The following account was submitted to the editors of VVAI by a well-connected American currently living in Vietnam who is seeking to adopt and wishes to remain anonymous.
It seems that it works like this:
Americans that get so far along in the adoption process as to arrive in VN are, for lots of reasons (financial and emotional commitment, fear, timidity, a personal strong distaste for failing, and a refusal to abort the process no matter what at this point) intent on moving through the final bits in a kind of intense daze, not questioning or wanting to discover anything amiss. They want to get their baby, hold onto that baby, and get out of here.
All the different connections I have have led up to one day’s meeting with an ‘adoption facilitator’ here, not Vietnamese, call her ‘X‘, registered with the VN DIA and on first name basis with them. ‘X‘ is a very ‘old hand’ here in VN. As almost a personal favor, I was going to be fed the inside connections by ‘X‘ to just get assigned a baby and – done. I got names and phone numbers and the list of documents I needed first. (I’ve gotten those before so I’m familiar with that process.) Actual bribes I’d really need to pay when all is said and done? I went no further.
I’m going very slow. The shenanigans are everywhere and nothing moves that is not a part of what we’d call ‘corruption’.
Bingo. I made friends with a lady… I told her about my adoption quest. She then told me about a ‘daughter-in-law of a foreigner’ she knows personally that makes a lot of money being involved in that. She paid cash for a condo in the most expensive development in the city. Big bucks. That lady is married to a white son of ‘X‘ (by name), as I learned. Small world. The daughter-in-law goes around to remote villages and finds babies that are very young and look good (‘good enough for a foreigner’) and she buys them. Actually, as my friend here in Hanoi says, “she helps these poor people who are dirt-dirt poor by taking their youngest and giving the family money to improve the lives of all the family members.” A noble deed. No papers are gotten regarding the baby-buying, no receipts, no photos taken, no info of the parents, nothing.
‘X‘ is actually a registered NGO (non-profit organization) that gets tax-deductable donation money from Americans to help run orphanages that the NGO runs, under the eye of the VN gov’t. That money pays orphanage expenses, including salaries. The orphange manager, paid by ‘X‘ through the salary, takes in the babies brought in from the countryside by the daughter-in-law. The orphanage then papers these babies as ‘abandoned at the doorstep’ (and foreigners are told that this is very common nowadays). They then can be adopted.
‘X‘ works directly with the VN gov’t in several ways: 1) in getting registered as a facilitator, 2) in getting gov’t permission to run the orphanages, 3) in handling the clients of the facilitating agency and 4) in getting the DIA people to refer adopting people to the babies that were purchased and now lie in ‘X‘s orphanages.
The American adopting people have no idea what’s going on and believe what they’re told, which, as far as the baby’s origin is concerned, is all lies.
The facilitator (‘X‘) has a specific ‘order’ from the American adopting people – what they want exactly (sex, age). The daughter-in-law (and perhaps others) go shopping (scout the villages) to fill the orders. This is why it takes months to ‘locate’ a baby suitable for the adopting people. It’a a lot of work finding these babies!
The American adopting people go to the orphanage and more or less get their baby. Then its just finishing up the paperwork.
One important component is the ‘gratutity’ to the orphanage manager. The money he gets is split-up, some going to the DIA, some to the manager, some for ‘X‘, etc. This is a sizeable piece of money. About this you know from the American end. From Vietnamese people (lawyers, friends), I hear that this gratuity alone is $10,000 minimum. This is cash. The adopting people are afraid. They know that it is a bribe and that its got to be at least semi-illegal. The US Embassy, being in the belly of this beast, accepts that the gratuity must be and will be paid. They will not consider it a bribe (which would turn the whole thing into possible baby-buying) and will not consider this to be something that should block issuance of a US visa to the baby. In effect they ignore it.
Still, the Americans are afraid and, I think, will lie about the size of that gratuity to their dying day. They can feel that this money is feeding/creating the whole thing. You may have heard how much some have paid in this one envelope. But I doubt that the number told is real.
So, ‘X’, in setting up this rather elaborate scheme, has two ‘legitimate’ sources of income: 1) adoption facilitator fee and 2) salary as an officer of the non-profit that ‘X‘ created to run the orphanages, plus one under the table – part of the undeclared gratuity money that is given to the orphanage manager.
