International Adoption - Is it possible to find Triumph from
Tragedy
In the early hours of Dec 26th 2004 the Western world awoke to
the unfolding horror that we came to know as the Asian Tsunami.
Those of us still recovering from obscenely large amounts of
food and drink from the previous day sat transfixed as we
watched a horror story of biblical proportions unfold before our
very eyes.
The United Nations estimated that the Asian Tsunami left more
than five million people homeless, including about 1.5 million
children most of whom became orphaned. The outpouring of emotion
from around the world was of mixed benefit as far as the region
was concerned in that yes we all dug deep into our pockets and
yes we all lobbied our Politicians to something about it and yes
bizarrely this tragedy may have had some knock on effect in the
movement to alleviate Third World debt and poverty but the
blessings were mixed as far as the people on the ground were
concerned.
Since the disaster, adoption agencies around the world have been
fielding phone calls from well-meaning families wanting to adopt
a child from one of the countries hit.
Adoption experts say the best thing people can do is to donate
money to causes that directly help the children. They say it's
wrong to take a traumatized child away from the environment that
they have grown up in. "Adoptions, especially inter-country
ones, are inappropriate during the emergency phase as children
are better placed being cared for by their wider families and
the communities they know," said the charity Save the Children
in a statement released Jan. 6, 2005. International Adoption
needs to be well planned "The last thing they need to do is be
rushed away to some foreign land," said Cory Barron of
Children's Hope International, an American adoption agency. "We
have to think of the child first."
Adoption by some well meaning couple in the west flying half way
round the world bearing large sums of money to whisk the child
away to a life totally alien to everything it has known isn't
always what is in the best interests of the child.
It is worth bearing in mind the following facts after any
tragedy like this:
* Children will be experiencing an immense sense of loss and
grief. * They will need to know what they feel is normal and
that they're not going crazy. * They need to be with people they
know and to feel as safe as possible. * They need to establish a
daily routine as soon as possible to reduce their fears. * They
should play with other children to have time away from their
fears and allowed to have creative expression such as materials
to draw. * Those separated from family members need to be
registered as soon as possible and reunified quickly. * Putting
children in a temporary care facility or an orphanage should be
the last resort.
Around 200 children were orphaned and many more lost one parent
when the Tsunami struck the district of Nagappattinam in Tamil
Nadu state, the worst-affected region in India.
The local administration has handled scores of queries from
individuals and organisations wanting to adopt the children.
But fears of human trafficking have made the government tread
with caution. The emphasis now is on rehabilitating these
children in the local communities. Suryakala, a district social
welfare officer in Nagappattinam, says many children they talked
to preferred to remain here rather than move out of the area.
The local administration has asked those interested in adoption
to send in applications. But they are in no hurry to move these
children out.
Around 60 children have been put up in an orphanage run by the
Zion Church in Nagappattinam.
Parvathi lost her parents but has returned to the school to take
her examinations. She visits her relatives once a month and says
she prefers to stay in Nagappattinam.
Local charities and social activists have lobbied hard with the
government not to "give away" these children for adoption.
Aftab, a young activist, says he learned a lot from the
aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake in 2000. He says that in the
past two months there have been several instances of
representatives of organisations trying to "forcibly" take away
orphans. Nagappattinam was one of India's worst-hit areas" The
local community objected and expressed its willingness to take
care of such children," says Aftab. "None of these children want
to be moved out," he says. The local administration, Aftab says,
is still not clear about what it wants to do with them.
He has met representatives of different villages who back the
idea not to move them out.
"Why should these children be sent to orphanages and homes far
from here?" he asks.
Efforts by individuals like Aftab seem to have had an impact.
The local administrator's office has decided against any hasty
decision.
One official summed up the dilemma faced by the government: "The
issue of children is a delicate matter in any community... one
wrong step and we will invite the wrath of the people."
Adoption experts are hoping the outpouring of interest in
adoptions from the tsunami disaster might translate into
adoptions elsewhere. The real tragedy is that the tsunami
doesn't even dent the numbers of orphans worldwide, the real
numbers are unfathomable. Most adoption specialists say the
number of orphans globally may be somewhere in the range of 40
to 60 million--13 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone due to the
AIDS crisis there, and many more in Russia, China and Latin
America. Only a fraction of those children are in official
adoption pools.
"We are hopeful that the tsunami-affected countries will
eventually have an open mind to international adoption," says
Thomas Atwood, President of the US National Council for
Adoption. "But we're also hopeful that parents will look to
adopt children in other parts of the world. There are thousands
of children available for adoption right now. For those whose
hearts have been tugged by the tsunami, perhaps this is a step
in their journey towards another child."
So perhaps even after the darkest and most terrible of tragedies
there can be some positive long term benefits and these are that
whilst a large number of people may ignore the need or desire to
adopt from within their own communities in favour of adoption
with an International dimension this raising of the Adoption
Profile and the inherent potential problems may well bring some
of those new to Adoption back to considering Adoption from
within their communities. The other benefit that can be taken
from this whole affair may be the overall increase in the
awareness of the concept of Adoption itself. If this in turn
leads to more children being partnered with Adoptive Families
then that can only be considered good.
Stephen Morgan is the principal advisor for International
Adoption Information, an independent advisory organisation in
social and child welfare.
http://www.internationaladoptioninformation.com,
http://www.internationaladoptionusa.info. and
http://www.internationaladoptionresourcecentre.com