Photo by Geoff McKim/Flickr (Creative Commons)

An "examination room for adopted children" in Guangzhou, China, April 2010

Q: How does someone adopted legally as a baby by American parents get deported?

A: Relatively easily, and it's happened to several one-time adopted kids.

The case that's been getting media attention lately is that of Kairi Abha Shepherd, a 30-year-old Utah woman who was adopted from an orphanage in India when she was three months old. In spite of her legal adoption when she was an infant, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an immigration court's decision that Shepherd is in the United States illegally and is deportable.

How and why? It's tricky, but it's a situation that quite a few adoptees have fallen into over the years. Shepherd's adoptive mother, who also adopted other children, died from cancer when her daughter was eight years old. At the time of her death, she had not completed her daughter's application for U.S. citizenship, although the girl was in the country legally.

And there lies the problem. While there are now laws in place that protect younger adoptees, older adoptees not covered under a 2000 statute whose parents failed to naturalize them remain legal residents, subject to deportation if they run afoul of the law. In 2007, Shepherd caught the attention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she was jailed in Salt Lake City for a probation violation; in 2004, she had pleaded guilty to check forgery, a deportable offense.

Like others in her situation, she didn't know she could be deported until this happened. Some background from a story in the Deseret News:

A widow and single mother to seven children, Erlene Shepherd died in 1991 of breast cancer, never having filed the proper paperwork for Kairi Shepherd, her youngest child. Kairi Shepherd went to live with one of her adoptive siblings, a sister, until she was 14, and then an adoptive brother until she graduated from high school, Smith said.
A sibling said their mother had filed the proper paperwork for her other children.

This is almost always the catch in these cases, which are fairly rare, but do happen every so often. Younger adoptees are covered by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which made citizenship virtually automatic for most adopted children brought into the U.S. But it doesn't apply retroactively. According to news reports, Shepherd was 11 months too old to qualify for protection under this law when it took effect in February, 2001.

At the same time, tighter immigration laws that took effect in 1996 made it easier to deport non-citizens, with legal residents convicted of certain crimes, including some misdemeanors, losing most forms of relief under the law. Caught in the middle are people like Shepherd.

Others deported in recent years have included Jess Mustanich, adopted from El Salvador by two U.S. citizen parents from the San Jose area when he was six months old. After years fighting his deportation, he was sent to El Salvador in 2008, at 29. His parents had divorced before naturalizing him, and his father said he'd run into roadblocks after that. At 18, Mustanich and some friends stole from his father, who called the cops - and he was convicted of burglary.

From a story I wrote about him just after he was deported:

Described by his father as “a middle-class white kid” raised in an Anglo household, Mustanich learned a handful of Spanish words from Latino detainees while in immigration detention, but is otherwise starting over as a stranger in a strange land.
Speaking by phone Friday from a San Salvador hotel, he described going through customs at the airport.
“They brought out some guy, and he asked, 'Why don't you speak Spanish?' ” Mustanich said. “I told him it was because I was adopted, and he said, 'Then why are you here?' ”

Not all the former adoptees deported have been young. A few years ago, ICE deported Alejandro Ebron, a Japanese-born man from California who was nearing 50 when he was sent back to Japan. He had been adopted in 1959 as a one-year-old by Navy sailor who was Filipino American and who raised him with his Mexican American wife, both long deceased. I interviewed Ebron for another story while he was detained in San Diego, contesting his deportation:

"I grew up thinking I was half Filipino and half Mexican," Ebron said. "They could send me to Mexico and I would get by. I can speak a little Spanish. But Japan? I'm going to be in trouble if they send me there."

Others who have been deported in recent years include Jennifer Haynes, who was also adopted from India. Deported in 2008, she continues fighting to return to the U.S., where she has a family of her own. Some of these cases have turned especially tragic. Joao Herbert, a young Brazilian-born adoptee, was deported there in 2000 at age 26. Not long afterward, he was murdered.

