Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Shopping to help the Bac Lieu 16

Did you know that the families cannot visit their children or contribute to their welfare? Did you know you can?

Mothersinaction4VN
CLICK HERE TO SHOP
We are three mothers who each had an opportunity to spend time living amongst an amazing people, many of whom are struggling with poverty. We cannot forget Vietnam, or the people we met there.

In 2009, the three of us watched a video about a young boy living in the Tam Binh 2 orphanage located in Sài Gòn, a video that touched us deeply. That video set into motion the events that would lead to Mothers In Action for Vietnam. We began a dialogue about finding a way to unite the large number of bloggers we know for a common purpose. We started researching non-profit groups working in Vietnam with one goal in mind: to bring medical aid to disadvantaged children, orphans and families. In that spirit, we hope to partner with various non-profits in Vietnam by sponsoring projects that align with our goals and passions.

This idea has been born out of a great passion to see what kind of good we could do if we all united to support a series of projects with different organizations. It is our hope that with enough support, we will be able to expand our partnerships to encompass projects in the areas of orphan care, family preservation, HIV/AIDs care and education. It is in honor of our sons that we have united to form Mothers in Action for Vietnam.


Currently we are raising funds to assist the following:

Bac Lieu Social Sponsor Center, Back Lieu, Viet Nam is a small orphanage (2 rooms in a former prison) currently housing 16 children supervised by two caretakers. The children are all nearing four years old; two of whom have Hepatitis B and are not receiving regular medical treatment or monitoring. Bac Lieu is a very rural and poor province. While the orphanage receives some support from the government, on average, the children eat approximately one cup of rice per day. All of the children are showing signs of malnutrition and starvation. The children, who have been identified as orphans, were referred to families prior to the Vietnam/US adoption shutdown, but are now stuck in limbo.
Our focus and interest is in the immediate and long term care of these children and to insure that they and their caretakers receive regular and adequate food, clothing, bedding, toothbrushes, toys and vitamins. We are not in any way involved with the referred families, their former agencies or any aspect of their stalled adoptions. However, we were moved deeply after finding out about their desperate living conditions via another adoptive mother who is knowledgeable about their situation and has recently visited the province herself.
Monetary donations specifically for the above mentioned needs are being processed through an organization called Chances for Children, a nonprofit located in Scottsdale, AZ. 100% of all funds for Bac Lieu will go directly to the purchasing and delivery of supplies to these children. There is one person designated in the United States to oversee this and one person in Viet Nam designated to personally deliver all supplies.

US customers: Your donation is tax deductible. If you are interested in receiving a tax receipt from Chances for Children for your purchase, please indicate that in 'note to seller' or convo us.


www.mothersinactionforvietnam.wordpress.com

Twitter your support!

We have a Twitter Account set up, SaveVietOrphans which can be found to follow
from this link http://twitter.com/#!/SaveVietOrphans

We are 16 families who have been waiting since we received our referrals in 2008 to bring our children home. 4 kids from the Bac Lieu Province did make it home, but sadly 16 children still remain in sub par care as we continue to fight to bring them home. We were all referred before the MOU expired and should be processed as such. We have the support of some of our politicians, but could use more support and are asking for the help of fellow adoptive parents. Will you follow our Twitter account and retweet to help call attention to our plight? The support of each of you and anyone you know that may also see the injustice in all of this would be welcomed. Our families and our children thank you!

Suggested Tweets:
Government bars American family from contacting daughter:http://t.co/rAlJt6l #baclieu #vietnam Please RT

KC couple’s Vietnamese #adoption stuck in limbo - KansasCity.com:http://t.co/AJmqTRJ #baclieu #vietnam Please RT

16 Vietnamese kids, US families in #adoption limbo - KansasCity.com: http://t.co/YVIN5qx #baclieu #vietnam Please RT

Please follow @SaveVietOrphans and retweet messages as they fight for their 16 children in #baclieu #vietnam

Local teacher takes adoption plea to D.C. http://t.co/7FhnFSU #baclieu #vietnam

Area family caught in international adoption dispute http://t.co/k2pJsV7 via @daytondailynews #baclieu #vietnam

16 children in #BacLieu #Vietnam have waited over 3 years to be united with their parents in the US. Please help them find their way home.

