Farhatt and Khalid are married with two grown-up biological children and have fostered with Stockport Council for nine years.

They felt inspired to start fostering as Khalid previously worked in education and they decided to foster once their daughter had grown up and left home.

Over the years, Farhatt and Khalid have celebrated Eid and Christmas with all their foster children.

Farhatt said: “We celebrate all the festivals together to make the children feel happy and secure in our family. Our two current foster children are both Muslim and we all enjoy celebrating Eid together. We’re fasting at the moment and will all break the fast and eat together at around 4.30am. My foster son especially likes going to pray at our local mosque because he speak Arabic and that’s spoken at there.”

Hear from Khalid about the activities and traditions over Eid celebrations that they share with the children and young people they foster:

Samah fosters with Bury council and also celebrates Eid in a multi-faith household. Samah said: “We start off by going to sleep the previous day, all excited. On Eid day we have breakfast together, we open gifts together. My young children who are fostered are very excited and opening all the Eid gifts.”

“One of my young children, who is White British, has joined us last year in wearing henna, she was very excited! She also joined in wearing the traditional Asian clothing, which she was very excited about, she told all her friends and took many pictures.”

People of all religious faiths can be foster carers however, you will need to think about the adjustments you might need to make to accommodate somebody else’s religious beliefs and traditions.

Khalid commented: “I think for anybody who’s fostering, if you’re taking a person on, then you’ve got to prepare to learn. You’ll find that not only will it be a good experience for the youngster, but the respect you get back from the youngster would be absolute.”

“It doesn't matter what faith you are from, you will grow with it and you will move forward with it”.

Farhatt said: “For us fostering is so rewarding. There are definitely ups and downs, but it’s all a learning experience and the children we’ve fostered have been wonderful. Our eldest biological son still lives with us and he’s excellent with our foster children.”

“Our foster children all keep in touch with us and it’s lovely when you hear how they’re getting on, the fact they remember you is very heart-warming. We had a young asylum seeker come to live with us and he’s now opened a barber shop in Edgeley, and this fills me with pride that we’ve helped him on his path to a better future.”