A woman from Podgorica welcomed three children into her home: As if I were their mother...

In addition to her three children and four grandchildren, Dragica Rakočević from Podgorica has been taking care of two more boys and a girl for several years, whose foster mother she is.

"I forgot that they were other people's children. I don't think about it, I do everything as if they were my children and I can't make a mistake," says Rakočević.

What makes her especially happy is that the children she did not give birth to see her as a parent.

"It's like I'm their mother. We don't go back to the past, we only go to the future. We don't mention, we don't talk about it anymore, that was the story told as soon as they came, but now we only talk about the future."

Dragica decided to become a foster parent, encouraged by the UNICEF campaign that started five years ago "Every child needs a family". She reluctantly remembers the moment when she first met her foster parents

"You just had to record it and watch it, it was shocking. They went from shock to shock. When I saw them, tears came to my eyes. They were in such a bad condition, malnourished... Now they are big boys, the girl is big, they study solidly, they are well brought up. These are now children who are to be praised by everyone."

According to the definition, foster care implies a relationship between a child and an adult who takes care of him, without this relationship breaking the child's kinship ties with his biological family. One of the goals of the multi-year UNICEF campaign has been achieved - there are no more neglected children under the age of three in the Home in Bijela. From 2010 to the end of last year, the number of children who found foster parents increased five times. 317 of them are in relative foster care, and 51 are in non-relative foster care.

A monthly allowance is provided for foster care, which Dragica says is sufficient, but believes that foster parents need some more rights.

"I am happy that I have so much money that I can raise them with that money. The only thing is that all foster parents should be given some insurance, some guarantee, that they have a good working life, everything, like every employed member of society."

Dragica Rakočević has a message for all those who are still hesitating whether to become foster parents.

"To show their human value, understanding, solidarity, humanity, towards those children whose source of suffering is the greatest disappointment that they were left without parents, without a home, without relatives..."

Although foster care ends when the children turn 18, she says, she will always remain a mother to her foster children.