As Brian and I were praying about which country the Lord wanted us to adopt our daughter from, we were struck by the vast numbers of orphans in China with special needs. We then were feeling very led to a program where you can adopt a special needs child with minor correctable needs (needs that are much more of a major deal in China) like cleft lip/palate and club foot and other minor needs…..
I then came across an article written by Amy Eldridge who is with Love Without Boundaries. She spoke of the changing face of Chinese adoption and the current challenges of orphan care in China. It was a HUGE article, so I am going to try my best to sum it up. Bear with me…..
Amy first talked about the immense changes in China adoption in the past 10 years. The landscape has changed considerably from the days when Chinese orphanages were filled with healthy infant girls who had been abandoned because of the government’s one child policy and the social preference for boys. Now, the orphanages are filled with special needs kids, some minor some critically ill. She reported that 98% of newly abandoned children in China have special medical needs, which explains why 60% of adoptions in 2010 were special needs adoption.
Why the significant change? First, she said, there has been a growth in more modern attitudes about girls. It is really only in the rural areas that the social preference for boys remains. Ten years ago, 85% of the Chinese population lived in rural areas. Now, only 50% are rural, 50% urban. With that urbanization has come more education, the Internet, and the like, which has led to more modern attitudes. Second, there has been growth in the availability of ultrasound technology. Now, anyone who is pregnant can know the child’s sex. Anyone who carries a girl to term does so knowingly and with every intention of parenting her. Those who want a boy instead will have an abortion (sadly). Another reason we need to pray for China. Third, domestic adoption in China is growing rapidly. That’s caused in part by the public interest in adoption after all the news reporting about the orphans of the Sichuan earthquake. And another factor is the increased rate of infertility in China. One government agency estimates that as many as 40 million couples in China are infertile. Infertility is skyrocketing because of increased premarital sex without much sex education, causing increased rates of STDs and frequent abortions that might be less than sterile and because of environmental toxins and pollution. Domestic adoption is preferred by orphanage directors, because domestic adopters pay higher fees than international adopters. In Guangzhou, domestic adopters pay fees of $15,000 to the orphanage; in Hefei, the fee is $7,000 for domestic adopters. Most adoptions are handled on the county or provincial level, even though the CCAA now has a national office of domestic adoption. Orphanages just don’t send the files of healthy infants for international adoption when they can place the child domestically.
So, for these three reasons, there are fewer and fewer healthy infant girls (with no special needs) available for international adoption. And there has been skyrocketing abandonment of special needs children. One reason for that is the increase in children in China born with birth defects. Birth defects in China have increased 40% since 2001. It is estimated that 1 in 8 to 10 children born in China have birth defects. There are a number of theories about why the rate of birth defects is so high in China, but most believe it is environmental exposure — after all, in a recent list of the 20 “dirtiest” cities in the world, 16 of them were Chinese cities. In one area of Shaanxi Province, where there is considerable coal production and other environmental hazards, it’s reported that the birth defect rate is 85%.
The next point she made in her article just broke my heart to a million pieces. Special needs children get abandoned because of the stigma associated with disabilities and/or because of medical costs. Extended family, especially the mother-in-law, will insist that a disabled child be abandoned because the child is considered unlucky, a curse on the family. Children with visible disabilities will be refused education, and when they grow up will have difficulty finding a job. Medical costs can be too high for a family to bear — there is no health insurance, no free health care in China. All health care has to be paid for up front. Even if you’re in an accident, you won’t be treated until your family shows up to pay the bill first. There are no emergency rooms in China. Poor families will abandon their children in the hopes that they will receive health care in the orphanage. Amy said LWB has to be careful about media reports in China, because if there is a story about them doing medical work in an area there’s a sharp spike in the abandonment of special needs kids there. She also talked about a fund at LWB, the Unity Fund, which provides free life-saving medical treatment so that poor families don’t have to abandon a sick child. I think we all know that adoption is not the solution to the orphan crisis, only preventing children from being orphaned in the first place will solve it.
So how has the increase in special needs abandonment affected orphan care in China? Think about how overwhelmed nannies might be with a room full of healthy kids to take care of. Now think how overwhelming it would be with the same nannies with the same training or lack thereof and the same resources taking care of a roomful of special needs kids. Amy talked about walking into a typical orphanage “baby room” and thinking it should be a hospital ward instead. Nannies will also have the same fear of “unlucky” disabled children as others in China, and may not want to care for a child with albinism or a visible disability.
Two of the biggest needs, then, are education/training for orphanage staff and financial resources. LWB does both. Some of their training is with orphanage directors to help them prepare files on special needs kids to submit for adoption. They sometimes have to encourage the directors to submit files, since the directors will harbor the belief that no one would want to adopt a child with particular disabilities. They also help them make the files more appealing, like encouraging them to have the children smiling in their referral picture, something that culturally isn’t the norm in China.
The poorest orphanages in China might get from the government only $25 per child per month, and formula could cost $20 per child per month. Then there is salaries for nannies, power, clothes, other food, and there isn’t much left over for medical care. Those orphanages that haven’t done international adoptions don’t have loyal parents who are willing to help out; adoptive parents want to help their child’s orphanage.
The CCAA has two initiatives for medical treatment of special needs kids, but both have their limitations. First is the Tomorrow Plan which provides surgeries for orphans. They’ve funded 6,000 cleft surgeries alone since its inception in 2004. But it takes too long to process applications, so it can’t help children who are in imminent need for surgeries or other medical treatment. The plan also designates the hospitals the orphanage must use, and in some areas, the orphanages refuse because they feel the designated hospital is inadequate. The second program is the Blue Sky Initiative. China is building mega-orphanages that can house 600 children, and has on-site medical care and therapy. But there are none in rural areas. And, in places with such mega-orphanages, they are pulling children out of foster care to return them to the orphanage. Amy says they are watching closely to see if there are worse outcomes for children no longer in foster care.
Even with these initiatives and with all LWB and other orphan care organizations can do, Amy said that adoption into a loving home does more for a child than anything else. In China there is a significant stigma about being an orphan. In many areas, orphans cannot go to school outside the orphanage, and in the areas where they can go, they go to the worst schools. They won’t be admitted into better schools because parents won’t pay for their children to go to school and sit next to an orphan. Companies wouldn’t hire an orphan, either, since orphans are considered bad luck. LWB paid for the schooling for the first orphan in Guangzhou to go to and graduate from college. She earned a degree in accounting, and couldn’t find a job because employers were afraid that she would bring bad luck to the financial bottom line. She eventually found a job with a foreign company. Another orphan who graduated teacher’s college was hired by LWB because no one else would. Very sad facts.
So…..I know that is a lot to digest in one blog post, so if you are still reading, THANK YOU. It was so important for me to to share with you what we are learning, and how the Lord has aggressively turned our hearts to China, to the vast need for special needs orphans to be adopted. Our hearts are ripped open and raw for these Chinese orphans.
Please pray for all the orphans in China to find their forever homes. Pray for Love Withouth Boundaries as they provide the most loving and compassionate help possible to orphaned and impoverished children in China.
Please pray for our daughter to have her medical, physical, and bonding needs met as she waits for us to come get rescue her. Pray that she is fortunate enough to recieve medical care from a wonderful organization like Love Withouth Boundaries.
I can’t wait to have her in our arms….they just ache for her.
Wow! Thanks for sharing your research and your heart for your daughter (and orphans in China). It's incredible to get to follow your journey! Praying for your entire family – even the little one a world away.