#Children's Rights
Target:
US Congress
Region:
United States of America
Website:
www.jcics.org

UNICEF estimates that there are 143 million orphans in the world today. Research such as the Bucharest Early Intervention Study conducted by respected researchers at Harvard University, Maryland University, and other universities has shown that keeping an orphaned child in a permanent and loving family is the best way to ensure that they have love, attention, and care needed to survive, and better yet, to thrive.

Although the U.S. Government has programs related to vulnerable children, very little of the focus and funding is going toward finding permanent families for children in need of parental care.

Developing countries where millions of orphans live lack the resources and expertise necessary to develop sound systems to provide for the care of the rising number of children living outside of permanent parental care.

We, the undersigned, request that the U.S. Congress pass the Families for Orphans Act, which would provide a diplomatic authority, with technical and coordinating capacity to keep children in their birth families whenever possible and move orphans and other children without parental care into permanent families (either through kinship care, domestic adoption, or intercountry adoption).

Very little of current U.S. funding and focus is dedicated towards finding permanent families for children in need of parental care. Developing countries lack the resources and expertise necessary to establish sound systems to provide for the care of the rising number of children living outside of a permanent family environment.

We support the Families for Orphans Act which is designed to overcome these barriers by establishing the Office of Orphan Policy, Development and Diplomacy, a specialized office within the U.S. Department of State.

This new office would be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy to support the preservation of families and the provision of permanent families for orphans. We urge the members of the U.S. Congress to pass the Families for Orphans Act.

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