Ethiopia (MNN) — Bethany Christian Services’ successful foster care program in Ethiopia is growing. Currently, they serve in five cities and have a goal to expand their efforts to five more cities and place 1,000 children in loving, Christian homes by the end of 2023.

Their foster-to-adopt program began in 2010 and has already placed nearly 400 children into local homes.

Foster-to-Adopt in Ethiopia

“We basically believe that every child should be raised in a family and they need a family to belong to. The idea of taking care of children in childcare institutions has been there for a long time. It was one of the widely practiced form[s] of care for many years,” Bethany’s Sebilu Bodja says.

According to UNICEF, there are about 4.6 million orphaned or half-orphaned children in the nation. Children are often abandoned by their parents because they can’t afford to raise them. Other times, parents have passed away from diseases or the children have run away from home. Because of this, orphanages are packed and children receive little attention.

MOSCOW, May 31 (RAPSI) - The system of orphan homes in Russia needs to be reformed, children’s rights commissioner Anna Kuznetsova has said during her meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Kuznetsova has asked the President to instruct the government to reform orphanage in Russia. There are over 100 orphan homes with 13,000 children living there, the rights commissioner added.

The ombudsman’s office is currently inspecting children’s residential facilities. Lots of violations have been already detected, Kuznetsova has noted. 

According to Kuznetsova, the revealed violations include infringement of property rights, rights to medical care and many others.

The Diet on Friday passed a revision to increase the upper age limit at which a child can be adopted under a special system that allows ties to their biological parents to be severed.

Formerly, children’s ties to their biological parents could only be cut before the age of 6, but under the revised law children 14 and younger are now eligible.

The special adoption program is aimed at providing a stable, nurturing environment for children who cannot be raised by their biological parents because of economic difficulties or a history of abuse in the home.

Unlike regular adoptions where legal connections with biological parents are retained, the special program allows the children to be legally registered to their adoptive parents, with the previous ties erased.

Sushmita Sen opened up about how daughters Renee and Alisah reacted, when she told them that they were adopted.

Smt. Rega Geetarani Pattanik welcomed the dignitaries, resource persons and the participants to the training programme. In her welcome address she emphasised on effective implementation of adoption programme, monitoring, legal provisions and post adoption follow up of

Towards a reform of the French adoption system

The government wants to reform the French system of adoption, which allows only 1,400 children per year to find a family. 
Two parliamentarians are due to report in early September.

Each year, only 1,400 adoptions are carried out in France while 14,000 families have an approval. 
The proceedings concerning foreign minors - 615 in 2018 - are five times fewer than ten years ago, because of the application of 
the Hague Convention, which promotes the maintenance of children in their country.

French:

Le gouvernement veut réformer le système français de l'adoption, qui ne  permet qu'à 1.400 enfants par an de trouver une famille. 
Deux parlementaires doivent rendre un rapport début septembre.

Chaque année, 1.400 adoptions seulement sont réalisées en France alors  que 14.000 familles disposent d'un agrément. 
Les procédures concernant  des mineurs étrangers – 615 en 2018 – sont cinq fois moins nombreuses 
qu'il y a dix ans, du fait de l'application de la convention de La Haye,  qui ­favorise le maintien des enfants dans leur pays.

( Not the whole article was available )