- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/link-international-adoptions-kenya-trafficking-ignorance#sthash.wkzAqryT.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/link-international-adoptions-kenya-trafficking-ignorance#sthash.wkzAqryT.dpuf
To link international adoptions in Kenya to trafficking is ignorance - See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/link-international-adoptions-kenya-trafficking-ignorance#sthash.wkzAqryT.dpuf
To link international adoptions in Kenya to trafficking is ignorance - See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/link-international-adoptions-kenya-trafficking-ignorance#sthash.wkzAqryT.dpuf
The Star: To link international adoptions in Kenya to trafficking is ignorance By SUSAN OTUOMA
Kenya currently bans inter-country adoption and I appreciate this article from an independent African news source. It is imperative we make a distinction between adoption and child trafficking (and it really is that simple).
In the last few years, there have been so few inter-country adoptions and so many more safeguards in place, the current media frenzy against inter-country adoption is completely out of proportion with the problems it purportedly investigates. It is HARD to adopt internationally. Yet mainstream media (Reuters, NYT, and the rest) likens it to an "industry" trading children like commodities. It is easy to look for problems and individual cases of corruption, greed and abuse of power. That kind of thing sells news. That’s how it works. I do not have a problem with that. My problem is any impediment to action about a situation of crisis for millions of children. The crisis is that millions of children have no family, no home, no money and no one to care for them. They are growing up in overly taxed orphanages if they are lucky. Many more are growing up on the street. News coverage like Reuters' "investigations" and agenda driven political campaigns are impediments to action. They are hurting children.
In my case, because of international adoption, I am in love with a daughter named Kulani. I know where she came from because I have been to the town where she was found and I met the woman who found her. I also know Kulani’s condition when she was found because I am fortunate enough to have access to her pictures and medical records. I know Kulani needed to be adopted and that she had no one to care for her except an already overtaxed orphanage. I am just thankful the person who had the chance to adopt her was me.
Last week ABC News Australia ran a piece describing international adoption trading children like "commodities". It circulated propaganda from a Europe based NGO that describes [Intercountry adoption] as a tragedy of justice that "almost always amounts to human trafficking''. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-08/inside-indian-adoptions-children-caught-in-human-trafficking-we/6758798. The really disturbing part about the ABC piece is the distortion of facts. In many countries, the only children who are available for intercountry adoption are children who have special needs and children who are older. That is the case in India (which is the focus of the article). The reason many children are "waiting" to be adopted in countries like India is because it is hard to place the children. There just aren't enough people who can parent children who have special needs. But if the net is cast wide enough, "waiting" children might be able to grow up in a family. There are people who genuinely have love in their hearts for them. But it is rare. And it is hard to find them and hard for them to adopt. Last year there were only 136 adoptions into the US from India (and I think that figure includes typically developing children adopted into families in which one parent is Indian).1 Is it really necessary to scare prospective adoptive families off before they even get started?
International adoption is not a solution for the orphan/poverty crisis. Of course it is not a solution. It is a last resort. But it is a solution for some children who have no family and no one to care for them. Some people are brave enough and love children enough to cut through the rhetoric, keep the facts straight and the politics where they belong--with adults.
Susan Otuoma, thank you for this article.
Related: Fraud and Corruption in International Adoption: What about the children?
1 http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/aa/pdfs/fy2014_annual_report.pdf
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