http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=67740

Haiti tragedy, adoptions

Stars and Stripes
Letters to the Editor, Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The New Jersey adoption community is not too surprised that an adoption agency may have skirted the laws to acquire healthy babies from Haiti (“Americans arrested on human trafficking suspicions,” article, Feb. 1). This particular organization is seemingly following (White House Chief of Staff) Rahm Emanuel’s motto, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

Agencies are no longer seeking adoptive parents but are rather seeking babies for desperate and sometimes high-paying couples.

Profit motive and secrecy will continue to plague adoption, but at least the American culture has evolved a bit. We no longer separate child from mother simply because the mother is unwed, a practice made popular by the Catholic Church. Today, it takes inhumane governments like that of China, or a natural disaster like in Haiti to grease the adoption machine and create a pool of adoptable infants. Some unethical brokers of adoption hardly care about the source of babies and some, like the New Jersey Bar Association, desperately fight to keep secrecy in adoption.

This only serves as a reminder that although the culture and practice may have changed, archaic laws from the 1940s still rule, placing biological families and their children at an unfair disadvantage.

Army Reserve Capt. Peter W. Franklin
AdopteesWithOutLiberty.com (AWOL)
Haskell, N.J.

I am relieved that representatives from my profession (Social Work) have made a formal statement to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, concerning Haitian children and adoption. The following letter was forwarded by Mirah Riben, and in another email by Etta Lappen Davis. 

Hello All,

 The attached open letter to Secretary Clinton was sent on 2/4/2010, and was shared with all major news organizations, NASW & CSWE.  Signers are sharing the open letter with other professionals and would appreciate your support in the form of e-mails, letters or phone calls to Secretary Clinton’s office. 

You may contact Secretary Clinton at:

U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington , DC 20520  

Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000
TTY:1-800-877- 8339

 Web-base e-mail access:  http://www.state. gov/secretary.  (Click on the “contact us” button in the top right hand corner of the page, and then click on the “e-mail a question or comment” tab) 

 Feel free to pass on.  Thanks.

 Etta Lappen Davis

Etsky Consulting

www.etskyconsulting .com

etta@etskyconsultin g.com

http://www.linkedin .com/in/ettalapp endavis

… … … …  

February 4, 2010

Dear Secretary Clinton:

On February 2, 2010, there were very good opinion pieces in the New York Times about the Haitian Orphan crisis (http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/haitis-children-and-the-adoption-question/). We, as professional social workers/human service providers and social work scholars support this discourse, however in the immediate situation we want to underscore a pressing concern. Many of the children who are coming to the USA for emergency medical care are arriving on humanitarian visas and in crisis. We ask that you consider the following:

Some of these children have uncertain identities and in time, determining their family connections will be difficult therefore DNA should be a part of the procedures so that they may be returned to their parents or extended family, when possible.

The USA medical facilities where these children are being treated have the capacity to take tests and, in addition a centralized DNA database must be developed and managed by a party that has no financial interest in intercountry adoption.

The visas that are being issued by the Department of State can be coded as to identify such a child (example: humanitarian/medical/minor Haitian). Coding in this manner would be a second data point for the aforementioned database, insuring that the whereabouts of these children are clear so that they may be returned to their families if and when that is possible.

It is our position that such management of information is necessary so that the best interests of the child are honored and the prevention of child abduction is assured.

All of the above points are explained in greater detail at Americas Quarterly http://www.americasquarterly.org/haiti-orphans

As social workers, we further support the position statement of International Social Services which is found at: http://www.iss-ssi.org/2009/assets/files/news/haiti_position%20CIR_ENG.pdf

Finally, the news reports indicate that a US-based faith group has been arrested in the Dominican Republic for an illegal airlift of children. We implore the US government to cooperate with international law enforcement to clarify this incident—determine if it was indeed child trafficking and act accordingly. Our nation’s commitment to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, set forth to prevent abduction and trafficking of children, requires that we act responsibly in law enforcement related to such alleged activities. Even if the Convention does not apply to Haiti , it is our opinion that we must act according to these values to insure the best interests of the child .

If and when adoption of Haitian children re-opens as an option, managing this system ethically will be essential to insure human rights of peoples who have already been so devastated.

