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11.000 de copii in orfelinatele romanesti. Ce face statul pentru ei?-TvZiare.com

11.000 de copii in orfelinatele romanesti. Ce face statul pentru ei?-TvZiare.com
    
Foto: TV Ziare.com
In cele 256 de orfelinatele din Romania, din care 142 vechi, sunt 11.000 de copii si, cu toate ca numarul lor este in scadere, statul, Biserica si institutiile neguvernamentale ar trebui sa se implice mai mult in a-i ajuta, este de parere Stefan Darabus, directorul Hope&Homes for Children Romania.

"Adoptia este o solutie pentru orfelinate, dar este nevoie de modificarea Legii adoptiilor si de o relaxare a consimtamantului parintilor biologici. Avem in derulare cu ministerul Muncii si Grupul la Nivel Inalt 'Copiii Romaniei' o serie de parteneriate care vizeaza continuarea procesului de inchidere a institutiilor din Romania, astfel incat aceastia sa reprezinte in 2020 doar istorie. 

Numarul copiilor din institutii este in scadere, sunt tot mai multe orfelinate care se inchid, este un trend de 7-8 ani care continua. Nu mai poate sustine nimeni ca institutiile sunt o alternativa, copiii au nevoie de o familie", a precizat Stefan Darabus, la Tv Ziare.com.

In ceea ce priveste situatia financiara a acestor instututii, in tara, posibiliatile de autofinantare sunt foarte reduse, insa exista fonduri de la UE si de la organizatiile pentru protectia copiilor care ajung in Romania, spijinindu-le.

"Cheltuielile pentru un copil tin de cheltuilile de perosonal, de hrana, imbracaminte, apa, gaz, curent, ca si pentru orice alt copil. In cazul in care aceste cheltuieli s-ar face intr-un mediu familial si nu institutional, ele ar fi mai mici", a continuat invitatul TV Ziare.com.

Desi banii sunt putini, conditiile din orfelinate s-au imbunattatit si nu mai vedem "imaginile de acum 10 ani", caci in prezent "peretii sunt zugraviti, mobilierul e nou, exista televizoare, sunt intr-un mediu mai bun decat erau inainte".

Cu toate acestea, copiii din orfelinate nu au Internet, pentru ca nu au voie la acces nesupravegheat la continutul virtual. "Trebuie protejati de continutul virtual. Nu stiu daca asta s-ar putea face in aceste institutii. Sunt prea putini membri de personal ca sa-i poate supraveghea", a precizat Darabus.

Pentru ca numarul celor care intorc capul catre acesti copii este destul de mic, directorul Hope&Homes for Children Romania a facut apel la Biserica sa-i ajute mai mult pe micutii fara o familie.

"Biserica ar putea face mult mai mult pentru ajutorarea cauzelor sociale, fie ca este vorba de copii sau de familii vulnerabile. Implicarea Bisericii exista la nivel de documente si hartii scrise. Ar fi binevenita o accentuare a implicarii sale si poate ca unele dintre sumele de bani pe care le aloca pentru construirea de noi lacasuri de cult ar putea sa fie redirectionate si catre cauze sociale", a opinat Stefan Darabus. 

"Noi, in mod particular, investim o buna pare din sursele noastre de finantare pentru dezvoltarea de servicii de tip familial, centre familiale, retele de asistenti maternali, astfel incat nevoia fiecarui copil sa fie acoperita intr-un mod cat mai individual", a continuat seful Hope&Homes.

Vestea buna pentru orfelinate este ca, de cand a inceput criza, nu s-a observat o crestere a numarului de copii institutionalizati. Insa, pentru ca vine iarna, este posibil ca numarul lor sa creasca usor.

Adaptarea in societate, foarte grea spre imposibila

Copiii care cresc in orfelinate au sanse mai mici de a se integra in societate in momentul in care parasesc instituiile in care au crescut. 

"Nu sunt pregatiti, nu au avut modele de viata, tinerii care parasesc insitutiile sunt dintre cei mai vulnerabili. In orfelinate, copiii sunt cu foarte multi alti copii in jurul lor, nu au timp sa-si lege niste relatii personale stabile, de lunga durata. Copiii si membrii de personal vin si pleaca. 

Este o problema legarea de relatii pe termen lung, cand ajung la viata adulta. Mai mult, pentru toti cei din jurul nostru este o perioada grea ca sa isi gaseasca un loc de munca, pentru ei este cu atat mai greu", a precizat Stefan Darabus.

