Halloween Was Last Week, But This Week There is Something Scarier-CCAI Has their Final Summit for The Way Forward Project

The US DOS announced the following on Friday November 4, 2011. See text at link  here.

“The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s The Way Forward Project Summit

On November 8, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver remarks at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) The Way Forward Project Summit at approximately 10:00 a.m. at the Department of State. Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs and Special Advisor for International Children’s Issues Ambassador Susan Jacobs will also participate in the Summit.

The Way Forward Project is an initiative led by CCAI to develop systems of care to help children and families. Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Karen Bass and Pastor Rick Warren are expected to attend the Summit. In addition, experts and policy leaders from six African nations – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda – are also participating.

The remarks will be open to credentialed members of the media in the Marshall Center East Auditorium. Due to additional security screening and limited space, media should arrive early to ensure access. Pre-set time for cameras: 9:00 a.m. from the 21st Street Lobby.
Final access time for journalists and still photographers: 9:45 a.m. from the 21st Street Lobby.”

The Way Forward Project has a website that decribes their summits here.

There are different working groups. The working group for international adoption can be viewed in this pdf.

The eleven participants include the usual suspects. Note that of the eleven, only TWO are from the sovereign nations that are party to these summits. Only ONE of those is employed by the government (Ghana coordinator from the Department of Social Welfare.) The Ethiopia participant is a researcher from a university.

(1) Helena Obeng Asamoah National Coordinator, Care Reform Initiative, Dept of Social welfare, Ghana

(2) Elizabeth Bartholet (Winner of Pound Pup Legacy 2011 Demon in Adoption, Mouth Piece category)

(3) Amanda Cox
Coordinator, Faith to Action Initiative
Better Care Network

(4)Randy Daniels
Vice President of Global Initiatives
Buckner International

(5) Jean Geran – Chair
Independent Consultant “Most recently, at Legatum Institute, she designed and launched a global advocacy effort called the EACH Campaign”

(6) Dana E. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Minnesota
(He is a member and works closely with many initiatives of JCICS)

(7) Tendai Masiriri
International Services Manager for Africa Programs
Bethany Christian Services International, Inc.

(8) Dr. Benyam D. Mezmur
Researcher, Community Law Centre
University of the Western Cape  (Ethiopia)

(9) Jini Roby, JD, MSW, MS
Associate Professor
School of Social Work, Brigham Young University

(10) Bep van Sloten
Consultant/Better Care Network The Netherlands
Consultancy & Training in Child Care and Child Protection

(11) Francesca Stuer
Technical Expert Alternative Child Care
Family Health International

Better Care Network

The Better Care Network is a mix of Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) and the Africa Bureau for Sustainable Development of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Save the Children UK.

Malawi

Besides Madonna’s adoption (we talk about broken promises here), Malawi is also famous for its high rate of trafficking. As of September 2011 Malawi has not yet passed anti-trafficking laws. Trafficking is still rampant. See this article.

Ghana

Just last month we mentioned the loopholes in adoption system in Ghana have created a trafficking environment. See our post here .

Ethiopia

We have extensively covered the ongoing issues in Ethiopia and some of this panel are part of those issues. See our posts here.

Kenya

JCICS was planting seeds in Kenya and Rwanda back in November 2007. See  here.

Rwanda

JCICS had a July 2008 Rwanda trip with the Saddleback church where Rick Warren is pastor. It is NOT a coincidence that he will be attending this charade of a “summit” this week. See here.

Uganda

We covered an important aspect of Uganda in this March post . The phrase that we quoted was Mopping With the Tap Open. A quote from that post that applies to ALL of these countries:

“The existence or nonexistence of International Adoption has no bearing on the countrywide outcome for kids. It is the existence or nonexistence of MONEY that has bearing on the countrywide outcome for kids. We, as rich Westerners, have the responsibility to ensure that the money is being used ethically to help support these people.”

