Last week I got to meet two dear blogging friends that happened to be visiting Guate City to see their baby girls. They are Pam and Brittney, they are really wonderful people, loving mommies, courageous women and a lot of other good virtues.
Lucky me, I got one of my labs at school cancelled and so I dropped by their hotel to chat a little and get to meet them in person after following their stories via blog.
I truly had a wonderful time with them and beautiful Kinsey (I LOVE her curly hair!).
I definitively would love to meet with them again in another visit and take them to really know GC at least :) and also I'll keep on praying so they are able to take their beautiful angels home to their forever families VERY VERY SOON!
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Guatemala: One Year Later
I found this publication from the JCICS that pretty much resumes everything that has been going on in adoptions in the country, I find it pretty accurate unfortunately, and makes me incredibly sad to say that the press is not showing this reality as much as they showed all of those stories of corruption and theft before the Convention started working. However, I personally find the newspaper Nuestro Diario as not the most professional of newspapers in the country and actually find odd that no other newspaper has published a big amount of stories about children being abandoned alarmingly by birthmothers. Are the authorities waiting for that to start happening? Why won't that really start doing their job and realizing that there are lots of people out there waiting and praying for a child to love and care for and just do something to take these children out of terrible places and placing them in a family? Why are other countries worrying for the sake of our children when they are not showing any concern?
Joint Council Position Paper
On January 1, 2008, under significant scrutiny and amidst allegations of corruption, child trafficking and unethical practices, Guatemala implemented the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Guatemala’s participation in the Convention was applauded by the many governments and NGOs who had insisted on changes to the practices in Guatemala and vigorously supported Guatemala’s participation in the Hague Convention. The implementation was seen by many as the answer to corruption and unethical practices.
Now, 12 months since its implementation, has the Convention truly been the answer? It appears that one year later there are more questions than answers, more needs than funds, and for the children in need of a family, more despair than hope.
Since the implementation of the Convention, Guatemala has in fact seen an end to allegations of ongoing corruption in inter-country adoption. Children now have strong protections against child trafficking. Birth families are free from the unethical practices of unscrupulous practitioners. And a Central Authority governing all adoptions has been established in Guatemala.
Over this past year, in addition to these protections, has the Convention’s implementation in Guatemala also served children? Has it enabled children living in institutions to find a family? Unfortunately the manner in which Guatemala implemented the Convention has not resulted in an ethical intercountry adoption system; it has resulted in no intercountry adoption system. The implementation of the Convention has indeed succeeded in adding protections. But it has also failed in its role to serve children. Despite an estimated 6,000 institutionalized children and few domestic adoptions, not one child has found a permanent family through the Convention.
When the Convention was implemented the law stated that the estimated 3,000 adoptions that had been initiated would be completed. One year and countless investigations by the PGN, MP, CNA and Guatemalan courts later, over 1,000 children have yet to have their adoptions completed. Joint Council supports efforts to ensure that each and every adoption is done in the best interest of the children, and recognizes that investigations are a part of that protection. But the cost should not be born by innocent children. Joint Council calls on the Guatemalan government to swiftly bring each pending adoption case to a final resolution and there by end the deprivations of institutionalization.
Protecting children and families from harm is one of the primary roles of the Guatemalan government and their efforts must be recognized and supported. However, much like the scrutiny and attention by the international community exposed the corruption of the prior system, this same community must now refocus their attention to bring to light Guatemala’s ineffective implementation of the Convention and its subsequent impact on institutionalized children and Guatemalan families.
As recently published by Nuestro Diario, a leading Guatemalan newspaper, children are being abandoned to the streets at an alarming rate. With few government institutions to provide care and the closure of many private institutions, some birthmothers are simply leaving their newly born children in trash dumps. Nuestro Diario reports that in Guatemala City alone, 91 children were found abandoned with 70 being new born infants. Twenty abandoned children in Guatemala City were found after they had already perished. What is being done to build a social service system which not only protects children from corruption but also from a tragic death?
