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Scrolling through the Google alerts, I came across an article on “The Baptist Standard” website about a recent trip there to work in and with the orphanages. At first glance I was very excited to see the wonderful work they are doing. My excitement was boosted to see they work with the Manchen Girls Home which is where our Mia was during the time they had an infant wing. There definitely is a great thing happening with this effort.
Currently, they work in 12 private and government-run orphanages in Guatemala City, Antigua, Zacapa, Xela and Huehuetenango. They also send aid to many others, including the government-run community centers overseen by Secretary of Orphan Protection Carmen Alicia de Weiner.
Buckner delivered more than 9,000 pairs of new shoes from the Shoes for Orphan Souls project to needy children in the government daycare centers in 2006.
“We value not just the economic help, which I would say is very important, but most importantly how our children feel the love of the people who come and visit them,” Weiner said. “You can see the difference when the group is from Buckner and when the group is another type of volunteers. … Our kids really feel the love and concern.”
Buckner celebrated the opening of its transitional girls’ home in Guatemala City earlier this year through a partnership with entrepreneur Isabel de Bosch, owner of a restaurant chain in Guatemala.
The home cares for seven teenaged girls—three from the Manchen Girl’s Home and four from Fundaninas Girl’s Home, owned by de Bosch—as they transition out of the orphanage and prepare for life on their own. Each attends private school and receives help from specialized tutors in the afternoons.
As great as this is (and you can read the article at by clicking here) I was taken aback by the portayal of adoptions written in the article.
Guatemala has the third-highest number of adoptions in the world because many of the children are acquired through illegal means and baby trafficking. It is not uncommon for women to make a business out of having babies and selling them, earning as much as 10,000 quetzals ($1,000) for each child, said Buckner adoptions coordinator Paula Anleu.
In Guatemala—with its 12 million population—officials declared more than 5,000 adoptions completed in 2005. The United States in comparison, with a population of 300 million, completed about 1,000, Anleu noted.
“The system is very corrupt,” she said. “It’s hard when lawyers are doing adoptions much faster than us, in just two to three months, when it takes about six to eight months to do it legally. They are just further promoting families to make a business out of selling their babies.”
I know that there definitely are unethical practices going on throughout the legal system in Guatemala. Why is it that the information that is getting out makes it appear that it is completely that way. Nothing in the article paints the picture of all of those who have painfully made the choices they did and of those couples who have waited diligently through all of the checkpoints. It just makes me sad that in an article that does a beautiful job highlighting the good this group does, misinformation is leaked in to darken the view of adoptions in this country.
Blatant lying certainly cannot be considered “Christian like.” In addition, some of these “so called corrupt” lawyers who help place children with families in the U.S. aren’t stipulting Christian families only.
The person who wrote this article disgusts me.
Lisa S. mother to a wonderful Guatemalan baby girl
I have to believe that the writer of this article is familiar only through the eyes of someone disgruntled at the system. With the work that they are doing I know that they have good intentions. If I was told that information by someone I trusted I too would be outraged. It’s just sad that they didn’t dig any deeper.
I lived in Guatemala for a year, ran a school there, and have been multiple times, so I have seen firsthand how much corruption there is and how difficult it is sometimes to spot it unless one’s on the inside. We probably want to adopt from Guatemala, but we are likely going to adopt a slightly older child (less likelihood of a baby sale) and are going to investigate very carefully. I can understand how frustrating it is to read this article if you’ve adopted and feel it’s painting an unfair picture, something that doesn’t apply to your particular situation, but as a generalization there unfortunately is a lot to it, and it’s important that people know so that we can provide homes for children that truly need homes but be cautious so as not to support the baby-making industry and corruption. I fully support adopting from Guatemala BUT it must be with OPEN EYES and a willingness to walk away when corruption raises its head.
I agree that people need to have their eyes open when in the process. It is very important to be aware of what is happening in the country. To ignore it would be wrong. However, it is just as wrong to paint the picture that the thousands of adoptions done last year were somehow not legitamate. There has to be a balanced approach to how the situation is presented. It is not sufficient to simply say that it has become a baby market and that mothers are farming their children away. This may be the case for some but definitely not the majority. There are many lawyers who are greedy and sorry human beings for the way they treat families. Not all of the lawyers are that way. In fact there are some very good compassionate lawyers as well.
The problems in Guatemala socially, politically, and economically run quite deep and reach out much further than just those involved with adoptions. It does not make it right however to post a half truth in this article in order to raise up the work they are doing and make it look better. What they are doing IS already awesome.
Thanks so much for your comments. They truly shed light on the subject!