The website Pound Pup Legacy, dedicated to adoptees and foster children, has a list of former adopted children who have been deported or face deportation.

Organizations: ACT CASE Jennifer Haynes, ACT Case Kairi Shepherd

Bub is already well-travelled

29th May 2012 4:00 AM

0 USE THIS CONTENT

Andrea and Kate van Doore-Nave from Pialba have welcomed a daughter, Anouk Lien India, born on May 23 weighing 7lb 10oz.

Persons: Andrea Nave, Kate van Doore aka Kate van Doore-Nave

Bub is already well-travelled ( Kate van Doore )

BEFORE she was even born, little Anouk Lien India had already visited three countries.

Anouk's mum Kate van Doore-Nave and her partner Andrea are involved with the Forget Me Not Children's Home, a charity in Hervey Bay that supports orphaned children overseas.

The couple travel to do work with the charity about twice a year and when Kate was about 20 weeks pregnant they visited Nepal, Uganda and India.

"She is well travelled already," Kate said.

Because they have spent so much time overseas, especially in Nepal, Kate said they were both relaxed about the visit.

Organizations: Forget Me Not Foundation

Persons: Kate van Doore aka Kate van Doore-Nave

Deported woman seeks MEA’s help

Deported woman seeks MEA’s help
May 28, 2012

In a letter to Krishna, Jennifer Edgell Haynes, claims that she was a victim of child trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation after she was adopted by an American couple when she was seven years old.
Seeking the minister's help. Image courtesy PIB

“Until three years back I believed I was a citizen of the United States. Now I realize that I was a victim of child trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation,” Hayens said in an email sent to the minister through Anjali Pawar, of Sakhee, a Pune-based NGO.
“When I was just seven years old, I was adopted from an Indian orphanage by an American couple from Atlanta Georgia via American Aid for International Adoption,” she said.
“Unfortunately the adoption was a fraud and within a year of arriving in the United States I found myself placed with a foster family who later adopted me, where I was sexually abused and physically beaten. Thereafter for the next ten years I was shuffled from foster home to foster home,” she said.
“Never did I think that I was not an American citizen until I was arrested for a minor drug charge and send immediately for deportation.
“In 2008 I was separated from my husband and two children in the US and sent back to India, a country which I had forgotten and which had forgotten me,” Hayens said.
“I’m trying desperately to return home to my kids Kadafi, 9 and Kassana, 8 who are missing me a lot and need their mother,” she said adding that her case is also pending in the Supreme Court of India.
The petition before the Supreme Court, she noted, will “take years together for adjudication”.
“By then my children who are yet minor will be grown up. I request intervention by your office…” Haynes said in her email dated 28 May.
The copy of the email sent to Krishna was released in Washington today.
Washington:

An Indian orphan who was deported from the US in 2008 following her arrest on drug charges today wrote to External Affairs Minister SM Krishna asking him to help her get back to the US so that she can live with her two children – eight and nine year olds.

