Alumni Magazine & Dean's Report - I.U. School of Law - Indiana ...

Michele Jackson
is founder of the
Fatherless Foundation,
a non-profit she
established to assist
abandoned and
orphaned children
worldwide.
The service trips raise awareness of the great need that
orphans have in all countries, says Reder.
“Every mission trip makes me more determined to become
more involved, to do everything I can for the orphans, and
to educate and help others who have an interest in making a
difference in the lives of orphans,” he says.
Controversy Recent news stories about international
adoption—missionaries in Haiti accused of flouting laws to
transport Haitian children out of the country and a Tennessee
mother who sent her adopted son back to his native Russia—
have come to symbolize controversies that exist regarding the
best way to help orphans throughout the world.
Jackson is well aware of the issues, which is why she was
determined to become accredited in compliance with the
Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation
in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption (Hague
Adoption Convention), the international agreement to safeguard
international adoptions, and also why her agency offers education
Want to get involved?
The Fatherless Foundation, Inc. was established in 2006 as
a 501(C) 3, non-profit organization to raise funds to assist
orphanages, orphans and adoptive parents. The foundation
helps with providing food, clothing, school supplies and medical
care to orphans, as well as financial grants to parents seeking
to adopt. To date, the foundation has assisted orphans and
adoptive parents in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, vietnam,
Croatia, ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo as
well as the united States. volunteers provide administrative
functions for the foundation, allowing 100 percent of
contributions to be used for orphan relief.
For more information, visit www.thefatherlessfoundation.org/
and counseling throughout the adoption process.
“There is the argument that we need to change society
from the ground up so that there is no need for parents to give
away their children,” Jackson says. “I agree with that, too. But
there are still at least 143 million orphans in the world, and just
12,753 adoptions to the United States in 2009. There is still a
need for international adoptions.”
It’s the sheer scale of the orphan crisis that keeps Jackson
focused on helping children both through adoption and The
Fatherless Foundation.
Currently, she sees potential for growth in adoptions both
from Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has
staggering numbers of orphans. And, as it does every summer,
The Fatherless Foundation will bring a group of Ukrainian
orphans to Indiana for a cultural exchange experience this
summer. Children stay with host families throughout the state of
Indiana for three to four weeks to allow the children to experience
American culture and get a break from orphanage life.
“It is nice to have a profession you can love,” Jackson says.
I U S C H O O L O F L AW S U M M E R A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E