Pentru ca acesti copii sa poata duce o viata normala, directorul Hope&Homes for Children Romania crede ca incurajarea adoptiilor sau preluarea acestora de catre asistenti maternali ar fi o solutie.

"Sunt foarte multe familii care vor sa adopte copii. Pocesul de adoptie dureza intre un an si doi ani, asta inseamna finalizarea juridica. Procesul de potrivire incepe de cand copilul este plasat in familie si se poate face la o saptamana-doua. (..)Adoptiile internationale au fost o problema foarte mare in sistemul de protectie a copilului. Era un comert, fratii erau despartiti, plasarile se faceau fara un proces de potrivire si se facea in favoarea familiei adoptive si in favoarea copilului", a tinut sa precizeze invitatul Ziare.com.

Mai mult, sunt cateva zeci de mii de asistenti maternali (aproximativ 13-14.000), dar, din pacat,e facilitatile pe care le au sunt destul de restranse din cauza crizei. 

"Odata cu toate scaderili salariale, si veniturile asitentilor maternali au fost reduse", a conchis Stefan Darabus, directorul Hope&Homes for Children Romania.
Vineri, 26 Noiembrie 2010, ora 19:45
Sursa: Ziare.com
Autor: Alina Bardas
Articol citit de 325 ori
 

Legea adop?iei a fost depus? la Parlament, în form? final?

Legea adop?iei a fost depus? la Parlament, în form? final?

de Admin » 16 Noi 2010 10:15

Proiectul redeschide procedurile pentru adop?iile interna?ionale ?i elimin? obstacolele de care se lovesc acum cei care vor s? înfieze un copil

Asocia?ia Catharsis Bra?ov a înregistrat recent, la Cancelaria Parlamentului României, ultima variant? a Proiectului de lege privind adop?ia în România, completat? cu propuneri trimise de speciali?ti ai serviciilor publice sociale ?i ai unor ONG-uri din ?ar?.

Astfel, în prevederile propuse termenul de „adop?ie na?ional?” va defini adop?ia încredin?at? familiilor care î?i au domiciliul stabil în România. „Adop?ie intracomunitar?” va însemna adop?ia încuviin?at? familiilor sau persoanelor cu domiciliul în ??rile membre UE, iar „adop?ia interna?ional?” va fi adop?ia încuviin?at? persoanelor sau familiilor cu domiciliul stabil în statele semnatare ale Conven?iei de la Haga.

Forcible foster care ‘genocide’: UN Declaration

  Forcible foster care ‘genocide’: UN Declaration
WRITTEN BY ADMINISTRATOR
THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2010 11:38
UOI OFFICES (November 24, 2010) – Anishinabek have the right to keep their children in their own communities, including those who require foster care.
“Other governments must put a stop to the harm that has been caused to thousands of our kids – first in residential schools, then in foster homes,” said Deputy grand Chief Glen Hare. “They have to give us the resources our communities need to look after our own children; their welfare is more important than providing jobs for outside agencies.”
“And now that Canada has finally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” he added, “it needs to understand that forcibly removing children from one group of peoples to another is considered genocide by the standards of international law.”
Hare noted that a Human Rights complaint has been filed against Canada for its funding of First Nations child welfare agencies across the country at an average of 22 per cent less than the budgets of provincial agencies like Children’s Aid Societies.
The Anishinabek Nation established the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 people. The Union of Ontario Indians is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.
For more information contact:

Marci Becking
Communications Officer
Union of Ontario Indians
Phone: (705) 497-9127 (ext. 2290)
Cell: (705) 494-0735
E-mail: becmar@anishinabek.ca
Follow AnishNation on Twitter

