Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

Millville woman’s agonizing wait for adoption ends with happy homecoming
By EDWARD VAN EMBDEN
Press of Atlantic City
“Vietnam is a cautionary tale,” she said. “The parents, effectively, were told they should give up. In the end it might have been a test of wills.”
The legal battle has cost Sawyer, a single 25-year-old, nearly every cent she [...]

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 Vietnam police bust baby trafficking gang
(excerpt)
Vietnamese police have arrested four people this week for trafficking babies, including one yet to be born, for adoption inside the country or in China, authorities here said Wednesday.
Authorities believed the gang bought Vietnamese baby girls for $500 each and boys for $1,000 and sold them for about twice [...]

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The long awaited JCICS standards have been published and ASPs now have a short period of time in which to act as signatories or not.
 
What Is JCICS? In short, Join Council on International Children’s Services is a membership group for adoption service providers (adoption agencies), social services groups and other licensed non-profit advocacy groups. It [...]

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I liked that adopting from another country meant I wouldn’t have to worry about birth parents. Years ago when we first entered the world of international adoption, that was part of the appeal. Birth family complicated things, and I didn’t want to share my baby with anyone. We originally planned to adopt from China where [...]

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On Sunday night Dateline NBC’s feature, To Catch a Baby Broker profiled shocking cases of corruption in Guatemalan adoption. The cases of kidnapping, unreported medical issues and unavailable children being referred for adoption showed the worst kinds of adoption-related corruption. It would be easy to dismiss these reports as extremely rare and only happening in Guatemala. But [...]

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Dear Vietnam Adoption Community Members,
In November I attended the Joint Council on International Children’s Services’ Vietnam Summit. JCICS is the umbrella organization for many, but not all, adoption agencies facilitating international adoptions.
Ethica is also a member as an adoption advocacy organization.
The Summit was convened in order to address the increasingly problematic situation in Vietnam, which [...]

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When the US Embassy in HaNoi announced the new I600 procedures in late October, effective November 16, 2007, it created an unexpected and frustrating delay for many PAP’s who thought they were just weeks away from traveling to Vietnam to complete their adoption. To think you are nearly at the end of your wait and [...]

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During Assistant Secretary Harty’s recent trip to Vietnam, she gave an interview to the Vietnamese press. The text of this interview is posted on the embassy website. The following is an excerpt from her responses to questions about adoptions:
The agreement that we reached in 2005 is up for renewal, so I am here to begin [...]

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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 [...]

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This contribution is republished from the November 2007 Welcome House newsletter, with permission. Thank you, Leonette, for allowing us to share this wonderfully balanced insight into the state of adoption in Vietnam right now! ~ VVAI
By Leonette Boiarski, Welcome House® Director

Children at Nha Trang Orphanage.

In October, I had the pleasure of visiting Vietnam. Over the [...]

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