Organizations: ACT CASE Jennifer Haynes

The New Adoption Law

The New Adoption Law
Last updated: 2012-05-28 12:42 EET Print
We start with a point of view recently voiced by the head of the Romanian Adoption Office, Bogdan Panait: Bogdan Panait: ”We badly need to raise the awareness of all families; we seriously need to raise the system’s awareness, but when things are not going well in the family we need to find a solution so that children may live a normal life. Nowhere around the world can a protection system provide a normal life. A normal life can only be family life.” A normal and caring family that really wants you and where you can feel safe; that’s what any child around the world wants. Recently, Romania has taken yet another step further to make such a wish come true, passing a new adoption law. And, as “no one can live a normal life in the system”, as the State Secretary with the Romanian Adoption Office Bogdan Panait said in the beginning, the new law is trying to speed up the entire procedure setting up clear deadlines. Speaking now is Ramona Popa, a Cabinet Manager with the Romanian Adoption Office. Ramona Popa: “For children whose parents are unknown, the file can be submitted to court within 30 days since the birth certificate was issued. For children whose parents say from the very beginning they do not want to look after them and want to give them up for adoption, both they and their relatives up to four times removed can submit the file to court within 60 days since the parents or the relatives issue their last statement.” Although statistics mention around 67 thousand institutionalized children, the old legal provisions allowed for a limited number of those children to be eligible for adoption. However, in Romania there are around 1,700 families who want to adopt a child. Dina Pluhovici is the president of the Bucharest Branch of the ADOR Copiii Association, the community of adoptive families. She will now be sharing with us her experience of adoptive parent. Diana Pluhovici:” Under the old law, if we wanted a child to be declared eligible for adoption we needed the consent of the relatives up to four times removed. Now let’s be honest: I myself don’t know who my relatives four times removed are, let alone the institution who goes at all lengths to dig into the family history. A provision of the new law states that the very moment a social protection measure is stipulated for the child, and if for a whole year the family as well as the identified four-times-removed relatives do not wish to get involved in the upbringing of the child, that particular child should become eligible for adoption. My little girl became eligible for adoption almost four years ago when she was about three years and eight months old. Three years and eight months of doing nothing and letting that child in the system, depriving her of the right to be raised in the middle of a loving and harmonious family! And also with no balanced upbringing. Especially from an emotional point of view, as these children have already been going through a trauma. The trauma of being abandoned.” Now Diana Pluhovici is the mother of Antonia, a little girl of Rroma origin, whom the old adoption law had her spend almost five years in the system before she was entitled to having a family. Diana Pluhovici:” When I met her, my daughter was 4 years and 9 months old. A rather old child who, according to the statistics of the Romanian Adoption Office was a child hard to adopt. However, her age did not bother us. It was all we wanted: to become parents. We were not particularly interested in her condition or her ethnic roots, I just said I wanted to be a mother. I wasn’t interested in anything else. And that despite the fact that the moment I was shown her file I saw she was a child with an Apgar 1 score, a resuscitated child with a neurological condition. But that didn’t matter at all. I said I wanted to see the child. And the moment I saw that little browned eyed wonder, who was trying to draw your attention, all those things didn’t matter at all.” Even though the diagnosis proved not to be accurate, and Antonia turned out to be a perfectly normal child, there still was a problem: the new family had a period of accommodation, with psychological blocks and fits of rage. This is often encountered in families that bring in a new child all of a sudden, and some time is needed for things to settle. From this point of view, the law omitted a very important aspect, according to Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association. Diana Pluhovici: “Since we adopted an older child we got no parental leave for raising and caring for the child. This is a problem, and it persists. You can’t tell the child ‘Well, we’ll spend this weekend with you, but on Monday I’m going to work, you will go to kindergarten, your babysitter or grandma will pick you up and that’s it.’ You cannot that, because then it’s a failed adoption, and no one wants that.” The good news is that the law allows changes as long as they support and speed up the adoption procedures. Here is Bogdan Panait, undersecretary with the Romanian Adoption Office: Bogdan Panait: “We are open to amendments. The law in its present form is a living law, meaning it is undergoing changes, so that whatever we didn’t take into account from the very beginning can be regulated as things go along, so that in the next three years we have a law that is completely in line with the interests of the child and totally meets the needs of this nation”. The most important thing for the institutionalized child is to have a family, even if he or she lives in another country. The new law on adoptions, which came into force on April 7th, opens the door for international adoptions. Not for foreign citizens, but for Romanians living abroad. Here is Ramona Popa, cabinet manager for the Romanian Adoption Office: Ramona Popa: “We have expanded the range of persons who may adopt a child in Romania to Romanian citizens residing abroad. So far, the means by which a national or international adoption was defined was country of residence. Now the principle is where one’s usual residence is. We have widened the range of people who may adopt children to Romanians whose primary residence is abroad”. The new law, which is child oriented, brings about another interesting change: the family adopting the child must tell them the truth in order to avoid future trauma. Here is Diana Pluhovici once again: Diana Pluhovici: “I actually encourage families to tell, and the new law makes it compulsory to tell children the truth, and that is a good thing. It is true that you can’t tell a three year old, ‘you’re adopted’, but you can tell him or her your family’s history, at least that’s what I did. I told her when I met my husband, when I got married, and Antonia really wanted to hear it. A few days ago she herself told me that she’d adopt a child, too”. As she waits for Antonia to grow up, Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association have one more wish: for Romania to declare June 2nd National Adoption Day. If that happens, we hope as many children as possible will celebrate this day within their own families, which is where they really belong.