The lack of services to children as a result of the poor implementation of the Convention has yet to be addressed by those who supported its premature implementation. With prior knowledge that Guatemala lacked the capacity to properly implement the Convention, why were alternative reforms not considered? Who will assist the Guatemalans in replacing what was the only effective means of finding families for children? Who will help preserve families? Who is building an effective and safe domestic adoption program? Again, one year later there are more questions than answers.
The reform of the previous adoption system and the implementation of the Convention required the collective efforts of many governments and NGOs, including the U.S. and European governments. Building an effective child protection system in Guatemala will necessitate another, similar effort. Given the many challenges the Guatemalan government and its children are facing, no one entity can accomplish this task alone. Joint Council calls on the U.S. and European governments along with UNICEF, the NGO community, and The Hague Permanent Bureau to provide the necessary technical and financial assistance needed to appropriately serve the children of Guatemala. After 12 months and little progress it is apparent that only a collaborative effort can create the full range of desired services.
The formation of a spectrum of services including Family Preservation, Kinship Care, Domestic Adoption and Intercountry Adoption is desperately needed to ensure that children retain their right to a family and are protected from the detrimental effects of institutionalization, or even an unnecessary death. Joint Council calls on all stakeholders who previously asked for reforms to move with speed in order to provide these much needed services.
Some efforts have already begun. UNICEF and the governments of Chile and Brazil have provided limited technical assistance, and USAID is planning two pilot programs focused on family services. These efforts represent a start to services but are clearly not enough. In the past 12 months less than 60 domestic adoptions have been completed. Zero intercountry adoptions have been initiated. And significant family preservation is only in the development stage. When a child protection system results in more children being abandoned and less children finding families, is it not obvious that more needs to be done?
It has been one year since the implementation of the Convention; the children of Guatemala await our answer.
Joint Council Position Paper
On January 1, 2008, under significant scrutiny and amidst allegations of corruption, child trafficking and unethical practices, Guatemala implemented the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Guatemala’s participation in the Convention was applauded by the many governments and NGOs who had insisted on changes to the practices in Guatemala and vigorously supported Guatemala’s participation in the Hague Convention. The implementation was seen by many as the answer to corruption and unethical practices.
Now, 12 months since its implementation, has the Convention truly been the answer? It appears that one year later there are more questions than answers, more needs than funds, and for the children in need of a family, more despair than hope.
Since the implementation of the Convention, Guatemala has in fact seen an end to allegations of ongoing corruption in inter-country adoption. Children now have strong protections against child trafficking. Birth families are free from the unethical practices of unscrupulous practitioners. And a Central Authority governing all adoptions has been established in Guatemala.
Over this past year, in addition to these protections, has the Convention’s implementation in Guatemala also served children? Has it enabled children living in institutions to find a family? Unfortunately the manner in which Guatemala implemented the Convention has not resulted in an ethical intercountry adoption system; it has resulted in no intercountry adoption system. The implementation of the Convention has indeed succeeded in adding protections. But it has also failed in its role to serve children. Despite an estimated 6,000 institutionalized children and few domestic adoptions, not one child has found a permanent family through the Convention.
When the Convention was implemented the law stated that the estimated 3,000 adoptions that had been initiated would be completed. One year and countless investigations by the PGN, MP, CNA and Guatemalan courts later, over 1,000 children have yet to have their adoptions completed. Joint Council supports efforts to ensure that each and every adoption is done in the best interest of the children, and recognizes that investigations are a part of that protection. But the cost should not be born by innocent children. Joint Council calls on the Guatemalan government to swiftly bring each pending adoption case to a final resolution and there by end the deprivations of institutionalization.
Protecting children and families from harm is one of the primary roles of the Guatemalan government and their efforts must be recognized and supported. However, much like the scrutiny and attention by the international community exposed the corruption of the prior system, this same community must now refocus their attention to bring to light Guatemala’s ineffective implementation of the Convention and its subsequent impact on institutionalized children and Guatemalan families.
As recently published by Nuestro Diario, a leading Guatemalan newspaper, children are being abandoned to the streets at an alarming rate. With few government institutions to provide care and the closure of many private institutions, some birthmothers are simply leaving their newly born children in trash dumps. Nuestro Diario reports that in Guatemala City alone, 91 children were found abandoned with 70 being new born infants. Twenty abandoned children in Guatemala City were found after they had already perished. What is being done to build a social service system which not only protects children from corruption but also from a tragic death?
