My Name is Life - Holt International

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India Dramatic strides for homeless and vulnerable children O“Our first priority is for the child’s survival...” These words—spoken some 20 years ago by Lata Joshi, then executive director of Holt’s partner agency, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra—reveal the urgency of Holt’s early work in India. In the mid 1970s mortality of children under two years old in government-run institutions ran as high as 70 percent. Over the 30 years since then, Holt established work in farflung parts of India such as Kashmir in the far north, Tamil Nadu in the far south and several places in between. Today, Holt partner agencies in Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai continue their life-saving work. Highly dedicated, caring and professional staff at Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK in Pune) and Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT in Bangalore) developed and maintained a level of care that reduced infant mortality nearly to zero despite taking in some of the weakest and most vulnerable children. Another longtime partner, Children of the World, Bombay (CWB) founded by Children of the World, Norway with Holt support, provides innovative services to meet the needs of vulnerable children in its community. Adoption was almost unheard of in India when Holt established its first India efforts. But today over 60 percent of the children that come into Holt’s care are placed with parents within India. “Caring for children is the best thing....” says Mary Paul, Executive Director of VCT. “This is not a job. It’s a way of life for each one of us now. And we wouldn’t want to exchange it for anything else. And so we thank God for the opportunity to work for these little ones.” Top left: Lata Joshi, former Executive Director, led BSSK through many years of program development and caring for children. Clockwise from above: Mary Paul, VCT Director, holds a child in care, 2004. The original BSSK bungalow in Pune, India, c. 1985. Dr. Navarange examines a baby at the Nishant neonatal unit, 2003. Children beg on the streets in southern India, c. 1978. Children receive loving care in the playroom at Children of the World Bombay, 2000. Roxana Kalyanvala, BSSK Executive Director, holds a child at the Nishant childcare center, 2000. A childcare worker holds a child in front of an earlier VCT building in Bangalore, 1994. Holt’s partner agency, “Share Care” in Srinigar, helped homeless children to have families until fighting in disputed Kashmir forced the program to close. In this photo then Director of International Programs (later President and CEO) John Williams holds a child while Share Care director Dr. Shanta Sanyal looks on. Padmini, photographed while in the care of BSSK in 1988, reflects the sparkle of life of a child who is loved. A year later Holt placed Padmini with an adoptive family in the United States. Today, she is Pamela Kaspin, with Kayla, a daughter of her own. Pamela is a fulltime student planning a career as an elementary teacher. 22 50th Anniversary 2006 www.holtinternational.org 23
Romania A steadfast role in improving child welfare Latin America “When I get out of hospital My brothers are expecting me home Happy that I am out away And take me in to their game.” —Translation from a poem by a young boy dying of AIDS Close to You Foundation, Romania Clockwise from top: David Kim, the first person hired by Harry Holt to help him in Korea and who later became President Emeritus of Holt, was once asked by fellow Holt employee Susan Cox what he believed was the most important contribution of adoption in Korea. He answered without hesitation, ”Elevating the importance of homeless and orphaned children.” Dr. Kim, who helped lead Holt International into new programs in Latin America, visits with a boy in Holt care in Bolivia, c.1985 • Holt-Ecuador, under the leadership of long-time Director Magdalena Cuvi, has helped hundreds of families stay together through family preservation and reunification services. Holt-Ecuador offered a wide variety of support to families whose children were at-risk. These services included: scholarships for kids, medical treatment, temporary aid, therapies, and legal protection, advocacy and more. • Blanca de Morales, long-time director of Holt’s partner agency in Guatemala, provides leadership and vision that make it a priority to give each child personal attention every day, c.1999. • Holt joined with parishioners of a church to help children at the Pimpollo orphanage in southern Mexico—2000–2002. Over the past 50 years Holt has had a presence in over 30 countries, focused on the needs of children and opportunities to serve them. Holt’s work, particularly in intercountry adoption, is based in part on regulations established by governments that enable such placements to take place. Governments change, as do other events and conditions affecting this sometimes politically charged service. In the face of harsh socioeconomic factors that leave children without families and in dire situations, Holt established programs in a number of Latin American