John Sastry Announces Charitable Bequest in St. Louis

(Newswire.net — April 17, 2017) Chesterfield, MO –John J. Sastry Esq., CFP and Angela Lynn Sastry, MA, LPC, announce a charitable bequest in the names of their respective fathers, Dr. Tony V. Sastry and Chief Stephen Deist. Through Angela’s previous work with the Division of Family Services, various needs in the St. Louis community were identified.

John and Angela’s donation will create a fund to benefit children in the St. Louis metropolitan area.  The fund will focus on children removed from their biological families and subsequently placed in Missouri state custody, in foster homes. 

The issues that John and Angela hope to address are complex. In the St. Louis area there is a lack of qualified foster homes. This causes some children to be placed into group homes, rather than foster homes. St. Louis area officials have called the shortage of foster homes “acute”. 

In addition to the shortage of foster homes and more children in group homes, there are also a record number of children currently in Missouri state care. This has stretched state resources to the limit and exposed children in care to a multitude of other issues.

Due to the acute issues described above, foster children are often are not placed in foster homes with their biological siblings.  At times, their siblings may not even be placed in the same city. This means that children can often go long periods of time without seeing their siblings.

Additionally, children are often placed far away from their natural families, in different cities. This means that the children are not only in an unfamiliar surrounding, they are sometimes required to change school districts. 

The above factors frequently cause children to experience stress and stress-related illnesses. These stressors cause children to struggle in school and suffer a wide range of stress-related mental and physical symptoms. Foster children therefore often need appropriate health services.

For the above reasons, John and Angela’s fund will specifically benefit foster children in the St. Louis area. Since foster children frequently change residences and often don’t have sufficient support structures, they need additional levels of care than provided by the State of Missouri.

Given the fact that children are forced to change foster homes on a fairly regular basis, they require physical items that are not provided by the State of Missouri. Foster children are therefore frequently in need of transitional items such as luggage, clothes and comfort items. John and Angela’s fund will therefore emphasize providing children in care with shoes, clothes and personal care items.

John and Angela’s fund will also provide Christmas and holiday gifts for foster children. They realize that Holiday season is often an awkward experience for foster children and establishing continuity is extremely important for their transition.

John and Angela hope that their gift will inspire others to assist children in care. If other concerned Missourians do not have the means to contribute financially, John and Angela would appreciate if they could tell others of the children’s plight through various avenues including social media.

Additionally, there are a multitude of agencies that are eager to field calls and perhaps volunteer. To learn more about John, visit https://law.utexas.edu/barristers/chapters-and-members/university-of-missouri-columbia/