Click here to go to the What to Do About Adoption Corruption: the Detailed List

1. Become educated about what's going on in IA in general.
   
   
   • Subscribe to news alerts like Google's News Alert for adoption related stories. Read the stories and share them with others.
   • As you read these stories, look to learn about the problems in individual countries, but also about the "big picture"-the patterns that repeat over and over again from country to country.
   • Form your own hypotheses, think through where you think the problems lie and what the solutions might be, discuss your ideas with others, network, decide where you can help, and then apply your own unique talents to being a part of the solution.
   • Track trends and events with respect to corruption and illegality'simpact on adoption. History often repeats itself.
   • Read Fleasbiting, a blog that tracks adoption corruption.
   • Read David Smolin's articles on adoption corruption.
   • Watch the US Federal Special Agent Richard Cross's presentation What Really Happened in Cambodia
   • Discuss with others. Right now discussions about adoption ethics are almost taboo. When conversations about adoption ethics become more common-place, improvements in adoption practice & ethics are sure to follow.
   
   
2. Research the adoption related laws and regulations of a few sending countries
   
   
   • No one knows everything about every country, so try to understand a couple of countries well.
   • If you KNOW the rules, you will be able to recognize when they are being followed or broken
   • Start with the country from which you adopted and pick one (or two) other countries, at least one of which is rumored to have "problems"
   • Understand the "ethical issues" and problems related to adoption in those countries
   • Research the history of adoption and its ethical issues (scandals, problems,etc) in the countries that you have chosen
   • Specifically monitor news alerts related to "your countries" by using Google's News Alert with the keywords "adoption," "child," and the name of the country whose system you are monitoring.
   • Discuss with others and share what you learn.
   
   
3. Do ongoing research to understand the cultural/economic/political, etc.context in which adoption from these countries takes place.
   
   
   • Work to understand the role of orphanages within these specific cultures. Do orphanages function as boarding schools for the poor, as temporary social safety nets for children whose families intend to continue to raise them, as repositories for abandoned children, as homes for true orphans, or ????? Do not assume that orphanages are the same kinds of institutions in every country and culture.
   • Build a broad understanding of the reasons why children are likely to be relinquished for adoption in these countries by beginning to understand the country's' culture, politics, economics, etc. especially as they relate to poverty, unwed pregnancy, the roles of women, class & family structure, customs related to childbearing & raising etc., etc. etc.
   • Understand what part adoption--domestic and international--plays for orphanages. What percentage of children are available for adoption? What percentage is placed domestically? What percentage of children are sent abroad? What is the incentive for sending children abroad? How does the fact that children are being sent abroad affect domestic adoption within the sending country?
   • Examine whether the true need for international placement of children has changed over time.
   • Find out all you can about how real orphanages function for children, not just orphanages that place children internationally, but other orphanages. What percentage of orphanages in these countries place children internationally? What is their reputation as compared to other orphanages?
   • Monitor news related to these concerns
   • Share what you learn with others
   
   
4. Keep tabs on whether your agency and the other adoption agencies practicing in the countries you have chosen, are abiding by the rules.
   
   
   • Network with others and together as AP's "police" the agencies that practice in a country.
   • Now that you know the laws of these countries, you can see whether the agencies in question are following these laws. (for example, if the country prohibits orphanage donations and an agency practicing there *requires* an orphanage donation...warning bells ought to go off. If the country puts a cap on foreign fees and the agency's foreign fees grossly exceed the cap on foreign fees, ditto. If agencies aren't allows to umbrella under the licensing of other agencies, but are doing so, ditto.)
   • File complaints with authorities (in both the sending and receiving countries)when agencies clearly do not follow applicable rules. If you don't know with whom to file complaints, get in touch with Ethica
   • After complaining to authorities, note the authorities' response or lack of response and the effect that it has on agencies changing their practices. This is instructive for understanding enforcement or the lack thereof. All the rules in the book do no good if they are not enforced.
   • Where there is a lack of will for enforcement, take your concerns to the next level above the negligent enforcers or think through what reforms or actions might lead to enforcement being taken seriously.
   • If an agency retaliates against you for complaining about them, report their retaliation to the authorities to which you complained.
   • Share with prospective adoptive parents the history of corruption within a specific country so that they can make wise choices. No one should be allowed to wander unaware into a country or situation where there have been serious past allegations of or convictions for adoption corruption or fraud
   
   
5. Be aware of the role that foreign fees and foreign orphanage donations play in incentivizing the corrupt sourcing of children for adoption.
   
