Notes from Susan Jacobs meeting today.
[africa-c] Notes from Susan Jacobs meeting today.
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· From: Julia Holtgrewe
· To: "africa-c@lists.jcics.org"
· Subject: [africa-c] Notes from Susan Jacobs meeting today.
· Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 22:03:07 -0500
These are the notes taken by a family that attended the DOS meeting in DC with Ambassador Susan Jacobs. And as she said this is what she heard: Not to be shared please.
Notes from DOS Ambassador Susan S Jacobs meeting in DC: Hi all, just returned from short meeting. Here are my notes. In the interest of transparency I am reporting what i heard-Laura and Erin please clarify and wrap in anything i missed. Some of this makes me feel really bad and i am sorry, but after i chatted w/ fellow APs just briefly afterward they thought we should not sugar coat and what was said should be stated as such, for everyone to interpret as they see fit. There were also some very heart-felt personal stories shared, and that are no doubt on their way to DRC officials in the form of videos and books.
SUMMARY--Amb. Jacobs stressed that it was very important for families home with their kids to try to 'show' DRC officials how well the children are being cared for. Send CDs, picture books, other documentation to the address that State provided, and she will either hand carry [she may visit in the next month or two] or have her staff send. In DOS eyes, DRC needs to understand how beneficial adoption is for the children. They are doing everything they can, and there has been sustained and high-level attention to the issue on the part of DOS.
ROLE OF ADOPTION AGENCIES AND ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS [BEB]: Threatening DRC will not work, but showing them our love for the children will or at least may. Adoptive parents should know where all their fees are going. There should not be 'finding fees' and orphanages should not be paid for services rendered. In Amb Jacobs view adoption service providers should not be promising APs that pending adoptions will necessarily go through. They need to "face reality" and "not create false hope." DOS has stressed to DRC government that they would be willing to offer training to make sure adoption is in the interest of all parties, including the bio families, the adopting families, and most importantly the child. They would encourage down the line possibly working with the Hague Panel and UNICEF to bring resources and training, improve adoption transparency. In response to a question Amb Jacobs said that should agencies band together and in a concerted effort put additional safeguards in place such as post placement reports, some sort of code of conduct [perhaps joint pledge to not do such and such or do such and such to encourage and ensure transparency during the adoption process], this could be a very good thing. In Amb. Jacobs' view, and as encouraged [and put in place???] in Vietnam and Cambodia, adoptive parent fees should be very transparent and should go to things that are legitimately 'posted' as such. the balance should go to the national treasury, and the State then funds the orphanages.
SINGLES--from sections of the DRC laws that DOS staff has reviewed, they have not heard that a presidential exemption is required for singles to adopt. The portion of the law DOS staff has reviewed says that singles can adopt so long as the courts determine it is in the best interest of the child. State is seeking clarification from DRC on this point.
MULTIPLES--from the sections of DRC laws that DOS staff has reviewed, anyone who already has 2 children in their home cannot adopt without special permission from the president. This calls into question not just situations where a family already has two children in the home, but other cases such as potential adoption of sibling groups of three--should they be divided etc
Julia
Julia Holtgrewe
Congo Program Coordinator
Wasatch International Adoption Agency
1140 36th Street #204
Ogden, Utah 84403
www.wiaa.org
julia@wiaa.org
Direct: 618.698.6727
Office: 801.334.8683
fax: 801.334.0988
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