For this Child sponsored ADA
The funding of this joint work of FOA and ADA has been provided by many people whose lives have been touched by adoption. Although we will never be able to thank each and all of them individually, we want to express our gratitude to Traci Orr, of "For This Child", who worked very hard to raise THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS to fund the activities of ADA. Those funds have been used in an education campaign to change the way Guatemalan adoptions are perceived by the public in general and by the Guatemalan authorities in particular. Part of that campaign was the grant that allowed five Guatemalan congressmen to attend to the Second World Conference of Children Without Parental Care, that took place in Worcester, MA, in November.(co-sponsored by International Advocates for Children, Focus On Adoption, and Center for Adoption Research.) The Congressmen were able to attend the conference and to listen to people of many countries express their support of adoptions, even though many of them were public officers or delegates of the central authorities of their countries. For the Congressmen, it was a very enlightening experience. It was reinforced the next day when they attended a gathering of adoptive families sponsored by Wide Horizons, where hundreds of families and their children got together to celebrate adoption. Later in the day, they were invited to the home of the adoptive family of three Guatemalan boy, where they were joined by other families of children of our country. More than a thousand words, the love that they could see there, convinced the congressmen that adoption is a wonderful option that must remain open. Thank you Traci, and all of you who made this possible. God bless you.