‘X‘s expenses are also met in part through use of the tax-deductable donations to the non-profit organization by rich Americans. The actual source of the money used to pay the DIA people and to buy the babies (and travel expenses) is muddled in the whole scheme of things. Just about everything in VN is cash. Anything can be written in papers.
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The editors of VVAI have not confirmed or verified this information, but we believe this is an account that needs to be heard. (It also sounds very similar to this account from the Irish Independent last year.) Awareness is the first step in preventing corruption, we can not close our eyes to these types of practices and just hope they go away. However, it would be wrong to assume that every adoption in Vietnam is done in this manner. There are some agencies who make every effort to follow all the proper procedures and protect the best interests of the children. Such agencies generally maintain agency-staffed offices in the provinces in which they are licensed; in addition, a good agency will make every effort to verify the background of every child they refer.
39 Responses
THANK YOU, for posting this. It’s scary as hell, but needs to be told and heard. When we’d come home from VN with our son, and I found that Irish Times article, I was SCARED TO DEATH. More people need to hear this stuff and know just how bad the situation likely is in the world of VN adoptions. Ok, I’m going to go barf and have a panic attack now! But thank you again for allowing this account to be published on VVAI. This blog is such an important resource for ALL families involved with VN adoptions.
It is scary but I am still hopeful this is the exception and not the rule. It does happen, it is the reality, but with careful agency selection it doesn’t have to be the reality for our own children.
This comes as no surprise to my partner and I (as we wind our way through the adoption process) and it frustrates me to know that others might take offense or try to say that this DOESN’T happen. I want to believe that each of these purchased babies only go to the best of homes, but frankly- if they’re willing to BUY a child to begin with, how can we trust who they SELL that child to? I want to reassure your readers who already have brought home their children from VN that they should be profoundly grateful (on behalf of their babies) that their infants went to homes deserving of them; and to remind them that no matter how scary these stories are, in the end, for THEIR child, it all worked out for the best.
Thank you for posting this! It’s strange how something like this can be startling, yet at the same time completely unsurprising and expected. And you’re absolutely right that even if something cannot at this time be confirmed that does not mean it should be swept under the rug and ignored. Indeed it has been ignored for far too long. It just frustrates me so badly to know that even something like this will not make some people think twice.
I am of the opinion that this is an irresponsible post. If “X” woman is actually sweeping the streets and “buying” babies this should not be thrown around lightly or anonymously. We all know that in every society illegal and unsavory things happen right along with the good. By posting this account, true or not, with no factual information to back it you are sending panic and terror into the adoption community. I know that you “disclaimed” the info as unverified and unconfirmed but you are still responsible for what you put on your site. I assume that you wanted to raise awareness but I think this post instills fear and helplessness instead.
Like Laurie I just want to puke after reading this. It isn’t a shock to me, I know corruption is a reality in parts of Vietnam adoption. I’m wondering, if a family in deep, deep poverty is so willing to sell their baby for the money would they not also be willing to sign papers for relinquishment? And what about other countries. Is the US the only country that pays an ‘international fee’ when adopting? The post tends to suggest that the US is responsible for ‘feeding’ this beast of corruption, knowingly or not, but I think the responsibility may lie farer and wider than just the US. Just wondering….
I don’t think that this post instills fear and helplessness. I think information is powerful, and a post like this gives a PAP power to know what hard questions to ask. We all have the tools to find agencies that would not participate in this behaviour and to avoid the agencies that would.
JennyB – the problem, as I understand it, is that there are a large number of “unpapered” babies living rurally. These babies have no documentation at all to begin with so signing relinquishment documents would be impossible. Regardless, selling babies for money is illegal, whether relinquishments are signed or not, and these babies would not be considered legal orphans by the US.
The US is not in this alone however we have the money and we have far far more adoptions in a given year than any other nation, roughly 23,000. France is second behind the US with around 4000 int’l adoptions a year. In fact estimates are that the world completes about 40,000 intercountry adoptions a year, so the US contributes over 50% to that worldwide total. Given those estimates, it is easy to see how powerful our presence is.
