A Visit to Vietnam

A Visit to Vietnam
By Leonette Boiarski, Welcome House® Director

In October, I had the pleasure of visiting Vietnam. Over the course of a week I visited the Hanoi, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh areas of Vietnam. I traveled with our Country Office Director, Hang Pham, and we visited the government officials in all three areas as well as the orphanages of Khanh Hoa and Thi Nghe. 

Each area presented a very different perspective of adoption in Vietnam and how the Vietnamese view US families traveling to adopt children from their homeland. My first stop was in Hanoi. While in the city I saw many, many adoptive families (primarily Americans) as I traveled around town. It was quite evident that there were a lot of children leaving Vietnam with Caucasian families. 

Hang and I met with Dr. Long, the Director of the Department of International Adoption (DIA). It became clear that officials at that level are concerned with the transparency of adoption. However, they are also frustrated at their inability to focus the parliament’s attention on international adoption when so many other “more important” demands are competing for their attention as well. Due to Vietnam’s burgeoning economy, there is a tremendous influx of international business and investment dollars. This is where parliamentary officials are focusing their time and attention; adoption is not receiving the attention that the DIA would like it to. For example, the current adoption law in Vietnam does not address domestic adoption rules and regulations and, with the sensitivity of the issue, it can be very challenging to address issues such as these that need to be reformed.

The DIA is also frustrated with the U.S. Embassy’s handling of child investigations. When Embassy or USCIS staff have concerns regarding a child’s visa application, they will often do additional investigations regarding the circumstances under which the child became eligible for international adoption. This sometimes means visiting provincial and/or orphanage officials. DIA has not given permission for these visits and the provincial and orphanage officials are frequently upset by them.

As a result, there is a great deal of tension between DIA and U.S. Embassy staff around this issue.

In addition to meeting with Dr. Long at the DIA, we visited the U.S. Embassy. While we were there, three families were visibly upset in the waiting room as they had just been issued NOIDs (Notice of Intent to Deny) from the Embassy because of issues regarding the relinquishment of their children. We met with Embassy officials who had had a very tough day dealing with the distraught families. The families believed that they had adopted these children and would be going home with them to the United States. However, there were things amiss with the paperwork and it appeared that at least one family may not have been allowed to leave the country with the child. The other families were likely to face additional investigations over the coming days and weeks. The Embassy staff indicated that there are an unusual amount of infants at some of the orphanages and they feel that that not all of the children could have been abandoned. Officials are concerned that they were obtained by other means, which is why the U.S. Embassy was investigating. Embassy officials also indicated that they were keeping an eye on several orphanages and facilitators about whom they have concerns.

Following my meetings at the DIA and US Embassy, I met with provincial adoption officials in Hanoi. During these meetings many officials indicated that there is a huge need for adoptive families for children with special needs and older children.

After completing my meetings in Hanoi, I traveled to Nha Trang, located in the middle of the country. Here the environment for adoption is very different. The poverty in the area and the lack of placement opportunities for relinquishing families has presented many abandoned children who have been left to perish. Nha Trang is working hard to set up a transparent and child focused system with PSBI to create a vehicle where children who are in need of homes can be placed. It was clear that there was much need, especially for older children who had been abandoned for several years now and were expected to spend their entire youth in the orphanage.

The officials in Nha Trang were very supportive of our work and reputation and were very hopeful that we could continue our relationship.

My last stop was in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). It was here that I had a glimpse of the effect that adoption by foreign families has on attitudes toward adoption. In a meeting with provincial officials I was asked directly “why do we [US adoption agencies] only send families who want babies and have no concern for their country.” I explained the philosophy of our agency and our commitment to birth culture, our long history of working with our families, our screening process and our post placement events. However, it was clear that the officials had seen one too many families who had adopted one of their country’s beautiful children and left without a care for the culture or countrymen left behind. It was a very uncomfortable meeting. All I could do was acknowledge that we screen and train our families to appreciate their child’s heritage and of the importance of honoring their native land. Interestingly, the officials had just returned from a 10-day visit to the U.S. paid for by a U.S. adoption agency, and were getting ready to take another trip funded by a different adoption agency. It was an interesting juxtaposition of messages.

All in all, I returned with a better sense of the children in need of families in Vietnam. Although there are some infants available, the majority of the children are older or have special needs. PSBI will be editing our program information and recruitment materials to address this reality. This will mean an additional focus on families who are open to adopting waiting children. 

I also returned with a renewed sense of the importance of maintaining our “hard line” on ethical practices, even though it means that we may not receive the same numbers of referrals as other agencies. Change in the US, in Vietnam, or anywhere does not come easily. However we must remain strong in our commitment to not create incentives for families to relinquish children and not to reinforce or support the corrupt elements of the system. There are officials in Vietnam committed to ethical, transparent adoption practices and we need to do everything we can to help those people be successful in creating change. It will be a long, slow, hard fight, but it cannot be any other way. 

By Leonette Boiarski, Welcome House® Director