I don't necessary want to ruin the huge high we're on from having our HomeStudy completed yesterday, but I wanted to present some questions, thoughts and opinions regarding the pros and cons of international adoption.
In an ideal world, 157 million adults would step in and adopt all of the orphans in this world. At the same time, there would be a miraculous change in the world's economy, infrastructure, ability to treat infectious disease and view of children that would prevent any more children from becoming orphans. If those 2 things magically happened, the world's orphan "issue" would be solved. But that will never, ever happen- it's hocus pocus.
In our world, around 29,000 orphans are adopted internationally every year. At the same time, the world's number of orphans increases every year, which means the orphan number doesn't really decrease despite efforts to do so.
Ron and I are obviously advocates for adoption. By no means do I think it's a solution, but it's one aspect of the answer and is needed step in my mind. Not everyone feels this way though.
There's a thought circling around that if there were no orphanages, there would be no orphans. This is interesting to think about, but I disagree. Even if there were no "formal" places for parent-less children to live, they would still exist. They would just be hidden and unaccounted for. I also don't think decreasing the number of orphanages is a good idea. Orphanages are often times the only place children can receive shelter and food, and sometimes safety. Taking that away could have a large negative impact on the poorest of the world's children. However, reducing the number of orphanages may cause parents to see that giving them to an orphanage is not feasible, practical or right if the parents can still provide for their children. I think that's the issue where this debate has arose. Many parents living in impoverished countries will relinquish 1, 2 3 or more of their children to orphanages because they can't/don't want to financially care for them. Having orphanages provides them with this option, having less orphanages would decrease this...
There's another valid debate regarding international adoption- countries that allow international adoption may inadvertently be encouraging child trafficking and children being "sold" into orphanages/adoption agencies. This is an interesting thought and one that I'm still amazed by. In Ethiopia for example, there are around 5 million orphans. Every year, only 1,200 children are allowed to be adopted internationally. Those numbers show that it should be "easy" to find orphans to meet the requests of the adopting parents, right? Then why are children being trafficked or sold? I don't have an exact answer, but my guess is that some adoption agencies want short wait times for their families to keep them "in business" and therefore, they go out and recruit children. This is different than how most agencies function- they wait for children to become legally available either in their privately run orphanages or in government run orphanages. For an adoptive parent, this is a hard issue. We don't' want to wait 3 years for a referral, but at the same time, who wants their child to be "bought" into being an orphan from their birth family for a faster referral time? We sure don't! We'll wait!
Watch this video and let me know what you think....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lerZI8OSns
It's interesting for sure! Who's right? Who's wrong? Or is there a right or wrong?
Another issue and thought is that international adoption encourages orphans, rather than helps to reduce the number of orphaned children. What?!?!!? you may ask! Try thinking about this...you're a parent of several children and you know that if you give one of your children away (who you may or may not be able to care for) to an orphanage, they may be adopted into the US or Western Europe. They may receive an excellent education, be raised in wonderful, loving environment, and maybe one day come back to help you. Would you do it? For many families, including the one highlighted in the video above, this is an interesting thought. However, the reality is many of the adopted children may never go back and take over care for their birth family. I think it's a myth that fuels dilemma and controversy, but is also one that encourages orphans.
Watch this video: http://www.adoptioninafricafilm.com/
This amazes me because there are so many "true" orphans in this world- children without parents due to famine, disease and war. It's sad to think that the adoption of these children truly in need is at stake because of rumors/perceptions on adoption and adoptions that were conducted poorly.
To add to the thought above, there's debate about donating to orphanages and the trend of volunteer tourism. Many people travel to developing nations to assist in orphanages. Many adoptive families bring boxes worth of baby items to the orphanage for the other children. The orphanages at first greatly benefit from this. There has been a study done in Cambodia looking at this. If an orphanage improves too much (looks to nice, dresses its children too well) and doesn't look as "poor," it looses it tourism appeal, and thus the influx of money it is producing. Westerners want to travel to "poor" places (at least those that look poor) to help out. If an orphanage or other location looks too developed, our thought as tourists is that the orphanage is doing well on its own and doesn't need our assistance. We feel "jipped." So to counter this, it has been found that many orphanages with much to offer actually deny their children of these things. They want the orphanage to look "poor" and their children to look in need so that aid continues to come. Don't get me wrong- not all orphanages do this and many are wonderful. However, there are a few out there that do use their children as an advertising ploy.
