Different country, same problems

There is a very inspiring American family who live in Haiti called The Livesays.  They had a huge influence on us answering the call to move to Uganda.   They recently wrote an excellent blog post about orphanages. It always amazes me when I read their blog on how we grabble with so many of the same issues.  I suppose living in a country with people living in extreme poverty often produces similar issues - different country, same problems.  

Here is a section from the article however if you have time maybe try to read the entire article, it is very thought provoking and well worth reading.  You can read the post here.

"Hang around in Haiti or any other materially poor country for a while to observe the way a new orphanage works and you'll likely see some (or many) of these things happen:

• A beautiful new building starts out with fresh paint, full staff, many supplies, and a leader from the western church/group to oversee and administrate
• When birth families are interviewed and choose to place their kids, they make that decision assuming that their kids will have more food, more education, more opportunity
• Children lose the familiarity of their home, family, routine 
• Lack of cultural and language understanding means some children are taken from families that could have easily kept their children in their own care  - the orphanage fills to capacity quickly
• Money is raised to help feed and clothe and shelter poor "orphans" - Start-up costs are incredibly high
• Employees of orphanage struggle to see all that is being provided to kids that reside in orphanage and they find it unfair - they begin to steal supplies in order to provide the same for their own children a quarter of a mile away 
• A plan to keep things small is in place but pressure is great and requests to take more children come in every day
• Exceptions are made and more children are taken in
• Communication between the two cultures is difficult and frustrating for all parties involved
• Sexual abuse is a rampant problem in institutions where staff to child ratio is rarely adequate 
• Cultural norms are very different, the expat usually isn't aware of what goes on when he/she is not there  - let alone when he/she is there
• Pride "covers" the real issues from the donors, nobody tells the truth during the semi-annual report from the pulpit - the donor hears orphans are being helped and everything is great
• Expat in charge gets overwhelmed with so many cultural challenges and miscommunication and quits in the first couple of years
• A new leader arrives, the same pattern repeats itself
• The orphanage is turned over to a native "Pastor" - He starts out with the best of intentions
• No accountability system in place the Pastor receives money monthly to run the orphanage - culturally he is under tremendous pressure to share the money that he has coming in with his family and community - culturally he cannot NOT share it  
• Pastor begins to mismanage funds
• Conditions decline, children aren't fed well, staff doesn't always get paid and don't always show up, sexual abuse worsens, conditions are appalling 
• Church of North America with the best of intentions end up unintentionally funding the abuse and neglect of children"

Forced to wean

I'm having sleepness nights about some of the Ugandan women I am meeting.  It breaks my heart into a million pieces when I hear some of the stories they share about how people have tried to take their children away from them.  One lady told me that she was finally ordered to wean her baby and that they would be finally back in a month to take her child away for international adoption.  They gave her 30,000 shillings (£8/$12) to buy milk, but it wasn't obviously enough to feed her baby - formula is expensive here.  Thankfully we were able to help this mother but she was one of the so called lucky ones.  She had somebody to advocate for her and along with the Ugandan authorities help and support,  her child is now thankfully back with her, where the child belongs.  But my heart breaks for all the hidden women in slums who are now aching and in torment because their children are gone forever.

                                                                                                                              photographer unknown

As women, as mothers, as daughters, as sisters and as friends, let's advocate for other womens rights to parent their children.  Just because we are richer in resources, finances, education, access to information and support and just because we have politicians who will fight our corner and advocate for OUR best interests, does not mean we are entitled to the children of the poor.  I am hoping to see the day that women unite across borders, rich and poor to protect each others mothers right to love and raise their own children.

What about the widows?

I (Mark) have been really challenged this week. Friends who have brought this up had no idea that God and my own conscience were already doing overtime. I love being challenged and often speak up about what’s challenging me. I think that’s why people either love me or hate me. I’m not though in Uganda to win any popularity contest.

We throw around the word ‘orphan’ and highlight the scriptures where ‘orphans’ are mentioned ALL the time. I’m not even sure I agree with the UNICEF or even US State Department definitions of an orphan. Last week I was chastised by a much respected colleague for using the term ‘orphan’. She told me – “We don’t consider children who lose one or even two parents as orphans because our extended family step in and care for them. We would never stigmatise them by branding them as an “orphan” – it’s not a nice word in Uganda. My husband and I look after eight children, some have lost both parents, but I love and respect them too much to label them as ‘orphans’. My husband and I have stepped in, like hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, and are these children’s parents. I lost my mother when I was very young and brought up by a wonderful step mother – I was never branded an orphan. We have ‘vulnerable’ children in Uganda, some who have lost one or two parents but many vulnerable children also have both parents. Being a so called orphan does not automatically make you vulnerable. My single parent friends hate it when people call their children orphans... they are not, they are single parent families. Let’s not stigmatise and label our children by calling them ‘orphans’." Pretty strong stuff.

