KAD promotes adoption from Africa

An article from Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City about a Brigham Young University professor and KAD who recently published an article in the journal Social Work stating that "African nations and American parents should consider a radical increase in adoptions of black African orphans."

"Africa orphans need adoption: Crisis makes international action imperative, BYU professor says"

American parents have adopted a growing number of international children over the past decade. The United States issued 7,093 immigrant visas to orphans in 1990. The number rose to 22,728 last year.

Few come from African nations, which are reluctant to allow more.

"They're nervous because of the history of outmigration of their people into Europe and America, because of the former slave trade," Roby said. "They're nervous their children are being sold into domestic servitude or sex trafficking. I understand that. We all need to have empathy for that. But when they learn about the legal safeguards in place for international adoption, they want to consider it."

How about mentioning how adoption has become big business in the U.S.?

I was happy to read that the writer of the article also interviewed Joe Kroll, the executive director from the North American Council on Adoptable Children, which "believes each child should be placed with a family that recognizes preservation of the child's ethnic and cultural heritage as an inherent right."

"The federal government has gone overboard to try and make adoptions appear color blind," he said. "Color blind doesn't work when you're a person of color."

Kroll also worries that international adoptions have become trendy at the expense of older American foster children because of celebrities like Angelina Jolie, who has adopted two children, the most recent from the African nation of Ethiopia — a girl whose mother died of AIDS.

"My concern," Kroll said, "is that the publicity surrounding celebrities like Angelina Jolie is making people move away from the very real needs of the children in the American foster system. There are so many kids who need help."