May 19 2017

Senators Blunt, Klobuchar & Representatives Granger, Lawrence Introduce Vulnerable Children and Families Act

Bill Will Help More Children Find Homes Through International Adoption & Child Welfare Efforts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), along with U.S. Representatives Kay Granger (Texas) and Brenda Lawrence (Mich.), yesterday introduced the Vulnerable Children and Families Act. The measure would help more children living without families or in institutional care find permanent homes by enhancing U.S. diplomatic efforts around international child welfare and ensuring that intercountry adoption to the United States becomes a more viable and fully-developed option.

“Every child deserves a permanent, safe, loving home no matter where they are born,” Blunt said. “Unfortunately, there are millions of children across the world who are growing up without the security and stability that comes with family-based care. This bill will help connect more children in need of permanent homes with families in the United States and around the world that are eager to adopt.”

Forwarded Message ----
From: ACT for Adoption <act@adoptionpolicy.org>
To:
Sent: Thursday, April 2, 2009 7:30:40 PM
Subject: Save the Children from Save the Children
Having trouble viewing this email? Click here A

CT for Adoption
SAVE the CHILDREN from SAVE the CHILDREN
April 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week a Malawi court will make a life-changing decision about Mercy James. Will Mercy be allowed to grow up in a permanent family with Madonna as her adoptive mother?
 
 
Spokesman for Save the Children, UK, Dominic Nutt, says that Mercy and other children in her position should remain in a Malawi orphanage. For no better reason than that these children may have living relatives, he believes that they should always remain in their original communities. Unfortunately, Nutt ignores the fact that these children's presence in an orphanage is the surest indication that their relatives are deceased or, if alive, unable to care for them.
 
The usual justification for Save the Children's approach is that children who remain in their country of origin can enjoy their racial, ethnic and national heritage. But children doomed to grow up in orphanages or on the streets cannot expect to enjoy their cultural heritage in any meaningful way. And the real choice today for most existing homeless children in most of the countries of the world is between life - and often death - in orphanages or on the streets in their home country and, for a lucky few, life in an adoptive home abroad. Research on children who started their early life in orphanages demonstrates vividly the damage such institutions do.
 
International Adoption has come under fire recently from UNICEF and others who share Save the Children's views. But International Adoption provides children the possibility of finding the permanent nurturing homes they need to thrive, homes that are typically simply not available in their countries of origin. And International Adoption is completely consistent with other positive social responses to the problems of unparented children, bringing new resources into poor countries to support such efforts, and developing new awareness of and concern for the plight of poor children and poor communities worldwide.
 
 
We are not in possession of all the facts relevant to appropriate resolution of Mercy's particular case. But we urge policy-makers, including judges making decisions in such cases, to review and consider the International Adoption Policy Statement and Supporting Report, endorsed by the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, the Center for Adoption Policy, the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program, and the National Council For Adoption - click here.
 

 
Links...
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Center for Adoption Policy
Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School

April 03, 2009
Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet ’65 has issued a public letter in support of international adoption as news that a court in Malawi denied a petition for adoption by the entertainer Madonna. Bartholet was joined in the statement by a  group of experts in child welfare. The text of the letter is below.
Save the Children from Save the Children
An appeals court in Malawi will now make a life-changing decision about Mercy James. Will Mercy be allowed to grow up in a permanent family with Madonna as her adoptive mother?
Spokesman for Save the Children, UK, Dominic Nutt, says that Mercy and other children in her position should remain in a Malawi orphanage. For no better reason than that these children may have living relatives, he believes that they should always remain in their original communities. Unfortunately, Nutt ignores the fact that these children's presence in an orphanage is the surest indication that their relatives are deceased or, if alive, unable to care for them.
The usual justification for Save the Children's approach is that children who remain in their country of origin can enjoy their racial, ethnic and national heritage. But children doomed to grow up in orphanages or on the streets cannot expect to enjoy their cultural heritage in any meaningful way. And the real choice today for most existing homeless children in most of the countries of the world is between life - and often death - in orphanages or on the streets in their home country and, for a lucky few, life in an adoptive home abroad. Research on children who started their early life in orphanages demonstrates vividly the damage such institutions do.
International Adoption has come under fire recently from UNICEF and others who share Save the Children's views. But International Adoption provides children the possibility of finding the permanent nurturing homes they need to thrive, homes that are typically simply not available in their countries of origin. And International Adoption is completely consistent with other positive social responses to the problems of unparented children, bringing new resources into poor countries to support such efforts, and developing new awareness of and concern for the plight of poor children and poor communities worldwide.
We are not in possession of all the facts relevant to appropriate resolution of Mercy's particular case. But we urge policy-makers, including judges making decisions in such cases, to review and consider the International Adoption Policy Statement and Supporting Report, endorsed by the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, the Center for Adoption Policy, the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program, and the National Council For Adoption -click here.