   
   • Ask for accountings from agencies for foreign fees and donations. Foreign fees and donations are the grease and incentive for child trafficking. Make sure that agencies account for where the overseas money goes. You can do this whether you're done adopting or are just now adopting.
   • Along these lines, find out the foreign exchange rate between your own currency and the sending country's currency. Find out how much your foreign fee represents in terms of local sending country currency. Seek to understand local economics enough to understand the purchasing power/local economic value of this amount. Think about whether this amount of money is reasonable for a "foreign fee"or "donation" or whether it represents undue incentive to attract unethical people or make normally ethical people consider unethical behavior.
   • If the foreign fee or orphanage donation seems out-of-line, question the adoption agency about it. If the fee violates applicable laws o rprinciples, express your concerns, and ask for an explanation.
   • Do not be shy about questioning adoption agencies and authorities about their practices. Where there is honest behavior, questioning should not bring about defensiveness.
   • Ask your agency if the orphanages with which they work provide an accounting of how fees and donations are used. (We saw with the Galindo Cambodian case--see What Really Happened in Cambodia-- how easy it was to apparently pocket orphanage donations because there was NO accounting for this money.) Where does the money go? Is the agency reasonably sure that all of the fee/donation is being used as it ought to be used? If so, can they tell you what leads them to believe it is being used properly--what is the evidence that they see?
   • If possible, try to understand approximately how much money it takes to run a comparable institution in the sending country. Roughly calculate how much money the orphanage is receiving per year (based on the number of placements times the fee/donation). Look at the facility and the care provided, compare it to others, compare it to the amount of money that's flowing in. Does it look like the money is being spent where you are told it's being spent?
   • Network with others and share your concerns; keep in mind that sometimes all it takes to affect positive change is the knowledge that someone is watching and cares and will hold you accountable.
   
   
6. Hold non-profits and others accountable for how money is spent in the sending countries.
   
   
   • Hold non-profit adoption agencies accountable for how donations and money for "humanitarian projects" are spent. Demand an accounting.
   • Research sending country non-profit agencies' financial statements on-line and understand where the money from fees and donations goes. Ask about anything that doesn't make sense. A good resource for this research is Guidestar
   • "Donations" and money for "humanitarian projects" can represent sizeable amounts of money, especially after they are converted into foreign currency and understood in the context of the sending country. This money, when not used as reported can easily become the incentive for corrupt, fraudulant, and illegal adoption practices. (If you want to know how easily such donations are diverted and how no one is currently keeping track, watch the video, What Really Happened in Cambodia ) **KNOW WHERE THE MONEY GOES.** Hold agencies accountable.
   • If agencies claim to have a "humanitarian project," ask for an accounting of how funds are spent within that program. Ask specific questions until you understand how things work and where the money goes. If an agency has a "humanitarian feeding program" what does that mean? Does it mean that they hand out a dozen cupcakes to passersby on a deserted corner once a year or does it mean that theyhave an ongoing commitment to hand out 20 pound bags of vital protein like legumes to 100 impoverished and pre-qualified families on the first day of each month in such and such a village and they've been doing it for 10 years now? ASK FOR SPECIFIC DETAILS. Who can verify that this is so? The label "humanitarian project," should not be allowed to be a vague hiding place for the lack of accountability.
   • Is it legal for adoption agencies to give donations to orphanages? In some countries like India, the adoption laws SPECIFICALLY FORBID donations to orphanages from those placing children in adoption. Question agencies about practices that are clearly illegal and report them to the appropriate authorities.
   • Agencies have legitimate costs in doing business. Everyone understands this and no one should lose sight of that fact. However,agencies, as all businesses, must be held accountable for their handling of money. This is especially true in the international context where foreign exchange rates change large amounts of money into enormous fortunes and where the agency stands in the gap between enormous power and economic divides. Agencies MUST act responsibly.
   • Refuse to cooperate with illegal practices. Refuse to accept obviously bogus explanations. Where something looks and smells fishy, it often is. For example, when we are told as AP's that we must give a mandatory "voluntary" donations-come on, it's an oxymoron and yet we as AP's go along with such nonsense. When in doubt, go to the approprate NGO's or authorities and ask..does this seem a little fishy to you too.?...and push and talk and push until someone pays attention to you. We all have a responsibility to make adoption ethical by reporting those who disregard laws and regulations.
   
