Activists seek a central adoption registry
M Ramya, TNN, Jan 28, 2010, 04.49am IST
CHENNAI: When they gather enough strength to confront the most basic of questions — who am I, where did I come from — time would have consumed their childhood. The emotional pull to find answers grows with those who have been put up for inter-country adoption that one day they embark on a journey to an alien land, scouting for their parents, clenching a pack of sketchy letters and greying pictures, and placing their bets on luck.
To make parent-hunting a much more smoother affair, activists have been rooting for a central adoption registry that will maintain the names of the biological parents giving their child for adoption to foreign parents. Esther, who was adopted by a Belgian couple, would have been spared of the wanderings in Chennai in search of her mother and sister had there been a registry. A comprehensive central adoption registry will allow children to trace their roots later if they are so inclined, and enable their biological parents to reconnect with their past.
"Esther was given up for adoption in 1985, much before the guidelines for adoption were drawn up. But there are more recent cases where tracing biological parents have been futile. When I tried to help trace a person's biological parent, I failed for want of available records. The adoption agency concerned, which could have had the details, had closed down," says Andal Damodaran, former chairperson of the Central Adoption Resource Agency and current honorary general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Indian Council for Child Welfare.
I'd like to clarify a few things:
1. I was at the orphanage when Jill Smith used Papa to pacify her adopted daughter. She gave Papa toys, new clothes, fed him and took him around so that her daughter would not be scared. Papa believed he too was being adopted by the way Jill was treating him, however this was not the case. And when she bonded with her daughter, Jill cast Papa aside and left town.
2. Jill Smith and her husband had a change of heart and decided they wanted to adopt Papa later on. The orphanage director did not want to give the child to the Smiths (for a variety of reasons)so Jill and Zeke decided to kidnap Papa from Hohoe Orphanage and hid him in an attempt to illegally adopt him in another part of the country. They bribed people along the way to make this happen. The false accusations made in this article were written out of spite.
3. The director of the Hohoe Orphanage has been facilitating ethical and legal adoptions to find loving homes for children.
4. There is a HUGE difference between "selling children" and legal adoptions. I really wish people would understand this point, and stop using the words "selling children" or "trafficking" when talking about adoption. People seem to be surprised that adoptions should cost anything at all, but in the world of adoptions, $7000 is a very reasonable fee to adopt a child. The money does not go to the orphanage director alone. There are many costs associated with a legal adoption such as lawyer fees, medical exam/tests, court fees, care of the child while at the orphanage, transportation, etc. An adoption agency or independent facilitator must collect a fee from the family in order to facilitate an ethical and legal adoption according to Ghanaian laws. This is NOT "selling children." A proper relinquishment of rights is obtained, a social welfare report, and many other documents. The case is heard before a judge and the judge decides whether or not a adoption order is granted.
5. Taking a child, not receiving a relinquishment of rights, and moving the child to another part of the country to get an adoption order is illegal. This is what the Smiths did.
6. There is a lot of child trafficking going on in Ghana....by Ghanaians and other African nationals. I really wish that the Ghanaian government and the newspapers would focus on this. Very few children are actually trafficked to America and Europe. The adoption process is a long, grueling, and expensive process and most people would not put that kind of energy and money into trafficking children through the adoption and visa process. Most of the children are trafficked by Ghanaians or surrounding African countries where children are forced to work on farms, on the lake, or as servants and sex slaves. Those are the people that the Ghanaian government should be focusing on.
7. Embassy officials are trained to look at documents, interview adoptive parents, and interview the birth family to ensure that any child leaving the country has not been trafficked. It's the officials inside the country that need to be investigated more carefully, like Helena Obeng-Asamoah, who aided the Smiths.
8. When people like Jill Smith spread false rumors, it has a domino effect. As you can see by all the previous posts, many people blindly believe everything they read in newspapers or hear on the radio. What most people don't understand is that a lie like this can have an adverse effect on many, many families who are currently in the process of legally adopting their children and trying to bring them home. Jill is selfish, plain and simple. She is angry and wants revenge. She thinks her revenge will be on the orphanage director, but her previous attempts to discredit his adoptions only made the visa process at the embassy more costly, complicated, and longer for every other family adopting in Ghana. I really don't think Jill would care if her actions shut down adoptions in Ghana altogether. She only thinks of herself.
9. Helena Obeng-Asamoah has her own agenda –– that is to shut down private orphanages and completely control all adoptions through her office. Why? Because she will make money. So, of course she wants to discredit others who are facilitating adoptions in Ghana. She too does not care how this false article may affect many good families waiting for their children.
And who is actually thinking about the children?
Greed and selfishness are the reasons why this article came about.