The New Adoption Law
Last updated: 2012-05-28 12:42 EET Print
We start with a point of view recently voiced by the head of the Romanian Adoption Office, Bogdan Panait: Bogdan Panait: ”We badly need to raise the awareness of all families; we seriously need to raise the system’s awareness, but when things are not going well in the family we need to find a solution so that children may live a normal life. Nowhere around the world can a protection system provide a normal life. A normal life can only be family life.” A normal and caring family that really wants you and where you can feel safe; that’s what any child around the world wants. Recently, Romania has taken yet another step further to make such a wish come true, passing a new adoption law. And, as “no one can live a normal life in the system”, as the State Secretary with the Romanian Adoption Office Bogdan Panait said in the beginning, the new law is trying to speed up the entire procedure setting up clear deadlines. Speaking now is Ramona Popa, a Cabinet Manager with the Romanian Adoption Office. Ramona Popa: “For children whose parents are unknown, the file can be submitted to court within 30 days since the birth certificate was issued. For children whose parents say from the very beginning they do not want to look after them and want to give them up for adoption, both they and their relatives up to four times removed can submit the file to court within 60 days since the parents or the relatives issue their last statement.” Although statistics mention around 67 thousand institutionalized children, the old legal provisions allowed for a limited number of those children to be eligible for adoption. However, in Romania there are around 1,700 families who want to adopt a child. Dina Pluhovici is the president of the Bucharest Branch of the ADOR Copiii Association, the community of adoptive families. She will now be sharing with us her experience of adoptive parent. Diana Pluhovici:” Under the old law, if we wanted a child to be declared eligible for adoption we needed the consent of the relatives up to four times removed. Now let’s be honest: I myself don’t know who my relatives four times removed are, let alone the institution who goes at all lengths to dig into the family history. A provision of the new law states that the very moment a social protection measure is stipulated for the child, and if for a whole year the family as well as the identified four-times-removed relatives do not wish to get involved in the upbringing of the child, that particular child should become eligible for adoption. My little girl became eligible for adoption almost four years ago when she was about three years and eight months old. Three years and eight months of doing nothing and letting that child in the system, depriving her of the right to be raised in the middle of a loving and harmonious family! And also with no balanced upbringing. Especially from an emotional point of view, as these children have already been going through a trauma. The trauma of being abandoned.” Now Diana Pluhovici is the mother of Antonia, a little girl of Rroma origin, whom the old adoption law had her spend almost five years in the system before she was entitled to having a family. Diana Pluhovici:” When I met her, my daughter was 4 years and 9 months old. A rather old child who, according to the statistics of the Romanian Adoption Office was a child hard to adopt. However, her age did not bother us. It was all we wanted: to become parents. We were not particularly interested in her condition or her ethnic roots, I just said I wanted to be a mother. I wasn’t interested in anything else. And that despite the fact that the moment I was shown her file I saw she was a child with an Apgar 1 score, a resuscitated child with a neurological condition. But that didn’t matter at all. I said I wanted to see the child. And the moment I saw that little browned eyed wonder, who was trying to draw your attention, all those things didn’t matter at all.” Even though the diagnosis proved not to be accurate, and Antonia turned out to be a perfectly normal child, there still was a problem: the new family had a period of accommodation, with psychological blocks and fits of rage. This is often encountered in families that bring in a new child all of a sudden, and some time is needed for things to settle. From this point of view, the law omitted a very important aspect, according to Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association. Diana Pluhovici: “Since we adopted an older child we got no parental leave for raising and caring for the child. This is a problem, and it persists. You can’t tell the child ‘Well, we’ll spend this weekend with you, but on Monday I’m going to work, you will go to kindergarten, your babysitter or grandma will pick you up and that’s it.’ You cannot that, because then it’s a failed adoption, and no one wants that.” The good news is that the law allows changes as long as they support and speed up the adoption procedures. Here is Bogdan Panait, undersecretary with the Romanian Adoption Office: Bogdan Panait: “We are open to amendments. The law in its present form is a living law, meaning it is undergoing changes, so that whatever we didn’t take into account from the very beginning can be regulated as things go along, so that in the next three years we have a law that is completely in line with the interests of the child and totally meets the needs of this nation”. The most important thing for the institutionalized child is to have a family, even if he or she lives in another country. The new law on adoptions, which came into force on April 7th, opens the door for international adoptions. Not for foreign citizens, but for Romanians living abroad. Here is Ramona Popa, cabinet manager for the Romanian Adoption Office: Ramona Popa: “We have expanded the range of persons who may adopt a child in Romania to Romanian citizens residing abroad. So far, the means by which a national or international adoption was defined was country of residence. Now the principle is where one’s usual residence is. We have widened the range of people who may adopt children to Romanians whose primary residence is abroad”. The new law, which is child oriented, brings about another interesting change: the family adopting the child must tell them the truth in order to avoid future trauma. Here is Diana Pluhovici once again: Diana Pluhovici: “I actually encourage families to tell, and the new law makes it compulsory to tell children the truth, and that is a good thing. It is true that you can’t tell a three year old, ‘you’re adopted’, but you can tell him or her your family’s history, at least that’s what I did. I told her when I met my husband, when I got married, and Antonia really wanted to hear it. A few days ago she herself told me that she’d adopt a child, too”. As she waits for Antonia to grow up, Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association have one more wish: for Romania to declare June 2nd National Adoption Day. If that happens, we hope as many children as possible will celebrate this day within their own families, which is where they really belong.

