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me b zola

(19,053 posts) Tue Oct 6, 2015, 09:13 AM Oct 2015

Adoption or trafficking? Fears grow for Uganda's 'orphans'

Adoption or trafficking? Fears grow for Uganda's 'orphans'
By Amy Fallon
October 5, 2015 12:23 AM

Mpigi (Uganda) (AFP) - When Agatha Namusisi, 64, let her grandson leave Uganda for medical treatment abroad, she assumed he would return, but more than a year later she says he has disappeared.

"They are nowhere to be seen," Namusisi said of the seven-year-old boy and his Ugandan carer who travelled together to the United States in May last year, after an Arizona-based Christian charity arranged for surgery to correct his crippling spinal deformity.

The case is just one example of international adoption gone wrong through misunderstanding, negligence or even criminality, a trend that has Ugandan lawmakers worried, with a 400 percent increase in orphans going to the US alone between 2006 and 2013.

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"I signed papers I could not read, but I knew they were to help get this boy from here to America for treatment," said Namusisi.

In Uganda, there is no word for "adoption" in the Western sense, implying permanence. Rather, sending children abroad is seen as similar to enrolling them at boarding school or an apprenticeship.

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In May, Uganda's parliament debated the "dubious circumstances" in which "hundreds" of children leave the country despite an estimated 80 percent of so-called orphans having living relatives and the existence of a domestic adoption programme.

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In failing to properly scrutinise such agencies, "Americans adopting from Uganda are now complicit in corruption and unethical practices" said one children's rights activist.

~more @ link~
http://news.yahoo.com/adoption-trafficking-fears-grow-ugandas-orphans-042323746.html

I read a story a while ago about a couple who was going to adopt from Africa became suspicious of the officials handling the adoption and chose not to adopt. Ethics. Some people have them.

3 replies

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Adoption or trafficking? Fears grow for Uganda's 'orphans' (Original Post) me b zola Oct 2015 OP

Uganda has an extraordinary number of orphans, this is in part because they have a large number of Bluenorthwest Oct 2015 #1

RW "christian" groups and adoption agencies are exploiting the tragedy of AIDS to enrich themselves me b zola Oct 2015 #2

In Guatemala when the adoptions were cut off the orphanages suddenly had far fewer children in them. StevieM Oct 2015 #3

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)

1. Uganda has an extraordinary number of orphans, this is in part because they have a large number of

Reply to me b zola (Original post)

Tue Oct 6, 2015, 09:34 AM

Oct 2015

deaths from AIDS, over 60,000 a year. This is ten times the number of US deaths while Uganda has one tenth the population size.
One of the reasons that 7.2% of Ugandans live with HIV is that only 13% of Ugandans report having used a condom at least once. 44% of Uganda is Roman Catholic, and the Church forbids the use of condoms, even to protect from disease. The Church is also opposed to sexual health education and most poor Ugandans are deprived of knowledge that could easily save their lives.

Pope Francis came to our Congress and furrowed up his brow to express is 'concern for threats to the family'. I found that to be a gravely inappropriate line of criticism for him to take, considering the facts on the ground in Uganda and elsewhere. About 175 Ugandans will die from AIDS today. Today. About 3,300 Africans in general will die from it today, October 6, 2015.
Francis, he's got concerns for threats to the family. Uganda has more orphans than they can count.

me b zola

(19,053 posts)

2. RW "christian" groups and adoption agencies are exploiting the tragedy of AIDS to enrich themselves

Reply to Bluenorthwest (Reply #1)

Tue Oct 6, 2015, 10:16 AM

Oct 2015

And the Catholic Church has a long history in separating young children from their families. I agree with you about the lack of contraception and abortion, but this article really is about the exploitation of poor families for their children. The little boy featured in the article was living with his grandmother because the boy's father was struggling since the death of his wife to care for his special needs child. And the grandmother had no idea that her grandson would be lost forever.

Child advocates clearly see the practices of these "orphanages" and adoption agencies as exploitive and not operating in the child's best interest. Most of the people from the African nations truly believe that they are sending their child to the US to get treatment or education, they have no idea that their child/family member will have their name changed and will be lost to them forever.

StevieM

(10,500 posts)

3. In Guatemala when the adoptions were cut off the orphanages suddenly had far fewer children in them.

Reply to me b zola (Original post)

Thu Oct 8, 2015, 02:37 AM

Oct 2015

The American people have no idea what kind of tactics are used in order to procure international adoptions.

But organizations like this so-called charity know exactly what they are doing. And they are not going to stop.

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