Abstract
This article describes the history and philosophy of foster care in Egypt. While journal readers will be familiar with the issues affecting their own work, they are less likely to know about fostering in other countries. This can be limiting as international comparisons can give practitioners, researchers and educators insights into their own work as well as skills to support children from different cultural backgrounds. The article shows that foster care in Egypt is not a recent development, indeed it dates back to ancient Egypt and the Egyptian kings, but the current legal system was formalised in the first half of the 20th century. While fostering services are usually based on western paradigms, the Egyptian approach has several distinct features due to its development through authentication processes that match services to the needs and cultural backgrounds of the children concerned. Explanations for these differences are given.