Countries: Romania

Persons: Bogdan Panait

The New Adoption Law

The New Adoption Law
Last updated: 2012-05-28 12:42 EET Print
We start with a point of view recently voiced by the head of the Romanian Adoption Office, Bogdan Panait: Bogdan Panait: ”We badly need to raise the awareness of all families; we seriously need to raise the system’s awareness, but when things are not going well in the family we need to find a solution so that children may live a normal life. Nowhere around the world can a protection system provide a normal life. A normal life can only be family life.” A normal and caring family that really wants you and where you can feel safe; that’s what any child around the world wants. Recently, Romania has taken yet another step further to make such a wish come true, passing a new adoption law. And, as “no one can live a normal life in the system”, as the State Secretary with the Romanian Adoption Office Bogdan Panait said in the beginning, the new law is trying to speed up the entire procedure setting up clear deadlines. Speaking now is Ramona Popa, a Cabinet Manager with the Romanian Adoption Office. Ramona Popa: “For children whose parents are unknown, the file can be submitted to court within 30 days since the birth certificate was issued. For children whose parents say from the very beginning they do not want to look after them and want to give them up for adoption, both they and their relatives up to four times removed can submit the file to court within 60 days since the parents or the relatives issue their last statement.” Although statistics mention around 67 thousand institutionalized children, the old legal provisions allowed for a limited number of those children to be eligible for adoption. However, in Romania there are around 1,700 families who want to adopt a child. Dina Pluhovici is the president of the Bucharest Branch of the ADOR Copiii Association, the community of adoptive families. She will now be sharing with us her experience of adoptive parent. Diana Pluhovici:” Under the old law, if we wanted a child to be declared eligible for adoption we needed the consent of the relatives up to four times removed. Now let’s be honest: I myself don’t know who my relatives four times removed are, let alone the institution who goes at all lengths to dig into the family history. A provision of the new law states that the very moment a social protection measure is stipulated for the child, and if for a whole year the family as well as the identified four-times-removed relatives do not wish to get involved in the upbringing of the child, that particular child should become eligible for adoption. My little girl became eligible for adoption almost four years ago when she was about three years and eight months old. Three years and eight months of doing nothing and letting that child in the system, depriving her of the right to be raised in the middle of a loving and harmonious family! And also with no balanced upbringing. Especially from an emotional point of view, as these children have already been going through a trauma. The trauma of being abandoned.” Now Diana Pluhovici is the mother of Antonia, a little girl of Rroma origin, whom the old adoption law had her spend almost five years in the system before she was entitled to having a family. Diana Pluhovici:” When I met her, my daughter was 4 years and 9 months old. A rather old child who, according to the statistics of the Romanian Adoption Office was a child hard to adopt. However, her age did not bother us. It was all we wanted: to become parents. We were not particularly interested in her