In the new documentary Mother’s heart on SVT we follow Melinda Jacobs’ everyday life as a foster mother and her fight for the rights of vulnerable children. “I hope that the film can open the eyes of family home care”, says Jacobs in an interview with Female.
The day after her eighteenth birthday, Melinda Jacobs called social services. She had known that she wanted to be a stay-at-home mother for many years and now she wanted to give it a shot. Three years later, she and her partner at the time welcomed their first placed child, a sixteen-year-old boy, and things have continued on that path.
But in 2020, the unthinkable happened: Jacob’s three-year-old foster daughter Esmeralda, nicknamed Little Heart, died after moving her biological parents back home – despite reports of abuse.
Want to inspire others
In the new movie Mother’s heart on SVT, the documentary filmmaker My Sandström follows Melinda Jacob’s fight for recovery after Esmeralda’s death. She heads to Stockholm where she pushes through the political decisions that have given rise to the law changes in Lex Lilla härtt, which aim to provide security and stability for placed children.
The documentary also shows Jacob’s everyday life as a stay-at-home mother. For Female Melinda says that her hope is that the new documentary will spread both knowledge and inspiration regarding family homes:
“It is part of my struggle to highlight and increase knowledge of what a family home is and to inspire others to want to become a family home. I absolutely hope that the film can open the eyes of family home care,” she says in the interview.
She continues by raising the issue that is closest to her heart:
“That the family homes get some kind of rights, that we are someone in the process when there are processes about the children. We are the ones who care for the children and are closest to them, but we have no voice. It must change so that more people will want and dare to become family homes.”
Today, Melinda lives with five children – three biological and two placed – and number six is on the way, her first child together with love Martin “E-Type” Eriksson. The documentary Mother’s heart can be looked at SVT Play now and is slated for December 15.
