Number of Russian Orphans Down in the Past Two Years
“The number of orphan children in Russia went down to 93,000 in 2014 down from 119,000 orphans two years ago, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs Olga Golodets said Monday.
“When we began working on adoption, following the decree signed by the President in 2012, the adoption bank had 119,000 children. Today the number is 93,000,” Golodets said at the opening of the All-Russian Foster Families Forum.
“It is, of course, still too many for our country, but it is a big step forward,” she added.
According to Golodets, there are a number of challenges in significantly increasing number of adoptions for a certain category of children.
“I would like to recall several measures that were taken in regards to children, who faced more difficulty in being adopted or taken under guardianship. “This are foremost the children who are older, those who live in a big family in an orphanage, with lots of brothers and sisters among them, and those children, who have disabilities,” Golodets explained.
According to Russia’s Deputy Minister of Science and Education Veniamin Kaganov, government grants were awarded for the category of children, who faced particular difficulties in adoption.
“The government has increased grants and pensions for disabled children, including the families, who adopt disabled children, children over seven years of age, as well as their brothers and sisters,” he said.
Among the factors, which affect the adoption process, Kaganov assured that funds for upholding and assisting foster families, adoption agencies and guardianship trusts were allocated.
In January 2013, the Dima Yakovlev bill was implemented, imposing a ban on American nationals from adopting Russian children. Prior to this, the Russian authorities also banned countries that allowed same-sex unions from adopting children from Russia.”
Number of Orphans in Russia Drops by 26,000 in 2 Years: Minister[Ria Novosti 10/20/14]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
That’s wonderful news. It’s too bad for those written about in this article but it is at least a start. Still too bad they won’t let the 40 plus children that met families in 2012 and still haven’t managed to be adopted either by Russian citizens or other countries be adopted by the American families that met them. It would be nice if both countries could come to some sort of an agreement for those children. But neither side is willing to budge on this issue. They both play the blame game.
So hopefully the trend to help the children be adopted or put into foster homes in Russia continues and hopefully Russia gives them resources to deal with the disabilities and not just money. It’s not exactly easy to get around town in Russia in a wheelchair. I wonder if they have any plans on making living situations better for the citizens too?
One mom in Russia, who adopted a child in a wheelchair that an American family met and was supposed to adopt, had to beg for money to get a vehicle to take this newly adopted child to his appointments. Russian citizens stepped up and helped her do so and recently she just saved another special needs child from a horrible institution where the child looked like she was going to die any day. I hope the Russian citizens step up again and give her money to help her out since it seems the government is not giving her enough to actually take care of the special needs children and there are no government resources to help her out either.
Of course, if she becomes overwhelmed and has to return either child to the orphanage it will not make the news like it would if an American had done so. Those cases are only discussed about on private Russian adoption forums and unfortunately, the percentage is very high.
Seems like Russia and America aren’t so different from each other. Both have some serious adoption reform issues that need to be addressed.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/opinion/mazzarino-russia-orphans/index.html
Hi Katrina Morriss!
The welfare of Russian kids in Russian orphanages in Russia is an important issue — but also one that is WELL BEYOND the scope of the Dima Yakolev Law, aka law banning Americans from adopting Russian kids.
Fixing child welfare issues WITHIN Russia? Would need to be addressed by domestic legislation, i.e. not Dima Yakolev Law.
Russia is 100% correct to have SIGNIFICANT concerns regarding the welfare of RUssian kids adopted by US families — supposedly properly screened families, who FAR too often abuse, kill, rehome or simply abandon on the steps of a Russian orphanage when they tire of ’em.
In case anyone is interested in how educated Russian citizens feel about those in charge of their child welfare system. This journalist is trying to help changes things but still feels there were good American families that could have loved some of the children. Sending children to America does not fix the problem but there are many Russians who do not feel that the Dima Yakolev Law was in the best interested of the children.
http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/julia_kolesnikova/1434562-echo/
“Still, Mr. Commissioner regularly talks about the queue of potential Russian adopters, but somehow none of this mythical queue does not even come to look at Leroux, Kohl, Arina, Dima, and many others. And somehow in our orphanages is still about 100 thousand children. And their number, regardless of any statements by officials, not sharply reduced. For example, in the last year – the first year of the “law of Dima Yakovlev” – according to official data, it was possible to arrange in a family of 63 thousand children, but it was revealed 69,000 new orphans …”
Hi Katrina!
Yes, that’s a lovely article about adoption in russia & the kids families like yours wanted to adopt but weren’t allowed to due to the ban.
However, there’s still the little matter of what happens when adoptive US parents tire of their new Russian kids. Russia’s PISSED — with good reason!! — about crap like this:
http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2014/10/27/couple-wants-to-back-out-of-adoption-of-mentally-ill-russian-orphans/