Make no mistake–there are shoddy infrastructures for international adoption in all of these countries and trafficking proliferates. It is in the Adoption Industry’s interests to open these countries to mass adoptions since their trail of corruption has closed so many other countries. The politicians are on the Adoption Industry’s side.

Update: “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered remarks, as did Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Karen Bass and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church and author of the best selling book The Purpose Driven Life. The Summit was attended by the Ambassadors to the United States from Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Ghana and by 200 other experts from development, policy, and faith-based organizations working on issues affecting orphans and vulnerable children. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice L. Jacobs along with Special Advisor for International Children’s Issues Ambassador Susan Jacobs also attended. The Summit served as a capstone to the year-long project and aimed to bring the The Way Forward Project’s Working Groups’ findings to the attention of U.S. funders and policymakers with a vested interest in Africa.

Launched in November 2010, The Way Forward Project was a unique effort to bring together 45 African, U.S. and international child welfare policy experts, practitioners, and researchers to discuss opportunities and challenges facing governmental and non-governmental organization leaders in six African nations (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda) as they work to develop systems of care that serve children in and through families. Over the past year, these experts have been engaged in a joint learning process and will release a final report on their experiences, thoughts and collective findings.

“We were motivated to do this project by one factor alone,” said Kathleen Strottman, executive director of CCAI. “Despite decades full of scientific evidence that to thrive, children need love, attention and a secure attachment with an adult, the number of children living without these things continues to rise.”
    
The 200 page report to be released as part of the summit identifies a series of initiatives that are already underway in the six focus countries. Members of The Way Forward Project’s four Working Groups were asked to study these efforts, as well as bring to bear research and best practices from other countries that might be of use in moving ahead. At the core of the project was the finding that family-based care is the optimal environment for children and should therefore be the underlying goal for children who, because of things such as disease, war, violence and poverty find themselves living alone, on the streets or in institutions.

These sentiments were echoed by Senator Mary Landrieu, co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, “To achieve the goal of a family for every child will require the investment of us all. It is not something that any one person, organization or sector can do alone. And that is what is so exciting about efforts like The Way Forward Project, where doctors, lawyers, pastors, social workers, mothers, fathers and government leaders join hands and say, we are ready and willing to do our part to provide loving homes for children in need.”

“As we recognize November as National Adoption Month, I am pleased by the work that has already taken place to protect children on the ground in these six countries,” said U.S. Representative Karen Bass. “If further progress is to be achieved, global governments, community and church leaders must collectively pool our resources and develop a global strategy to support improving the policies that ensure welfare systems of nations around the world put children and their rights to a family first.”
      
“All I ever wanted was to love others, to be loved and feel a sense of belonging within a family,” said Nyanja Nzabamwita Brodin, a Rwandan orphan who also spent time in U.S. foster care. “It was not until I found those things with my own foster family that I could go on, develop and become a productive member of society. I am excited to see such a diverse group of experts come together to try and give that permanency to other children.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar, a leading advocate for children without families, said, “Minnesota is blessed with many families who have adopted orphaned children from around the globe,” said Klobuchar. “There are many more families who wish to do the same, and so many children are in need of loving homes. We must work together to make the international adoption process as efficient and family-friendly as possible while also providing strong safeguards to protect children.”

The Way Forward Project Charts Course for Children Living Without Families
[CCAI Press release published in Sacramento Bee 11/8/11 by CCAI]

We will post the 200 page document when it becomes available. Their description of this program reminds Rally of the failed FFOA legislation, except this is the executive branch way around trying to get that foolish, adoption-industry-centered bill passed.

Hillary Clintons remarks

Full text  here.

“Thank you. Thank you all very much. Well, I am absolutely delighted to be here for this really important summit and the work that we’re doing together. I want to thank Susan. She’s the first ever special advisor on international children’s issues here at the State Department. We are delighted that someone of her interest and energy would be the person to set the template for this important position.