condition or her ethnic roots, I just said I wanted to be a mother. I wasn’t interested in anything else. And that despite the fact that the moment I was shown her file I saw she was a child with an Apgar 1 score, a resuscitated child with a neurological condition. But that didn’t matter at all. I said I wanted to see the child. And the moment I saw that little browned eyed wonder, who was trying to draw your attention, all those things didn’t matter at all.” Even though the diagnosis proved not to be accurate, and Antonia turned out to be a perfectly normal child, there still was a problem: the new family had a period of accommodation, with psychological blocks and fits of rage. This is often encountered in families that bring in a new child all of a sudden, and some time is needed for things to settle. From this point of view, the law omitted a very important aspect, according to Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association. Diana Pluhovici: “Since we adopted an older child we got no parental leave for raising and caring for the child. This is a problem, and it persists. You can’t tell the child ‘Well, we’ll spend this weekend with you, but on Monday I’m going to work, you will go to kindergarten, your babysitter or grandma will pick you up and that’s it.’ You cannot that, because then it’s a failed adoption, and no one wants that.” The good news is that the law allows changes as long as they support and speed up the adoption procedures. Here is Bogdan Panait, undersecretary with the Romanian Adoption Office: Bogdan Panait: “We are open to amendments. The law in its present form is a living law, meaning it is undergoing changes, so that whatever we didn’t take into account from the very beginning can be regulated as things go along, so that in the next three years we have a law that is completely in line with the interests of the child and totally meets the needs of this nation”. The most important thing for the institutionalized child is to have a family, even if he or she lives in another country. The new law on adoptions, which came into force on April 7th, opens the door for international adoptions. Not for foreign citizens, but for Romanians living abroad. Here is Ramona Popa, cabinet manager for the Romanian Adoption Office: Ramona Popa: “We have expanded the range of persons who may adopt a child in Romania to Romanian citizens residing abroad. So far, the means by which a national or international adoption was defined was country of residence. Now the principle is where one’s usual residence is. We have widened the range of people who may adopt children to Romanians whose primary residence is abroad”. The new law, which is child oriented, brings about another interesting change: the family adopting the child must tell them the truth in order to avoid future trauma. Here is Diana Pluhovici once again: Diana Pluhovici: “I actually encourage families to tell, and the new law makes it compulsory to tell children the truth, and that is a good thing. It is true that you can’t tell a three year old, ‘you’re adopted’, but you can tell him or her your family’s history, at least that’s what I did. I told her when I met my husband, when I got married, and Antonia really wanted to hear it. A few days ago she herself told me that she’d adopt a child, too”. As she waits for Antonia to grow up, Diana Pluhovici and the ADOR association have one more wish: for Romania to declare June 2nd National Adoption Day. If that happens, we hope as many children as possible will celebrate this day within their own families, which is where they really belong.