Some chiefs in the Northern Region recently called for the abolition

Some chiefs in the Northern Region recently called for the abolition
of practice of adoption and expressed anger with the practice particularly the provision in the adoption law that hands
adopting parents complete ownership of the adoptees.
The chiefs expressed the anger in Mzuzu at a function organised by The Law Commission aimed at getting views
from civil society on what should be included in the reviewed and Adoption Law which is being tailored ‘to reflect
modern issues.’
“Adoption should end; it’s like selling a thing that does not speak. Orphans always have relatives and whatever law
we implement, it will always bring us problems in the future,” said Inkosi Mtwalo of Mzimba.
T/A Mwakaboko of Karonga said he understood the idea of adoption but did not like the permanent ownership of by
others rather than natural parents.
“Just look at Jumani [Johansson]. We are having problems now because his name was changed and his natural
parents cut off,” said Mwakaboko.
He, however, said whoever puts his child for adoption should not demand tokens because assistance rendered to the
child is enough for the parent to be thankful.
T/A Marlowe of Rumphi said he was against the permanent ownership phrase in the law and said those wishing to
adopt should only assist in providing for the child. T/A Mkumpha 3 of Likoma and Chizumulu Islands shared the
view.
However, Alan Chinula, a commissioner in the exercise, said the chiefs’ fears are baseless since the child can choose
to go back to their parents after reaching maturity age.
He added that the new adoption law would make it tougher for foreigners to adopt in Malawi saying child shopping
would end and that the matching process would be emphasised.
Northern Chiefs calls for an end to adoption practices | Malawi Voice http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/northern-chiefs-calls-for-an-...
2 von 7 24.11.2010 15:20
He asked government to adopt the Hague Convention which he said
would be an additional tool in the adoption exercise as it centralises adoption and reinforces the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC).
Social workers who attended the function accused chiefs of hypocrisy saying they were just defensive adding that
they were not looking after the children in the villages.
The current Adoption of Children Act was enacted in 1929; a law which, chairperson of the Special Law Commission
on the Adoption Act, Justice Esme Chombo, said is too old and doesn’t reflect issues like HIV, poverty and
modernity.

Russia, US to hold another round of talks on adoption

Russia, US to hold another round of talks on adoption
 
24.11.2010, 14.36
 
MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) - Another round of Russian-American talks on the preparation of the bilateral agreement on issues of adoption will be held in Washington on December 1-3, the press service of the RF Ministry of Education and Science reported on Wednesday.
Director of the department of education and socialisation of children of the Education and Science Ministry Alina Levitskaya will head the Russian delegation at the talks. According to her, “There are reasons to hope that the talks will allow us to remove the remaining disputable questions and thus ensure the earliest signing of the agreement.”
The ministry’s pres service noted that the subject under discussion will be “a number of items of the draft agreement on which the Russian side voiced critical remarks.” In particular, according to Russian experts, “the procedures of the recognition of the decision on adoption in the receiving state, getting of the citizenship of this state by the adopted child, as well as the “organisation of monitoring over the cases of conversion of adopted children, should be specified.”
Meanwhile, both Russian and US negotiators have earlier repeatedly said that they have reached understanding on the main points of the document, and the draft agreement will be signed before the end of 2010.
The Russia-United States bilateral talks on a draft agreement on adoption began this spring after an incident with 7-year-old Artyom Savelyev, who in early April was sent by his American grandmother by plane from Washington to Moscow alone with a letter to the Education Ministry requesting cancellation of the adoption. The boy’s foster mother Tory Hansen said that she no longer wanted to be parent for Artyom, because the boy is unbalanced, cruel, and he has a serious psychopathic behaviour problem. Then the Russian Foreign Ministry stated in connection with the incident that “the further adoption of children in Russia by US citizens would only be possible after the conclusion of the relevant Russian-American treaty.”
Russian officials say they want more control over US adoptions of Russian children and the living conditions those children face in the United States. “We have reached agreement on all principal issues and have seen willingness to sign such an agreement,” children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov told reporters after US and Russian officials met to discuss the pact. The draft agreement is expected to be approved, and the deal should be signed within the next two months, he said in May. The return to Russia of Artyom Savelyev, who is now 8, caused some officials to demand a freeze on foreign adoptions. Russia’s parliament, however, defeated a motion to suspend adoptions to the United States, the Associated Press reported.
Astakhov confirmed that adoptions to the US have not been “legally suspended” but said they are “effectively suspended” as Russian courts will not rule on adoption cases as long as there is uncertainly about the children’s safety in that country. Under Russian law, only a presidential act or legislation passed by the parliament can freeze foreign adoptions. The new deal will make it obligatory for adoption agencies as well as adoptive parents to report on their child’s health and living conditions, and to “open the door” for social workers to check the facts reported, Astakhov said.
Savelyev’s adoptive mother refused to allow a social worker into the house less than a month before the boy was dispatched back to Russia - a visit that could have prevented the boy’s misfortunes. Russia also has accepted a US proposal to allow adoptions only through US-accredited agencies, the ombudsman said. These agencies work in compliance with the Hague Adoption Convention, to which Russia, however, is not a signatory yet. “This will be an extra guarantee that random people and random organisations will not be involved in such an important and delicate matter as adoption of Russian children in the United States,” Astakhov said.
Some 1,800 Russian children were adopted in the United States last year, according to Russian officials. Some 3,000 US families are estimated to be in various stages of adopting children now from Russia.

