How We Can Help the Children of Casa Quivira

If you’ve been wondering what action each of us can take to help the children of Casa Quivira, here it is. The following information was posted on behalf of the in-process families on guatadopt.

It is important to contact the Chief of Staff or the Legislative Director in the Washington DC offices of your Senators and Congress members and not lower level staffers. For the contact information you can click here. If you are wondering what to say, here is an excellent sample:

To Senators/Congress members:
As you may be aware, Guatemalan authorities raided the baby home of Casa Quivira, a licensed foster home in Antigua Guatemala, with 46 babies inside, on the night of August 11. These babies were all in process to be adopted by American citizens.

We are calling you because the 42 remaining babies are in jeopardy. It is still unknown to all families involved where their children are or the status of their babies’ health and well-being.
The affected families are American citizens who entered into the adoption process in “Good Faith” and should all be able to go through the established legal Guatemalan adoption process like ALL other 5,000 in-process adoption cases.
Requests:
1. That the families affected be made aware of the location of their children, the status of the health and well being of their children. Additionally, It is in the best interest of the children to be returned to the Casa Quivira facility.
2. That the Casa Quivira cases be allowed to proceed immediately and be processed in a timely manner just like all other 5,000+ in-process adoption cases that are working through the same notarial process which is specified under Guatemalan law.
I ask that you as my Senator/Congress member contact the Department of State Office of Children’s Issues with my requests.
Contact information:
Julie Furuta-Toy Director of Office of Children’s Issues
Phone: 202-736-9083

After you’ve done that, please follow up with a fax or email to the following bodies of government:

1. Senators and Congressional reps (DC offices)

2. U.S. Government reps that are on the subcommittee that funds Guatemala (with our tax dollars). Here is a list of their names:

Senator Patrick Leahy (Chairman) (VT) Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)
Senator Tom Harkin (IA) Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Senator Richard Durbin (IL) Senator Tim Johnson (SD)
Senator Mary Landrieu (LA) Senator Jack Reed (RI)
Senator Judd Gregg (Ranking Member) (NH) Senator Mitch McConnell (KY)
Senator Arlen Specter (PA) Senator Robert Bennett (UT)
Senator Christopher Bond (MO) Senator Sam Brownback (KS)
Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) Chair: Nita M. Lowey (NY)
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (IL) Adam Schiff (CA)
Steve Israel (NY) Ben Chandler (KY)
Steven R. Rothman (NJ) Barbara Lee (CA)
Betty McCollum (MN) Dave Obey (WI)
Ex Officio Frank R. Wolf (VA) Joe Knollenberg (MI)
Mark Steven Kirk (IL) Ander Crenshaw (FL)
Dave Weldon (FL) Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

3. Consular General John Lowell in the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. That phone number is 011-502-2326-4000.

Make sure to include all your appropriate information in the fax or email. Keep it short and to the point; you can use the information posted above for the phone call.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so let’s get squeaking. I commend Kevin from guatadopt for doing this on behalf of the parents, and thank him for posting this information so that it can be shared.

Thanks to all of you for caring.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.