On 20 Nov 2024, I presented online on Post Adoption Support (PAS) attended by the Central Authorities responsible for intercountry adoption as Hague signatory countries. This forum is held yearly and shared between the Hague countries. The Nov 2024 forum was hosted by the governments of Australia and New Zealand. I presented on 3 topics of which I will be covering in these next few blogs.
Many thanks to the Australian Federal Government, Department of Social Services (DSS) for their invitation to present and for their leadership in elevating the lived experience of adoptees and by recognising the expertise adoptees can have. I recognise this is a Central Authority forum and that usually, our voices are not recognised at the same level as adoption professionals. However our Australian Federal Government has had an almost 10 year history of actively reaching out to adoptees and engaging us in the important discussions and forums, recognising our expertise and the wealth of knowledge we can provide.
One of the most important parts I spoke about was the huge demand for peer adoptee support amongst the intercountry adoptee community. I’ve lived and witnessed this for the past 27 years of providing ICAV.
Daily I am contacted by intercountry adoptees of any birth and adoptive country who are seeking peer support. They seek things wanting help for things like:
- knowing where to start to finding copies of their adoption records;
- looking for a peer support space;
- looking for a lawyer to get legal advice on complicated issues;
- looking for help to know what to do to start a search for their biological family;
- wanting advice on knowing how to deal with a challenging adoptive family situation;
- needing to be heard and validated;
- wanting to bounce around a project idea they have for creating an adoptee event or resource;
- advice for the writing or publication of their book;
- advice for how to manage adoptee spaces and the dynamics and politics that go on;
- someone to help them understand their adoption and what it means;
- difficulties with passports or citizenship;
- brainstorming for a research topic / area within intercountry adoption.
Often these discussions are so nuanced and could only ever really be supported best by another adoptee who has lived this and travelled this already, and can give some practical sort of guidance and insight.
My network has thousands of intercountry adoptees who range in age from the Greeks, Italians, and Germans from the 1950s right through to my own 1970s era of those from South East Asian countries – Korea, Vietnam, and South American countries – Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, through to those from the Eastern European bloc of Romania, Russia, Moldova, and then those from the latter eras of adoption in the 2000s from China, Ethiopia. Around the world we number approximately a minimum of 1.2 million by Peter Selman’s estimates. We are now reaching a point in the historical timeline of intercountry adoptions where adoptees from the 1980s and 90s, which had the greatest numbers, are now reaching early middle adulthood (their 40s) and asking questions, critically thinking, seeking help and creating much needed resources.
The demand for peer support is strong
If you are working in the formal post adoption space, it is so important to remember that we are a huge community globally, reaching an en-masse point to think critically about what happened to us and how we came to be separated from our families and countries.
The sad mismatch to this reality for our global community is that not all adoptive or birth countries around the world have adequate post adoption supports setup with professionals who are trained in culturally and racially sensitive ways to understand our needs. This highlights why it’s so important, in my opinion, to understand and include the services provided by the huge peer support network around the world.
Within the ICAV network alone, we have over 180 active adoptee led orgs providing services and supports to the community mostly free:
13 adoptee led organisations in Belgium, 65 in USA, 11 in Canada, 19 in the Netherlands, 3 in Norway, 11 in Sweden, 4 in Germany, 10 in UK, 15 in France, 5 in Italy, 3 in Spain, 3 in Denmark, 13 in Australia, 1 in NZ, 3 in Switzerland, 1 in Finland,
That’s not counting the individuals who are providing fee paying professional services.
Many of these organisations, like mine, have been providing support for years, some for decades. We have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that the professional community would do well to connect into and understand.
We provide:
- Emotional support
- Practical support – known pathways so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel
- Social connections – online and in person
- Provide practical birth country contacts who are trusted
- Refer them to professional services (both adoptee led and non adoptee led)
- Informal legal guidance for areas that are still relatively new eg., adoption discharge, dual citizenship, reissue of birth certificates, deportation/citizenship
- Connection to collaborate on projects eg research, advocacy, education, art (eg film festival, documentary screenings, plays, performances)
- Safe spaces where they can be validated, heard, reflected and seen
- Spaces where issues can be discussed no matter how complex those issues are eg., abuse, illegal adoption, deportation, citizenship, rehoming, adoption discharge, suicide, addiction, incarceration – without judgement and fear
So this post is to recognise the huge untapped wealth of information and lived expertise from adoptee led organisations like ICAV who do incredible amount of the front end of supporting our community, unpaid, often invisible, largely unrecognised.
You can see the number of adoptee led organisations that are connected to ICAV’s network at our website.
Resources
ICAVs global listing of adoptee led Post Adoption Support
Providing peer support for foster, adoptive and kinship families