Anyone still claiming that VN gender requests are harmless needs to take a look at this post. We all know what type of babies this lady is hunting for.
So these kids look to the outside world like abandoned babies? Lovely.
this article, while I know things like this may happen, sounds fishy. The comment about ‘rich americans’ donating money to the non-profit.. really? Do only rich Americans donate money? Because I donate a lot of money each year to different causes and no one has ever accused me of being rich.
K, I can’t speak for the author’s true intent but the way I read it was that this is the way some Vietnamese view us adoptive parents. I have encountered this in other ways, myself, and not just with the Vietnamese but with even people here in the US. So maybe that’s why I read it that way. I believe most adoptive parents are probably closer to the middle class end of things than the upper class but those in an impoverished nation such as Vietnam may view it otherwise.
I have to agree with Anna and K about this post. We have the responsibility to educate ourselves, not to believe every unverified, anonymous source out there. I am not blind to the ethical issues surrounding international adoption. I will not turn my back on Legitimate information. I will also not accept as fact, or even as possible fact a post from an anonymous person accusing another anonymous person of a crime. If this person really believes there is something this terrible going on, then don’t post on a blog. Go after “x”. Go to the U.S. Embassy with the information that you have. I would encourage this anonymous poster to disseminate real information, names, and locations, not vague horror stories. I think posting this type of information that has absolutely no backing is dangerous and harmful. Help us to educate ourselves with legitimate information! I appreciate that your website has a mission to educate families in the adoption community, which is an incredibly noble cause; however, in my very practical mind, this type of post compromises the validity of your website.
Just to clarify, we have very much verified the source. We could not possibly verify one’s personal, private experiences but we do make every effort to verify any source and if there was a doubt as to a source’s credibility (and often there is), we would not publish the information.
Unfortunately I know of at least one case of direct information sharing to the Embassy in which they refused to respond at all, much less act. You are making an assumption that the Embassy, in fact, does not know about this situation and others like it.
It is hard to determine whether or not this information is factual or not. It is NOT written by a first generation American, and I doubt this person is looking to adopt. It is filled with anti-Americanism, and uses English in a way that a native born speaker would not. One has the sense of a jealous person looking back from the other side of a fish bowl. It seems more like a person intent on dissuading Americans from adopting in Vietnam.
For whatever it is worth, although I don’t see how it is relevant anyway–I disagree that there is anything about the language that the writer to not be a native English speaker.
I don’t have the impression that the person wishes to dissuade Americans from adopting from Vietnam, but rather to dissaude Americans from using agencies that use facilitators who buy babies.
excuse my lousy grammar there–I left out a word–IMO the person may or may not be American–but I didn’t see anything to indicate he/she isn’t a native English speaker.
I also take issue with the comment in the disclaimer section about choosing a good agency. I have read the other post on selecting an agency and I wholeheartedly agree with your recommendations. As adoptive parents it is our job to make the best decision we can with the information we have. However, would an agency ever admit to “turning a blind eye”? And for that matter if these “abandonment paperwork forgers” wanted to pull the wool over an agency’s eyes, I am sure they could. Our part, as adoptive parents is a relatively small piece of the puzzle. If the things in that post are even remotely true, that person has a HUGE responsibility to do more than post on a US blog! And if you, as editors of this blog, have more information that leads you to have trust in your guest, then you also have a responsibility to pursue it!
Anna–there are agencies out there who are doing far more than “turning a blind eye”, and there are PAPs who are sticking their fingers in their ears going “lalalalala I can’t hear you lallalala” because they want a young baby fast. It is happening now. Why is this version of events so difficult for some to believe given the documented evidence in the Irish newspaper that similar things have happened in Vietnam? And I disagree that our part is a small piece of the puzzle. If PAPs would not use corrupt agencies they wouldn’t be in business. There are a few APs who are home with their kids who are telling the honest hard truth about what they witnessed in Vietnam, as difficult as it may be for them. Others need to stand up as well.
