Circumventing Hague-Philippines Edition

The Hague Convention is such a joke. A really bad joke. Anytime an agency or country wants to circumvent it, they just set up a new program and give it a special name. Heart-tugging media campaigns come next. Then the waivers come and it is a veritable child collector free-for-all.

Two of the most basic needs for an ethical adoption program are that the child is legally available and that the parents have been vetted and trained. There is so much more needed, but the current system cannot even get these two things right. The desperation of the industry to squeeze every last dime out of placing kids regardless of how ill-prepared the parents are has never been so acute.

The latest “special program” is the “ambassador program” in the Philippines led by Holt. It does sound noble, doesn’t it? Ambassadors…

“Jenkins, through a new program with adoption agency Holt International, recently traveled to the Philippines as part of a team whose mission it was to meet and spend two weeks with young people in need of adoption.

“It’s the first time Holt has done the ambassador program,” Jenkins said. “Usually adoptions are approved by a home study, then by immigration, then you travel to the country and bring the child or children back to the states. But the ambassador program allows us to [circumvent Hague? ] interact with these kids, spend time with them in their culture and environment and come back to let families know about them individually.”

New Definition for Children in Need

In the effort to expand the adoption business, no longer are the needs just for orphaned kids or those in orphanages, but now this: ”  “Holt International is a Christian organization finding and supporting permanent, loving families for children who are orphaned, abandoned or separated from families, or at serious risk of separation.” Those at “serious” risk of separation now need new families?

Information to Market the Kids but Not to Prepare Them

The focus was to get personality details on the kids so they can market them (or possibly rule some out?) to church and civic groups.

“The group visited an old fort, an amusement park and a resort, giving the kids a chance to experience life outside the orphanage, and giving team members a glimpse at their individual personalities.”

“But families have to be suited to the kids as well. An older child isn’t ideal for every family to adopt. Jenkins said older children would do best with families who have parented before and families in which the adults share the interests of the children, for example sports, art or other activities.”
A home for the children
[Rome News-Tribune 8/21/11 by Severo Avila]

Why don’t they give the individual kids a “resume” of the potential adoptive parents so the child can choose the parent instead of the other way around?

REFORM Puzzle Piece