Why Should You Care About Melania Trump’s Be Best Charity

‘Tis the season for giving and our queen  former First Lady, Melania Trump is leading the way with her charity, Be Best. Here’s why it matters.

The Be Best organization is focused on the emotional and physical well being of children and this holiday season they’re focused on children in the foster system with the Fostering the Future initiative. Recently Melania released a line of Christmas ornaments to support funds for the charity. Following the Fox News plug of the ornaments, the Be Best website crashed from massive traffic influx.

As pro-life Americans, the left often challenges conservatives on their care for children who are abandoned or harmed by parents who, for whatever reason, were not up to the occasion of their children’s care. The left only sees public programming as the solution to fill the needs of these children which is ironic considering how frequently the public system simply fails them. 

What many do not know or understand about the American foster system is that the goal is not adoption. The goal for social services in the vast majority of jurisdictions is to reunite children with their parents or families, not to adopt them to new caretakers. Adoptions are options for only when reunification will never be possible or their parents have relinquished their rights, not as common as one may think. So the major prevalence of teens in the foster system is not always because folks won’t adopt older kids or teens but more so because they have been repeatedly let down by their parents but not all hope is lost so the system is still trying to repair the relationship. There are about 400,000 children in Foster Care in America and of those about 25% are waiting for adoption. About 10% to 15% get adopted. 

This reality means that teen children (they are children) have been shown over and over again that adults are not reliable people. And this is the only example they have on which to model their own adult behavior.

Melania’s charity Be Best as well as many other wonderful local charities dedicate their resources to showing these children that there is a future for them that looks different than the future they have been shown by the adults who have failed them. It gives us an opportunity to show them adults who do show up and do contribute and their own pathways to do the same. 

Beyond Melania’s Be Best there are foster focused charities all across America which strive to provide foster kids with the tools to believe their future could be different and to make it a reality. The linked list is not remotely exhaustive.  If you’re looking for a way to give back this Christmas or next year, consider your local foster care community and especially its teen children.