I am certainly not trying to minimize the role of the adoptive parent; I agree that it is very important. In fact herein lies the power. My point was, and still is, that this post does not empower the average adoptive parent. As a parent awaiting referral, what am I to do, other than walk away in sheer horror of this post? I think this is an important issue that needs to be approached responsibly and proactively and this post just does not do that! And S, if you know of agencies, for a fact, that are turning a blind eye, name them! All of us are just left to speculate if it is our agency to which you are referring. It is not so hard to believe that baby trafficking and all the ugliness that goes with it occurs, it is the post that is hard to have any confidence in.
Anna-
In response to your question:
“what am I to do, other than walk away in sheer horror of this post?”
I would say that if you cannot say with 100% certainty that your agency is not doing what this post talks about, or any part of it, you absolutely should walk away, and find a new agency.
A great place to do that would be the Adoption Agency Research Yahoo Group. On that group there is MUCH information and resources about how to choose ethical agencies. There is a list of ethical agencies for Vietnam and a list of the criteria that needed to be met in order to be on the ethical agency list.
Some of us knew about situations like this prior to starting our adoptions, and for that reason chose agencies that have consistently lived up to their reputation of best practices for decades in Vietnam and all of the other countries that they work in.
I am in agreement with Anna with regard to the unethical agency issue. Individuals on this and other boards keep saying over and over again that it is our responsibility as PAPs to work only with ethical agencies, and that there are many PAPs out there “turning a blind eye” and working with unethical agencies. Yet, no one ever dares to mention which agencies these are. I have done research on the adoption agency research group and, frankly, find positive and negative posts about just about every agency that I have researched. Or I can’t find out any information at all, good or bad. What am I to do about that? Am I to work (as some would suggest) with an agency that has the longest wait time for a heathly female infant because those that don’t must be unethical? I just wish those posters who keep bad mouthing PAPs for choosing to work with unethical agencies would put their money where there mouth is and name names. I just don’t think it is as simple as PAPs turning a blind eye or “sticking their fingers in there ears and going lalalala”. I think the vast majority of PAPs do as much diligent research as they can and then ultimately put trust in the fact that what their agency is telling them is true, and that they are operating ethically.
Kim,
I agree with you that the majority of PAPs are trying to make the right choice. Recently I have encountered some very vocal cases of PAPs refusing to listen to the solid evidence against some agencies, so I am a little burned out on sharing my opinions privately.
I have not personally witnessed or experienced firsthand what I believe to be true about certain agencies based on firsthand accounts, but honestly–it wouldn’t take a rocket science to figure out which agencies are the questionable ones. If a PAP searches the archives on the various yahoo groups, and posts asking for additional info. from those who choose to respond privately, I believe it becomes pretty clear which agencies to avoid. Keep in mind that many people may not name agencies in writing because agencies have sued parents in the past.
S.,
I’ve done as you’ve suggested and, like I said before, I have heard positive and negative things about every agency I’ve researched. I guess I am nowhere near a rocket scientist because I haven’t thus far been able to unlock the pandora’s box of unethical agencies. Like many PAPs, I am relying on the personal opinions – many conflicting – of whatever posters happen to be plugged in at the time. Additionally, I think it is a bit unrealtic to ask all PAPs to navigate through the web of Yahoo groups to figure this out. I’m sure many look at BBB records, ask tough questions, call references, and then in the end just go with their gut that they have made the right choice. Plus, how do you know what opinions on these Groups to trust? Like I said above, I have heard opinions (including on this site) that if an agency is promising less than 18+ months for a healthy infant girl referral, then by definition that agency must be unethical. I happen to be working with an agency that is still quoting low referral timelines for infant girls. I have the highest confidence that they are operating ethically and they have thus far provided nothing but superior customer service. Why do they have quicker referral times? Because they are a smaller agency with a lot less families on their waiting list than the large ones with 200+ families waiting.
Kim – are you saying that you have heard unethical things about every agency you’ve researched?
Frankly if you do a good job on your research you WILL hear positive and negative things about every agency out there. No agency is ALL good or ALL evil and anyone who claims so probably has an agenda.
However there is a big big difference between bad information and unethical behavior. I can’t believe you’ve truly researched all 42 agencies and heard unethical stories about each of them.
