God, The Defender of Orphans

We have a responsibility as followers of Christ to educate ourselves on issues that impact orphans in our backyard and around the world. This article, written by Phillip Holmes, writer and Country Director of Esther Benjamin Trust - Nepal, offers an important view of Unicef, their goals and the impact on orphans worldwide. I encourage you to read and then pray that God will be who He says He is, "the defender of orphans".

"Inter-country adoption is once again receiving bad press. First, we had the arrest of a group of Americans in Haiti who were allegedly trying to remove children from the country without the permission of the authorities.Then at the end of February, UNICEF in Nepal has endorsed the findings of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference that inter-country adoptions from Nepal should once again be suspended. This they state is in response to the Government of Nepal's failure to fulfill commitments that it gave to reform adoption practice and improve child protection after it signed the Hague Convention in April 2009.

Of course, aspects of the inter-country adoption process as it stands at the moment are totally unacceptable and if the interest of the child are not central and being ignored than UNICEF and others are duty bound to adopt a robust stance. My concern is that a blanket suspension is an overreaction that will be to the detriment of very many children who will be denied a future and loving homes abroad. Instead they will be condemned to remain in grim "orphanages" or they could face an even worse fate. I also believe, after working ten years in grass roots childcare in Nepal, that it is overly simplistic to champion the use of family-based care alternatives in Nepal."

You can read the rest of the article here.