Help #baclieu #adoption by signing this: http://t.co/IimDuPo

Check us out on facebook - {Bring Home the Bac Lieu 16}

A facebook group has been created to support the Bac Lieu 16 and their waiting families. Please, join the group and show your support!! Pass it on! Together we are stronger!

Bring Home the Bac Lieu 16

Let DC know what you think!

Please sign the following petition to help bring the 16 Bac Lieu children home to their families. You can quickly and easily sign the petition, forward letters to your representatives and President Obama, and pass on the link to your friends and family. It doesn't get easier then that to make a difference in the life of 16 orphans!

http://www.petition2congress.com/4665/bring-home-bac-lieu-orphans/

Government bars American family from contacting daughter

Read the full article HERE

NEW YORK, June 21, 2011— When seven-year-old Ciaran Long was told that he was about to welcome a baby sister, he had no idea that he would be waiting three long years and still be no closer to her than holding her photograph. Neither did his parents.

“To say that he can’t understand all this is an understatement,” relates his mother Beth Long. “We can’t understand it ourselves.”

Matthew and Beth Long of Merritt Island, Florida received their approval to adopt a little girl they have named Ava in August 2008. She is living at Bac Lieu, an orphanage in a rural area in the southwestern part of Vietnam, about an eight-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon).

At the time of their referral, their agency told them that they would travel to Vietnam to bring her home within four to five months. Those few months stretched into more months and then into years. “We have kept our lives on hold, waiting and waiting for Ava,” says Beth. The family has kept a room for her, full of toys and clothing that she regularly outgrows.

The Longs are one of sixteen families, known as the “pipeline” families who were given U.S. and Vietnamese approval to adopt orphans back in 2008, but who have been trapped in limbo as regulations in both countries shift and change.

The Longs, like the other pipeline families, are living in an absurdist, Kafka-esque world, with shifting political landscapes and maddening red tape, all of which has led to the suffering of their daughter, who has been condemned to life an orphanage with few nutritional, medical and educational resources in one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces.

“It’s unreal. These children have been there for two years, told they have a family, that their family is coming, but we don’t and they can’t understand it. They’re losing trust in adults,” notes Beth. “They are building up serious trust issues that will haunt them for life.”

KC couple’s Vietnamese adoption stuck in limbo

Read the full article HERE

Marsha and Chuck Sailors have cards printed with the words “Let Claire Yen come home.”

One might think the couple is campaigning for the release of a political prisoner. In a way, they are.

Claire is a 3 1/2 -year-old Vietnamese girl the Sailors had every reason to think they were bringing home in 2008 to live with them and grow up in Kansas City.

Instead, the Sailors and the girl they consider their daughter are caught in a tangle involving international relations, the U.S. State Department and the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption.

It’s a maddening and heart-wrenching mess. And while bureaucrats in both Vietnam and the United States are doing their bureaucratic things, the Sailors say Claire is growing up undernourished in southern Vietnam in a moldy orphanage that used to be a prison. It even has bars on the windows.

“When you’re 3 years old, you should weigh more than 20 pounds,” Marsha Sailors said in her home adorned with photographs of Claire, who despite her small size has bright eyes and a wide smile. “We want to fatten her up.”

Compounding their frustration, the Sailors have been to Vietnam nine times and have spent a total of five months bonding with the girl. They are attached to her and she to them. Their pictures are on her wall and pillow.

16 Vietnamese Kids, US Families In Adoption Limbo

Read the full article HERE

Marsha Sailors painted the nursery pink and green at her Missouri home, put up princess pictures and built a crib for her new little girl. They hadn't yet met, but she already was in love with the smiling 6-month-old in a photo sent from Vietnam.

Three birthdays have since passed, but the child has never slept in the room or worn the clothes hanging in the closet.

Sailors and her husband visited the girl they named Claire a combined nine times in unsuccessful attempts to bring her home, and now are barred from any further contact.

Instead, Claire remains stuck inside a decaying Vietnamese orphanage along with 15 other kids who also have American families waiting to adopt them. Their cases went into bureaucratic limbo in 2008 when Washington suspended its adoption agreement with Vietnam over broad suspicions of fraud and baby selling.

"I just can't spend a lot of time in her room because it's just so sad," said Sailors, from Kansas City, who celebrated the past two Christmases at the orphanage in southern Bac Lieu province with her husband Chuck before authorities barred the visits in January.

"We're just longing to bring her home because otherwise her future ... I can't go very far down that road before my heart starts to break," she said.