When we are liberal and vocal with figures such as “there are over two million orphans in Uganda” we might grab headlines and get the attention we want BUT I feel we are often disrespecting traditional Ugandan family structures and the thousands of wonderful Ugandans who care for children who they did not give birth to. In the case of my colleague she was adamant that the children she cares for do not need ‘saving’ by well meaning Westerners and should not be included in the statistics. Of course ‘on paper’ they ARE classed as orphans and included in the statistics - BUT let’s ensure that we represent the truth instead of using statistics to enhance our own ministries and voices. Children are NOT statistics and EACH child has his or her own story, past and future.

I wonder how children feel when they grow up when people refer to them as ‘orphans’? Also I know many people are stopping using these labels and I refer to Meintjes and Giese (2006) “The term AIDS orphan has been abandoned in OVC literature due to the fact that it promotes an undesirable stigma and stress by labelling children as well as misrepresented the orphan situation”.

I was speaking with a good friend of mine this week who told me a story about a friend of his who has an adoptive son. He took his adoptive son to a Christian conference which had a huge banner spread across the front of the church, ‘The least of these’, obviously referring to Matthew 25:40. The father was heartbroken and challenged when his son looked up and said, “Dad, is that what I am – the least?” Heart wrenching stuff and a reminder that children are much smarter than we think and should not be stigmatised with negative labels.

What about Widows?

Also, organisations and people get so ‘pumped up’ about ‘orphan care’ they often forget about widows. It’s interesting that the international adoption movement and ‘orphanage industry’ talk extensively about orphans but VERY few people talk about and helping widows. Frequently in Uganda when a mother has lost her husband people and organisations are quick to offer help, more often or not in the form of taking her children into care and even making them available for international adoption. How is that helping the Widow? How are we helping grieving widows by removing their children? How are we helping HIV+ widows by removing their HIV+ children when with a little help and support they could remain together and be healthy? Instead we remove the HIV+ child and often leave the mother to die. We see it all too often.

In what are called ‘orphan investigations’ to determine if a child is available for International adoption, these investigations rarely end up identifying that a mother or extended family member could support a child with some support. Of course when lawyers and orphanages do these ‘orphan investigations’ you know there is a conflict of interest and one the Ministry of Gender and First Lady are working hard to address. A child belongs to a family but often we forget the family.

One orphanage I visited in Kabale, were very proud of the fact they identified poor families in the community and offered a child a place in their children’s village. Most of the assessment team were very upset and there was a long discussion about why the donors of the orphanage were not willing to help the community. In the end I pointed out to the “orphanage” director that, after removing a child, the family are STILL POOR.  All they had actually achieved was splitting up a family, splitting up siblings and leaving a family not only in poverty but also, now in grief.

By having ‘orphan care’ ministries but disregarding both the widow and extended family, many ministries and churches are NOT fulfilling James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress”.  It appears that instead we might be visiting widows and taking their orphans.

Food for thought. I believe we must not only consider vulnerable children but also vulnerable mothers, fathers and communities.  God forgive our stigmatisation of children and disregard for widows.  

Sarah and Jane

We LOVE the work of Ekisa. They are an organsation based in Jinja, Uganda who help to care for children with special needs, they advocate for these children and look for families for them.

                                                                                                                         photo by McKenzie Baird

Their recent blog article shares the exciting news about one of their members of staff who has fallen in love with one of the children in their care and decided to make her a part of their family.  It is really inspiring and wonderful to hear about another Ugandan who is breaking the mould and proving that Ugandans will and do adopt.  You can read the article  here.

Double trouble!

The twins have now been home with their father for two and a months.  Here they are on the day we took them home.

 Last week our social worker and I went to visit them in school, to read their school reports and hear how they are settling in.  It was lovely reading their reports and seeing their beautiful drawings.

Each tribe in Uganda has specific names which are always given to twins at birth.  In the Bugandan tribe, the oldest female twin is always called Babirye and the youngest Nakato -  Emilly and Maria are no different.