Persons: Bogdan Panait

Countries: Romania

Lumos - Assessment children "Childhood for All"

“Childhood for all”

28 May 2012

The State Agency for Child Protection, the Agency for Social Assistance and Lumos Bulgaria met with the parents of 1252 children with disabilities living in institutions in order to explore their willingness and possibilities to maintain contact with them. The assessment took place within the framework of the project “Childhood for all” aimed at deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities. Such assessment is done for the first time in Bulgaria. During the meetings with the parents, the experts heard hundreds personal stories about the reasons of abandonment, the feeling of guilt, about the secrets kept for years.

Photo: flickr/taschik

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Countries: Bulgaria

Organizations: Lumos

Crisis zorgt voor minder adopties

AMSTERDAM - Het aantal Nederlandse ouderparen dat een adoptieverzoek doet loopt sterk terug. Dat komt vooral door de economische crisis.

Foto: ANP

Dat zegt directeur Peter Benders van Stichting Adoptievoorzieningen zondag tegen de NOS. De kosten van een adoptie kunnen oplopen tot 35 duizend euro.

In 2006 werd 2569 keer verzocht om een eerste kind te adopteren. Vorig jaar was het aantal verzoeken gedaald naar 956. Benders ziet een overeenkomst met het begin van de jaren tachtig, toen er ook een economische crisis was en het aantal verzoeken daalde.

Chronische ziekte

De afname is voor een deel ook te verklaren door nieuwe vruchtbaarheidstechnieken en het teruglopen van het aanbod van gezonde adoptiekinderen.

Tegenwoordig worden vaak kinderen uit bijvoorbeeld China en India ter adoptie aangeboden die een chronische ziekte hebben of anderszins begeleiding nodig hebben. Dat er minder wordt geadopteerd is een wereldwijde trend, zegt Benders.

Countries: Netherlands

Door crisis minder adopties

»Een adoptiekind met zijn moeder NOS

Toegevoegd: zondag 27 mei 2012, 17:24
Update: zondag 27 mei 2012, 18:09

Door verslaggever Pauline Broekema

Het aantal adoptieverzoeken van ouders in Nederland loopt terug. Waren er in 2006 nog 2.569 verzoeken om een eerste kind te adopteren vorig jaar liep het terug naar 956. Volgens directeur Peter Benders van Stichting Adoptievoorzieningen is de economische crisis de hoofdoorzaak.

Daarnaast zijn er ook andere factoren. Zo maken steeds meer vrouwen met succes gebruik van nieuwe vruchtbaarheidstechnieken. Ook loopt het aanbod van jonge adoptiekinderen sterk terug. Wel worden veel 'special needs kids' aangeboden. Dit zijn kinderen met een chronische ziekte of kinderen die extra lichamelijke of geestelijke begeleiding nodig hebben.

Dikke portemonnee

Benders ziet een historische parallel met begin jaren 80 toen er ook een economische crisis was en zich eenzelfde dalende trend voordeed. Vooral bemiddelde ouders adopteren. De kosten voor een adoptie kunnen oplopen tot 35.000 euro.

Door de recessie lijkt adoptie alleen nog maar te zijn weggelegd voor mensen met een dikke portemonnee. Het echtpaar Stokkel zou heel graag nog een tweede kindje willen adopteren. Maar moeder Yessica raakte haar baan kwijt en kan in deze economische slechte tijden niet aan ander werk komen. Dus zal Vaglary, die drie jaar geleden uit Haita kwam, zonder broertje of zusje blijven. "Dat bekekent dus," zegt moeder Yessica, "dat een kinderwens niet in vervulling kan gaan."