And I want to thank Assistant Secretary Janice Jacobs. Janice Jacobs, Ambassador Jacobs, is responsible for Consular Affairs. And it was with Janice that she and I decided we needed to raise the emphasis on children worldwide. And Janice and Susan and their team in the Office of Children’s Issues are leading our engagement to help protect and care for children around the world who need loving, permanent homes. I’d also like to welcome the members of our diplomatic corps who are here, the nations that were named and others.

And it’s a particular privilege for me to welcome here to the State Department three women who have led efforts in Congress on behalf of adoption. Mary Landrieu, senator from Louisiana, has been an absolute stalwart advocate. Senator Amy Klobuchar, as well, has been standing up for children and fighting for children’s welfare, and Representative Karen Bass, who in the House has carried the torch high. These women are real champions for children. And I think every child needs at least one champion, and hopefully that champion is in his or her family or someone who they know, but if not, they have great champions in Mary and Amy and Karen. They’ve led the way in Congress to pass laws that support funding permanent homes for children in the United States and in countries around the world. And they are leaders in the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, of which I was also proud to be a member.

Now, we meet today because we all believe that every child deserves a safe, loving, permanent family of his or her own. That’s a basic human need. So this is an area where we can truly work together – our government, the non-profit sector, faith communities, the development community, state and local leaders, judges, businesses, and so much else.

As Susan said, I’ve worked on behalf of children’s issues for my entire adult life, dating back to my years in law school exploring legal protections for abused children, working for the Children’s Defense Fund to gather data to make the case that children with disabilities deserve to have an education, as the first lady of Arkansas, then the first lady of the United States, working to improve care, the foster care system, the adoption system. And as I was fortunate enough to travel around the world, I went to one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages in India – actually, I went to two, one in Delhi, one in Calcutta – and saw beautiful children reaching out their arms to be lifted up. I visited a state orphanage in Romania where a number of the children were visibly dying because they had contracted pediatric AIDS from blood transfusions, covered in tumors, malnourished, unable to get the care that they deserve to have as human beings.

And we know, not only from our own personal experience, how we feel when we see a child being abused or neglected or in some way denied the rights that children should have, but that is backed up by scientific and sociological studies going back more than 50 years. Consistently, the studies prove that children in residential institutions too often experience developmental delays, attachment disorders that obviously impact their ability to mature and their success later in life. One recent study showed that, on average, children reared in orphanages had IQs 20 points lower than those raised in foster care.

Now, over the past several years, many countries have taken steps to get children out of orphanages, off the streets, into kinship and community care situations. But UNICEF still estimates that there are at least 2 million children in orphanages around the world, and that is likely a vast underassessment. So there’s clearly more work for us to do.

What you’re doing today with The Way Forward Project is bringing policymakers, investors, and implementers together. And we are so proud to be partnering with Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda, and we applaud the leadership of those countries for putting your children first. We’re seeking ways to improve the full continuum of care for vulnerable children. For example, in Ethiopia, USAID is helping return 400 children from institutions to family care or foster care. We’re working with the Ethiopian Government to improve the oversight of all children in care. And the ideas discussed today, we hope, will turn these good ideas into policies. And I’m pleased that next month, USAID’s Secretariat for Orphans and Vulnerable Children will follow up on this event by hosting the first-ever Evidence Summit on Children Outside of Family Care.

Let’s improve coordination between different government programs. Let’s try to provide more support to families to be able to take in children who need kinship care. When separation is unavoidable, let’s promote early childhood development with local adoption foster care and, when desirable, inter-country adoption.

So let’s work together on this, because for me, there’s no higher priority. The work that I do every day as Secretary to try to make the world a more peaceful, stable, free place is really aimed at helping the next generation realize their God-given potential, and this is a big part of that.

So thank you for being here. I look forward to hearing the results of your work. And now, it’s my great pleasure to invite one of the co-chairs of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption here to the podium, Senator Mary Landrieu. (Applause.)”

The only nice thing I can say is that at least she admits that there are only 2 million children in orphanages-that truth doesn’t have as much marketing bang as the falsely advertised 147 million.

