Today’s guest blogger is Kifah Abdi.
Megan Twohey of Reuters spent eighteen months investigating the phenomena of the parents of (primarily) internationally adopted children being abandoned after coming to the United States through multiple online services. The first part of this investigation was released by the Reuters by September 9, 2013.
In this article Megan Twohey and her colleagues expose an online black market that helps parents who now regret adopting after they brought children into the country from overseas, or in some cases local adoptions, to abandon their children anonymously and almost effortlessly and with no consequences. Twohey and colleagues identified eight different online bulletin boards where unwanted adoptees where advertised as part of an informal practice, showing the prevalence of so-called “Private re-homing”; a term also used for unwanted pets.
Twohey, working together with her colleagues on this investigation were able to analyze 5,029 posts from just one bulletin board, a Yahoo group called “Adopting-from-Disruption”. Moreover, they interviewed many stakeholders, law enforcement; adoptive parents who have used these services, facilitators, organizations that helped with the re-homing, and the children themselves.
In the first part of this investigation, Twohey follows the story of a young girl named Quita who was adopted from Liberia, and when she proved to be too much to handle, her adoptive parents advertised her on one of these re-homing online groups, where they were able to place her with a couple that they had not previously met within two days. The couple that accepted Quita with such ease, despite being warned that she had some severe health and behavior issues, turn out to be a couple who have a history of being accused of child molestation, and the woman Nicole Eason, had lost custody of her children due to abuse and neglect. Interestingly, she has no problem acquiring kids on the Internet calling herself Big Momma, Momma Bear etc. “MOTIVATED MOM: In her time seeking children on the Internet, Nicole Eason has referred to herself as Big Momma and Momma Bear. Her term for informal custody transfers is “non-legalized adoption,” and she defines the phrase to mean: “Hey, can I have your baby?” REUTERS/Samantha Sais”
A few days after placing Quita with Nicole Eason, Quota’s original adoptive parents, Melissa and Todd Puchallas, called to check on her and how she is getting along, but they could not get anyone on the phone and were further worried when they called the school she was supposed to be starting and were informed that she had never showed up. More worried the Puchallas drove back to Illinois from Keil, Wisconsin. When they get there they found two young dogs chained to the fence and trash everywhere but no Quita nor the couple that took her in!
Unfortunately what happened to Quita is not single incident, there are many hundreds, if not thousands of kids like her that are on the “market” online without oversight or legal procedures to follow. Here are some examples; “Born in October of 2000 – this handsome boy, ‘Rick’ was placed from India a year ago and is obedient and eager to please,” one ad for a child read.
A woman who said she is from Nebraska offered an 11-year-old boy she had adopted from Guatemala. “I am totally ashamed to say it but we do truly hate this boy!” she wrote in a July 2012 post.
In this in-depth journalistic investigation dispels many myths long held regarding adoption, that most couples adopt out of selfless/unconditional love, and would do anything for that their adopted child as they would for their biological children, also it dispels the myth that adopted children are always better and safer in a home verses an institution, as this Reuters investigation exposes how little legal or societal protection there are for these children. Moreover, international adoptees are most vulnerable of all kids, because they don’t have as much protection as the kids that are adopted through the US legal system, where people have to be accountable to multiple systems. In the case of international adoptees, the adoptive parents that brought them into the country are effectively their only system of protection, and if they abandon them, the children are often unaccounted for but not missed, therefore they often find themselves in very dangerous and unfortunate circumstances, including prostitution, slavery, or living with caregivers that sexually and physically exploit them for years before they are either able to run away or some concerned citizen figures out what is going on and rescues them with the help of the legal system.
Looking at the data of how many foreign children are adopted annually into the U.S, I wonder, what is the percentage of these children finding themselves in the unfortunate situation of abandonment like Quita and many others like her!
In conclusion this investigative piece sheds light on the plight of a very vulnerable group of children, International adoptees, who if their adoption disrupts, find themselves facing a great many risks.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/investigates/adoption/#article/part1