The lack of services to children as a result of the poor implementation of the Convention has yet to be addressed by those who supported its premature implementation. With prior knowledge that Guatemala lacked the capacity to properly implement the Convention, why were alternative reforms not considered? Who will assist the Guatemalans in replacing what was the only effective means of finding families for children? Who will help preserve families? Who is building an effective and safe domestic adoption program? Again, one year later there are more questions than answers.
The reform of the previous adoption system and the implementation of the Convention required the collective efforts of many governments and NGOs, including the U.S. and European governments. Building an effective child protection system in Guatemala will necessitate another, similar effort. Given the many challenges the Guatemalan government and its children are facing, no one entity can accomplish this task alone. Joint Council calls on the U.S. and European governments along with UNICEF, the NGO community, and The Hague Permanent Bureau to provide the necessary technical and financial assistance needed to appropriately serve the children of Guatemala. After 12 months and little progress it is apparent that only a collaborative effort can create the full range of desired services.
The formation of a spectrum of services including Family Preservation, Kinship Care, Domestic Adoption and Intercountry Adoption is desperately needed to ensure that children retain their right to a family and are protected from the detrimental effects of institutionalization, or even an unnecessary death. Joint Council calls on all stakeholders who previously asked for reforms to move with speed in order to provide these much needed services.
Some efforts have already begun. UNICEF and the governments of Chile and Brazil have provided limited technical assistance, and USAID is planning two pilot programs focused on family services. These efforts represent a start to services but are clearly not enough. In the past 12 months less than 60 domestic adoptions have been completed. Zero intercountry adoptions have been initiated. And significant family preservation is only in the development stage. When a child protection system results in more children being abandoned and less children finding families, is it not obvious that more needs to be done?
It has been one year since the implementation of the Convention; the children of Guatemala await our answer.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
They Ask Protection for Over a 1000 Children
This article came to my sight today in one of the national newspapers (I am adding a link on the title so you can track it, though it is written in spanish), I translated it so here it goes:
I just think it is awful for these people to continue to manipulate children this way! How can they just keep doing this as if they didn't notice all of these terrible things happening, do they think that just because they are so young it doesn't affect them?? And how come they don't even know were children are located???? in the rest of cases I am almost a 100% sure that they HARDLY EVER check the orphanages.
I also found this other Registers:
The CNA requested the Children and Adolescents Courts protection for over 200 children whose adoption files were not presented during the verification process done by PGN. In the past few days 832 similar requirements were made.
Elizabeth de Larios, CNA's president, commented the institution's worry for the safety of these children, so they came to several courts.
There is total of 1032 children that were not presented to the authorities by the attorneys in charge of their cases in 2008, when it was required the presence of the child and the birth mother to prove their familiarity and the mother's desire to give her child for adoption.
The CNA is still evaluating another 122 cases before requiring the placing of the minors. Among other things they have to verify if there is any duplicity in these files registers.
The judges recieved the addresses contributed by the attorneys to locate the children, who might be in danger.
A co-chairwoman from PGN, Florencia de León, informed that her unit's registers say they identified 43 children that were not presented for the verification process, for 27 of these cases they opened a judicial file.
She assured that those minors are located in particular homes or with foster mothers.
She also exposed that they are a process to purify their information to stablish why there is so many difference among CNA's cases.
Yesterday, about 30 adoption cases were filed to PGN to be evaluated in order to their approval, they all correspond to previous requests from 2008.
Nidia Aguilar, from Child Defense, hopes this year adoptions will be fast forward, so the number of completed adoptions increases.
I just think it is awful for these people to continue to manipulate children this way! How can they just keep doing this as if they didn't notice all of these terrible things happening, do they think that just because they are so young it doesn't affect them?? And how come they don't even know were children are located???? in the rest of cases I am almost a 100% sure that they HARDLY EVER check the orphanages.
