Coalition tries to rescue world's orphans

Source: www.usatoday.com

Publication date: 25 June 2013

Bob Smietana, USA TODAY 7:16 p.m. EDT June 25, 2013

(Photo: Gannett)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

International adoptions have plummeted from 23,000 in 2004 to 8,668 in 2012

Christians who want to adopt orphans have to be wary of corruption

The movement to help orphans has not been limited to faith-based groups

NASHVILLE — The Christian Orphan Care movement, a coalition of churches, non-profits and activists, is driven by a simple and compelling message: There are 150 million orphans in the world, and God wants you to help them right now.

Now the movement is at a crossroads.

International adoptions have plummeted from 23,000 in 2004 to 8,668 in 2012, due to accusations of corruption and child trafficking that have led nations including Vietnam, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nepal and Ethiopia to shut or slow down their adoption programs.

David Smolin knows about the troubles of international adoptions firsthand. He and his wife adopted two girls from India who they thought were orphans. When the girls got to the United States, the Smolins learned they had been essentially stolen from their parents.

Smolin, director for the Center for Children, Law, and Ethics at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., says that too much money and not enough regulation in international adoption led to corruption, including orphanages that coerce their parents into giving them up for adoption.

"Christians did not create these flaws," he said. "But they did not discern the flaws."

That's changing, said Jedd Medefind, a former White House official who worked on faith-based and community initiatives in the George W. Bush administration who is now president of the McLean, Va.-based Christian Alliance for Orphans. Medefind said that Christians who want to adopt orphans have to be wary of corruption. Otherwise, they can do more harm than good.

"We have to be absolutely vigilant and I would say aggressive, in guarding against and rooting out any example of corruption," he said.

The slowdown in international adoptions has caused heartache for Debbie Shinkle, a nurse and single adoptive mom from Smyrna, Tenn. She has two adopted sons, ages 6 and 3, from Ethiopia, and is trying to to adopt two young girls from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But in May that country's government banned adopted children from leaving the country.

International adoption was downplayed at the recent orphan care meeting near here. Many breakout sessions focused on issues such as programs to sponsor children in their home countries.

All of those options are needed, said Bill Blacquiere, head of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Bethany Christian Services. Most of the 153 million children that the United Nations classifies as orphans have at least one living parent, he said.

In Ethiopia, Bethany does about 100 international adoptions a year, but it also sponsors 5,000 children who live with their own families at a cost of about $30 a month. An international adoption can cost $20,000 or more.

"For a very small amount of money, you can make sure that kids have a permanent home with their family," Blacquiere said. "That should be a very first place for a child to be — with their family or their extended family."

As adoption rates have declined, the movement to help orphans has not been limited to faith-based groups. Since 2000, the sectarian Miracle Foundation has provided children in India with food, health care and a college-prep education. The Austin-based non-profit also built two villages that house more than 200 children.

"We believe we've created a way for many orphanages affecting thousands of children to raise their standards of care," said Kerry Anne Ridley, director of development for the Miracle Foundation. "We can warehouse kids in these dismal conditions where they're barely eating every two or three days, or we can really take this on."

Orphan care advocates have also begun focusing their efforts to helping vulnerable children in the United States.

Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family runs a national program called "Wait No More" to help families adopt foster children. Lydia Home Association, based in Chicago, started a voluntary alternative to foster care, called Safe Families, that's cared for thousands of children whose families were in crisis.

Jodi and Dave Quint of Thompson's Station, Tenn., said that Christians should help children wherever they can.

The Quints, along with another couple from their church, are currently caring for three children who were at risk of going into foster care. They had learned about the children from a friend during a mission trip to Ethiopia.

"If I am willing to go 8,000 miles to Africa, four times in four years, to help orphans, then we can make room in our own backyard," Dave Quint said.

Smietana also reports for The (Nashville) Tennessean. Contributing: Kimberly Railey