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If this is in opposition to the rules of this forum, please remove it, moderator(s). I was recently asked to name some of the charitable groups I'd referred to as doing excellent work with orphans in Ukraine. No doubt there are additional groups which work in Ukraine, along with similar groups which operate in other countries, but these are the ones with which I am most familiar.
NGOS which work directly with Ukrainian orphanages and institutions include Bible Orphan Ministry, run by and for Ukrainians (all of whom are orphanage "graduates") and is based in Zhytomyr, in northwest Ukraine. With a very small staff, BOM assists over 1,000 orphaned children and young adults living in ten orphanages and mental institutions in their area, along with assisting teens and young adults who have aged out of the orphanages at age sixteen or so.
This is a Protestant ministry, but in addition to providing activities resembling those found in American Sunday Schools and Vacation Bible Schools, BOM provides clothing, food, medicines, and various other supplies to those it serves (including many children with special needs), and has assisted with much-needed orphanage structural repairs. Donations of clothing, toys, otc medicines and funds are always welcome. BOM has both a Facebook page and a blog (my computer is not allowing me to link directly to sites, but simple searching will take you straight to BOM). The young woman who created the blog and Facebook page speaks Russian or perhaps Ukranian as her original language, so her written English is a little faulty, but quite comprehensible.
Life to Orphans. Based in the Pacific Northwest, this American charity makes several trips to Ukraine annually and welcomes volunteers. They assist close to fifty orphanages and institutions in Ukraine and are long-established. Donations similar to those accepted by BOM are welcome here, too. There are many photos on their website. They distribute food, clothing, medicines, provide needed medical equipment, playground equipment, therapy equipment, and help fund needed medical treatments for children. They've also assisted with structural renovations and upgrades to aging buildings not originally intended for their current purpose as orphanages, and have raised funds to provide individual caregivers for children with special needs. Recently, they've coordinated with BOM on some smaller projects.
His Kids, Too operates in Ukraine, traveling to orphanages several times each year and providing shoes, fresh fruit, other foods, medicines, etc.
There is also a group of nurses and therapists based in NW Arkansas who travel to Ukraine a couple of times each year, where they work directly with children with physical special needs such as cerebral palsy, etc. They also provide workshops for the orphanage caregivers responsible for the daily care of these children, and have brought much-needed wheelchairs, walkers, and other health equipment with them to be left for the children's use. I need to check the name of this organization.
All of these groups are tax-exempt (BOM, which is Ukrainian, coordinates with an American church group, and if tax exemption is a concern, such donations need to be made through that church group - see the BOM site for more info.) and their focuses are towards assisting the children where they are right now, rather than on adoption.
I hope readers who are interested in assisting the thousands of children reached by these excellent and very effective organizations will investigate further and see if there is a way for their concern to be made concrete.
Not having ultimate influence does not mean international adoption is for the greater good. People who are truly dedicated to the helping orphans would be prioritizing & contributing to many of the things you have noted here (or more) instead of adoption.
People who adopt internationally spend thousands of dollars. Just consider what good that money could do if they put it towards something other than adoption. Not saying they have any obligation to of course... however, they can't claim that their choice to adopt does anything to help the orphan crisis, either.
And this is where we must disagree, for the influence of successful international adoptive families goes far beyond the success of the children they adopt.
Had my relatives not adopted internationally, I never would have known much about the country from which they adopted, nor about the conditions of the children living in its orphanages. I never would have sought to learn more about international adoption, or more specifically, international adoption of children with special needs, or what becomes of children with special needs who are orphaned and never find families either in their own country or elsewhere. I just didn't know...
But I learned. And knowing what I do, I have shared that knowledge not only here but with everyone whom I think might be remotely interested (and yes, I do keep quiet when it's clear that others are NOT interested!). I've learned about groups which assist these children and supported those groups I think are particularly worthy and effective. I've encouraged others to support these groups, especially in place of giving me unwanted Christmas and/or birthday presents (this past Christmas, six or seven of my friends and relatives donated to just such a group rather than giving me stuff). I've encouraged others to learn more and to involve themselves in whatever way they find right for themselves.
None of these things are likely to have occurred without the presence of my young relatives as dearly loved family members. Combine that influence of one person, me, with the ongoing influence of others who meet my extended family, then consider all the other adoptive families and other members of the adoptioin community who advocate for the children left behind.