It is always such a pleasure to witness how childrens speech often starts developing quickly after they are resettled.  In institutional care where they is rarely a consistent 1-1 interaction, often children are spoken to with one word commands eg jangu (come), sit (tuula) etc. I remember when my health visitor in Wales told me to keep talking to my children when they were babies, to describe what I was doing, what we were seeing etc because that is how they would learn to talk.  It seemed so strange, but obviously it worked!  She taught me that children only learn to talk by being talked to regularly.

The head teacher in the girls school is really pleased with their progress.  I am so pleased they are in such a safe, loving environment and that this school has proved to be such an excellent transition for them.

I don't know who to choose

My son Calebs first experience of Mothers Day in the UK was very hard.  We in the West like to go over the top with special days and it's a great way for some to make lots of money out of consumers.  But in the middle of all the razzamataz are ordinary mothers and children, some who are celebrating the day but for others they might be just holding their breath, trying to get through it and to survive.

For my two birth daughters, Mothers day is always a given.  It's easy and straight forward and it's written in deep cement in the foundations of our relationship.  However, for our son, especially in the early years, this day was fraught with difficulty.  Adopted children often "act out" on significant days, there is a lot of pain, grief and loss often caught up and disguised in other behaviours. Mothers Day more than any other day often brings up difficult emotions and prises open drawers where painful feelings and unanswered questions have often been stuffed away. 

After our first very difficult Mothers Day, I decided to approach the second year very differently. I used it as an  opportunity to talk about and celebrate his Ugandan mum who gave him life.  With children with no known birth history, it is very challenging when dealing with all the unknowns (are their mothers even alive/what were the reason she couldn't parent him? etc etc).  That year, I suggested to him to make her a card as well and to write anything he wished he could tell he if he had the chance.  Caleb made her this beautiful card wishing her happy Mothers Day, but also included a drawing of me, writing underneath "this is my Mum" or "this is my new mum" I can't remember which now.  

He then said "I don't know who too choose". I told him he didn't have to choose either of us, that he could have both of us.  I suggested we made the card into a little boat and that the next time Mark came to Uganda he could float it on Lake Victoria, that maybe somehow the boat might reach her.  He liked this idea a lot.

I wish I knew Calebs Ugandan mum.  I wish I knew if she was even still alive and I wish Caleb could have a relationship with her.  I wish I could ask her what happened all those years ago when our son was found and I wish I could have helped her to have kept her son, because she carried him and birthed him and God destined her to be his mother.  But instead, something did happen, probably a crisis and instead I became God choice number two for Calebs mother.  I know some people will read this comment and get angry, perhaps you even put a spiritual spin on your adoption, but the void is real and I don't think I can ever properly replace Calebs first mother, not 100%.

I read a book once and it said that most adopted children think about their birth mothers every day - every single day.  It was a revelation to me, and it was confirmed when I brought it up with my son years ago and he admitted it was true. I need, we need to give our children the safety to speak about the truth, without condemnation and without us all putting on the Disney spin. Our children are living with and often clutching onto many difficult and complex emotions and if we can't give them the space to be real, who can?

I treasure a small glass hand painted container with daffodils on that Caleb made me about 6 years ago.  He had made it in school as a Mothers day gift and he was distraught when he came home to give it to me and discovered that he had picked up the wrong one. The following day he came home happily and presented me with the proper one. It accidently broke last year and so is now glued together but it is one of my most treasured possessions.

Charity tug-of-war with children in the middle

I am VERY thankful to Alan Kiff at the REPLACE Campaign for taking the interim baseline study on institutional care in Uganda I'm working on and producing an excellent and thought provoking article below.  

Charity tug-of-war with children in the middle (by REPLACE Campaign)

The Ugandan government has commissioned an Alternative Care Task Force to review the current state of its childcare systems. This is the first time since childcare was decentralised to the districts in 1996 that we are starting to get a countrywide view of the situation. It will be the benchmark on which future development will be built.


The initial results reveal many disturbing issues. While the Ugandan government has taken this first step in developing an effective childcare system for its orphaned and vulnerable children, it will take a concerted effort by the government, civil society, faith-based organisations, the people of Uganda and the international community to continue and complete the transformation.  read more

Happy 2nd Birthday Malaika Babies Home

We went to Malaika Babies Homes 2nd birthday party yesterday.  It was wonderful to celebrate with everybody there and also to be reminded of the incredible work they have achieved in their first two years of operation.

Here are some of the facts they shared.

