Sadly as of August 6th 2010, the US has effectively closed the door to parents hoping to adopt from Nepal.
Reading the US's statement made me think about the problem of abandoned children in Nepal
In Nepal if a child is born out of wedlock and his mother feels it is best for someone else to parent him, he can not be adopted by anyone for 12 years in order to give the biological father a chance to claim the child. Often in these circumstances paperwork is fabricated to say that the child was found somewhere, a temple, a bridge, or a market and brought to the orphanage. That way the child can be adopted into a family without waiting 12 years. The vast majority of children who have been adopted internationally are "found abandoned" -- maybe it's true, maybe it's not.
Sadly, this robs children of their past, and of any information of their background outside of being Nepali (which is a very diverse country).
Worse still it opens wide the door for child trafficking. If a child is "abandoned", there's no way to prove that the parent (maybe a single, widowed or abandoned woman) hoped someone else would adopt her child --- or maybe that the child was taken from a some poor family under the guise that the child would get an education and return to help support the family someday.
The relinquishment/adoption laws in Nepal have to change. It is the only way that the children who are legitimate orphans can be adopted without allowing traffickers free reign. Allow women who do not have a husband to relinquish their children. Take DNA samples from both the parent and the child - prove that woman is the biological mother. Have a social worker interview the biological mother - make sure she is not being coerced into giving up her child. Take a second DNA sample along with a photo of the child giving the sample, right before the ministry gives it's final approval - make sure that no one has switched the child. (Sadly it has been done in other countries where there is a DNA requirement)
It's time to come to the 21st century Nepal. And it's time to do what is right for the most helpless of your citizens.
2 comments:
oh so true. i was a 2010 family. I am so angry at times! and overwhelmed with grief at other times, not just for me, but the children in Nepal. I feel so lost.
I couldn't agree more. Everyone loses in the current situation.
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