Baby Girl Abandoned on the Street in China Because she is Blonde

Baby Girl Abandoned on the Street in China Because she is Blonde

Daily Mail Reporter
November 23, 2010

Baby girl in China abandoned on the street... because she is BLONDE

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

A mother abandoned her newborn baby on the street in China - because the little girl was blonde.

The white-haired Chinese baby was discovered by a passer-by on a street corner in Nanning, Guangxi Province.

The woman who found the child heard a cry and made the shocking discovery.

The little girl was found on the street in Nanning, Guangxi Province with a note and some baby clothes

'I was walking to work and heard cries from a wrapped-up quilt in the corner' she said.

'By opening it I found a baby crying very sadly.'

Police found a bag of baby clothes besides the quilt and an envelope containing 3,900 Yuan, about £390.

On the envelope the mother had written: 'I hope warm-hearted people can help to send the baby to the orphanage house. Wish you all the best.

'My dear baby I am an irresponsible mother and an incapable mother. I am sorry.'

Police suspect but have not confirmed that the mother dumped her child because of the baby's white hair.


Police suspect the mother may have dumped her child because of the baby's white hair

She may have been given up because she was a girl or because her mother could not afford the fine for keeping her.

Most Chinese families are allowed only one child to reduce the 1.3 billion-plus population and cut unsustainable demand on resources.

Many children, mostly girls, are abandoned because of the policy.

The policy also leads to an estimated 13 million abortions every year, with many of those ordered by local authorities. Infanticide is also widespread in many rural areas.

Those who violate the one child law can be fined up to £25,000.

 

Jail after £113,000 benefits fraud is cracked

News

Jail after £113,000 benefits fraud is cracked

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Fraudster: Illie Schian got three years

By Nick Tarver

U.S. Department of State Adoption Alert – November 24, 2010

Kazakhstan: U.S. Department of State Adoption Alert – November 24, 2010
November 24, 2010

From the U.S. Department of State:

Adoption Alert

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

November 24, 2010

According to the Government of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Education plans to match all families with pending adoption dossiers with children before December 15, 2010. Once these matches are made, the adopting parents will be invited to travel to Kazakhstan for the mandatory three-week bonding period with the children. Adopting parents who decline to travel to Kazakhstan to bond with the children with whom they are matched will not be able to proceed with an adoption in Kazakhstan under the existing adoption process; their “pending dossier” will be closed.