Sincerely,

Karen Smith Rotabi, PhD, MSW, MPH
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
ksrotabi@vcu.edu

Kathleen Bergquist, LCSW, JD, PhD Associate Professor, School of Social Work
University of Nevada at Las Vegas

DeGuerre Blackburn, ACSW

Executive Drector Voices for International Development and Adoption
Hudson,NY

Mary Katherine O’Connor, PhD
Professor, School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond , VA

Jini L. Roby, JD, MSW , MS
International Child Welfare Consultant
Associate Professor
Brigham Young University
Provo , UT

Denise Gammonley, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor
Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar
School of Social Work
University of Central Florida

Carmen Monico, MSc, MSW/PhD student
School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond , VA

Rosemary J. Link, PhD
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Simpson College
Indianola , Iowa

John Cosgrove PhD, Professor Emeritus
Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service
Chair International Special Interest Group, New Jersey Chapter
National Association of Social Workers

Jenny Jones, PhD, MSW
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond , VA

Humberto Fabelo, PhD, MSW
BSW Program Director
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond , VA

Ruth McRoy, PhD
Research Professor and Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor Emerita
School of Social Work
University of Texas
Austin , TX

Etta Lappen Davis, MA.Ed.
Principal & Child Welfare Consultant
Etsky Consulting, Bolton , MA

Karen Smith Rotabi, PhD, LMSW, MPH
Assistant Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work
1001 West Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2027
(804) 828-5411 (office)
(804) 828-0716 (fax)

FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN…AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME.

From: Mary Foess,

Bonding by Blood, Unlimited, of Vassar, MI, founder and president since 1988

Thur, February 4, 2010

Dear Friends,

I became privy through an e-mail sent to me yesterday that two hearings have been scheduled by the Committee for Families and Children’s Services (House of Representatives) for these two bills:  House Bill # 4006 and House Bill # 4015. The chairperson for this committee is Rep. Mary Valentine. The sponsor of the bills is: House Representative Lesia Liss.

ASAP: Send your 1 page letter of support, preferably snailmail, to:

State Rep. Lesia Liss, House of Representatives, 792 H.O.B, P.O. Box 30014, Lansing, Michigan 48909

SEND IT NOW!

On the envelope (I put this type of thing on both the front and back of the envelope), include:

ATTN: Chief of Staff: Elena P.

We have at least 2 weeks to compose a 1 page letter, one which will include at least 3 reasons why you support the release of an adopted adult’s original birth certificate, and any/all of your contact info printed in the letter, as well. I suggest that you put your cell phone # (or landline if you don’t have a mobile phone), an e-mail address, and any other contact information. I used to include a work phone before I carried a cell phone. I include my Web site card; I used to put in a color photo of myself, just to get their attention.

I cannot emphasize this enough: You do not have to be a ‘member’, or a person who has experienced adoption, or a parent who had to relinquish your child, a person who was adopted as a minor, or an adoptive parent, to be qualified to write a letter. Also, your issues could have taken place outside of Michigan, as mine did (Washington, DC). You may be a counselor, a preacher, a teacher, a psychologist, or even just a ‘mom or dad’. Our birth records (adoption files) and original birth certificates have been sealed in our state for over a 64-year-period, to my knowledge. Though a newer law was passed in about 1980, we still have people whose finalizations of adoption fall between the years re: approx. mid-1945 and mid-1980 such that they have had their files and original birth certificates sealed – - – forever. This is a 35-year period called, ‘The Sandwich Years’. For all the previous years, since certified birth records were recorded by our state, anyone’s original birth certificate was available! This practice of sealing our records and our OBC – Original Birth Certificate – - -  document is a recent phenomenon. It came on the heals of Freud’s Blank Slate Theory. The question I keep coming back to is this: WHY are our birth certificates sealed at all? This document is available to all other citizens…so why not us?

The legislator’s chief of staff, Elena P., told me that the birthparent letters are needed – - by a high number. They are still using the old, tired argument of the problems surrounding their claim that they made promises to birthparents that they’d have a lifetime of protection from this ‘said’ child that they relinquished. We have had to include a veto, so their claim holds no water. An issue of the AAC Decree had a good article which had a chart naming the main arguments they use against unsealing our records. It was posted in the form of a chart. Each claim or “red herring argument” was disproven by statistics, those well researched by either the AAC or other organizations. Another common practice which I’ve seen in states (and Ontario), ones which have successfully passed legislation for release of our original birth certificates, is posting the date this will take effect in newspapers and on the Internet. This is in reference to the release of the original birth certificate upon request of the ‘said’ person listed on it! The time period varies between the law’s passage and when the OBC will actually be issued.

More info:

The hearings are on March 17 and March 24, at 10:30 A.M. in: Room 326, 124 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing, Michigan

Since I had attended similar hearings there 2 years ago, I recall that there was seating in the lobby. We then went through some simple security screening before being allowed to ride the elevator upstairs. My childhood years’ memories include remembering this building as a big, Lansing hotel and restaurant on the ground level floor. It faced the capitol and was a ‘corner’ building (Michigan Ave. and Capitol Ave.) There is a parking ramp to the south, just off to a nearby side street which is the first one south of the Capitol (runs east and west, whereas Capitol Ave. runs north and south). I am driving to the hearings and have room for at least 3 adults. I will be leaving my home by 7:45 a.m., barring bad road conditions which could prevent me from going! Parking was a problem for me in 2008, but I managed….