   
7. Encourage agencies to carefully vet and then hold their own foreign partners responsible for their actions.
   
   
   • Encourage agencies to carefully vet and then hold their own foreign partners responsible for their actions.
   • Demand accounting from agencies in terms of the practices of those with whom they partner. Agencies are paid to "vet" their overseas "partners" and orphanages. Orphanages, facilitators, lawyers, and operatives that routinely lie to adoptive parents and receiving country agencies ought to be held accountable for those lies (for example, seriously and purposefully under-aging older children is a chronic problem in some countries).
   • Agencies ought to be using good judgment in terms of choosing their foreign partners. They should not be partnering with overseas partners who have been seriously or repeatedly implicated for child trafficking, paperwork falsification, or other adoption related crimes. They should certainly not be partnering with those that have been found guilty of such crimes. Yet it happens time and time and time again. Hold agencies accountable for their actions and their partnerships. Don't accept weak arguments for the status quo when the status quo isn't good enough. Placing children is a serious responsibility that should be taken seriously if families and children are to be safeguarded from trafficking and fraud.
   • An agency should not be giving weak excuses for lack of information about children. There are few countries where the kind of money being poured into foreign adoption can't buy decent and reliable medical evaluations or where AP's can't purchase reliable evaluations. If medical reports from an orphanage are routinely wrong, agencies need to hold their foreign partners responsible and demand accuracy as a condition an of ongoing professional relationship. Agencies are allowed to get away with too much in this regard.
   • Agencies need to hold foreign partners responsible for the way in which children come into care at the orphanage. It is their business to know if orphanages use scouts and monetary incentives to procure children. And it is their responsibility to REFUSE to partner with foreign partners that employ these methods. If it is truly that HARD to find adoptable children in a given country, then AP's ought to be questioning whether IA should really be being practiced there.
   • Agencies need to hold foreign partners responsible in regard to the accuracy of relinquishment documents and the child's identity. Agencies need to make sure that the foreign partner understands that the papers that connect the child to his original parents will someday be valuable to the adoptee and that the orphanage/facilitator/lawyer has the responsibility to maintain truthful and accurate records to this end. This is simply in accord with basic human rights. No human being's identity should be scrambled. No human being's birth identity should be disrespected as so unimportant that it shouldn't be bothered to be preserved. Children ARE human beings not commodities.
   
   
8. Track current agency practice to understand the bigger picture.
   
   
   • Join online groups like Adoption_Agency_Research and learn and participate.
   • Contribute whatever you can according to your own experiences.
   • The best way to continue to support bad agency practice is to keep your mouth shut about the corruption, fraud, and bad adoption practices that you yourself experienced. The best way to support better agency practice is to SHARE YOUR BAD EXPERIENCES with others. Silence is the absolute best friend of corruption, fraud,and bad adoption practice.
   • Membership in groups like AAR is useful not just in terms of learning about agencies, but in learning about the realities of current adoption practice.
   • Note the lacks and loopholes in adoption law and enforcement as you see how real life adoption practice plays out in the lives of real people.
   • Note who the especially problematic actors are and how they freely they appear, disappear, and then reappear in one agency and then another.
   • Note also how ineffective the laws, enforcement, and oversight are as you watch the very, very few agencies and actors who are finally disciplined by government or voluntary bodies simply show up in another jurisdiction or another agency reincarnation to continue freely to do whatever they do.
   • Note also the lack of real recourse that adoptive parents have with agencies.What would make this situation better?
   • Now imagine this lack of laws, lack of enforcement, and lack of recourse and power multiplied a hundredfold in the case of impoverished first families dealing with corrupt sending country operatives and governments. What would make this situation better?
   
   
9. Find ways to make a difference in terms of the root causes of the "need" for adoption.
   
   
   • Find ways to address the contextual root causes of relinquishment, abandonment, and the questionable or illegal sourcing of children in these countries. This could be through sponsoring a family, sponsoring a child, supporting education, supporting an organization that offers education, supporting an organization that empowers local women, or whatever... It could be through urging your government or charities to address issues that you've become aware of; it could be through education of others as to the complexities of issues within countries, or many other things--whatever.
   • Understand the domestic adoption laws of the sending country and the hindrances to domestic adoption placement within the sending country.
   • Determine how international adoption affects domestic adoption practices within the sending country. Do large amounts of foreign money pumped into the system from abroad create incentives to send children abroad rather than place them domestically?
   • Are there other viable options for allowing relinquished/abandoned children to remain in-country and get the training/education they need for adult life? How should the various options for children be weighed in decision making? Are children always better off with a family (as the adoption industry claims) even if being with that family means changing languages, changing cultures, changing countries, changing heritage groups, changing educational expectations, and being interracially adopted? If you think these other options have merit, support viable options for helping children already separated from their family of origin, especially older children, remain in their country of birth.
   • Realistically speaking, international adoption touches only a tiny fraction of the children who have been separated (for whatever reason) from their family of origin. It will never be a solution for all children or even a sizeable portion of the children in any given country. Supporting other in-country solutions for both children who are vulnerable to separation from families of origin (family preservation/prevention strategies) and who have already been separated from their families of origin (solutions other than IA) makes compassionate humanitarian sense.
   