Unwrapping Red Tape to Find the Gift of Family

TARAZ JOURNAL
Unwrapping Red Tape to Find the Gift of Family
Maxim Marmur for The New York Times
For months, Rebecca Compton went daily to an orphanage in Taraz, Kazakhstan, to visit Noah.
Published: November 23, 2010
TARAZ, Kazakhstan — He was first placed into their arms nearly a year ago, an underweight 9-month-old baby in a gray sweatshirt. They were at an orphanage behind a crumbling housing project here in Central Asia, unimaginably far from their home in suburban Philadelphia, but immediately, they knew that they did not want to let him go.
The New York Times
Taraz officials have grown more cautious on adoptions.
They decided to call him Noah.
“He seems like the right little guy for us,” Rebecca Compton, a college professor, wrote as she and her husband, Jeremy Meyer, a labor lawyer, began what they thought would be a standard adoption process.
But these days in Kazakhstan, Russia and other former Soviet republics, adoptions are often far from standard, especially in light of the highly publicized — and deeply embarrassing — return of a 7-year-old Russian boy to Moscow in April by his adoptive American mother.
Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer assumed they would soon be flying back to the United States with Noah. Then the delays mounted. Kazakh officials refused to sign off on the adoption.
Yet, Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer would not give up.
They took leaves from their jobs, remaining in Kazakhstan for months on end while engaging in a bewildering fight with the Kazakh bureaucracy. It was not until last week, after setting aside their lives to pursue a child whom they now deeply loved, that they finally learned whether they could adopt him — whether this Thanksgiving would be a day of joy or despair.
“This is one of the only times when I have ever had this experience of feeling so helpless about something that I care so much about,” Ms. Compton said. The obstacles that Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer have faced reflect the rising complexity of foreign adoptions in the former Soviet Union, which since Communism’s fall two decades ago has been a popular destination for prospective parents. As these countries become more stable, they are growing increasingly resistant to the idea of sending future generations abroad.
But they still maintain large orphanage systems, so a debate periodically flares over what is in the best interests of the children. The authorities would like local parents to adopt, but there are not enough in countries like Kazakhstan and Russia.
The issue is not necessarily poor conditions in orphanages. The one in Taraz is clean and well run, and the children seem happy. But experts say children are more likely to thrive in a good family.
Ms. Compton has spent much of the last year in Taraz, a city on the old Silk Road where English is rarely heard and boiled horse meat is typical fare. For months, she went daily to the orphanage to see Noah.
Born premature, he had lagged developmentally, but with the constant attention he has started to catch up, turning into a spirited toddler before the Americans’ eyes. On a recent visit to the orphanage, he giggled and squirmed while Ms. Compton read him a book with purple dinosaurs and blue whales, as if they were any mother and child.
“When I am here, I have no doubt about what I am doing,” she said. “As soon I see him, I don’t think about the legal situation, or how long I have been in Taraz. I just want to hold him.”
But visiting hours soon ended. She had to leave the orphanage, and he stayed behind.
On many nights in recent months, she has retreated to her hotel room and not known whether to scream or cry or bang her head against the wall in frustration. She said she once dreamed that she was hugging Noah, but then he disappeared, though she could still feel his touch. Then she located him nearby, “looking up at me with his dark searching eyes,” she recalled, but he vanished again.
Foreign adoptions in Kazakhstan can go relatively smoothly, but Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer had unfortunate timing.
In January, soon after they began the adoption process, Casey Johnson, the daughter of Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, died. Ms. Johnson, who had adopted a baby from Taraz in 2007, had led a troubled life, and her death raised questions in Kazakhstan about whether the adoption should have been allowed. Local officials became exceedingly cautious, and slowed down several adoptions.
Then in April, the 7-year-old boy was returned to Moscow on his own by his American mother, and the Kremlin demanded new adoption safeguards from the United States. That had a ripple effect across the countries of the former Soviet Union.
In May, a court rejected Ms. Compton’s and Mr. Meyer’s petition to adopt Noah, contending that the orphanage had not done enough to determine whether Kazakhs might want him. They appealed.
Ms. Compton, 40, who is the chairwoman of the psychology department at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Meyer, 40, had little ability to deal with the Kazakh legal system, which often seemed highly dysfunctional. They do not know Kazakh or Russian, the languages here, and were dependent on interpreters, consultants and lawyers.
“We are never quite sure what is going on,” Mr. Meyer, who had to return to Pennsylvania over the summer for work, said last month. “We are in the dark about the most important thing in our life.”
Raisa Sher, the federal children’s ombudsman in Kazakhstan, said in an interview that Taraz officials were applying the law correctly. She said Kazakhstan was supporting efforts to keep babies in the country, so officials had to ensure that foreign adoptions were a last resort.
“It is very sad when a country cannot provide for its own children,” she said. “We consider these foreign adoptions only a temporary measure.”
Kazakh officials even suggested that Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer seek another baby, as if Noah could be exchanged for someone else. They cringed at the thought that a child who had been given up by one set of parents would be abandoned by another.
But by September, there seemed to be an opening. With the government under intense lobbying by Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer and their supporters, a local court indicated that it would reconsider their case if it could be shown that no Kazakhs wanted to adopt Noah.
The orphanage presented evidence. Then there were more sleepless nights while they waited in Taraz for the decision. This month, the court preliminarily endorsed the adoption. “We won. We won!!” they wrote on their private blog.
Last week, they received final approval, and on Friday they walked out of the orphanage with a new, by now 20-month-old member of their family. They are hopeful that other foreigners who have also had Taraz adoptions blocked will obtain similar relief.
Ms. Compton and Mr. Meyer have to remain in Kazakhstan for a few more weeks, but they said they were fine celebrating Thanksgiving in a foreign land, given how much they had to be thankful for.
They noted that the holiday reminded them of Noah’s Kazakh name, Aldanysh. Loosely translated, it means “survivor.”
A version of this article appeared in print on

Muslims seek to reconcile Islamic, western adoption law to find homes for orphans

Muslims seek to reconcile Islamic, western adoption law to find homes for orphans
By: Rachel Zoll, The Associated Press
24/11/2010 2:44 PM