• 100 babies have been looked after
• Over 100 mothers have been supported and helped NOT to abandon their baby in the first place
• The average stay of a child in Malika is 4.5 months
• Within 48 hours of admission the social work team is out looking for the childrens families
• 66% have been successfully reunited back into their biological families and are thriving
• 4000 km is travelled every month by the social work team on their pre-resettlement visits to families
• 21 children have been adopted within Uganda

Lucy Buck shared about some of their future plans which involve setting up short term and long term fostering for the children in their care who can't be resettled but also who can't be adopted.  This is so needed because there are many children in institutional care in Uganda who live in "no mans land".  They live in a grey area, because the parent might have mental health or other issues that prevents them from giving good enough care to their child whichs prevent them from going home permanently.  These children shouldn't be serving a childhoods life sentence due to this fact, so it is exciting hearing about Childs i foundations fostering plans.  There are other organisations here who are also talking about doing this, so we are really excited to see how this concept develops within Uganda.  No child should ever be resigned to living a childhood sentencedd to institutional care.  

 Another future plan of Malikas is to establish a social work centre of excellence to help train other organisations social workers as well as keeping up their own social work teams knowledge, a place where ongoing training and sharing of information between different organisations can also take place.  Brilliant.

There were three fantastic speeches given yesterday and it was really inspiring to hear how Uganda wants to find Ugandan solutions for the Uganda problem of children in institutional care by

                                                                 James Baba - The Hon.Minister of Internal Affairs 

                                                                James Kabogozza - Assistant Commisioner for Children

                            

                                                                   Mark Riley - Alternative Care Consultant MGLSD

There were members of the police force, probabation services, Ministry of Gender, adoptive parents and other NGO's all represented.  It was wonderful to talk to passionate people who care about these children and are determined to find families for them.  Congratulations to Childs i foundation for being pioneers and forerunners in a movement which is going to change the landscape of institutional care in Uganda.

                         

 

For more information please visit Malikas Babies Home organisation Childs i foundation.

An Uncertain Journey

This is a trailer for a 20 minute film called "An Uncertain Journey"".  It was recently filmed in Uganda and is due to be premiered on the 29th-30th May at the "International Policy Conference on the African Child" in Ethiopia.

We are really looking forward to seeing the final film (it will also be available online) and hearing all about the conference. 

The Christian Alliance for Orphans

The annual "Christian Alliance for orphans" conference is nearly here.  Here is how they describe themselves -

"The Christian Alliance for Orphans’ annual Summit has become the national hub for what Christianity Today recently called, “the burgeoning Christian orphan care movement.” Summit VIII on May 3-4, 2012 at Saddleback Church in Southern California is expected to draw 1,800 to 2,000 pastors, grassroots advocates, organizational leaders and church ministry heads. Alongside more than eighty workshops, the unforgettable plenary sessions will include Francis Chan, Rick and Kay Warren, Crawford Lorritts, Dennis Rainey, Steven Curtis Chapman, and other global leaders. Summit inspires, equips and connects for adoption, foster care and global orphan ministry".

I would loved to have been able to attend this and to listen to the various speakers.  The "orphan" movement in some churches is HUGE at the moment, so it would have been interesting to see what is being shared and which "voices" are being represented.

A voice often missing from events like this is the internationally adopted adult.  Either because their voice is too painful and challenging for some to hear or because they will no longer choose to speak out when they have been rudely silenced and attacked previously for opening up their hearts and sharing their lives.  Who would want to share, when perhaps already wounded hearts might be further trampled into the mud? Sounds dramatic, but ask an internationally adopted adult about the reactions they have had when they have shared. I have been told, a lot of it is ugly.  I hope there are some brave adult adoptees there who are treated with kindness. 

Here is a quote from a recent article written by David Smolin.  If you want to, you can read the entire article here.

"I’m putting this out there as a challenge, ahead of Saddleback.  Prove me wrong.   At least teach (rather than ignore) the controversy on adoption and the Bible.   Include detailed and honest briefings on how Ethiopian children with intact families are being adopted as purported “orphans” into the United States.   Explain how adoption agencies have frightened and shamed families into silence about malnutrition and maltreatment in the orphanages in which they work.   Talk about the cases of children kidnapped from their families in Guatemala and then adopted into the United States, and the wider context which have put ethical and legal question marks around over twenty thousand Guatemalan adoptions.   Help participants understand the complexities of adoption from China, and the increasing evidence that orphanages have been buying babies since at least 2000.   Describe how American dollars have corrupted adoptions in country after country, and then explain why the adoption movement continues to resist enforceable limitations on the financial aspects of adoption.   Talk about the role of churches in manipulating, pressuring, coercing and forcing unwed mothers to give up their children during the baby scoop era and sometimes beyond:  and include some such mothers as speakers.   Include as speakers adoptees who are critical of adoption practices, and who explain from personal experience the identity, loss, and anger issues many of their fellow adoptees face". 

