Orphanages in other countries?

Sophie

Russia and Romania come to mind first with regards to orphanages. These children are wards of the country and are mostly in pretty bad shape. The chidren range in all ages.

For the process and to see if those countries (or any countries) are currently open for international adoptions or not please go to the Department of State website: http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_369.html#r ... I find the information on there is official and unbiased.

Peaness

Well I don't know which country has the higher rate of orphans. I think of Russia & China right off the bat. I can only speak from my personal experience but I know that in Korea a lot of the children in the orphanages where dropped off there by their own parents who needed a temporary solution until they could get back on their feet & then are suppose to come back & get their children.

In my case I was found behind a train station when I was one & taken to the orphanage for the next four years. I believe the place that I was at was for internation adoption purposes. Yes, my parents had to go thro- an adoption agency. I truly believe tho- that the state an orphanage is in greatly varies from city to city/country to country & if there is anybody they need to impress, be it a family or inspection.

I think I'm in love.possibly

Many countries have orphanges and yes they are orphans. China, my lil sis's home country, has both Foster care and orphanages. My little sister was in an orphanage where the older children took care of the younger ones. Haiti, Romania, Russia, pretty much alot do.

wynn

As far as I know, countries that allow international adoption have either foster care systems or orphanages. But there are different kind of orphanages. Some orphanages are set up as processing homes for children to leave the country.

â€œIs this an ethical type of adoption?â€
You can never rest easy saying something like â€œmy adoption was ethical because I went to an orphanage in a poor countryâ€. Every case is different. Every country has both ethical and unethical cases. Every country has mothers being coerced by someone, corrupt officials, heartless profiteers. Every country also has children in genuine, desperate need for a home. Itâ€™s your job to do the best you can to navigate all that.

Some things to think about:
How did the children get to the orphanage? Are children just listed as â€˜abandonedâ€™? Do family members bring them directly â€“ possibly solicited? Are children accepted who are brought in by agents â€“ people who receive a fee? Does the government of that country process relinquishments through their court system, investigate, and then assign a child to an orphanage? Some countries allow you to meet the childrenâ€™s extended family, making trafficking less likely. Other countries do dna testing to be sure that the person whoâ€™s giving consent to the adoption really is biologically related.

What kind of children are in care at the orphanage? If there are older children who have been there for a long time, and children with serious medical issues, thatâ€™s better than a place with a revolving door for infants & toddlers.

â€œAre they orphans?â€
The children are for the most part legally classified as orphans, but thatâ€™s not nearly the same as being a true orphan. It only means that the child has been abandoned or legally relinquished in their country. My oldest son still has his mother, she wonâ€™t tell us about his father (hated him). My other two children still have their father and older siblings at home.

Adoptive parents need to remember that they are creating a market. To ask for a healthy infant girl, as quickly as possible, is to set up a demand that sadly, people will try to fill. When we adopted from Ethiopia, I met a lot of parents who â€˜just wanted to save an AIDs orphanâ€™ but thatâ€™s not all they wanted. They wanted babies. When parents die from AIDs, they leave behind children of all ages, not just newborns. (Not to say that for some families infant adoption is fine & actually best, but just research your agency & make it known that youâ€™re concerned about ethics & willing to WAIT).

Your other questions â€“ you would go through a licensed agency. Contact a few. Check out Yahoo Groups for info comparing agencies & countries. Financial considerations â€“ boy can that vary. Just keep in mind thereâ€™s the Adoption Tax Credit, which I think is around 11K per child now.

Erin L

Hi Shelly! Your question is complicated, or rather the answer to it is. I'll try to give you the run down.

The type of care in different countries really varies, and the reasons babies and children are in orphanages or foster care really varies. Also, the quality of care can really vary in different countries. There are some countries, like Ethiopia, where many of the children are "true" orphans, meaning both of their biological parents are deceased. (usually they are AIDS orphans.) In most cases, children adopted internationally are not "true" orphans. But, they do have to meet the definition of orphan as defined by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. In China, babies are abandoned, and the U.S. accepts China's procedure for attempting to find biological parents. In other countries, parents must be proven to have relinguished rights, and usually children are relinquished because of extreme poverty. It's hard to be sure, just as it is in domestic adoption, that this is always done ethically. If you are interested in a particular country program, research the process thoroughly. Feel free to email me if you have specific questions about a specific program. Right now, Guatemala is having a lot of problems with ethics violations. The Vietnam and Cambodia program have both had long periods of time where the program has been closed due to baby selling.

In Taiwan, our daughter's birth country, babies are relinguished usually for a combination of similar reasons as in the U.S. - financial reasons, young age, stigma against unwed mothers (more than in the U.S.), etc. This wasn't exactly the situation with my daughter's birthfamily, but it is typical. A birth mother cannot make an adoption plan until the baby is 1 month old, then she can choose adoptive parents, then there is a court process for relinguishing parental rights and approving the adoptive parents, and then she can meet the adoptive parent and have a semi-open adoption. We found it to be one of the best international programs we could find, ethically. Can one ever be sure that there is never anything unethical. No. But, I at least know that my child's birthfamily was treated well and will know how their child is doing.

A GREAT place to learn more about issues in international adoption is informedadoptions.com.

Take care!

TotalRecipeHound

While my guyfriend and I haven't decided whether adoption is the way we want to go, I do know from where I would be adopting (former USSR). Since the child would come from the orphanage in the village where my mom's coworker originated from, I'd know a lot about the child and possibly even the mother. In this village, it is poverty that generally forces a mother to chose to bring her baby to an orphanage. I would also be adopting a toddler, not an infant.

Is this type of adoption ethical? Is it better for a child to be raised in a family or an institution? I have a pretty clear answer to that. Also, we both agreed that if we go this route, we would select a child who needs medical care not available to orphans in their home country. This type of child is unlikely to be adopted at home. As far as costs, it varies, but roughly $18,000 - 25,000 not including your travel costs.

Pretty much any country that is considered developing has orphanages. Kids are there for many reasons. In some places like Guatemla parents can't afford another child and birth control is not readily available. So when they have another child they give up the new baby to the orphanage. In India and China girls are not valued and they give the girls to orphanages to raise hoping to get a boy. The list goes on and on. The process depends on your state and the agency you go through. You need to have a passport because you have to go there to get the child. Some places like Russia and Korea don't let you adopt if you aren't married or if you are young. Others don't have that stipulation. It is very expensive to adopt internationally. You often times have to go twice to the country again it depends on the country.
As far as the ethical status of it depends on the agency and country. If I were to go I would go to China because I believe the children are really given up and not taken from their homes. Which has been an allegation in some of the countries

Still Me

Most orphanages, interestingly enough, do not place the children for adoption. That is because their funding comes from providing a place for these children to live and go to school. These are usually very separate from other orphanages who are connected to specific adoption agencies, or those that place children directly to adoptive parents. So when you Google "orphanages" most that appear will no be those that place children for adoption, but rather those that ask for donations to sponsor a chil to stay there. Beware: There are some organizations that are scams out for the money and do little to help children. Do your homework and research and proceed carefully.

The best way to find an orphanage that places children directly with an adoptive family, through an attorney, or also works with an agency, is to network with other adoptive families who have worked successfully with that orphanage.

Network online with other families by going to the adoption forums -- you can find many at abcadoptions.com, adoption.org, or adoptivefamilies.com. This will be you best and most reliable resource. Many South American countries have orphanages that work directly with families wanting to adopt. Good luck to you!

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