Update 2: CCAI has released the 193 page pdf. You should be asking yourself why the Adoption Institute is running this program that supposedly is for original family care. Download it form their home page November 10th Latest News on Left http://www.ccainstitute.org/

Some excerpts on statistics are as follows. REFORM Talk will provide full analysis soon.

Page 93 Uganda

In 1998, 2,882 children were living in 75 residential children institutions, and in 2001, 4,788 children were living in 88 residential children institutions. In 2009, government records indicated that there were 212 babies and child care institutions but only 32 of these were formally certified to operate. An assessment of babies and child care institutions in 2010 found that although many of the institutions claimed to take care of orphans, over 60% of the children in these institutions were not orphans, nor would their households be classified as vulnerable (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Uganda, 2010).”

Page 104: Malawi

Page 109: Rwanda
“Despite the challenges resulting from war and the 1994 genocide, HIV/AIDS, TB, and poverty in rural areas in particular, there are only 7,674 children currently living outside a family setting in Rwanda, which includes orphanages (3,830), centers for street children (1,070) and centers for disabled children (2,770). A de-institutionalization campaign is underway, aimed at restoring family links between children and their traceable families or relatives and finding alternative family care options for orphaned children. A national assessment of children in all orphanages is being conducted (Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, 2011).”

Page 114: Ghana

“According to Ghana’s written replies to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in 2006, the country had three state institutions and 41 private institutions. Other sources, however, mention over 100 private institutions, of which less than ten were registered until recently. The majority of institutionalized children in Ghana are aged ten or younger, and the average length of their stay is between ten and twelve years.

However, numerous problems linked to institutions have been identified, in particular: the stigmatization of children placed in care, the lack of stimulation of the children, the lack of supervision in the institutions, and the restriction on contact between the children and their families.

However, Ghana has taken many steps towards improving the care of children deprived of their families.

The country recently adopted a 2010-2012 National Plan of Action for orphaned and vulnerable children, which establishes the strategies and objectives for the prevention of family separation, the protection of children separated from their families, and the development of the State’s capacity and resources in this field. In particular, this plan aims to increase, by 60%, the number of children able to reintegrate into their family; to decrease, by 75%, the number of children placed in institutions; and to increase, by this same percentage, the rate of placement in foster care and double the number of adoptions of children aged five years and older. It also provides for the creation of a database designed to register and monitor every child placed in an institution, as well as for the training of staff and foster families and the development of guidelines for foster care placements.”

Kenya has introduced a cash transfer program for orphans and vulnerable children. The coverage of this program has risen from 500 households in 2004 to currently 102,000 households with 375,000 children.”

Page 120 “In 2005, nearly 26,000 children lived in 830 charitable children’s institutions.

• Some 300,000 children are estimated to be living and working on the streets (50% in Nairobi) (IRIN, 2007).

• Kenya is host to over 400,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia (UNHCR, 2011), many of who are likely to be children. In addition, the country contains some 300,000 internally displaced persons.”

Some of the children living in unregistered homes may have been en route to intercountry adoption, as 4,400 children were adopted out of Ethiopia in 2009 (Hague Convention website; U.S. State Department website).

In late 2010, the Ministry of Justice conducted another study of 107 child care institutions (both permanent care centers and transition homes) in six regions of the country—Amgara, Oromia, SNNPR, Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa City and Harar. The study revealed several concerns regarding care received in these institutions:

• There was no uniform system of for licensing or monitoring the institutions; 45% were unlicensed or their licenses had expired;

• Most did not have a reporting system in place or individual files on the children; in one region, 17 out of 78 institutions had no records for the children in their care.

These results spurred an urgent effort to initiate a deinstitutionalization process, targeting the closure of 45 of the institutions included in the study as soon as possible, accompanied with the individual assessment and placement of 900 children, preferably in family settings. There had been a positive precedent in Ethiopia of deinstitutionalizing 1,000 children who had lived up to 15 years in three institutions funded by Jerusalem Association of Children’s Homes (Mulgeta & Atnafou, 2000).”

REFORM Puzzle Pieces