[Continued from HERE.]

Back to analysis and next steps...

Grains of learning and improvement from the M Fray can be harvested not just by Malawian law and adoption officials, but also by the international adoption community. Malawi is not the only place where “legal-style adoption is a foreign concept,” with systems flush with a different set of dynamics than the Amero-European norm. These factors do make children in countries like Malawi more vulnerable to traffickers and other nefarious characters.

The no-man’s land between our expectations/our system’s dictations and the day-to-day reality of a completely different approach seems to egg us into superimposing the shadow of capitulation and compliance on the other approach. But it is just a hologram... wave your hand through it... nothing there. Any compliance and capitulation are on the surface leaving the depths of things how they really are whether we like it or not. That means there is not much substantial protection for the children and families involved but rather a tremendous amount of space to manipulate both systems for those with such inclinations.

It’s a good time to do away with the no man’s land in international adoption. The world has “shrunk” and information about EVERYTHING is more readily available, including cultures and ideas different to our own, giving us the opportunity to learn from other systems instead of trying to control them. Old practices can and should evolve.

I have a few ideas that, while are not really earth shattering, could address some of the issues I feel have arose from the Fray.

Currently on the international level, orphans are defined as children who have lost one or more parent. Because of the hetero-sexual transmission of AIDS, a very high number of orphans in Malawi have no parents (technically referred to as “double orphans”... sorry, but I think that is salt-in-the-wound ridiculous.) Thisis an interesting web-site with information concerning orphans, specifically those created by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As we have seen, while extended families continue to try to take over child care when their family members die, the numbers are now so high families are simply saturated beyond their means. I think “double orphans” should be made the priority for international adoption.

I also believe that if extended families are actively involved in a “double orphan’s’” life, they should be allowed to be involved in the decision making process as much as possible, perhaps even to the point of open adoptions between extended and adoptive families, especially as the importance of the extended family in Malawi and other African nations can not be emphasized enough. Not only would this ensure that adopted children have a sense from where/who they come and help to preserve the extended family system where it is vital, but I think it would also create some very positive bridges between cultures that would foster cultural exchange and inhibit the spread of misinformation.

If there starts to be true understanding among people, the sky IS the limit for positive social change.


(Next blog: A few more ideas... and that’s IT!)