Adopting from Africa: good or bad for kids?

Just like any other parents
As for celebrities adopting poor children from Africa, Pertman said there was no reason to be critical or cynical.

“They’re doing what more Americas all over the country are doing — adopting children,” he said. “More Americans are adopting from abroad, more are adopting from Africa... They (the celebrities) just happen to be getting the attention.”

“Is there a self-serving aspect to it? I don’t have any idea,” Pertman said. “They didn’t do anything fundamentally different from other families. They did a really good thing for a couple of kids.”

There is increasing desire among communities to keep vulnerable or orphaned children within them, said Bill Philbrick, manager of the Hope for the Atlanta, Ga.-based African Children Initiative (HACI), a pan-African effort established in 2000 as a partnership between organizations such as CARE, Save the Children UK and World Vision.

Another possible answer: help the community
To make it easier to care for such children within their own community, said Philbrick, grandparents, extended families or caregivers need help to access AIDS treatments and other medical and health care as well as education and food security.

“International adoptions are not a solution. The answer is supporting the community,” he said.

Which is what Eye of the Child, a child rights group in Malawi, has called on Madonna to do. In an open letter to “Madam Madonna” the organization urges her to help fund existing programs in Malawi to help vulnerable children. The group also applauded efforts by her charity, Raising Malawi, which aims to set up an orphan care center.

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