Friday, January 11, 2008

WTF?



"Now, especially in the bigger and richer cities where abandonment has gradually decreased, more and more orphanage directors are sitting on rather empty buildings. They have no children to fill the poorly-planned and overly-large facilities. Their question is, “What would I do if no more children lived in my orphanage?” Not wanting to lose their jobs, and desiring to legitimize their existence and to showcase their accomplishments, more and more orphanage directors decide to keep a certain number of children in the orphanage. They don’t welcome foster care programs, and they don’t care about the international or domestic adoption program either.
What these directors need to hear and understand is: “No matter how beautiful your facility is, it is not a loving home where a child belongs.” But this is easy for us to say. For them, it is about their job, their livelihood, and their pride, no matter how hypocritical and selfish."

As a Mama with 4 beautiful children from China, I feel so deeply for the people who are waiting....and waiting....and waiting for their referrals. When I saw the above quote from the director of one of the agencies I used, I was so pissed off. What can we do? My oldest daughter, Frances was in one of the orphanages "showcased" in "The Dying Rooms," a 1996 documentary about the horrendous care in Chinese orphanages, including "dying rooms" where certain kids were left to die. MY FRANCES WAS THERE! I decided to write a letter to each of my kids' orphanage directors and describe what their lives are like in our family and include LOTS of pictures. It might do nothing but it will put an image in their minds that they can't deny.

4 comments:

"M2" said...

it's making me sick...

do you want to join our adoption asshat group? I think you'd like it.

"M2" said...

except for this week....we've been a tad whiny

crazylady said...

ah, the whole situation is a salt mine over a mammoth cut.
This is a very interesting perspective.

I can't imagine how raw the pain is after seeing the DyingRoom.

Snowflowers Mum said...

I wish more people put as much thought into it as you clearly have. I have a link to the dying rooms on my blog...just in case people don't understand that not all the orphanages are Love without Boundaries or Half the Sky sponsored ones. These things dont change overnight, we are shown only what they want us to see...and the SWI's that arent in the IA program...I can barely imagine.
166 adoptions from my daughters SWI in 2005 - zero in 2007 - can anyone explain that to me? The social shift would not be evident or detectable in such a large population for decades...something fishy is going on and it's not going to help the children.

Hayley
Mom to Piper
waiting to go get Paisley!