countries in the mid-1980s. One hospital in Brazil reported that out of 400 infants born in that facility each month, 20 percent would be abandoned. Since the mid-1980s, much has changed, particularly in Latin America and countries formerly tied to and relating closely with the Soviet Union. In many countries in Latin America, authorities made intercountry adoption more restrictive, which in turn made it difficult to maintain programs. In countries such as Costa Rica and Chile, conditions improved for children, lessening the need for international organizations like Holt International. Although a number of Holt programs in Latin America never achieved the scale hoped for, the efforts of Holt’s devoted staff and partners made a profound difference in the lives of the children they served. In Ecuador, for example, 24 50th Anniversary 2006 our staff established model foster care and family preservation services that benefited many children. Holt in Guatemala Often recognized as a model of ethical practice, Holt’s partner agency, Asociación Para la Integración Familiar (APIF), strives to serve the best interests of children, most of whom are young toddlers who have been referred for care and services by the Minors Courts. APIF provides loving care to vulnerable children in its childcare centers in Guatemala City. The agency offers an alternative to large institutional care and includes services to reunite families and promote adoptive placement when returning home is not in the child’s best interest. In 1998, about 30 percent of the children being cared for by APIF were in temporary foster care programs. Those numbers are on the increase as APIF works to place these children with permanent families. Everyone’s job description includes the responsibility to pay extra special attention to a specific child within the group and to meet their needs as they arise. This gives the APIF staff permission to take the time for the children, even if the day-to-day duties do not always get done. TThe collapse of the Ceausescu government in 1990 left behind a deeply wounded society. Haunting images of children in broken-down institutions mobilized aid of all kinds. Holt International was among the first to enter. But rather than immediately move large numbers of children out of the country, Holt trained staff to investigate the backgrounds of institutionalized children. Many of the children, as it turned out, could be returned to birth parents or adopted by Romanian families. Using funds provided through a series of USAID grants in the 1990s, Holt developed a wide range of services in Romania, including foster care and programs for children who tested HIV-positive. Clockwise from top: When a family struggles to have enough food to eat and a safe place to live, they become increasingly desperate and the children become dangerously vulnerable. Holt’s partner agencies in Romania strive to prevent the damaging effects of abuse, neglect, abandonment and institutionalization. • Angela Achitei serves as Executive Director of the Close To You Foundation (CTY), one of two Holt partner agencies in Romania. CTY serves children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. • “‘Each child has the right to his own family’ is more than a fundamental right of the child or a motto that has become so well known all over the world. It is our reason to exist as a Romanian nongovernmental organization,” says Livia Trif, Executive Country Director, Holt Romania Foundation. • Baby Petru stands on his foster mother’s lap as she showers him with love and kisses in Tirgu Mures, 1999. Holt advocated for well-regulated adoption processes to protect the rights of children, birth families and adoptive parents, but weak controls allowed a host of unethical adoption practitioners to profit from children. In response Romania placed a moratorium on all international adoptions in 1999. Many agencies left the country. But Holt International remained committed to children in need. Holt continues to reach out to vulnerable children through its two partner agencies in Romania—the Holt Romania Foundation and Close to You. Today, Holt’s Romania partner agencies continue to touch the lives of thousands of children—strengthening their families, preventing abandonment, and enabling families to fulfill their own wish to provide stable, loving homes for their children. When Holt President and CEO Gary Gamer visited Holt-funded facilities in Romania in July 2005 and talked to local officials, the deputy mayor of one town told him that Holt had “changed the way we think about children.” In many ways, Holt has brought about significant changes in the way Romania cares for homeless and vulnerable children. www.holtinternational.org 25
Page 1 and 2: My Name is Life Many call me “Orp
Page 3 and 4: The Holt Story Harry and Bertha Hol
Page 5 and 6: Harry Holt: The Heart of a Humble S
Page 7 and 8: Adopting from Korea in the Early Ye
Page 9 and 10: Medical Treatment Every homeless ch
Page 11: “At KBF, we believe that the fami
Page 15 and 16: Mongolia After the abrupt dissoluti

My Name is Life - Holt International

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