The JCICS Summit
Dec 4th, 2007 by Christina
JCICS posted a summary of the November 28th summit on their website today. According to the summary:
Participants included representatives from 32 adoption service providers as well as child advocacy groups like Ethica, Inc., Equality for Adopted Children, and Deanna Carlson Stacy of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Representatives from the U .S. Department of State (DOS) included Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizen Services Michelle Bond, Julie Furuta-Toy and Gerry Fuller. Michael Valverde, Patrick Forrest, and Rima Sorges of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) also attended the Vietnam Summit.
… the presentations and dialogue amongst all participants focused on the development and approval of a communal Standards of
Practice agreement. To that end Joint Council presented and continues to develop a Standards of Practice agreement which will be signed by December 31, 2007 and implemented by June 30, 2008.
There are currently 42 American agencies licensed by the DIA to work in Vietnam… but only 32 attended the Summit. JCICS will not provide a list of those agencies who were in attendence, which means it’s up to us to ask our agencies if they were at the summit. Please, ask your agency if they attended, and if not - WHY. In addition, ask your agency if they will be signing the JCICS Standards of Practice agreement. For our part, we hope to see a copy of the Standards of Practice agreement posted publicly. We agree with JCICS that transparency is very important to ethical adoptions and we believe every prospective adopter should be aware of what these Standards are and how they will be enforced. Furthermore, for the good of all Vietnam adoptions, we hope every agency will adhere to both the letter and the intent of those Standards.
I’ll start the ball rolling with all the agencies I am *sure* of that attended:
VORF
Harrah’s
Hawaii International
Mandala
PLAN attended . . . .
Children’s Hope attended.
Worldwide Adoption Services (WAS) attended.
Holt attended.
Lutheran Social Service of MN (LSS MN) attended.
World Association of Children and Parents (WACAP) was there.
Dillon International was there.
Why wasn’t Vietnam in attendance?
While I’m really excited about the progress I feel like without VN we only solve part of the equation. Were they invited and declined to attend? Will the best practices feel like mandates to them instead of something collaborative? Just curious…
I believe the best practices are specifically for agencies, not for Vietnam or the MOU. But I agree, without Vietnam present it is only part of the picture. Especially since it was Vietnam, not us, that put the kabosh on adoptions last time!
Adoptions From The Heart was there.
Carolina Adoption Services (CAS) was there
IAAP was there.
Pearl S. Buck was there.
World Child was there.
FTIA attended
Adoption Center of Washington was there.
Adoption Center of Washington was there.
Goft of Love was NOT there.
Small world Adoption Foundation of Missouri attended.
Adoptions Together attended.
Crossroads was not - and I have an email in to them to try to understand why they weren’t… I’m so glad to see everyone working together to figure out the attendees - I’ve been anxious to know and am excited that it seems so much was covered.
Los Ninos International Adoption Center was NOT there.
Lutheran Social Service of NewEngland (LSSNE) attended.
Alliance for Children (AFC) attended.
Does anyone know if there is a way to get ahold of the DIA in Vietnam via email? Has anyone reached out to them before?
I have heard so much from the US side of things but I would be interested to know if the DIA would be willing to comment on how they are feeling about the state of things, the MOU and what they will choose to do with logged-in cases if it is not extented by the deadline in March. I imagine they might have some thoughts on that and from what I understand it will be their decision regarding what to do with adoption processing if the agreement expires on Sept 1st.
Anyone know if Florida Homes Studies or Commonwealth Adoptions was there?
I would be very interested to know this as well. Please let me know if you find out. My husband and I are waiting for a referral from Vietnam, and I have only recently become aware that I need to be very diligent to make sure things are above board. I want to be ethical and I’m a little overwhelmed about how to go about checking out my agency–especially since we are this far into our adoption. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Best regards.
Michelle,
I have wondered this exact same thing so many times, but I have no idea how to contact them. I would love to post something on my Answer Queen site, I think their input is as important, if not more so, than the US side of things.
Tracy
New Beginnings attended
Well, this looks like the DIA’s website, such as it is:
http://www.moj.gov.vn/moj1/mojwebs/GioiThieu_BTP/Cocautc_QLNN_CucCNQT.htm
It’s got phone numbers for Vu Duc Long (8231137) and Nguyen Cong Khanh (08048886), the head and vice-head of the dept, but no email.
I really wouldn’t suggest calling DIA officials… I think that could get misconstrued and I would worry that we might inadvertantly offend them or cause problems that could impact the whole program. I just really don’t think it’s proper for us to be contacting VN officials ourselves.
I agree it’s not a good idea to call the DIA, but I don’t think it would be a bad idea to get their side of all of this. Out of everyone that was invited to the Summitt meeting, I think it’s odd that the Vietnamese officials were not included (as far as we know, I would think the JCICS would have noted if they had been invited and failed to show up). The US Embassy, government and agencies all have their stories represented in one way or another (through statements, blogs, etc), but for all we know the Vietnamese would like the adoptive community to hear their side of this story. Anyway, I personally would LOVE to see a statement from them.
Tracy
(www.anti-rumorqueen.blogspot.com)
Hi Tracy: I agree with you. I wouldn’t want to call the DIA but it sure would be great to get their viewpoint. I just would not know how to go about doing that I guess. I did email Tad from adoption buzz to see if he had any insight. He has a lot of solid connections in VN. I haven’t heard back yet but I’m hoping he will post something soon about the MOU or anything else thing else he has heard from VN officials.
Also, It is sort of upsetting that the USCIS is not issueing any updates on the MOU discussions. If it has to be updated by March 1st. I imagine they have some sense of how things are going and in what direction they are moving in. I emailed them 3 times about this and never heard back - frustrating.
I also e-mailed several government offices about the MOU (one wrote me back but didn’t want his name/office used since he didn’t get permission to make an “official’ statement-I HATED posting something without a name attached, but I didn’t want to hold anything back either). Anway, I thought it was really interesting that Vietnam is the one that requires the MOU and he said they didn’t really know what will happen if it’s not renewed since it’s not a US requirement. I would love to hear any information you find out on the Vietnam side.
Tracy
I have been studying Hague for the last month, has anyone else being reading up on the subject. I am not so sure that there is the need for a MOU, I think that Hague will become the MOU. I have read up on the section on bi-lateral agreements, it states that an agreement is adviseable but not legally necessary. I think there are a number of legal loopholes where the US could continue to have an adoption agreement with Vietnam.
I do not know why the Vietnamese have not published an official fee structure for US adoptions, they had no problem publishing it for Ireland, France, Italy, Denmark.
Brendan
Really? They published a fee schedule for other countries but not the US - I did not know that. Interesting and confusing indeed.
Are those fee schedules for Ireland, France, Italy and Denmark availbable online anywhere?
The MOU is a Vietnamese requirement, not a US one at this time. I don’t know if they would accept the Hague instead of the MOU, but I don’t think the US gets to decide that, the Vietnamese do.
Tracy
Adoptions International was there !!