• CCAA will soon become the China Child Welfare Center (CCWC), responsible forTheir source seems impeccable -- Director-General Wang Zhenyao, head of the welfare department at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
protecting the welfare of all children.
• CCWC will serve the interests of all children - particularly orphans, children with disabilities and serious illnesses, children of migrant workers, single parent households and families living in poverty.
•CCWC will renew its efforts to find an adoptive family for every child possible, particularly those with special needs, as the number of “healthy” abandoned children has dropped dramatically with China’s new prosperity.
•CCWC will tackle a major failing of all institutionalization - that children grow up in total isolation from the real world - by opening children’s welfare institutions to the community, turning them into community centers that provide services like HTS programs for all children, especially those who are disadvantaged: preschools and enrichment classes and guidance for teens and young parents who have no other place to turn.
I think this is great news for China's children. It seems the country is going to step up to the plate and take care of their own vulnerable children, with adoption as only a part of child welfare. I'm especially heartened to see the focus on the children of migrants. Maybe we won't see any more stories like this one.
I expect prospective adoptive parents, many of whom have been waiting for over 4 years to adopt from China, will see this news as personally distressing. If CCAA's responsibilities are going to expand in this way, I'd expect more slowdowns in adoption.
Great news.
ReplyDeleteI don't see it as distressing, I see it as finally making the statement that they will place only the children that will be difficult to place in-country--those with special needs. Finally.
It is good to see, as it has been happening over the last few years with new SWI's, that they are incorporating long-term special needs children, those that will not be placed under their care. Also, the new addition of poor and at-risk children for preschools and daycare--wonderful.
I am sure we will start to see the nay sayers come out full force, imo they are denying the vast growth of China--both economically and socially in terms of caring for the elderly (new nursing homes due to only children not willing or able to care for them), the children, and those with mental differences. It will take time for the rural population to catch up to the govts ideas, but I think any change in this direction is positive.
Fabulous news! It reminds me a bit more of what we saw in Korea as an almost total community outreach to those in need (whether it be actual orphans or the elderly, disabled, etc). I hope that the changes happen quickly.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be distressing because people have been waiting over 4 years and there has been virtually no information from CCAA-- and then they finally get some information, and although it does not address IA specifically, it certainly does not look good for the NSN IA program.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I'm not saying poor, poor, waiting PAPs nor am I saying this isn't a step in the right direction (I think it is.) However, I empathize with the PAP's frustration (especially 2006 LID'ers) regarding the lack of information.
IMO, it would have been better for CCAA to make this announcement coupled w/ the statement that starting in 2015 (when HTS is phasing out, for the most part)or XX date, that their NSN program is officially closing.