Abuja — The managing director of Oceanic Bank International Plc, Dr. (Mrs.) Cecilia Ibru, has called for Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) for the purpose of fostering children who otherwise would have been hopeless, due to lack of parental care.

The bank chief executive counseled thatin as much as organisations have seen corporate social responsibility as being at the top of business agenda, it is also important that conscious efforts be made to promote the concept of individual social responsibility. Ibru delivered this in a paper as a guest speaker on "Fostering: A Solution, Our Collective Responsibility", at a one-day sensitisation talk shop organised by the Heritage Homes Orphanage & Save A Child's Life, held in Lagos recently.

According to her, "the Individual Social Responsibility will require that we rise above self, and think about our fellow human beings, how we can add value to their lives and improve their quality of life? This closely relates to the concept of virtue, something that we have that is worth emulating."

Ibru maintained that lack of adequate understanding of requirements and expectations by Nigerians, about who qualifies, what's the procedures? And whether there are red tapes/bureaucracy to cross etc.

While explaining some issues that are misunderstood by most people, she identified ignorance about the real meaning of fostering, pointing out that people don't know foster because they did not understand it.

She explained that "fostering is all about caring for a child in your own home. The child in question could be that of a neighbour, a family friend, a church member or even someone you do not know.

"Fostering means finding a place in our hearts and our homes for children who, for various reasons, may be displaced and have to temporarily leave their homes", she stressed.

She listed virtues that enhance fostering as: change in thinking. Globally, foster parent is no longer used to address people who foster children, they are now addressed as foster carers. This is because they provide care to the children and should not be seen as the parents of the children, unlike in adoption cases.