Kim,
First of all, the rocket scientist comment did not come out right–I did not intend to suggest anything about the intelligence of those posting here, so I am sorry if I unintentionally offended with that remark.
OK…
About the yahoo groups–really, I don’t think it is asking too much of PAPs to join the relevant groups, search the archives for information on whatever agency they are contemplating using, and to post a question asking for further information. Choosing an agency is potentially one of the single most important decisions for our families, so a few hours of extra research is realistic to expect, IMO. I know there are conflicting opinions, and that is where I would weigh the information. *How* an agency behaves when things go wrong is crucial to me. There are ethical agencies with lousy customer service–what is more important–getting immediate answers to my phone calls or knowing that my baby was truly an orphan? Ideally, you would have both–but sometimes choices have to be made. I am very fortunate–although I haven’t traveled yet, I am lucky to be with an agency with fantastic customer service and a firm and clear commitment, that has been communicated to the agency staff and orphanages in Vietnam, to committing ethical adoptions.
I have found that reading blogs is an also an awesome source of information about agencies–there are several agencies who I would never consider using based on firsthand accounts reported in blogs of APs. Yes, it takes time–at the beginning of this process I stayed up many late nights learning how the process worked and about the practices of various agencies by reading blogs start to finish–it is pretty easy to skim to find the relevant information. It is incredibly difficult to choose an agency–but the stakes couldn’t be higher, for our future children and for all of the orphans in Vietnam.
Personally I’m glad to see this post as well as the more recent one. Sure, I wish Ms. X was named because of course I’m dying of curiousity but I completely understand why she isn’t – and perhaps it’s better for all of us to wonder anyway. As much as I’d love to think I picked an adoption program that was squeeky clean, I’ve learned more and more each day of the year-plus I’ve been working towards having my son that adoption from Vietnam is far from clean or easy. I’m not sure if any country’s program is clean, but I have great concerns about Vietnam in particular. The more I read, and get in touch with people via email in addition to blogs and Yahoo groups, the more I hear first-hand what people experience and it is saddening and terrifying. Yes, I wish too that we could name names of who the unethical agencies are – but I understand why it can’t be done. Agencies sue people, lie about their identities and post on Yahoo groups, have dedicated clients who forward messages to them, etc. I have many a suspicion about some of the agencies out there, but it is difficult as every agency has their satisfied clients too. I have confidence in the ethics of my agency – but at the same time, it is taking forever to get the program going exactly because of their ethics. I’ve thought about changing, but to who? A year of observing and reading, and I still think things are murky – I’m probably far more confused about what’s what now than ever before. Out of the 42 agencies I have a few I sure wouldn’t use, a few I would trust (but most have program limitations or are temporarily closed) and many I just don’t know about.
Is it hard to read these kinds of posts, or the accounts that you can find mostly on the Adoption Agency Group? Absolutely. Do I believe every detail I read? No, but there are patterns.
I know I can’t change the program single-handedly and perhaps I’d be enjoying the process more if I turned away from things like this. But I do feel it’s my responsibility to be aware, critical and informed.
Unfortunately I do believe this account has a lot of fact behind it. There are unethical agencies getting a virtually bottomless pool of referrals from somewhere – I’m sure there are many methods of accomplishing that, but this is pretty likely and certainly wouldn’t be unique just to Vietnam. As uncomfortable as it may be to read, I highly disagree that it was wrong of the site to post it.
Thanks as always for having this site!
I want to respond regarding the original poster’s comment of, “the orphanage then papers these babies as ‘abandoned at the doorstep’ (and foreigners are told that this is very common nowadays).” The poster seems to infer that what Americans are being told — abandonments are common — is not necessarily true. I would agree with that inference, mostly in light of how things “used to be” before the shutdown.
When we adopted our daughter from Vietnam in 2003, our agency regularly told PAPs of the possibility of meeting the birth mother/family at the G&R. In fact, the idea that we could know and even meet our child’s first mother was one of the reasons we chose to adopt from Vietnam. (And, we did meet her.) For folks following APV at the time (blogs were not yet the rave), roughly half of PAPs reported meeting the birth mother at the G&R. Now, consider what is being reported currently by PAPs in-country. Although I don’t read lots of blogs, of those I have read, not once have I come across a PAP meeting their new child’s birth family. Why is that?
