Saturday, October 25, 2008

Guatemala recruiting adoptive parents internally

Good news -- another country working on increasing domestic adoption and foster care:
At church on Sundays, Juliana Tocay fibs and introduces 3-year-old Katerin as her daughter. The truth is too complicated to explain.Tocay is Katerin's foster mother, making her family part of a much-watched test of whether this Central American nation can take care of its own needy children.After essentially closing off the pipeline that sent nearly 5,000 children for adoptions in the U.S. last year, Guatemala has launched an ambitious campaign to recruit foster parents and even adoptive parents at home. Only a few dozen families are participating and, as Tocay's experience illustrates, it will be a tall order to change the culture of a country that typically views only biological children as true members of the family.

Sounds like it will be a hard road, but I think it's great that Guatemala is taking first steps. Click here to read more.

1 comment:

Jeff and Madeline said...

Great news. I know it is hard to change long held attitudes (we need to work on it here too in order to help children who are in and out of our system), but I see it as a very positive step in the right direction.