The Fax # for Rep. Lesia Liss’s office is: 1-517-373-5910, in case you’d prefer to send your letter this way. She will be taking ALL the letters to the committee in a large, manila envelope or portfolio, then giving them to the members of this committee. Call me if you’d like a complete list of the committee members and all their contact information.

Thank You,

Mary L. Foess, 

Bonding by Blood, Unlimited, of Vassar, MI, founder and president since 1988

cell phone:  1-989-823-4013 E.T. zone

e-mail address: mlfoess@Gmail.com

Web site: http://www.ArmenianAncestryBook.com (you may get some writing ideas for your 3 points from viewing this Web site)

profession: elementary teacher

AAC, CUB, ORIGINS, Am-FOR, A.I.M. (Michigan), and Truths in Adoption Triad of Michigan member

http://www.cubirthp arents.org/ haiti.html

HAITI’S CHILDREN BEST SERVED BY CARE, NOT REMOVAL

SAN DIEGO, February 3, 2010 – Concerned United Birthparents (CUB) urges the governments of Haiti and the U.S. to stand strong against suggestions that the best way to help Haiti’s children is by removing them from their families, culture and homeland.

A national non-profit of birthparents, adoptees and adoptive parents, CUB shares the world’s concern for Haiti’s most vulnerable in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. But the 33-year-old non-profit says it has a unique understanding of how important it is to reject quick-fix solutions when it comes to a child’s life, especially in its time of greatest need.

“Years of working with family members who were separated by adoption have taught us that good intentions are not enough,” said CUB president Mary Lou Cullen. “The hasty transfer of traumatized children, many with family status unknown, to foreign shelters, foster care or adoption agencies, should not be tolerated. Haiti’s devastation should not be compounded by anything that inadvertently, or intentionally, contributes to the risk of family separation for any purpose.”

As the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners – including the Haitian Government and the Red Cross – establish safe spaces for the hundreds of thousands of children separated from their families before and after the earthquake, and begin to register all unaccompanied minors, CUB urges the governments of the U.S. and Haiti to halt any further airlifts of children or any new adoptions.

In addition, CUB urges that any groups with clear or potential conflicts of interest – such as adoption agencies and ministries – be removed from the decision-making process about how best to serve Haiti’s children. Humanitarian policies should be applied on a case-by-case basis for those children whose legal adoption had already been approved, and were in the process of being adopted, with the support of the latest and best practices in the field. “But,” Cullen says, “all other pending adoptions should be immediately suspended.”

Haitians living in the U.S. should get help to locate their youngest relatives on the island, and the transfer of any children with documented parents or family members in the U.S. should be expedited, for temporary or permanent placement.

The recent arrest of an Idaho church group for transporting 33 Haitian children across Haiti’s border – without papers or approval – has drawn the world’s attention to what can happen when well-meaning but ill-informed forces swoop in to “help.”

MORE ABOUT CUB: Through a network of regional groups and an annual conference, CUB provides mutual support for the ongoing challenges of adoption – resources, referrals and a strong network – and works to educate the public about adoption issues and realities. It also assists adoption-separated relatives searching for family members, opposes unnecessary family separations and supports adoption reform in law and social policy.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a CUB representative, please contact Eileen Drennen at 800-822-2777, ext. 81, or send an email to vpmedia@cubirthpare nts.org.

http://www.cubirthp arents.org

I’ve been reunited for 36 years and in the adoption reform movement for the same amount of time. We march on Washington, carry picket signs, send letters, write books, conduct research, cry, organize conferences, organize state legislative lobby groups, get side-swiped, start over, sign petitions, blog, start new groups, over and over and over again. 

Other countries are 40 years ahead of America in terms of equality for adoptees and their parents of birth. 

What is America NOT doing right?

We are not demanding to stop the nonsense at the heart of the problem: stop falsifying birth certificates for adoptees. Repeal the law that started the whole mess in 1930. Go read the books. I’ve quoted them in  my book, and in this blog. The authors have been pointing out the history of the heart of the problem for many years. Yet we keep circling around the issues. The people with the money, and their god, rule over the people with no money and no power. 

Stop it. Just stop it! Put an end to seizing birth certificates and falsifying them when a child is adopted. Stop it. Don’t do it. End this barbaric practice of fraudulent birth certificates of adoptees —now.

I, and other adoption reformers, have called for an end to the practice of adoption itself.

In the place of adoption, we need to strengthen families in crisis so that they can stay together. If a child cannot be raised by the parents of birth, kinship care and guardianship must be the final options presented. Both closed and open adoption has been proven over and over again to be detrimental to the adoptee and to the families that get left behind.