No, direct, personal knowledge and resulting involvement of this kind will not completely solve the orphan crisis.
But it makes a huge difference for those children it does reach.
Not being able to save them all doesn't remove the moral necessity of helping those whom we can reach.
The orphan crisis is not solved by adoption. Even with all bands lifted, the crisis exists. Pretending like adoption does anything to solve this problem is like trying to put a band-aid on severed limbs.
Also, I don't think dogluvr will tell you they are against children being raised by families who are not related to them when it is necessary (please correct me if I am wrong). Being removed from their countries & adopted is not necessarily what's best regarding the orphan crisis.
I don't think that anyone knowledgable would argue that the orphan crisis can be solved by adoption, but it is inarguable that adoption can make a great positive difference for the majority of the children who are adopted - admittedly, those children are only a small portion of the orphaned children of the world.
So, what do you think IS best for those other children, the ones who cannot be reunified with their biological families for whatever reason, and who are presently living in foster care, orphanages, or institutions?
As I've noted, I and many others do what we can to assist various charities, ministries, and other NGOS who work to improve conditions. Others here speak out strongly for reforming laws concerning orphan care and adoption and ask for greater oversight. All this is good. But what else can we do to make things better for those children? How much influence to citizens of other countries have in attempting to encourage change upon the governments of countries in which the orphanage system is long-established? How much influence can we have in attempting to change public attitudes towards orphans and those with special needs in these same countries? Are we making any real difference by continuing to debate these issues so fervently here on C-D, or are we just preaching to our separate choirs?
Should we turn our efforts towards other means of affecting positive change? It's a vast problem, multirooted... but let's not lose sight of the real children who are caught up in the problems of their countries' societies and dysfunctions.
They are the innocents and the helpless and the needy. Most of them will never be adopted, never be reunified with their biological families, and will continue to live in "the system" until they age out or are sent to mental institutions for the rest of their days.
What can we do for them?
The question is, what came first? The chicken or the egg. How many children are actually "orphaned" and how many are "orphaned" BECAUSE there are "waiting families"? This of course is a rhetorical question, because nobody knows, especially in other countries. There is so much propoganda, greed, false information etc, it would make your head spin. I think that people see these awful stories about kidnapped children, etc and they think that it's an isolated incident or that's not what happened with MY adopted child.
Time to get our heads out of the sand, there is so much more corruption that needs to be discovered and people have to stop turning a blind eye. Bribes happen because "that's how it's done". Is this subjective ethics?
[/b]Not being able to save them all doesn't remove the moral necessity of helping those whom we can reach.
Many more children CAN be reached than those that are adopted internationally -- the problem is most PAP/APs would not spend tens of thousands of dollars on helping orphans unless it meant they could adopt.
This is precisely why adoption should not be promoted as a solution to the orphan crisis.
Last edited by thethreefoldme; 02-21-2013 at 12:22 PM..
The question is, what came first? The chicken or the egg. How many children are actually "orphaned" and how many are "orphaned" BECAUSE there are "waiting families"? This of course is a rhetorical question, because nobody knows, especially in other countries. There is so much propoganda, greed, false information etc, it would make your head spin. I think that people see these awful stories about kidnapped children, etc and they think that it's an isolated incident or that's not what happened with MY adopted child.
Time to get our heads out of the sand, there is so much more corruption that needs to be discovered and people have to stop turning a blind eye. Bribes happen because "that's how it's done". Is this subjective ethics?
In Ukraine, the country with which I am most familiar, around 80% of the children living in the orphanages and institutions are "social orphans" - they have at least one living biological parent. These children were separated from their parents either at the wish of the parent (common in cases of children with visible special needs, who are often given up to the state at birth), or were taken from their parent(s) because of neglect and/or abuse. Not all of the children who were voluntarily relinquished are free for adoption - in some cases, parents dealing with various crises (family, work, health-related) may temporarily place their children in orphanages, just as families in similar straits in the US might place their children in foster care. Such parents are supposed to contribute to their children's support. These are the families whose plight is heartbreaking - they love their children, might otherwise be fine parents, but due to circumstances beyond their immediate control, cannot care for their children.