Relinquishments are not illegal in Vietnam as they are in China. And, although being a single unmarried mother is culturally frowned upon in Vietnam, many single women do choose to parent their children and/or do not hide the fact that they relinquished a child to an orphanage. So, again, why would there be so many more abandonments now than five years ago? What would be the incentive, if any, for a woman to cut off any future possibility of ever finding her child such as is the case with abandonments?
I do not have the answers, but I think questions such as this are well worth pondering as we discuss the current state of adoptions in Vietnam.
Thank you for posting this.
The reality is that many of us have been hearing bits and pieces of this since VietNam reopened. I am saddened to say that none of this comes as a huge surprise.
This iinformation needs to be out there. We need to be talking about it.
I am mother to a six year old born in VietNam in 2001.
I need to say that as parents we need to understand that we will be held to account – by our children. As it should be. This will all be known to them and more. This is a thought that I reflect on often.
Mary Hart
Ignorance is no excuse. We all have the same tools available to us. I agree completely with the poster who wrote that if we don’t believe 100% that our agencies are working to complete ethical adoptions that we SHOULD WALK AWAY. I am thoroughly disgusted by the people who post to the yahoo groups – almost on a daily basis – looking for nothing more than the agency that will give them a baby the FASTEST. When did that become #1 on the list of criteria? Shameful.
I would believe every word in your article, there are a lot of other nationalities adopting in Vietnam, it is not just a US problem it is a worldwide adoption problem. I think I know the identity of the lady involved, enough said.
Where are all the red flag facilitators that have been exposed in recent years for baby trafficking, Soland, La Trace etc. Suprise, suprise they are all still working in Vietnam, they are facilitating adoptions today, they work in the background using false names, they very seldom meet PAP’s, the agencies employ local named facilitators and pay them $200 a month, these are always very nice personable people who react well with PAP’s and their adoptive children.
As I have said they get $200 per month, a good salary in Vietnam, as far as I know facilitators do not have to register with the DIA, but the agency must be licensed. The people who make the real money are the rogue facilitators they receive between $3,000 to $10,000 per adoption. In one particular province the set fee for a referral is $3,000. There has never been a referral from that province unless the $3,000 was paid. One of the US licensed agencies was blacklisted in the province, the reason being that the rogue facilitator who was effectively running that Province had been sacked by the blacklisted agency when unethical behaviour was discovered a year earlier.
Your writer also brought up the problem of the childs paperwork. A lot of births are not registered in Vietnam, the reason being that it costs “dong” to register a birth. When MS X identifies a child for adoption, she pays the parent/parents $500, these familys are usually very poor but MS X will tell the parents that the children will be well fed, educated and will come back and take care of them in their old age. As a birth cert is necessary for adoption (you need one to get a Vietnamese passport) the child is then registered, maybe under their right name, sometimes under a false name. The reason for the false name is when the province put the regulatory notice in the local paper locking for objections to the adoption no one objects as no one recognises the name or family.
The question is, do the licensed agencies know what is going on? the answer is yes. A number of licensed agencies paid the Vietnamese to be licensed. I have had a long correspondence with one particular agency owner who was very sore that he/she had to pay $50,000 to be licensed. This was not an official fee, this was paid in cash to a quartermaster of the DIA on one of their many trips to the US.
Another licensed agency gave their first 4 PAP’s a discount if they paid all their fees upfront, this was to facilitate paying their fee to be licensed.
If you go back over the various threads on AAR you will find some agencies who were offering Vietnamese Adoption Programs before they were licensed, when they were confronted they sais they were going to be licensed anyday, they knew because they had paid.
I have to say that not all US agencies paid, some have had very strong humanitarian projects over a number of years, they were too risky for the Vietnamese to approach.
Brendan
Please stop. You are breaking up the American dream running on autopilot in my rich, naive little American head.