We are really hoping to hear exciting things from this conference and for the truth about "orphans" to be told.

Another Ugandan family adopts

The New Vision is one of Ugandas main newspapers.  Recently there was an article published about a family  who have adopted two children.  It's exciting that the media is starting to write more and more about adoption which is helping to normalize the process, to educate the local community and to challenge the myths that some people here believe about adoption.  You can read the article here. 

Older child adoption

It is a known fact that there are very few ethically available babies in Uganda to adopt.  Most children who need adoptive families in institutional care are the older children, special needs and sibling groups.  I am hearing more and more about people who are inter-country adopting older children here in Uganda. As somebody who has been walking this path for nearly 7 years, I would encourage you to perhaps pause before you proceed.

I once went to a seminar on how to help your traumatized adopted child.  The speaker spoke about older child adoption and likened it to an "extreme sport".  She wasn't been disrespectable but was trying to make the audience aware of what they were actually getting themselves involved in.  Older child adoption is generally not a walk in the park.  It will be highly likely that the older child will have attachment issues (which will probably never get fully resolved), educational difficulties, undiagnosed health issues and might have sadly, been abused.

As a parent of an older child you need to be dedicated, brave, strong and willing to sacrifice your life.  You need to be prepared that the child you think you are adopting, the child in the profile, probably will not be the child you end up parenting.  You need to remember that this is a responsibility until the child is 18 and they will be grafted into your family forever, whatever issues and challenges they bring with them.  This is a lifelong commitment and not just for Christmas!

I wish people had told me how difficult and traumatic our journey was going to be.  At least we could have been adequately prepared, but would I have listened back then, probably not:)  In hindsight I think it's better to be told the worst case scenario you might be faced with, so at least you can decide if that is something you could handle if it happened to you.

Older child adoption really is not for the faint hearted.  You have to be pretty tough to endure it.  A friend of mine was one of ten families who were internationally adopting at the same time.  They are now the only couple still married  four years later.  It's so sad, but international adoption can put a tremedous pressure on your family, so if your marriage isn't rock solid, maybe you should reconsider doing it.

I just read this article and it made me think about the realities of what children and their adoptive families go through.  Many people aren't adequately prepared and quite frankly probably shouldn't be approved to adopt.  It appears to be quite easy with some adoption agencies in America to get an approved home study, but perhaps they are passing families who just won't be able to cope with the pressures. Some families won't change and adapt for the internationally adopted child, they want the child to do all the changing and adapting and this is never going to work.  If you are going to do something as dramatic as transplanting a child from one country and culture to another,  don't you think its only fair that you both change and adapt?

Our lives have never been the same since we adopted our son.  We couldn't invite anybody over for dinner to our house for years and we had to live incredibly structured and predictable lives for a long time, because our son couldn't cope with any change at all. Our decision to adopt has also had an impact on the size of family because we have had to consider if we could all manage an extra child considering everyone’s needs.  
I recognise that there is a current hard sell in the Evangelical church to internationally adopt, but the truth is, it's a difficult journey and it really isn't for everybody. When people say if every Christian family adopted an "orphan" there would be no more orphans in the world this it is such a misleading statement.  Most people who internationally adopt, don't adopt "orphans", they adopt children who are often in the system due to poverty, lack of medical care, injustice, corruption and often because there is an international adoption programme in that particular babies home.  I think it would be more beneficial for the Christian church to consider promoting a movement to help strengthen families, communities, support organisations who are providing health care and social work to the poor and who are advocating for the rights of the vulnerable and exploited instead.

If you are considering internationally adopting an older child, I would  recommend that you speak to at least 4 or 5 families who have parented these children for at least 2 years.  Try and listen and REALLY listen.  Give them the freedom to share about the difficulties that they have experienced and try not to judge them, it's often a painful journey for all involved.

Another domestic adoption

It's so inspiring seeing the work that Childs i foundation are doing in promoting domestic adoption here in Uganda.  Here is a video of a recent adoption that took place from Malika Babies Home.



If you are looking at financially supporting a best practice, pioneering work which attempts to reunify abandoned babies with birth family and which also encourages domestic adoption, then please look no further than Malika Babies Home/Childs i foundation.  Your money will really make such a difference in Ugandans childrens and their families lives.

