subject: The Adoption Debate: Export or Empower? [print this page] The Adoption Debate: Export or Empower? The Adoption Debate: Export or Empower?
by Amanda Christmann Larson
Director, Compassionate Journeys
www.compassionatejourneys.com
Everyone has an opinion on adoption these days. The Great Debate is not just a cerebral one; adoption is an emotional issue for everyone involved. While adoptions in Hague Convention regulated nations, such as China and Russia, remain steady or on a decline, adoptions in lesser-regulated (i.e. less expensive, less time-consuming) countries, such as developing nations in Africa and South America, are at an all-time high. At stake are the lives of thousands of orphans and poverty-stricken children and families. At risk are those same families, who are sometimes forced to give up their children because of lack of opportunity, food and basic needs.
I feel it is imperative to ask ourselves, What is the best long-term solution for these people? Is it really exporting children into wealthier countries?
Before anyone thinks I'm a hate monger and insensitive to the millions of children who die from hunger, slavery, disease and other horrendous conditions in developing countries each year, let it be said that I am a pending adoptive parent. I do not, for a minute, regret our decision to adopt, and I am proud of my family for our decision.
But if my adoptive child had the opportunity to attend a good school, eat three meals a day, have a safe place to sleep, have medical care, drink safe water and be provided for emotionally and financially, all while living with his birth mother, I would opt for that in a heartbeat.
One of the biggest issues in developing countries is the need for social reform. Empowering women through education and opportunity is key to solving the world orphan issue. Giving women resources to both provide for their children and teach their children to provide for themselves would be the ultimate panacea.
Instead, in many countries, widows and divorcees (often in this category not by choice) are left with nothing but their hungry children. They have no rights to property or to resources. Schools are inadequate, and often girls are left out of the educational equation so that they can care for siblings and older family members. In these same countries, rape is a fringe benefit of being a man. At the same time, one of the biggest "benefits" of being a woman is that prostitution is always an option when one can't feed her children or herself. The inequity is staggering and heartbreaking.
It is firmly my position that, while adoption provides hope and safety for a limited number of children, the bigger problem is the inequity and lack of opportunity, acceptance and empowerment of women. Until women in developing countries can have a powerful voice in their own lives, adoption is the equivalent of using a band-aid on a severed leg.
There are issues of child trafficking, inadequate regulation and cultural sensitivity issues that certainly fit into the adoption debate as well. But until we address the very issues that keep a society from raising its own children, we will not make a true difference in the lives of future generations.
If you would like to volunteer to teach women and girls, work in a maternity clinic, provide family planning counseling or any other project to empower women and girls or children, please visit www.compassionatejourneys.com or email info@compassionatejourneys.com. Together we can make a difference.
