This November is National Adoption Day/Awareness Week/Month, where everyone is invited to become a hero for those children without families. 1000s (or in some cases, over one hundred thousand) abandoned and vulnerable children in the world still remain out of sight.
Australia, the UK, and the USA and Canada all strive for awareness of global adoption in November. In Australian, the NAAW are having a Breakfast Summit where academics and politcians will gather to discuss inter-country adoption as it is extremely hard to do so in Australia. However, Australia boasts one of the lowest numbers for children waiting to be adopted (around 502 children at any given time. The second lowest adoption rates are found in the U.K./Wales, where around 4,764 children are waiting to be adopted. The BBC has links to great resources on adopting and fostering in the U.K./Wales/Scotland. In Canada, there are more than 30,000 children awaiting adoption. Among Canada’s 13 provinces, each one has its own adoption authority, laws, and regulations. For more information about adoptions by province, please click here. Among these four countries, the USA has the highest number of children needing to be adopted (around 127,000). The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families has a Child Welfare Information Gateway which provides links to all domestic adoption resources.
During the month of November, the United States celebrates National Adoption Day (a day where thousands of foster care children will finalize adoption and become part of a permanent home and family) as part of National Adoption month. For more info on Adoption Day activities and participation, click here.
There are over 100 million orphans in the world, which I know in all of our eyes and hearts is one too many. children depend on us, the adults, to lead by example and to make the best decisions for their mental, emotional, social and physical well-being. It is every child’s right to feel loved and nurtured, educated and valued, protected and supported in our communities. I believe adoption is very important and those who have made a conscious decision to do so in the world should be given the right to insure that they are able to do so with their best interest. Every child deserves an indentity both as individuals and as part of a family.
Even if adoption isn’t for you, there are foster programs, mentorships (like Big Brothers & Big Sisters and other community programs), and more. Whatever you are comfortable doing to help a child excel as an individual and feel confident they have someone looking out of them is exactly what is needed in the world. Be a hero.
Copywritten by Jo Frost