A SECOND children’s home enabling brothers and sisters to stay together until the age of seven is to be opened by Church Mission Society (CMS) partners in Brazil. But it is only a short-term measure while staff work to put pressure on the government to introduce a fostering service.

Andy and Rose Roberts, of CMS, set up the children’s charity ReVive International, which will open its second home for 12 boys and girls to be cared for until they are adopted. The home, which includes a special unit for babies, has been built at a cost of £150,000, and has been funded through donations from the UK.

North-eastern Brazil, where the charity is located, does not have any fostering service for children in need of residential care.

Mr Roberts said: “We truly believe that the family is the best place for children and teenagers to be brought up, rather than in institutions. However, in our part of Brazil, there is no fostering law: therefore, no service.

“We are currently involved in advocating for family-based care, and engaging with the local authorities to bring about the correct legislation and fostering service. We hope that the first foster families will be able to take children up to the age of five, saving these children from having to go into institutional care.”

The charity is also working in community-based prevention projects, he said, helping vulnerable children and supporting families: although there were no formal waiting lists, there were a large number of children in the social-services system, owing to neglect, abandonment, and family negligence.

The charity’s second orphanage stands alongside its first, and the two offer accommodation and support for 24 boys and girls.

The charity was set up by Mr and Mrs Roberts after an encounter with three sisters living on the streets of the town of Olinda, after they had been abandoned by their mother. They opened their first home in 2014.