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THINK FRESH - Seek Alliances -
Build Solidarity PUTTING WOMEN'S ISSUES ON THE
ADOPTION AGENDA This
page aims to promote gender- focused human rights issues and relevant
groups. Trans-national adoption
cannot be
viewed in isolation from a range of problematic economic, social and
cultural dynamics that are profoundly responsible for its
sustainability. The ability of trans-national adoption to offer one small solution to child poverty and homelessness is not in dispute. But the fact remains that it offers no means of prevention. Such adoptions are ultimately made possible by the severe neglect and lack of political will in governments and other bodies of power to put a range of support and protection mechanisms in place so that marginalised and economically disadvantaged families can remain bonded. In particular, new alliances in the existing adoption community need to be formed in order to support the efforts of marginalized mothers around the world who are fighting to keep their children within their families and communities. More attention also needs to be given to existing alternative care for homeless children and single mothers outside the state run systems of foster care programs and shelters such as in the form of non-profit projects. Sadly, many vulnerable women also lack awareness of what alternatives to child relinquishment might exist. This lack can be observed in an interview conducted by journalist V. Altman (1995) with P. Stephen, a Sri Lankan social worker who runs a project in Kandy, Sri Lanka for single women who want to keep their babies. According to Stephens, the women she’s met ‘feel they shouldn't have given up their child, they feel that women should know about support services so that those who want to keep their babies can come to such places’ (in Altman 1995: 18) . Combatting
coercive family separations and community
displacement is clearly a human rights agenda, but with women very
often right there on the frontline. Further
start up analysis on transnational adoption and feminist issues is
featured in: Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist
Voices for a New Generation, by Shamillah Wilson, Anasuya
Sengupta & Kristy Evans, eds (Zed Books and The Association for
Women's Rights in Development, 2005; $27.50 )
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Women's & Related Group Links ______________________________________ Association for Women International Development (AWID) - www.awid.org Community Health Education Society (CHES) and Indian NGOS - http://www.allforyouth.org/india.html ILO/IPEC- Mekong Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women - www.ilo.org The International
Coordination Office Human Trafficking - A Resource
for combatting trafficking! Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK) http://justicespeaking.wordpress.com
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Posting your activism ______________________________________ AVI wishes to begin to have stronger ties to groups working with women's and children's rights - if you would like your activist group to be supported here (must be related to women's rights, and particularly groups working with vulnerable women at risk of being separated from their children) please send an email and we begin collaborating and can also post your link here. Back to Adopted Vietnamese International
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