I also found this other Registers:
In PGN there are still authorizing cases under the old adoption law.
3,033 Children were registered in CNA in 2008.
1,403 adoption files were verified by CNA and PGN.
598 cases were approved before their verification.
1,032 children and birth mothers were not presented by the attorneys in charge of their cases.
932 files are still waiting for the attorneys to fulfill all the requirements from the old adoption law.
30 adoption cases were filed to PGN yesterday, to be checked, evaluated and authorized.
1,846 children have been institutionalized currently and are in need of protection.
1,259 adoptions were authorized by PGN between May 8th 08 and Jan. 27th 09.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The New Adoption Law has been working for a Year now
I read this in the newspaper today. It makes me sad these people are hardly doing a thing for thousands of children waiting in horrible orphanages for a family to love them, meanwhile they earn thousands of Quetzales and spend MILLIONS!
I will try to translate it just as is written in the paper, I also added a link so you can see it, it's written in spanish though. (I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistake.)
The New Adoption Law has been working for a Year
"Mery de Garcia it's about to close the Hogar she runs. She, along with some friends founded "Nuestra Señora de la Piedad" 10 years ago, but this year things have got so difficult they probably won't be able to continue. Only 2 of the 50 children she shelters were adopted, meanwhile the children grow up without a family. Today makes one year since the New Adoption Law started working and only a little over 50 children have been adopted with a budget that goes around Q. 10 million.
This years number is not even close to the one last year: 5 thousand adopted children. "That's because children's theft is over", says Elizabeth de Larios, CNA's president, "before they could get children to sell them and that doesn't happen anymore", explains. Nevertheless the orphanages are full. According to an adoption report from the Haye's mission in 2007, there are over 500 private orphanages in Guatemala, sheltering over 10 thousand children with no parents. CNA has other number: 136 orphanages. "Those are the ones registered in the SOSEP if there are more they must be clandestine", says De Larios."
We can't know an accurate number of private orphanages in Guatemala because the CNA still does not keep a record of them. The article 58 of the Adoption Law granted them a term of 30 days to check and authorize them. It was not fulfilled, none of them is registered. "We are on it" states Jaime Tecú from the CNA.
Also, they haven't finished the Adoption Regulation, that should have been finished at the longest of 60 after the new adoption law started working. "It's getting its last reviews. We have already sent one version to the president" says Tecú.
"The CNA doesn't want older children, I have children of 10, 11 and 14 year olds and I asked them if they could find a family for them, they didn't even answer my question." states García. "A guatemalan couple is not going to want an older child but an American couple would"." With this new law they just cut our wings to place them in a family in a foreign country" adds. García's orphanage kept working thanks to donations from foreign adoption agencies. "They would pay for legal things and sent us food" now they cannot relate to international adoptees.
Without showing up in the Congress
The congresswoman Annabella de León has stayed waiting three times for the CNA to arrive to the different citations she has set for them. There has been no way, previous commitments have stoped them. "We had a UNICEF workshop, it was impossible for us to show up, but we did excuse ourselves" said De Larios. De León hopes that during January they find a moment to visit her, "I want them to bring the vouchers from the representation expenses" she says. The CNA president earns Q.20 thousand every month that have not been justified infront of the congresswoman. De Larios requested an opinion from the National Accounting Controler about whether it was against the law for her to charge that amount of money and they said it was not.
"I think there are less than 54 children adopted, if they are saying the truth I want them to bring the files and prove it to me" says the congresswoman. There are 54 children living with their new parents, but only 27 have finalized their adoptions, the rest of them still have paperwork to do.
"Not one talks about the children that stayed with their parents, those are our biggest achievements" explains De Larios, "we got 28 mothers to keep their children, we have helped them with pshycologic help, you can't see that but it does count".
Yes, they might have got some parents to keep their children but what will happen when this families find themselves with not enough money to feed their children and have to find terrible ways to do it? Sending them to beg or work in the streets?
And what about the older children? they deserve a family too. Guatemala is not a country with a big adoption culture, it is just not near the minds of every guatemalan. And even if they were, most of the people are trying to keep their own families fed and safe under a decent house.
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