Gap-year mission to find baby orphans for France
kippah...@hotmail.com
July 29, 2008
Gap-year mission to find baby orphans for France
Adam Sage in Paris
From building homes in shanty towns to helping to save rainforests,
travelling to exotic locations for well-meaning projects has long been
a gap-year rite of passage for many a 19-year-old. This year French
volunteers have been set a more challenging task: to scour the world
for orphans for childless families in France.
The volunteers - described as a Gallic Peace Corps - will be asked to
put prospective parents in touch with abandoned children in Africa,
Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The government plan follows claims that France has been outflanked by
Spain, Italy and the United States in the fiercely competitive world
of international adoption.
However, critics question whether school and university leavers have
the experience or tact for what are likely to be highly delicate
missions.
“My qualm is that the legalities, moralities and ethics of inter-
country adoption are very complex, and students coming out of
university will not be prepared for that,” said Julia Fleming, of
Oasis, the UK overseas adoption support group.
Rama Yade, the French Under-Secretary for Human Rights, said yesterday
that the first group of volunteers would arrive in Cambodia next month
before being sent to 20 other countries over the next year.
They will be based at French embassies under a programme financed in
part by the Foreign Ministry and in part, Mrs Yade hopes, by private
donations. “They are going to use their talent and their generosity in
a fine cause with a mission to improve the access for children without
parents and to help them to get out of institutions as quickly as
possible.”
Ministers also hope that state intervention will curb the sort of
initiative that sparked outrage last year when six members of Zoe's
Ark, a small French charity, were arrested in Chad as they tried to
fly 103 children back to France. They said the children were orphans
from neighbouring Darfur. But it emerged that most were from Chad and
a few were not orphans. The case illustrated what critics say are the
risks of international adoption. “Everywhere there are unscrupulous
intermediaries ready to steal babies and sell them to people wanting a
child,” said Jean-Jacques Choulot, a paediatrician and author of the
French Guide to Adoption.
Mrs Yade said: “My aim is to put order back in all this.” Her
initiative follows the launch in 2005 of l'Agence Française de
l'Adoption, a government agency based on a model developed in
Scandinavia and Canada, meant to help couples in what is often an
administrative and human minefield.
But childless French families claim that they are still at a
disadvantage. A total of 30,000 families - mostly couples unable to
have children but also families with children and single people - have
been approved as adoptive parents by the authorities. With only about
800 French children adopted every year, most prospective parents look
abroad. Last year, however, 3,162 foreign children were adopted by
French families, a 20 per cent fall since 2006. French families say
they have been pushed to the back of the queue in former colonies such
as Vietnam and Mali because they do not have the diplomatic support or
financial clout of wealthy Americans.
J.
Are they going as missionaries, a sales force, or the heirs of 16th
century slavers? This seems to be directly at odds with the spirit of
the Hague Convention, if not its express terms. France is a
signatory, is it not?
J.
kippah...@hotmail.com
>
> Are they going as missionaries, a sales force, or the heirs of 16th
> century slavers?
I'm sure they'll be marketed as perfect little saviors.
> This seems to be directly at odds with the spirit of
> the Hague Convention, if not its express terms. France is a
> signatory, is it not?
>
Indeed it is.
This what Rama Yade said last year, after the Zoe's Ark embarrassment:
"I am aghast at the consequences for the children of the Zoe’s Ark
affair . . . . . .
. . . . . . I want to tell the countries kind enough to come here of
our absolute respect for the terms of the Hague Convention. For
France, international adoption can be envisaged only if there is no
national solution on the spot. And I shall go further: it’s because
she’s absolutely convinced that this is the way to respect the child’s
higher interest that France is giving the utmost support to developing
national solutions on the spot."
I guess this is her answer tol 'developing a national solution', but
it sounds deeply dodgy to me.
Send in a bunch of ingenue Pied Pipers and dress it up as Peace Corps
work.
Here's what she's saying now:
http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Rama-Yade-on-new-adoption-peace.html
Rama Yade on new adoption "peace corps"
Interview given by Mme Rama Yade, Minister of State responsible for
Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, to the "Aujourd’hui en France"
newspaper (excerpts)
Paris, 28 July 2008
Q. – Who are the international adoption volunteers?
THE MINISTER – It’s a type of French-style "Peace Corps" which I
propose to create to support our plan to boost international adoption.
Young French volunteers are going to be trained and sent abroad to
facilitate adoption by French families.
They are going to use their generosity and skills in the service of a
fine cause with the mission of facilitating the arrangements for the
adoption of children without parents and helping them get out of
institutions as quickly as possible. The volunteers will be based at
French embassies. The first will go to Phnom Penh in Cambodia this
August. (…)
Q. – Where are you going to find these volunteers?
THE MINISTER – I’m going to sign an agreement with the Association des
volontaires du progrès, a French secular organization which has been
involved in international voluntary service for 45 years. The young
people will be trained to work with the governments, families,
voluntary sector, etc. (…)
Every year in France, 3,000 to 4,000 children are adopted from abroad,
but with difficulty. Between 2006 and 2007, we recorded a fall of over
20% in international adoption in France, whereas for example in Italy
it has risen by 9%. This is because our system isn’t efficient enough.
It’s a cumbersome, complicated, pettifogging one, involving many
people, some more efficient than others. Because of this, the
families’ path to happiness becomes a veritable obstacle course. Hence
the individual initiatives, with at times abuses which can lead to
such extreme things as Zoe’s Ark. My aim is to restore order to all
that. To help French families and children find happiness. (…)./