ASHRAYA
ADOPTION PROGRAMMEAshraya has played a stellar role in promoting good adoption practice throughout the country. In the past 30 years, we have placed over 1000 children legally in adoption, both in India and abroad, and are deeply satisfied that these children did not grow up in institutional care, but, instead, are with loving families.
In the recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of illegal adoptions and the children being trafficked and exploited for prostitution, etc. and hence a stark decline in the number of children coming into the legal framework of adoption. The recent adoption guidelines, we think, have reduced specialized adoption agencies like Ashraya to mere shelter homes, due to increasing government interference.
Ashraya has now folded up the adoption programme but continues to employ its expertise and decades of experience, in Adoption advocacy and in helping to streamline the adoption process.
We, together with few other NGOs have filed a Supreme Court petition in this regard, to transform the adoption system in India.
Annual Adoptive Parents’ Meet
The annual adoptive parents’ meet for 2011 was held on November 12th, 2011. It was very well attended by parents and their children. They were very concerned about the winding down of our adoption programme and promised their support for our other projects. Our Chief guest and mentor, Ms. Sudha Reddy shared her experiences, with us. It was enriching to hear parents share their story of adoption and talk about their special bond with Ashraya.
Shalini, one of our very special adoptees, a 19-year old, visually-challenged, charming, young lady, sang for us. Her beautiful voice touched many hearts that evening, making it a very memorable affair!!
We had quite a few parents who were enthusiastic about organizing the subsequent annual meetings to keep the Ashraya-connect going.