China en India

Het kleinere aanbod van kinderen lijkt ook een rol te spelen. Vooral in landen met een groeiende economie zoals China en India worden kinderen vaker in eigen land geplaatst. De afname van adoptie is wereldwijd, zegt Benders. In de Verenigde Staten, van oudsher het land met de meeste adopties, is eveneens sprake van een sterke afname.

Naar de terugloop van het aantal adopties is nog geen wetenschappelijk onderzoek gedaan. Wereldkinderen, één van de vergunningshouders, is daar mee bezig.

Pleegzorg

Femmie Juffer, Professor of Adoption Studies, Universiteit Leiden, denkt dat sommige ouders kiezen voor pleegzorg. Mensen die in adoptie zijn geïnteresseerd krijgen eerder dan vroeger iets over pleegzorg te horen en dat kan leiden tot de keuze voor pleegzorg in plaats van adoptie.

"Bij de Stichting Adoptievoorzieningen zijn al ontslagen gevallen. Peter Benders verwacht dat de vergunningshouders door de afname zullen besluiten verder te samen te werken.

Lees ook de weblog van Pauline Broekema

Organizations: Wereldkinderen aka NICWO

Countries: Netherlands

Persons: Femmie Juffer

Een echte Urker jongen

Binnenland

Pauline Broekema

27-5-2012 18:11

Soms heb je in dit vak van die ontmoetingen die je nooit meer vergeet. Twee jaar geleden was ik op Urk. Voor een onderwerp over een wonderlijk negentiende eeuws onderzoek. Waarmee een arts de raszuiverheid van de Urkers wilde aantonen. Daarvoor roofde hij schedels van het plaatselijke kerkhof. Twee jaar geleden werden ze teruggegeven. En herbegraven. We filmden de kerk waar de overdracht met een kleine plechtigheid plaats had. In de straten bij de kerk hing de vlag uit. Dat kon niet zijn vanwege de afsluiting van die onverkwikkelijke affaire. Wat de reden wel was bleek toen een busje stopte.

Het portier zwaaide open en een jonge vrouw stapte uit. Op haar arm droeg ze een piepkleine donkere baby. Pieter Jacob, roepnaam P.J. Uit de Verenigde Staten. Of we zijn aankomst mochten filmen, vroeg ik . `Graag!’ zei de moeder. En straalde alsof ze licht gaf met de trotse, boomlange vader aan haar zijde. Zo liepen ze naar hun met slingers versierde woning.

Met de thuiskomst van de baby kwam een einde aan de lange jaren dat ze bezig waren geweest een kind te adopteren. `Mijn wondertje’ zoals moeder Janneke hem noemde. Dat wondertje, dat in de hand van zijn vader Albert paste is nu, zoals zijn ouders zeggen, een echte Urker jongen. Gisteren zag ik hem weer. Hij was in dracht, vanwege Urkerdag. Op die feestdag halen de Urkers hun oude goed uit de kledingkast. `Altijd vrolijk, zo staat ie ’s ochtends op, zo gaat ie ’s avonds naar bed’ vertelde moeder Janneke. En we bekeken nog eens de foto’s van de eerste dagen met z’n drieën in Amerika. En zijn aankomst. P.J speelde ondertussen met een bal op het veldje bij het huis. Kwam geregeld langs voor een knuffel.

Naar goed Urker gebruik, het was tenslotte zaterdag, serveerde vader Albert een gebakken visje. Zo werd een gedenkwaardige week afgesloten. Want de Kinderbescherming gaf toestemming voor de adoptie van een tweede kindje. Janneke en Albert hebben lang gewikt en gewogen. De financiële consequenties overwogen. Dan maar botje bij botje leggen. Ze willen dat P.J niet alleen blijft. Anderen is het door de recessie niet gegeven een kindje, of een tweede te adopteren. Heel verdrietig, vindt Janneke. Want ze gunt iedereen het grote geluk dat haar en haar man ten deel viel toen Pieter Jacob in hun leven kwam.

Countries: Netherlands, United States of America