LilMtnCbn
06-07-2004, 06:02 AM
http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D831NA9G1.html
Social workers call for end to informal adoptions of indigenous babies from
Dominica
06/06/2004
By ELLSWORTH CARTER / Associated Press
Social workers are calling for an end to informal adoptions of indigenous
babies in Dominica by couples from neighboring islands, activists said Sunday.
It's common practice for couples from Martinique, Guadeloupe and other nearby
islands to approach young mothers in Dominica's impoverished Carib community
with offers of a better life for their babies, said Francis Joseph, director of
the Christian Children Fund in Dominica.
Because the agreements forgo legal adoption procedures, however, the new
parents are not bound to the child's care, and often send the child home once
they reach adolescence, Joseph said.
"Babies are babies," he said. "They are cute and nice. But now that the child
has grown up, you can't just send them back."
Neither the government nor independent social workers are able to say how many
children have been taken from this Caribbean nation of 70,000, but at least 15
teenagers returning home this year has caused alarm.
One 15-year-old girl, who had lived with her informally adopted family in
Guadeloupe, returned to her English-speaking parents only able to speak French.
They were eventually able to communicate through the Creole language Patois,
Joseph said.
Ezra Valmond, 16, whose mother gave her to foster parents in Barbados when she
was four, cried as she recounted her forced return to Dominica two years ago.
"I was well treated in Barbados," Valmond said. "I did not want to return."
Unable to adjust to life with her mother in their rural Carib village, she
lives with a foster family in another town.
Valmond's sister, Kimmy Valmond, has given away two of her six children. A
daughter adopted legally by a Canadian couple writes frequent letters and will
visit Dominica this year. She has not heard from her other child, given to a
family in Barbados.
Around 3,000 Caribs live here, the largest indigenous population in the
Caribbean, in rural communities heavily dependent on agriculture.
Dominica's economy has suffered a massive downturn in the last three years and
the International Monetary Fund estimates 15 percent of the island's population
lives in extreme poverty. The Carib territories of the island are poor even by
those standards, Joseph said.
He said the adoption problem, ongoing for more than 30 years, will not be
resolved until the government is able to institute adequate social services in
the rural communities.
"This is happening because there is not an effective social services agency
island-wide, especially in the more remote areas," Joseph said. "This is a
weakness, because of our economic situation."
Dominica, a former colony of Britain and France, was the last of the Caribbean
islands to be colonized by Europeans due mainly to the Carib population's
resistance.
The Richmond, Virginia-based Christian Children's Fund was established in 1938.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Social workers call for end to informal adoptions of indigenous babies from
Dominica
06/06/2004
By ELLSWORTH CARTER / Associated Press
Social workers are calling for an end to informal adoptions of indigenous
babies in Dominica by couples from neighboring islands, activists said Sunday.
It's common practice for couples from Martinique, Guadeloupe and other nearby
islands to approach young mothers in Dominica's impoverished Carib community
with offers of a better life for their babies, said Francis Joseph, director of
the Christian Children Fund in Dominica.
Because the agreements forgo legal adoption procedures, however, the new
parents are not bound to the child's care, and often send the child home once
they reach adolescence, Joseph said.
"Babies are babies," he said. "They are cute and nice. But now that the child
has grown up, you can't just send them back."
Neither the government nor independent social workers are able to say how many
children have been taken from this Caribbean nation of 70,000, but at least 15
teenagers returning home this year has caused alarm.
One 15-year-old girl, who had lived with her informally adopted family in
Guadeloupe, returned to her English-speaking parents only able to speak French.
They were eventually able to communicate through the Creole language Patois,
Joseph said.
Ezra Valmond, 16, whose mother gave her to foster parents in Barbados when she
was four, cried as she recounted her forced return to Dominica two years ago.
"I was well treated in Barbados," Valmond said. "I did not want to return."
Unable to adjust to life with her mother in their rural Carib village, she
lives with a foster family in another town.
Valmond's sister, Kimmy Valmond, has given away two of her six children. A
daughter adopted legally by a Canadian couple writes frequent letters and will
visit Dominica this year. She has not heard from her other child, given to a
family in Barbados.
Around 3,000 Caribs live here, the largest indigenous population in the
Caribbean, in rural communities heavily dependent on agriculture.
Dominica's economy has suffered a massive downturn in the last three years and
the International Monetary Fund estimates 15 percent of the island's population
lives in extreme poverty. The Carib territories of the island are poor even by
those standards, Joseph said.
He said the adoption problem, ongoing for more than 30 years, will not be
resolved until the government is able to institute adequate social services in
the rural communities.
"This is happening because there is not an effective social services agency
island-wide, especially in the more remote areas," Joseph said. "This is a
weakness, because of our economic situation."
Dominica, a former colony of Britain and France, was the last of the Caribbean
islands to be colonized by Europeans due mainly to the Carib population's
resistance.
The Richmond, Virginia-based Christian Children's Fund was established in 1938.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