   
10. Educate yourself on the adoption related laws and regulations of your own country.
    
    
    • As you educate yourself, take note of the way that the federal, the state (or regional) and the local laws interact.
    • Note where your own country's laws are weak; discuss these weaknesses with other AP's. Lobby your government to strengthen these weaknesses, and energize other AP's to care. Just make sure you understand the broader repercussions of anything you push for before you push.
    • When you see your government taking a stand for higher ethical standards in adoption, be sure to praise those officials for their principled stand; when your government fails to take a stand, make sure they know you aren't pleased. Above all make it clear to your government that adoptive parents and adoptees CARE about ethics in adoption-that the ends do NOT justify the means, that AP's desire to parent does not trump the human rights of others.
    • Seek to understand how the laws of your country intersect with the laws of the receiving countries you have decided to monitor.
    
    
11. Research the adoption practices of other receiving countries as a way of understanding your own country's practices. In what ways do other receiving countries "do it better" or worse?
    
    
    • In what ways do other receiving countries "do it better" or not as well?
    
    
12. Educate yourself on the international documents that are applicable to international adoption.
    
    
    • The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
    • The Convention on the Rights of the Child Optional Protocol (Sale of Children)
    • Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption
    • Human Rights documents, including the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress,and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
    • Educate others in the adoption community and in the general community about what these documents say about human rights and adoption, including the fact that they state a hierarchy of care for children.
    • Lobby for laws and enforcement that takes these human rights documents seriously.
    
    
13. During adoption crises, avoid the temptation to work against investigations, enforcement, and reforms.
    
    
    • When the governments involved become convinced that there are illegal practices and slow or stop adoptions from a country, resist the temptation to push the governments to keep countries open to adoption.
    • Instead, figuratively hold the adoptive parents' hands and offer support that makes it clear that governments must be allowed to do what is necessary to stop corruption.
    • Get involved in helping safeguard the immediate welfare of children caught up in these scandals.
    • Receiving country governments are often forced to turn a blind eye and disregard blatant problems because AP's push their governments so hard in order to keep the flow of children going. In turn, these governments put pressure on foreign governments to keep children flowing freely. As a result, clean-ups are rarely followed through on. Everything is swept under the rug and the children keep coming no matter what.
    • Governments have learned from past experience not to investigate adoption illegalities except in extreme cases where the embarrassment to not investigate exceeds the grumbling of the adoptive parents when they do investigate-which means hardly anything is investigated except in cases where adoptive parents lose money. This means that adoptive parents always ensure that it is open season for illegalities in adoption.
    
    
14. Work to mature the way adoption is understood in our society
    
    
    • Much of our inability to believe adoption corruption exists begins with our society's simplistic, adoptive parent centered, and mythic understanding of adoption. Adoption is mythically considered an always and absolute good. When adoption comes to be seen in more mature, realistic, and balanced ways, our society will start to realize that adoption, like almost everything else in life, can be used for good or ill (to help or to exploit and harm). Adoption is a good only when used and practiced responsibly with an understanding of what it is and what is it is not; the good that it can be, but also the real inherent losses that it causes and the evil that it can become when allowed to be used for selfish or monetary ends.
    • As in all things, educating yourself is first. Seek to understand adoption as an elephant surrounded by blind men. Our society believes and acts as if the only valid perspective on adoption comes from the blind man standing in the position of adoptive parent. That blind man is given a megaphone and all others (very valid others who stand around the majority of the elephant) who have different perspectives are ignored, greeted with skepticism, and/or silenced. Learn to see adoption from the perspective of other blindmen-adoptees, birth families, those hurt by adoption, the big picture, the historical perspective, etc.
    • If you are an tranracial triad member, join the online adoption support list, International Adopt Talkand encourage others to join; listen and learn. there. Be willing to change and mature your perspective.
    • Read adoptee memoirs, blogs, and stories.
    • Read books on adoption history and practice.
    • Read criticisms of intercountry adoption including those that see intercountry adoption as a continuation of neocolonial practices and an outgrowth of the evils of globalism; seek to understand the racial aspects and the first world/third world power inequities of intercountry adoption. Seek to understand these arguments.
    • Read first mother and first family blogs, accounts, and stories.
    • Seek out stories that show other sides of adoption
    • From all of these form a more realistic understanding of adoption.
    • Remember this: It is always easy to recognize the injustices of another time and place; the hard thing is to recognize the injustices of your own time and place. In every time and place where injustice has been condoned/ignored/allowed to thrive by society there has been a worldview and a simplistic uni-blind-man mythology that makes injustice look just, especially for those who benefit from it. It is easy to shift blame, make problems into non-problems, injustices into non-issues, and ignore massive problems. It is harder to take a stand against the zeitgeist and be a flea or a lion biting against injustice. Reform begins with understanding the view from somewhere other than society's single approved blind man. It starts when people begin to recognize that there are other human beings involved---people as human as themselves. People who have the same emotions, the same hopes, and the same dreams--and who feel pain in the same way and for the same reasons as they themselves--when we start to care about the way the world looks from the perspective of those other equally human beings. Not just the way WE think the world looks from their perspective (in our minds), but the way it IS from their experience and perspective. When we GIVE THEM VOICE and LISTEN TO THEM.
    • Whenever you see adoption being portrayed in a simplistic, AP centered, uni-perspective, mythic sort of way, speak up and share a different perspective.
    
