According to the JCICS website:
Between Monday, January 5th and Wednesday, January 7th, individuals can support this important initiative through the following methods:.
- Contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them to sign the letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam regarding the future of inter-country adoptions from Vietnam. Also, note that if they are interested in signing, they should contact Sarada Peri from Senator Landrieu’s office (Sarada_Peri@landrieu.senate.gov) by Wednesday, January 7th. For a list of Senators and Congressman that have signed the letter as of the time of this writing, please see below.
You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and email address at www.senate.gov
You can find your Representatives’ phone numbers and email address at www.house.gov Please note that many of the Congressional offices will be closed for periods of time throughout the Holiday Season.- Send a notice of support (and ensure that you receive updates on this initiative) via the Joint Council website. To finalize your message, you will need to complete the following:
- Please visit the Joint Council Webpage and follow the instructions.
- Contact your friends and family encouraging them to join the effort. Please feel free to direct all interested parties to this website.
While we believe that continuing to advocate for permanency options for children who need homes is a short term measure for Vietnam’s orphans, there are additional measures that can and should be advocated for on the negotiating table that could further benefit Vietnam’s children.
Establishing a transparent and ethical program in Vietnam has to be the priority over simply reestablishing a broken system that ultimately failed children. While adoption can and should serve children who have no other options, what we saw in Vietnam through this shut down and the last one, is that at the very least major irregularities existed in Vietnamese adoptions.
When contacting your representatives please add additional requests to include measures for encouraging domestic adoption programs within Vietnam as well as additional single parent support services. These services can and should be available to ensure that children have the best possible option available to them when their first families are unable to parent them.
During the current Vietnam shut-down, we as AP’s, PAP’s and other invested parties(agencies and child welfare organizations) have an opportunity to advocate on behalf of the children of Vietnam. Only by establishing a program that represents the best interests of Vietnam’s children can those children truly be served.
One response
I just got an email that they are extending the Call to Action until Friday. This is great news because one of my Senators hasn’t yet signed on yet – this give me two more days to work on him!