collective responsibility. Afectos offers emotional support tools and practical resources to improve the quality of these processes.
With Afectos, we want to open a collective reflection on the place of the most vulnerable children in our society and the level of responsibility we are willing to assume.
At B-LIVE we firmly believe that:
Afectos reminds us that fostering does not only change the life of a child — it transforms the lives of everyone involved.