Karen
I also believe every word of that article. We adopted from Vietnam in 2005 from Ireland. Unknown to us, the Irish adoption board had hired a rogue facilitator. When we met her in Vietnam, she presented us with 3 different babies. 2 of the babies were already waiting to be adopted by other families, when she was told this, she simply placed them back in their cots and choose another from the nursery.
We have no idea what happened to the baby in our referral photo. We shouted as loud as we could about this woman on our return, did anyone want to listen ???? NO. To this day a collegue of that woman is assisting adoptions from Vietnam to Ireland. Do the pap’s in Ireland care where the babies are comming from, or if the adoption is ethical. again NO, they just care how fast it will be and how young the child is.
Sarah
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I find it hard to comprehend, Sarah, that you have issues with vietnamese adoptions, understandably so with being handed another baby that is different from the photo. but in saying that you accepted the new baby and kept quiet until you had the adoption completed (or so it seems). then when you arrived home, u decided to shout about it. why didn’t you voice your concerns or issues with the facilitator at the time of of adopion or if you had issues with the ethicity or legality of the adoption, why didn’t you show a halt to it if it affected you so much! i really do think you need to think twice before damming us pap as you have done. for your information, we have specified no preference in sex or infancy age so to speak and here we are being tarred as people who don’t care once we get a child as quick as possible.
Apologies for my badly worded post, I rephrase, we “attempted” to adopt from vietnam in 2005, when we were presented with a 3rd child, in a matter of seconds, we did walk away. We left Vietnam without the child referred to us, or any other child. Apologies for not making that clear.
Sarah did not name the facilitator but I will, her name is My Linh Soland a convicted fraudster in the US. She has served a prison term in the US. She is still facilitating adoptions in Vietnam. She was last seen this summer with a group of PAP’s in the Somerton Hotel in Hanoi.
The reason that she lost her job facilitating Irish Adoptions was not because the Irish Adoption Board took action, they had been contacted on a number of occasions by Maxine Cawswell of OASIS and numerous other people raising concerns about her previous history.
She was removed because PAP’s took action, there was an article in the National Press and public outcry got rid of her. What did the Irish Adoption Board do after they were forced to sack her, they allowed Soland to publish a rebuttal on their website which allowed her portray herself as the Mother Theresa of Vietnamese adoptions. I nearly cried into my Irish Coffee reading it. were they trying to justify their actions or hers.
You would think they would have learnt a lesson, what did they do, they hired her assistant Ms. Binh as the new facilitator, she now facilitates Irish Adoptions.
Last month I contacted John Collins CEO of the Irish Adoption Board because 7 Irish PAP’s were shook for $250 each in cash $1,750 in total as a contribution for the upkeep of older children in the Orphanage.
Knowing Soland’s and Binh’s history, that cash never went near the orphanage. I got a reply, he had contacted Helping Hands the only agency that facilitates Irish Adoptions, they had contacted the last 6 groups that had adopted in Vietnam, they had all paid, it was a voluntary contribution, in the future the shakedown was going to be restricted to $200. The orphanage in question is currently being investigated by USCIS and the DIA.
$7,000 of the Irish adoption fee is for Humanitarian purposes, nobody seems to know where this money goes, The AB do not monitor the aid, the DIA says they do not know where it goes, where does it go to?
I hope it is not being left to our lovely facilitators to administer, maybe a penthouse over Hoan Kiem, nice new car, the last place it will go is to the place that needs it, the orphanage.
Brendan
I understand not wanting to post too much identifying information for fear of lawsuit, but- Did this person reveal what agency this was? Did they reveal anything more in the way of identifying information?
As someone who has been researching adoption and in the adoption process for 2 years now, I am still not sure what agency this person is talking about. (I have a few guesses, of course) It sounds like a number of smaller agencies. Other than trying to figure out which smaller agency owner/operator/officer has a white son living in Ha Noi, PAPs really cannot figure out from this post who they need to stay away from.
I would honestly really like to know who these folks are talking about.
I am not sure the OP knows what the agency affiliation is. Because of the lack of transparency in the process, we often don’t know exactly who the behind-the-scenes players are within a given agency. Further, this information is about facilitators in Vietnam and these facilitators could potentially be working with more than one agency. I have a few guesses myself but they are nothing but guesses at this point.