KBF Newsletter
Volume 9 Issue 2
July to December 2007
Inside this issue:
ADOPTION:
Opening Windows for Development
he 9th Global Consultation on Child Welfare Services was held from September 16-20, 2007 at the Taal Vista Hotel, Tagaytay City. The consultation is done every other year under the auspices of the Inter Country Adoption Board and the Association of Child Caring Agencies of the Philippines. The consultation was well attended by delegates from the Philippines as host country, as well as delegates from foreign associate countries such as the United States, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia, to name a few.
The consultation served as the means wherein foreign and local delegates aired their thoughts and shared their experiences on how best to address the needs of children around the world.
All speakers were able to contribute inputs that would help in arriving at a globally accepted process that would truly open the windows to development of the adoption system; that would ensure the protection of the adoptee while also addressing the rights and needs of the adopter; and, the speedy placement of a child to a “forever” family.
Ms. Susan Soonkeum Cox, Vice President, Public Policy & External Affairs, Holt International Children's Services, Inc., spoke on the need for collaborative endeavors. She recommended the serious consideration of an adult adoptee to be one of the members of the Inter Country Adoption Board.
It was a general consensus that the change from the judicial to the administrative process in the declaration of abandonment of a child to be adopted would decrease the delay in the adoption process.
Alternative measures geared towards addressing the needs of older children who are considered at high risk of not being adopted are the Summer Camp and Winter Camp Programs.
Dir. Rosario B. dela Rosa presented a paper on Independent Living and Educational Assistance (ILEA) which addresses the needs of children who were not adopted. This was pilot tested and now implemented by KBF. This aims at enabling children/youth who have not been adopted and have no relatives to return to, to face the future, capable of independently providing for themselves through further education. Without this program, in all probability, these youth would be forced to return to the streets.
Eva Cubacub and Connie Soberano, Inter-country Adoption social workers served as rapporteurs.
In summation, it is hoped that government, foreign adoptive agencies and local NGOs work more closely together to finally arrive at opening windows for development through adoption and other programs.