Similarly, it's not unheard of for parents of children with special needs such as Down syndrome to visit their children in the orphanage and to hope that their children will be adopted by loving parents who will share news of their children with them. These parents have been urged to sign over custody, with the claim that the state can care for their children's special needs far better than can the children's families. Ukraine is not physically friendly to people with orthopedic and mobility problems, nor is there any special education as we know it in the west. The views of people with special needs, especially people with intellectual impairment, are similar to views here over 75 years ago. This situation greatly contributes to loving parents sadly signing over custody of their children, parents who in another country would never do such a thing.
I feel greatly for these families, and also think that these are the kinds of parents who can be helped more effectively by changes in Ukraine: but those changes won't come without great effort and great financial investment, and I don't see that happening, sadly.
The stories of how those other children wound up in state care are quite different. Usually, parental alcoholism and drug abuse are involved, to a much greater extent than in this country, with resulting neglect and abuse of the children. FAE and FAS are rampant and multi-generational in much of eastern Europe. The economy is improving, but there is a vast gap between the upper and lower classes, and the middle class, while growing, remains small. Lack of education, lack of skills, lack of opportunity, escape via the bottle - all play a part in what brings children to the orphanages. Family reunification in such situations is not only unlikely, but it's not in the best interests of the children in the great majority of such cases.
I do not question that some such parents continue to love their children - but they are not competent to care for them. Making vodka a lot more expensive would be a good start, as would more and less costly rehab facilities, improved education, improved infrastructure, more jobs, more knowledge of child development, more well-child checks, more social support for families - all would be good and would cut down on the number of children in the orphanages.
But - meanwhile, there the children are, right now, not in some rosier future society. They're not going home to their bio. families anytime soon. The ones in wheelchairs (if they're lucky, they have wheelchairs and aren't kept in bed 24/7) are unlikely to become self-sufficient in a land where there are no cut curbs, no access to public transportation, not even high rise apartment doorways and elevators which can accommodate wheelchairs...and those with FAE or FAS are at great risk of repeating the pattern. And you can just write off any kind of future for those with other special needs.
And I haven't even mentioned the kids who are HIV positive...
So - where to begin to resolve such a tangled, dysfunctional mess? Actually, you begin with whatever is most accessible and most feasible to you. For some, it's donating clothing or money to the NGOs. For others, it's adopting a child or two or three. Yet others may advocate for change.
There is no one answer, much less any one "cure" - but there are palliative measures which can make life better for the children caught up in this dysfunctional system.
Many more children CAN be reached than those that are adopted internationally -- the problem is most PAP/APs would not spend tens of thousands of dollars on helping orphans unless it meant they could adopt.
This is precisely why adoption should not be promoted as a solution to the orphan crisis.
Also in Ukraine, children under the age of five cannot be internationally adopted unless they have special needs which are listed with the government agency for adoption, or are part of a sibling group. Children with special needs cannot be adopted internationally until they have been listed for domestic adoption for one year. Older children entering the system also must be listed for adoption within Ukraine for one year before they are eligible for international adoption.
Once an adoption court is held and an adoption is approved, there is a ten-day waiting period during which biological family members can contest the adoption. Only if this time period passes without contesting does the adoptive family receive legal custody of the child. After that, there is a period of one or sometimes two weeks during which various documents must be obtained before the child can leave the country with the adoptive parents.
Before a child is internationally adopted from Ukraine, a vast number of legal documents, studies, examinations, and other requirements must be provided. Homestudies, doctor's exams, police checks, home appraisals and statements re home ownership or rental status, income, occupational licenses, even pet vaccinations - all must be provided, in blue ink, and apostiled. Such documents are usually good for six months - if they expire, they must be redone or renewed. Families are approved to adopt a particular age range, gender and number of children, and are often advised to try for as wide and as flexible a range of all these things as possible, in light of the unforeseen occurring once in country. Character references are also required, and I am sure there are other documents required which I cannot remember. Once complete, the adoption packet is sent to Ukraine, where it will remain for several months until the family is sent a travel date.
Once in Ukraine, would-be adoptive families go to the government agency which handles adoptions, based in Kiev. There they either go through large notebooks with pictures of children and information about them, if they are doing "blind" adoption, or learn more specific information about a particular child or children, if they have knowledge of a child in whom they are interested. They usually have a facilitator to assist with translation, legal requirements, hotel or apartment reservations, transportation, etc. There are fees for these things, of course - fees for services rendered.
