Small steps –significant strides towards change!!

In the span of 15 months, we at CSA, have facilitated 50+ adoption placements. The Adoptive parents are from Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai and Pune. All of them have adopted from agencies in smaller towns- Marathawada, Vidharba and Orissa. All of the adopted children are girls; many of them are above 3 years of age. Even siblings have found Indian homes in India.

CSA is not a Placement agency. When we started working on adoption, we had one objective in mind- to increase the number of adoptions in the country. We thought we had to work on promoting adoptions and it didn’t seem difficult. It was only much later, that we realized that there were no children to place! Every city agency had several parents waiting to adopt; some had been in the queue for more than 2 years.

The Latur Pilot

In 2005, we found Marathawada-Latur, Udgir and Nanded with 7 Adoption agencies and 120 children waiting for homes. Targetting the placement of those children, we launched the “Latur Pilot”.

The April-October 07 half-year was marked by the success of our “ Latur Pilot”. Factual information on the waiting children, presented to the State Department of Women and Child Development, resulted in transfer orders for 15 children (eligible under the CARA Guidelines) into agencies that could place them. Our next step was to bridge the mismatch between waiting parents in city agencies and waiting children in smaller towns. We failed to obtain access to the lists of waiting parents (city agencies would not part with confidential information) and had to seek other measures.

An extensive promotional campaign that included Awareness programmes, workshops for prospective parents, media presence, outdoor advertisements, website updates and chat group discussions saw us through. Enquiries followed; there was not even a hint of reluctance on the part of city parents to adopt children from faraway Marathawada. And so, the process began. For the first time ever, city parents were moving into smaller towns to adopt. For the first time ever, many children who would automatically have moved into orphanages, had found homes!

“Latur” had some important learnings for us. We now, knew where to look for the children (waiting for homes). We learnt how to reach out to the parents. We realised that city parents had no hesitation in adopting from rural India. We also, realized that all those (non-metro) agencies had a long way to go, before they could reach the comparable capability standards (child care and paper processing) of the city agencies.

Thus, in addition to ongoing promotional initiatives, we began supporting the agencies, helping them to improve their standards. We provided assistance in building infrastructure, health and hygiene, child development , medical facilities and assistance in paperwork processing/ documentation. We conducted training programmes, offered part-time/visiting staff, donated educational and medical aids, built recreational facilities and hand held the agencies in moving individual cases (stuck in the processing cycle) forward.

Replication

The Latur model is replicable; in almost every state in India the situation is similar. Waiting parents in city agencies and languishing children in non-city agencies. It was only a matter of time before we would move into other locations.

Field Research is an ongoing activity at CSA. In fact, it forms the base for our initiative. Before initiating “Latur” we had conducted studies to assess the potential for us to work in Orissa and Bihar. We knew that in both the places, children particularly girls and older children, were waiting. In 2008, we started work with CARA agencies in Orissa. At about the same time, we also, coordinated with agencies in Vidharba. Currently, we work with 19 agencies across Marathawada, Vidharba and Orissa.

Give India Listing

CSA is listed by Give India. The listing speaks for our credibility and opens up funding support in the form of individual donations.

Vocational Training for Government Destitute Homes in Maharashtra and Orissa

At CSA, we also, work with 4 Government Destitute Homes in Maharashtra and 1 in Orissa. We have assisted them in building vocational training facilities. Using the support of Corporate Houses and Give India Funding, we have arranged for learning and recreational support. A Computer centre, Recreational facilities, academics coaching, spoken English and educational sponsorship for individual children, are some areas where considerable amount of work has been done. We also, conduct an ongoing ‘literacy’ Programme for ‘school-dropouts’ in a State Home for Girls, equipping them with basic reading, writing and Arithmetic skills.

Donations in kind, received from Corporates/retailers are distributed amongst the children.

Children’s events

Aware that fun-events are so rare, and institutionalized children have so little access to some of the thrills of the outside world, CSA has always endeavored to provide for some. We organized several fun events for the children in adoption agencies and the Destitute Homes in Pune.

Sponsors

Corporates/ Individual sponsors have supported our projects in Orissa and Vidharba. We have also, received sponsorship for a promotional initiative (a Book on Adoption) which will be shortly, released. Give India have contributed significantly, to the assistance we provide to individual children for their medical/ educational care.

Responses

What some Aparents have to say

Sunita Jagtiani a single parent from Bangalore

“I tell you I never thought parenting would be so enjoyable. My mom & I are having the time of our lives. We have had so much positive response to Aatmika it is beyond amazing. My family & friends are crazy about her”.

Vidya Shankar , an Adoption Law expert from Chennai

“I am so so so glad!! I am glad for the family and, the field of adoption. We all still have hope of promoting genuine cases of Indian adoptive parents-----. If it were not for you, it would not have happened. I am happy and pray for the family and wish all of you at CSA from the bottom of my heart for pursuing this cause, it means so much to parents like us! “