Merger of adoption services leads to unrest among prospective parents
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20231019_97452505?fbclid=IwAR1n3ELdOA6M8DpHgUcIYWmp6Lns8DLdPqFnnwXF3YJh5VRabBfYaL8eWnI&articlehash=aeaE%2BwSmPr95USjtJOBh%2B2WgJTkRKGDgekhGrhllsKxrAUSKKk5ZQZ0gaCvz%2FmGGgv9%2Fk3Xch6WTkZXplq1HhUtqQmu8Is8gYi%2B%2BAMoG8ucQMeCKpfhRr3mJ70QhEJZt0QRQg6KBKT36I0nA%2FMQNRPNilq3uA%2FTm18xH7lIBo2%2FlJBwlYFZskkI7dkJG6yXq3kyqJ6yeA53BPwI7BQT3Sukz1XNB3dgnHQ6Jh%2FHns81Eb5F5MHxMg%2BHDi9v7TqLHsfOzoha%2FS79LWsJExklZPuIsbfn6G3%2FbHrd%2FX6YcPqHruW23lZUrOifD9cDGyX%2Bk2JkiBOZjvhyhiOrnfjmgGQ%3D%3D
Making three private services for intercountry adoption into one: it is not going smoothly. This leads to unrest among the 1,700 waiting prospective adoptive parents. "The movement is necessary to professionalize adoption," says the Flemish agency Growing Up.
Veerle Beel
'Congratulations, you have three children!' Johan and Ine were told this on a Friday in February. They had registered with Het Kleine Mirakel to adopt children from Colombia, but received an offer from Hungary.
The contract was immediately ready for signing. Nevertheless, the couple asked for more explanation, including about the children's medical condition. What did it mean that one of the three was behind 'in all areas'? They were given a week to think about it, asked more questions, and according to them, experienced a lot of emotional pressure to say yes. Ultimately it resulted in a breach of trust. After eight years, they drew a line under their adoption dream.
'What about expertise?'
Johan and Ine are one of five and possibly six (candidate) adoption families who recently filed a complaint against adoption service Het Kleine Mirakel. Most do not want their story in the newspaper, because they still hope for a child, or because they are dependent on the adoption service for aftercare.
Moreover, they will soon no longer have the option of contacting another adoption service. At the end of May, Het Kleine Mirakel was designated by the Opgroeien agency as the only one allowed to mediate transnational adoptions. The two other services, Ray of Hope and Fiac, which merged into VIA, must transfer all their files.
Initially, the three wanted to submit a file together to win the contract. The Little Miracle decided to go solo and was selected. VIA appealed against this to the competent Advisory Committee in mid-July. It had 75 days to assess the appeal, but this week requested 30 days extra time to deliberate.
"Every week we receive a new email that drives us to despair," says a prospective adoptive parent who wishes to remain anonymous. 'Four years ago we registered with Ray of Hope. We have already paid 7,000 euros, but the child is still not here. Will the new service treat our file as a priority, or will we end up on a long waiting list again? How will they manage all that? And what about the expertise of the people who have guided us so far and who know the country of origin well? Will it all be lost?'
The Growing Up Agency, which includes the Flemish Center for Adoption, is also aware that the uncertainty weighs heavily and brings with it many emotions. "It is in the interest of both the services and the prospective adoptive parents that clarity is provided as quickly as possible," the spokeswoman said.
Complaints
The Flemish Center for Adoption (VCA) met with Het Kleine Mirakel at the beginning of October to discuss the recent complaints. Both the VCA and Het Kleine Mirakel confirm that the complaints are taken seriously and that there is a willingness to improve operations. "By evolving towards one service and bringing together resources, there will be more room for professionalization," says the VCA.
Over the past ten years, seven complaints have been filed about Het Kleine Mirakel, seven about Ray of Hope and three about Fiac. The recent complaints about The Little Miracle are on top of that.
The parents only submitted them to the Growing Up Agency in July, because they discovered that the concerns they had previously reported to the VCA were not registered as a complaint. This is a problem that was previously also identified in complaints about childcare. The Growing Up Agency is working on a new system for handling complaints, which will be rolled out organization-wide.
The VCA also points out that the Flemish government recently approved a draft decree, which entails a drastic change and will increase quality. There will be more supervision of the matching of parents and children, of the general processes and of the activities of the adoption service itself. The arsenal of measures is being expanded – by analogy with childcare.
Correction (20/10/2023): the Flemish government has decided that from now on only one service for transnational adoptions may be recognized. But it is not the Flemish Government that assessed the files, as stated in an initial version of this text. That's what the Growing Up agency did.
Merger of adoption services leads to unrest among prospective parents | The standard