Improve adoption process, says former state ward
Published:Monday | June 13, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter
Seventeen-year-old Mark Braun, a former ward of the state, is calling for the Government to address the lengthy process for children in homes to be integrated in a family setting.
Braun, who was adopted and relocated to the United States in 2001, painted a dismal picture of the adoption process in Jamaica, saying that it deprives children of the opportunity of growing up in a proper family setting from an early age.
He is now in the island for a meeting with Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the Child Development Agency (CDA) tomorrow, at which he will push for better living conditions for children in state care so that they can enjoy family life.
Braun told The Gleaner that the process was far too long and must be addressed with some amount of urgency.
Braun, who suffers from a disease known as 'spina bifida' which has left his legs severely deformed, was found abandoned in Ocho Rios, St Ann, at five months old.
Despite his early circumstances, he is now an 11th-grade honour student and a top achiever in a number of sporting activities.
He said he was hoping he could make a difference in the lives of the children living in homes in Jamaica as they, too, can become top achievers.
robbed of opportunities
"I am hoping that the process will get much faster and less complicated because the children deserve better and they are being robbed of a lot of opportunities," he lamented.
"I would love to see more children smiling by being with a family which care and love them," he added.
Mark's mother Claire, who accompanied her adopted son to the island, said she hopes Golding will yield to their requests as the situation in children's homes needs attention.
"We would like to get the prime minister to understand some of the complications in the adoption system so that children won't sit and wait for a while before getting into a family which is where they belong," she said.
She also urged the Government to increase its efforts to assist persons who adopt children which would result in more persons offering themselves to help.
"A lot of people have a good heart to help these children to get a good family life but they don't have the means to help support them and, if the Government do that, it would be cheaper than to be fully responsible for them in a home and at the same time the children would be benefiting," Claire argued.