Interesting Presentation

Recently a very interesting presentation was given at the Annual Symposium of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) by David and Desiree Smolin.  This material might be challenging for some readers but we believe it is factual and truthful and needs to be shared.  You can access the powerpoint of their presentation by clicking on the link below and then clicking download.
"The Aftermath of Abusive Adoption Practices in the Live of Adoption Triad Members:  Responding to Adoption Triad Members Victimized by Abusive Adoption Practices"

Protecting from pursuing predators

I saw this powerful video clip recently and wanted to share it with you.  It's just under 4 minutes long and  if you can spare the time, it really is worth watching.

This video clip spoke to me about the predatory nature which often pursues vulnerable children here in Uganda.  It also spoke to me about how important parents are, in protecting their children from unnecessary harm.

Children without parental care are very vulnerable to being exploited, abused and trafficked.  Please support organisations which are encouraging family reunification and working towards domestic solutions.

A Childs Voice

A new organisation has recently been set up in Uganda called "A Childs Voice".  It is headed up by Freda Buza, a qualified lawyer and an inspiring and passionate Ugandan woman who used to work in the US Embassy issuing visas for international adoption.  After seeing the level of fraud and courruption in many of the cases brought before her, she decided to leave and set up a best practice child advocacy organisation.  A Childs Voice give excellent advice for anyone attempting to navigate the choppy waters of international adoption here in Uganda.

What we've been up to

Ssssssh, it's been awfully quiet on the blog recently! Mark and I have been so busy over the last few months, that we really haven't had the time needed to update the blog but also some of what we have been doing isn't something that we can blog about just yet.

Mark has been very busy in the different districts, meeting and training government officials on how to assess and audit child care institutions using the assessment toolkit he has developed. Over the last eight weeks, Mark and his colleagues from SUNRISE (Ministry of Gender Technical Support Organisation) have trained over 130 staff from 32 different districts. As a part of the process, they also individually assessed over 20 child care institutions and Mark has both amazing and unfortunately, disturbing stories about what goes on in some of them. Due to the fact that the results of the assessments have not yet been finalised and communicated to the right government departments Mark can't disclose what he has witnessed, but when the time is right he'll share what he can.

Since we last blogged, we are pleased to announce that we have resettled a further 3 children back with their families.  Here is a photo of  two of the children, twin girls who were resettled with their father.  They are now being looked after in a lovely daycare in the daytime, the first term having been paid for by some lovely American and Dutch families (huge thanks), while their father searches for more suitable employment.  We have managed to get him onto the CRANE "Children belong in Families" scheme, where he has recently been given an interest free loan and advice to set up a business.  We are hoping that he will be able to become self sustaining in the near future and look after his daughters independently.  It is our desire to economically and emotionally empower families to look after their children and don't want them to become dependent on us.  We are learning many lessons as we travel on this journey with these families.

We had a fantastic time when we visited Davin and his father a few days ago.  Davin was the first child we resettled nearly a year ago and they are both doing brilliantly.  Davins father is such an inspiration to us and has agreed to talk to other fathers who are in similar situations. I love this photo and it fills me with so much joy and reminds me of why we do what we do.

I have been doing some training with Viva (CRANE), training prospective Ugandan and a few ex pat families who are living in Uganda to prepare for adoption.  I am always inspired when I meet Ugandans adopting because they really are pioneering a movement which will open up wonderful homes to many children who really need them.  Ironically it is not easy to adopt here as a Ugandan.  You have to foster to adopt for 3 years before you are able to finalize the adoption and to even get most babies homes to agree to let you adopt in the first place is a challenge in itself.  The Ugandans are very gracious about Westerners who jet in and leave within weeks with a child. I wonder if us Westerners would be as gracious if it was the other way around.  Please keep praying and spreading the word.  Ugandans are and will adopt if given the chance.   

Useful links

The Hague Convention on International Adoption

UN Convention on the rights of the child

Survivors of Institutional Care in Australia

Deinstitutionalizing and transforming childrens services - A guide to good practice

We were very excited to recently hear about this new campaign.

 The REPLACE Campaign seeks to:

• highlight the harm being done to children by orphanages
• provide information about best-practice in child welfare
• promote initiatives that get children out of orphanages and into loving families
• highlight initiatives that help prevent families breaking down in the first place and to support children at risk of abandonment.

  To read more - here is their website.