Child Adoption Network East Africa Announces First Domestic Adoption Conference

Child Adoption Network East Africa, which is made up of Child Survival Centre, Little Angels Network, Kenya Children’s Homes,
Kenyans for Kenyans Peace Initiative, Buckner Kenya, Kenya Society of Care Leavers (KESCA) and Child in Family Focus, Kenya is hosting its first ever domestic adoption conference November 21-22 in Nairobi, Kenya at the Hilton Hotel.

“The purpose of the conference is to create awareness and to demystify the misconceptions about local adoption, touch base with the Kenyan policy makers in order to streamline and provide workable solutions to encourage local adoptions such as the incorporation of kinship care in Children’s Act 2001 and the Children Adoption Regulations 2005, to reduce the number of children in Care Institutions and strengthen families after adoption.”

This is a good step forward, but it is important to note that powerful adoption industry players are part of this conference. Bucker Kenya is an arm of  the US Bucker International. Kenya Children’s Homes is a UK operation.Kenyans for Kenyans Peace Initiative does deal in international adoption as well as domestic and kinship care. Kenya Society of Care Leavers is a “grassroots youth empowerment movement that promotes the well-being of those who have spent time in institutions in Kenya by creating support groups for young people who have left orphanages in Kenya as well as educates children and youth still in orphanages about their rights”. Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) visited with them in the Way Forward Project. Child in Family Focus is a Christian Kenya-based group that is a “child-centric advocacy organization dedicated to engaging, enlightening and empowering families and children’s institutions for life changing outcomes. ”

 

The conference’s subthemes include  the following:

• “Best practice in domestic adoptions.
• Policy development in domestic adoptions.
• Sustainability of domestic adoptions.
• Children with special needs and domestic adoptions.
• Religion, culture and myths in relation with domestic adoptions.
• Relevance of the media in promoting domestic adoptions.
• Inter-country adoptions and its role in domestic adoption.”

To refresh your memory on The Way Forward Project, see our 2011 post here.

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