New Zealand Adoptee Finds Russian Birthparents

“An Auckland adoptee who tracked down his birth parents in Russia is now helping others do the same.

Alex Gilbert, 24, was adopted by his Kiwi parents from an orphanage in Arkhangelsk, Russia when he was 2.

In 2013, the Meadowbank resident managed to find his biological parents through social media and travelled to Russia to meet them.

Now Gilbert, who was raised in Whangarei, has started a project to help other adoptees track down their parents and revisit their birth country.

A group of 10 adoptees, most from Russia, met together at Cornwall Park on June 5 to share stories and discuss their search for their birth parents.

It’s the third meeting Gilbert has organised for the group and he hopes it will be the start of many around the country.

“It’s a way of people being able to meet each other and talk about their experiences,” he says.

“If it becomes big it could help many adoptees go back to their birth countries or meet their relatives or even just help the orphanages where they’re from.”

Most of the group was adopted from Russia by Kiwi families in the 90s.

Adoption between New Zealand and Russia is currently on hold as Russia has banned adoption from countries that allow single parents or same-sex marriage.

With only a few details about his birth parents, Gilbert managed to find his birth mother by tracing her through a community Facebook page.

Later that year he flew to Russia with a TVNZ film crew to visit her in person and also ended up spending time with his birth father.

“My birth father didn’t know about me so it was bit tricky for him but when I contacted him he was happy about it and very positive about it.”

Gilbert says he was overwhelmed to meet his biological parents and find out why he was put in an orphanage.

The production assistant at TV3 was eager to share his story so he created an online community to help other adoptees have the same experience as him.

The website includes stories from different adoptees and also information on how to find their biological families.

Gilbert has just launched a Russian version of the site and hopes the translations of the stories will attract more lost relatives.

Visit imadopted.org to find out more about the project.”

‘I’m Adopted’ project helps Kiwi adoptees find their Russian birth parents [Stuff 6/7/16 by Elesha Edmonds]

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