Adoption as a Tsunami Strategy

01/26/2005

Adoption as a Tsunami Strategy

"I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things." - Henri Matisse

Adoption as a Tsunami Strategy

In our current Exchange Insta-Poll (http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0517) many of you have shared your ideas on how early childhood professionals can help the victims of the Tsunami. The World Forum Foundation is talking to a number of its World Forum Alliance members about ways to implement some of your suggestions. We will be in touch soon with some ideas.

In the mean time, we received this message from former World Forum International Organizing Committee member Vijaya Murthy from Mumbai, India, sharing some stories and questions about adoption as a solution for Tsumani orphans:

"With thousands of children being orphaned, there are discussions whether adoption can be one option. But I am concerned about adoption. Since in such disasters there are many who take advantage of the victims, I am wondering whether adoption should be allowed. People who trade on children would be most happy to take children in the guise of adoption. I don't know; I am being very cynical but need some assurance from a person who has experienced them. Here are some stories from my country:

"In Gujarat , following the devastating Kutch earthquake, the government speedily issued an order totally banning the adoption of children. It was a blanket ban, and it worked because it was backed by the strong family ties of rural Gujarati households. Here, no one would dream of allowing a child to be taken away by strangers if family members were available. So uncles, aunts and grandparents took the orphans into their homes. It is the pride of Kutch that not a single child left the district for adoption.

"In Orissa, there was a different problem; entire families were wiped out. When word got out that orphans were being sold, Saroj Jha, an exceptional IAS officer, issued a government order prohibiting the removal of children from villages. ActionAid India set up Mamta Grihas, or houses of love. Women who were left widowed and alone were given charge of the orphaned children.

"Saroj Dash and Manas, two veterans of the Orissa cyclone, offered their expertise in setting up similar systems for the tsunami orphans and commented: 'Experts have proved that it is far better for the children to remain within the community. Already, attempts are being made to arrange adoptions. For a traumatised child, to be taken away to a strange environment where there are different customs, language, food and possibly foreign parents, would be extremely unsettling. It would further disturb an already traumatised child. In Orissa, we encouraged the formation of Mamta Grihas within the village context. We did not separate siblings or families. Instead, we built houses for the widows and orphans within the villages they came from. We also provided livelihood support for the women and psyco-social support through counsellors. In one village, a 12-year-old girl was left with her two young brothers. They were terrified of being separated. We allowed them to live together in a house we constructed. It was a child-headed household. But they wanted it that way. We can bring volunteers with special experience to help with a similar set-up, and to deal with connecting families.'

"Barely a week after the disaster, questions were being asked about adoption procedures at the government-NGO interface. They are being handled by the Social Welfare Board, but it is imperative that the dangers of adoption are pointed out. However well-meaning people are, it is proved that a child flourishes best in the cultural context he/she has grown up in. To assume that mere affluence gives them a better deal is a predictable but erroneous assumption. Let us look for options for these orphaned children, options that are kind, humane and like the ones their parents would have provided. They have suffered enough already. Are we right?"

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