Ukraine Tracks the Fate of Ukrainian Children Adopted Abroad

Right now the head of the Ukrainian adoption system is in
the US. From this article written by the Ukrainian press he
is concerned with the low rate of compliance in filing
legally necessary updates to the Ukrainian Consulates in
the US (around 30%), the low rate of updating residence
location when an adoptive family moves, and readoptions in
the US without the approval of the necessary Ukrainian
authoritities.

All adoptive parents need to be better at getting our
reports in on time. This is an essential componant of
ensuring the Ukrainian government that our children are
thriving. I know none of us ever plans to miss a year,
things just are crazy busy, but this is our legal
obligation and we must live up to it.

Another important thing this article highlights is the
great success of Ukrainian adoption outreach and education
in lowering the number of children without parents.
Compared with Russia, Ukraine has found a way to
successfully build families, not just get orphaned children
out of orphanages. In Ukraine the number of Ukrainian
parents that returned adopted children to orphanages was
nearly zero, while in Russia it was over 8000 - nearly as
many as were adopted. The same is true for international
adoptions in Ukraine. Non-Ukrainians able to adopt children
5 older who have been in the national registry system for
over a year and younger children who have been classified
as with a special health need by the Ukraine. As with
Ukrainian adoptions, these international adoptions from
Ukraine are extremelly successful in building strong
permenant families. Kudos Ukraine!

The thing that is most difficult in this article is the
vast number of parentless children in Ukraine. There are
still 94,000 too many children without families.

by www.WNU-Ukraine.com

Kyiv, April 2, 2013. On April 1-4, 2013, Yuriy
Pavlenko, Children's Ombudsman under the President of
Ukraine, is visiting the U.S. to monitor that the rights of
the Ukrainian children adopted abroad are observed. The
North American country is one of the top countries that
adopt Ukrainian children, others being Italy, Spain,
France, and Israel.

Nearly every other child adopted from Ukraine by foreign
parents lives in the USA, said Pavlenko during his visit to
the States. The state official will examine the work of
Ukrainian consulates in the U.S. regarding their
supervision of the rights of adopted children. Pavlenko
plans to meet American state officials who deal with
children's rights and adoption and, most importantly, will
visit the families that adopted children from Ukraine.

According to Pavlenko, there are several issues he is
planning to address during his visit - untimely reporting
by adoptive parents to Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in
the country, delays in updating adopted children records at
consulates, including changes of residence of the families.
He will also pay attention to the cases of unreported
readoption of children within the U.S. (without a
permission of the responsible institution in Ukraine).

Foreigners adopted 700 children from Ukraine throughout
2012, stated Yuriy Pavlenko in December 2012. Ukrainian
citizens adopted about 2,000 kids. Some 80 percent of
Ukrainian children without parents (nearly 96,000) are
currently raised by Ukrainian families.

Ukraine protects the right of a child to be adopted,
emphasized Pavlenko. Yet, national adoption was declared a
priority for the country. Changes in cultural environment
(i.e. changing the country of residence) can be stressful
for a child, reckons Liudmyla Volynets, head of the foreign
adoption at Ukraine's Child Ombudsman office. Thus,
Ukrainian children up for adoption abroad normally have
health issues.

In March 2013, Yuriy Pavlenko reported steady decrease in
the amount of children without parents in Ukraine. In 2008,
the amount of children without parents reached 103,500,
while by March 1, 2013, there were only 94,000 of such
children in Ukraine. A notable contribution to such
progress was the intensification of the work of family-like
foster care homes. Pavlenko noted that the reform of the
children without parents managing system had been one of
the most successful reforms in the eastern European country
over the last decade.