In response to these issues, the The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) published a statement. "It (international adoption) must at all costs be discouraged. It should be a last resort and an
exception rather than the normal recourse to solving the situation of
children in difficult circumstances, as it seems to have now become,"
said David Mugawe, executive director of the ACPF in a press statement.
For the complete article,visit: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-05-29/africa/world_africa_africa-child-adoption_1_international-adoptions-demand-for-adoptive-children-adoption-expert?_s=PM:AFRICA
The African Union has held yearly meetings over the past 5 years to address the above issues. Their last meeting was in May, 2012 in Ethiopia. They discussed adoptions in Africa, its benefits and its consequences.
They looked at the following for "Trends in International Adoption": https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/publications/adoption-advocate-no-44.html
They published the following...https://www.box.com/s/185bf8ef0ad928bc8d85#/s/185bf8ef0ad928bc8d85/1/307749486 (f that doesn't work, click here http://www.africanchildforum.org/ipc/ , then click on "Conference Outputs").
In summary, the countries decided the following (these are just examples of their many points):
1. All countries that are not currently Hague Accredited for adoption should take the appropriate steps to become Hague accredited (which calls for increased regulation on adoption)
2. Countries that are not prepared for the legal and regulatory aspects of adoption should not permit international adoption
3. Children should be reunified with their family if at all possible. All efforts should be made for this to occur.
4. "Consent for Adoption" must be given to all parents relinquishing their children before the child can be adopted
5. Adoptive parents must be screened and found eligible to adopt before adoption can occur
6. States and other agencies should not receive any financial gain from international adoption
7. Countries should account for post adoption issues
8. Adoption should be a last resort for orphaned children. Every effort should be made to care for them in their birth country before international adoption is conducted
I think that this publication is incredible and a fantastic start/improvement to the current issues surrounding adoption in Africa.
In recent years, Ethiopia started making changes. They are not Hague accredited but realized they were not capable of regulating the number of adoptions their country was conducting. As a result, they drastically slowed their adoptions, causing them to be at a standstill for awhile (about 2 years ago) to figure things out. Today, Ethiopia will not process more than 5 adoptions a day so that they can ensure they have enough time and resources to monitor and evaluate their adoptions. This has limited their adoptions to roughly 1,200/year, but has greatly improved the success of their programs!
So what do I think after all of this?
I don't feel that adoption is the solution. I know that countries must improve their care for their orphans and take ownership of their issues. Developing countries must focus on education (birth control, preventive care, etc.) and work with NGOs to improve the health care in their poorest regions. The world should continue to help these countries improve their infrastructure, economy and health care. As these improve, the number of orphaned children will decrease. This is a long-term, permanent change and solution.
However, in the meantime, I don't think adoptions should stop. I don't think millions of lives should be "sacrificed for the greater good." Not with children. Not with people. Will ongoing adoptions perpetuate the above problems? Maybe. But stopping adoptions will cause millions of children to never have a true chance at a future and an opportunity to strongly impact this world. I strongly believe adoptions should continue IF they are regulated, controlled and used as a last resort for TRUE orphans. At the same time, country development must occur so that the number of orphans in need of adoption decrease.
When Ron and I go to Ethiopia, we're not going to bring much to donate on the first trip, or even the second. We're not going to ask for donations to bring either. But we are selling adoption t-shirts to raise money to donate to UNICEF, a UN organization dedicated to the improvement of the child through education, human rights and health care that will benefit the orphanage Aidan comes from. We want to help reduce the number of orphans but in a broad, permanent way.
Our t-shirts can be found at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HopeLoveEthiopia. Please note, male and female shirts are available for purchase!
If you order, please specify male/female, size and color on the order form! We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them!
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