Bartholet speaks out on international adoption
 

Message: 67772From: slm2306Received: Mo Jan 12, 2009 11:20
Subject: ACT for Adoption

I received the following email today and wanted to share the information with those interested in joining ACT for Adoption.

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Bartholet is Director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School (one of the sponsors of ACT for Adoption) and is a nationally renown child welfare and adoption advocate. Some of you may remember that she wrote an editorial in favor of international adoption in the Washington Post (Nov. 4, 2007)"Slamming the Door on Adoption - Depriving Children Abroad of Loving Homes."

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Romania has violated the acquis communautaire and European Union law

By

Online Editorial Team

-

09/09/2019

Mie Lee Hansen, now 38 years old and living in Denmark, thought she knew the story of her adoption and the family that gave her away. She had documents that offered convincing information about her Korean background, including the fact that she had two older sisters.

After taking a DNA test, she was reconnected with a Korean relative — but the story she learned from this long-lost relative differed radically from what was in those files.

“The real story is that when my mother went into labor, she was rushed to the hospital,” Lee said. “She gave birth, and after she recovered and requested to see her baby, she was told that the baby was stillborn. The day after my mother went home, my maternal grandmother returned to the hospital to claim my body. But the doctors told her to go home and became angry with her.”

Needless to say, her family was shocked to learn that she was very much alive.

“When my Korean family read my adoption file, they said, 'Everything here is fake.' The file had their names and the city we lived in, and it was true that I had two older sisters. But everything else was false. Birth parents never gave permission for me to be adopted. Somebody took their child. Somebody stole me,” Lee said.

Background

The G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training program (Landry CP Training) is a one week, on site intensive course for mid-career professionals who work to protect children from abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect, whether at an international organization, a local NGO, or a government agency. While the conditions facing children may vary—from displacement to labor, from abuse and neglect to early marriage – all children, whatever their circumstances or legal status, have a right to health, education, justice and protection. Realizing these complex rights requires an integrated and multi-sectoral approach in which different state and civil-society partners act together to deliver a holistic system of protection.

The Landry CP Training will help participants gain a deep understanding of child protection issues and of the leadership and negotiation skills relevant to building and sustaining effective child protection systems.

G. Barrie Landry Professional Training program overview:

Tens of thousands of abandoned children were adopted internationally between 1990 and 2004. Many of them are trying to understand their roots but their search can be overwhelming as the Romanian state still hasn’t recognized it has failed to protect them.

By Ana Maria Ciobanu
Photographs by Bogdan Dincă & Mike Carroll
Archival images courtesy of the Museum of Abandonment
Translated by Oana Gavrilă
23 december 2022

I’ve made a habit out of checking The never forgotten Romanian children Facebook group and other similar groups whose shared mission is to reconnect adopted children with their birth families. I read through the discussions of Romanians scattered all over the world, united in their desire to know about the lives they had before they joined the ranks of the more than 30,000 who left the country with their adoptive parents.

“Greetings from Canada”, “Hello from Italy”, “Hi from France” write young people aged between 20 and 40 who are seeking for their roots. They post photos from their childhood and current photos of themselves hoping some relative or some neighbor might recognize them. Many say they have been brought up by wonderful families and are grateful to have grown up abroad; but they’re missing their story at home.