USAID has never recommended ban on adoptions

By Rodger Garner
Published: June 19 2006 03:00 Last updated: June 19 2006 03:00
From Mr Rodger D. Garner.

Sir, I am writing to clarify the position of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on intercountry adoption in Romania.

Emma Nicholson MEP, in her letter of June 13, claims that her views "are in line with the child-rights experts who have consulted extensively in Romania on behalf of the European Union, the United Nations and USAID".

Neither USAID nor its consultants have ever recommended a ban on intercountry adoption. For 15 years, USAID has supported programmes in Romania that have helped prevent child abandonment, trained foster parents, closed large state-run orphanages and encouraged Romanian families to adopt Romanian children.

USAID's work in Romania supports the US government policy that intercountry adoption offers an additional opportunity for many of Romania's abandoned and orphaned children to be raised by loving families.

Rodger D. Garner,
Director,
US Agency for International Development,
Bucharest, Romania
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006