Please see the Widgets at the left Side Bar to vote at the Change.gov website for adoptees’ civil rights under the general topics of Human Rights and Human Trafficking. Add your comments to these pages. Even if you are not an American, leave a comment and vote.

End adoption slavery now.

Even though this was made public in 2007, this bit of legislation – now is California Law - has just come to my attention (bold emphasis added): 

 CALIFORNIA STATUTE PUTS EMPHASIS ON PLACEMENT WITH EXTENDED FAMILY

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed the Relative Caregiver Bill (AB298) into law, allowing foster children greater access to permanent placement with extended family members. The statute allows for extended family members to be given legal guardianship as a preference over adoption by non-family members. In addition, the law – enacted in October – requires relative caregivers to be given information regarding the options of legal guardianship and adoption, including the long-term benefits and consequences of each option. To read the law, go to: http://www.legislat ure.ca.gov/ port-bilinfo. html and search by bill number.

            When I searched for the Bill under the above number, I could not find it. Fellow adoption reformer, Cully Ray, confirmed the correct Bill name and number to be Relative Caregiver Bill AB12 (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_12_bill_20100128_history.html).  

             There have been recent amendments made to his law (269 pages can be found at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_12_bill_20100125_amended_asm_v95.pdf).

Just moments after publishing my previous Post, this letter arrived in my email.

I know some people are opposed to SOS Children’s Villages because SOS has agreed to release children for adoptions in the recent past (and that goes against the goal of family reunification and family preservation), but in this instance, I am in support of SOS Children’s Villages.

This letter addresses the 33 Haitian children who are now in care of SOS Children’s Villages.  

… … …

Dear Joan,

This past weekend, 33 children from Haiti were allegedly kidnapped in an attempt to bring them to the Dominican Republic. A team of missionaries from Idaho were stopped at the border by Haitian officials because they lacked the proper documentation to move these children outside of their home country. The Haitian Social Ministry immediately sought out a safe haven for the children and found one in the SOS Children’s Village in Santo, Haiti. The children will remain in the Santo Village while authorities search for their families. Read the news account below:

Late in the evening on January 29th, the Haitian police arrested 10 U.S. citizens attempting to take 33 children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic in a suspected illicit adoption scheme. The suspects did not have official papers confirming the identities of the children, nor did they have official permission to bring the children out of the country. On January 30th, the Haitian Social Ministry entrusted those 33 children (aged three months to 12 years) to the care of SOS Children’s Villages.

SOS has two Children’s Villages in Haiti, one located in Santo, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Both Villages withstood the earthquake and are being used as emergency relief facilities. The 33 children were taken to the Santo Village where they were warmly received. The children — allegedly victims of child trafficking — were visibly in need of special attention and care.  

According to SOS staff in Santo, the children were distressed, hungry and thirsty. Upon arrival, each child was registered with SOS and provided with a nutritious meal. The Red Cross, based at the SOS Children’s Village in Santo, promptly examined the youngest children and provided medical care to those who needed it.

The SOS teams are now closely monitoring the children and trying their best to comfort them. Meanwhile, other SOS staff members are attempting to search for relatives.

“But I am not an orphan,” said an eight-year-old girl. She thought that her mother had arranged a vacation trip for her. Some of these children obviously still have parents who may have been persuaded to hand over their children under false pretenses. The allegations will be thoroughly investigated but the Haitian police consider this incident organized child trafficking.

For security reasons, all staff of SOS Children’s Villages are wearing identification stickers, and all children from the SOS Children’s Village in Santo wear wristbands. The entry to the SOS Children’s Village in Santo is strictly controlled.

Through your support, children in Haiti and in 131 other countries have a safe haven at SOS Children’s Villages. Please continue to fund our work for these children who are at such great risk. Make a donation now.

Heather Paul
Executive Director
SOS Children’s Villages – USA

P.S.: Please support our work throughout the year by Sponsoring Disaster Orphans.

SOS Children’s Villages – USA
1001 Connecticut Ave, NW
Suite 1250
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 1 888-SOS-4KIDS or 202-347-7920

In this CNN breaking News story, 10 American Baptist missionaries in Haiti claim  they were ”God-appointed”, but they are being held in jail charged with kidnapping 33 Haitian children.

Ten of these children are not half or full orphans. One asked for someone to call her mother who gave the TV cameras and interviewer permission to film her daughter.

Haiti’s Prime Minister said these children were “not fully willing to go”.

Video and text of the CNN News story here.

As a half-orphan myself, I am mad as hell.

Baptists behaving badly. Christians not thinking beyond their own selfish motives to be seen as good people. The children suffer.