Helene Lauffer knew Muslim children — orphaned, displaced, neglected — needed homes in the United States. She knew American Muslim families wanted to take them in.
But Lauffer, associate executive director of Spence-Chapin, one of the oldest adoption agencies in the country, couldn't bring them together.
The problem was a gap between western and Islamic law. Traditional, closed adoption violates Islamic jurisprudence, which stresses the importance of lineage. Instead, Islam has a guardianship system called kafalah that resembles foster care, yet has no exact counterpart in western law.
The differences have left young Muslims with little chance of finding a permanent Muslim home in America. So Lauffer sought out a group of Muslim women scholars and activists, hoping they could at least start a discussion among U.S. Muslims about how adoption and Islamic law could become compatible.
"At the end of the day, it's about trying to find families for kids," said Lauffer.
Lauffer is not alone in raising the issue. As Muslim communities become more established in the United States, pressure is building for a re-examination of Islamic law on adoption.
Refugee children from Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere are being resettled here. Muslim couples who can't conceive want to adopt, but don't want to violate their faith's teachings. State child welfare agencies that permanently remove Muslim children from troubled homes usually can't find Muslim families to adopt them because of the restrictions in Islamic law.
"I get all kinds of families who come to me for fertility issues. They want to adopt and they want to adopt Muslim children and I'm thinking this is a crime that they can't," said Najah Bazzy, a nurse and founder of Zaman International, a humanitarian service group in Dearborn, Mich. "No one is going to convince me that Islam makes no allocation for this. Either somebody is not interpreting it right, or it needs to be reinterpreted."
Mohammad Hamid, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Hamdard Center, a social service agency in the Chicago area that has many Muslims among its clients, said he regularly received requests from American Muslims for advice on how they could adopt.
"We don't tell them it's Islamic or un-Islamic," said Hamid, whose non-profit does not handle adoptions. "Our job is to facilitate the process. We believe if the child can be adopted, you are saving a child."
The prohibition against adoption would appear contrary to the Qur’an's heavy emphasis on helping orphans. The Prophet Muhammad's father died before his son was born, so the boy's grandfather and uncle served as his guardians, setting an example for all Muslims to follow.
However, Islamic scholars say the restrictions were actually meant to protect children, by ending abuses in pre-Islamic Arabic tribal society.
Ingrid Mattson, professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said adoption in that period had more in common with slavery. Men would take in boys, then erase any tie between the child and his biological family. The goal was to gather as many fighters as possible as protection for the tribe. Orphans' property was often stolen in the process.
As a result, Muslims were barred from treating adopted and biological children as identical in naming or inheritance, unless the adoptee was breast-fed as a baby by the adoptive mother, creating a familial bond recognized under Islamic law.
When an orphan reaches puberty, the Islamic prohibition against mixing of the sexes applies inside the home of his or her guardians. Muslim men cannot be alone with women they could potentially marry, and women must cover their hair around these men. Islamic law sets out detailed rules about who believers can and cannot marry, and an orphan taken in from another family would not automatically be considered "unmarriageable" to his siblings or guardians.
For these reasons and others, Muslim countries only rarely allow international adoption.
"There hasn't been a concerted push to open doors for Muslim orphans because the expectation would be that those efforts would fall flat," said Chuck Johnson, chief executive of the National Council for Adoption, a policy group in Alexandria, Va.
Advocates for a new interpretation of Islamic law are more hopeful, at least about the prospect for a different approach to the issue in the United States. Mattson argues that the flexibility in Islamic law for accommodating local cultures and customs can lead to a solution.
Open adoption, which keeps contact between the adoptee and his biological family, is seen as one potential answer. In New South Wales, Australia, child welfare officials created an outreach program to Muslims emphasizing that Australian adoptions are open and adopted children can retain their birth names. The New South Wales program is the only well-known adoption campaign targeting a Muslim minority population in a western country.
The Muslim women scholars Lauffer consulted in New York, who meet annually as a shura (advisory) council, tackled the complexities of modesty rules inside the home. They debated whether Muslim adoptees in the West could be considered Islamically "unmarriageable" to their siblings or guardians, since western governments classify adoptees the same as blood relatives. The shura council will soon release a statement on the issue through its organizing body, the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality.
It's unclear how successful their efforts can be. There is no central authority in Islam to hand down a ruling on adoption. Muslims consult individual scholars, or, in the United States, seek an opinion from an imam at their local mosque.
Catherine England, a Muslim who teaches in the Seattle area, adopted four children after she and her husband learned they could have no children of their own. One of her children is an orphan from Afghanistan. Two others are biological siblings.
"I felt that my understanding — and this is entirely my understanding — is that what is forbidden in Islam is closed adoption," said England, who converted to Islam more than three decades ago. She consulted a Muslim scholar who she said affirmed her view that open adoption was allowed.
Lauffer hopes to hear more stories like England's soon.