When a child is selected, the orphanage or institution where the child lives is contacted, and an appointment is made. This usually occurs within a day or two of the original appointment in Kiev. Orphanages are located all over Ukraine, so travel may take anywhere from half an hour to two days. Longer trips are usually conducted by train or private car.
Once in the orphanage, prospective families meet with the orphanage director and perhaps the orphanage doctor, or other caregivers who know the child. This is a good time to learn more about the child and to ask questions or clarify any confusion in their Kiev records.
Finally, the child is brought in to meet the "visitors". Of course, older children are well aware of what is happening, but little ones may not, as orphanage visitors from various groups are not unheard of. If all goes well, the family will agree to adopt the child. They will continue to visit the child twice a day for about a week, while the facilitator arranges an adoption court - the date is usually fairly prompt, but Ukrainian holidays are frequent and may lead to delays. Older children must sign a statement that they want to be adopted by this particular family.
If the child is not acceptable to the would-be adoptive family for whatever reason, or if the child's status has been incorrectly recorded and they are not available for adoption after all, the would-be parents go back to Kiev and wait for another appointment with the government agency, where the process is repeated.
While there are certainly possibilities for corruption with this system, there are also a number of safeguards built in by both the Ukrainian and American governments. State and local governments can also be involved here, especially in regard to crime checks, etc (not only for parents but for all adults living in the household). However, it's a time and energy and effort intensive process.
As for those facilitors: word gets around among adoptive families if someone is trying to pull a fast one or is overcharging or getting a kickback somewhere along the line. This tends to minimize any temptation towards wrongdoing, along with strict fines for such in country. Most faciliators are good people with a genuine interest in children's well-being.
Likewise, orphanage directors are sometimes viewed askance, and there have been some who were very lacking. But the majority seem to genuinely care about the children and do their best with usually inadequate resources. Caregivers are usually kindly, well-intentioned older women who lack training in childcare and especially in care of children with special needs. There is considerable turnover among the "nannies", and life is necessarily regimented in the orphanages.
It's not uncommon for a child's condition to be described inaccurately, exaggerated, or with significant things omitted. Families are strongly advised to have their child evaluated at an international adoption clinic as soon as feasible once they are home.
It really is up to each individual, and to each family, as to how they choose to spend their resources. Adopting a child is about far more than dollars spent.
My point is that all of the above is what you are TOLD. How do you know if any of these "stories" are actually true? Part of the problem is the fact there is no regulation. Anyone can drop of a child and give a story. You don't have to provide any records, any ID or any proof. What if it was mandatory that every child had to have an original birth certificate, medical records of the parent and ID that you are indeed the parent? How do you know how many children are dropped off by someone who is paid?
I don't have all the answers but I have a lot of questions. Why does it take 3, 4 and 5 years to adopt a child if there is such an overabundance of children that nobody wants? 5 years of red tape? Doesn't sound like an overabundance to me. It sounds like there aren't enough children. Why is it the only industry where common sense doesn't prevail?
Why do stories keep surfacing such as Guatemala and Magdalene Laundries?
Craig, are you posting from a Word document? You didn't actually respond to my post that you quoted & I'm not sure why you are reiterating information on how international adoptions work.
Last edited by thethreefoldme; 02-21-2013 at 01:32 PM..
Craig, are you posting from a Word document? You didn't actually respond to my post that you quoted & I'm not sure why you are reiterating information on how international adoptions work.
No, this is from my own knowledge and is my own writing. I wrote it in response to references to corruption in the orphanage/adoption system, to point out the various safeguards in place in both this country and in Ukraine, and also to identify some weaknesses and needs in the system.
I was also asked about the veracity of what I posted: I trust the people, print and online sources from which I have learned these things over the last seven and a half years. I have never known these particular people and sources to be dishonest or anything other than open and above board in their dealings.
Actually, I did respond to your post, when I outlined how the experience of one family - my relatives - moved me to learn more, to advocate, and to spread the word about ways to help children who are living in the orphanages of my young relatives' native country. My relatives themselves do the same. And as I stated, when you add up the experiences and influences and advocacy of our family with that of all the similar experiences and influences and advocacies of all the other families who've successfully adopted internationally, and toss in people like me, who became educated about the situation through our extended families and who now advocate as well as personally do what we can to support the children living in orphanages and institutions - the positive effects of successful international adoption go far beyond the families directly involved.
Last edited by CraigCreek; 02-21-2013 at 02:06 PM..
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