    
15. Speak up.
    
    
    • Be the voice crying in the wilderness or a flea on the adoption support groups of which you are a member
    • Write letters to the editor
    • Write articles
    • Talk about what you've learned to friends, neighbors, acquaintances, etc. especially those who are contemplating adoption.
    
    
16. Speak to prospective adoptive parent formally and informally to help them understand adoption from other perspectives, to help them understand adoption corruption, and to help them find ethical agencies.
    
    
    • David K's: Adoption Agency Checklist is a good place to start
    • Encourage PAP's to join Adoption Agency Research
    • Don't let PAP's wander into danger with their rose-colored glasses on. Do your best to show them a more balanced, more mature view of adoption. Do your best to warn them of the problems in the country from which they intend to adopt. Warn them to avoid countries where corruption problems are rampant or those countries where problems are "coming to a head."
    • Commit yourself to PAP education more broadly. Be patient. Remember the goal. Be persist and be kind. Remember yourself when you were a PAP.
    
    
17. Tell, and encourage others to tell, the "bad" adoption stories. Read the bad adoption stories yourself.
    
    
    • If you have you have been a victim of adoption fraud or corruption, don't be silent. Tell your story.
    • If those further along on the path had told you, you might have been spared the bad experience. How can you be silent and know that your silence will cause other AP's and PAP's to fail to be warned and likewise be hurt? How can you be silent knowing that your silence will cause other children and first families to be hurt?
    • Change will come ONLY if we care enough to share. Keeping bad deeds secret only causes more people to suffer and delays needed reforms.
    • Allow your own story to become a part of the public record in a way that allows corruption to be documented.
    • Encourage others to tell their stories and encourage them to allow their stories to be documented in the public record.
    • DO file complaints with officials if you have been a victim ofadoption fraud or corruption. Persist when such complaints appear to disappear into nothingness and you are not even given the minimal courtesy of the acknowledgement of their receipt.
    • Think about what your case would be if the word "adoption" were not attached to it to launder the crimes. Personally accord it the same appropriate level of seriousness.
    • Think about the relative importance of your case if everyone involved were white home-grown, middle class compatriots. Appropriately accord it the same level of seriousness.
    • "You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation." -Marian Wright Edelman. Be a flea biting.
    • Do something. All it takes for injustice to flourish is for good people to sit by and do nothing.
    
    
18. Pool your resources and use your unique talents.
    
    
    • Support organizations like Ethica with your donations and your time and talents.
    • Attempt to interest already existing organizations in working on aspects of adoption corruption. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, women's groups, human rights groups, those against globalization, etc. as you see fit)
    • Use any contacts you may have with those in the media who can put the spotlight on unethical practices.
    • Befriend those pushing for adoption reform in the domestic arena. Many issues overlap, but the two camps often operate independently.
    • Use whatever talents you have, your profession or job skills, and your unique position in ways that will further the cause of adoption ethics and reform. Be creative.
    • Network. Join forces with others.
    
    
19. Work for legislative and executive remedies.
    
    
    • Pool your resources with organizations like Ethica to do things like write and lobby for badly needed legislation and executive remedies for problems that allow child trafficking and bad adoption practice to flourish.
    • Analyse, discuss,and comment on proposed legislation.