Whether you're considering international adoption, in the process, or have already adopted, global issues of adoption may be ... should be ... of even greater interest and concern than for the regular man-on-the-street without direct connections. Our children do not appear out of a vacuum, but become available for adoption through circumstances that vary widely, but often have similar themes. Poverty, war, disease, starvation, upheaval, death ... all make their dark mark and destroy lives and hopes and dreams and options. How organizations funded... more

Holly's Africa Adopt Blog on GW Bush's announced call for a bump in the HIV/AIDS budget ties into research I've been doing lately on a variety of issues relating to the world's children and provides a smooth lead to related stories in the news right now.

Global Action For Children,(GAC), the... more

The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) released a report a few days ago on unsatisfactory conditions in orphanages in Liberia. Again. Sheesh! April must be their "trash Liberian adoption month". I wrote about the same darned thing this time last year!

Apparently,... more

Continued from here where we've been underwhelmed by "facts" and UNICEF ....

Okay. I am NOT saying there have never been any corrupt dealings in any Nepali adoptions. Nepal, like most of our kids' birth countries functions on a level that is much less transparent than most would like ... as do all countries, for that matter. But when stories appear under headlines that shout, ... more

Continued from here where we were about to add two to two ...

Could it be that here is where the rubber meets the road?

As an international conference on adoption of children began in Kathmandu on Sunday, the U.N. children's wing UNICEF deplored what it called an ''unfortunate growth'' of an industry centering on adoption.

Profit,... more

Continued from here ...

Now, some of the questions that pop into my mind when reading the stories about Nepali adoption that are cropping up just about the time a conference on international adoption is to begin ... How does someone "pose as British parents wishing to adopt a Nepali child"? Did they show up at the "Child NGO Federation" complete with dossier, including a homestudy, police clearance and all other other documents... more

Is there anything suspect in the timing of a story coming out of Nepal that casts international adoption in a negative light coinciding with the first International Conference of Inter-Country Adoption in Kathmandu? Pardon my cynicism, but I can't help but notice the potential for not-so-hidden agendas in them thar Himalayas.

Was it coincidence that had reporter Thomas Bell writing a story for the Nepali Times that that starts out like this:

In... more

Continued from here ...

If you'd like to take a look at the sort of thing UNICEF is busy doing while they strong-arm governments, individuals and organizations into buying into their "community-based care" gig, just imagine the resources that went publishing the following pdfs. Peruse them at your leisure and let me know if you can find one thing that imparts any wisdom you didn't already have a pretty good grasp of.

http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07.pdf... more

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I've seen how 'community-based care' can work in many places. In Cambodia, like in India, Kenya, Brazil ... pick a country, any country ... it often means children falling under the 'care' of those organizing begging rings or owners of brothels or arranging for mine workers, rug tiers ... what ever. The UN is talking about "reintegrating children into communities", as if the orphanages that have... more

Perhaps it's this terrible cold I'm suffering with that's making me fuzzy enough around the edges to be too dense to grasp simple concepts, but this article from the CSM doesn't make a lick of sense to me today. Titled, "Africa shifts to 'whole village' approach for orphans: Orphanages in southern Africa are closing in favor of efforts to reintegrate children into communities," it has a nice... more