FSMO Seeks Help from Orlando's Faith Based Community to Send Foster Kids to Summer Camp

Family Services of Metro Orlando is seeking help from the faith based community to help send foster kids to summer camp.  CGC asked if this includes church camps and they said, "yes." This is a great opportunity for churches to step in and take a child who may have never have heard about God and let this child spend a week hearing all about Him.

If you belong to a church who is planning to send kids to camp, would you be willing to ask if your church could take a few foster kids? Once we find out if churches are willing to take some kids, we are going to work on finding sponsors for them. Please let us know if you can help. This is the first official request from the state to the faith based community and is a wonderful opportunity to have a Godly impact on a child.

Please let us know what you think. Let us know if your church can help or if you could just give us a contact person at church and we will follow up with asking.

We are under a bit of a time constraint since it will take some time to clear all the paperwork needed for these kids to attend camp. If you have any info, would you please get it to us by Sunday, April 25.

Thank you,
CGC

Children's HopeChest "Young Mother's Program"

For Mother's Day 2010, Children's HopeChest is selling beautiful, handmade, one-of-a-kind necklaces to raise funds for girls in their Young Mothers Program. Keep an eye out for the "Love Goes Around" necklace and their Breaking the Chain Mother's Day gift campaign.

About the Young Mothers Program: When orphans are released from the orphanage in their early teen years, they enter a critically vulnerable time. In the case of these women, they found themselves pregnant and alone. Still children themselves, they had nowhere to go. That's where HopeChest comes into the picture.

Learn more:  http://tomdavis.typepad.com/HopeChest-YoungMothers.pdf

Family Services of Metro Orlando's "Give a Child a Childhood" Fundraising Breakfast to be help April 29

The annual Give a Child a Childhood Fundraising Breakfast is your opportunity to learn how your support has a profound impact on the lives of children and families in central Florida.
Did you know...

•more than 37% of former foster youth cost rather than contribute to society because they never received the supports and resources they needed to grow into healthy and productive citizens?

•more than 200 central Florida children died in 2008 due to abuse? While each life is priceless, the economic impact of these needless deaths is in excess of a half billion dollars every year.

•there are enough central Florida children awaiting adoption each year to fill fifteen classrooms?

•families of abused children generally suffer from as many as eight major life challenges - job loss, homelessness, domestic violence, addictions, physical and mental illness - all at once?

•even as the need increases, government provides only a shrinking fraction of what it costs to provide basic protection of children? We rely on individuals like you for support of our programs to improve the quality of life for children and families in our community.

The challenges children and families face are too large for nonprofits alone to solve. Family Services of Metro Orlando empowers everyone to be part of the solutions many in our community so desperately seek.

To register:  http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2opqff970b1a227

Guardians Ad Litem Provide a Voice for Children

An Orlando Sentinel article on how Guardian Ad Litems help abused and neglected children

Murray McMahon could be at a driving range, peppering a distant flagstick with golf balls.

Instead, the retired Westinghouse engineer aims for a more important target with his free time: protecting children. McMahon, 79, of Yalaha devotes five hours a week, often more, to his duties as a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed volunteer entrusted with looking out for the best interest of an abused or neglected child.

"A child needs a voice in court," said McMahon, whose wife, Marilyn, also serves as a guardian for endangered children in Lake County. "We're the only one in the court who's there just to speak for the child. Everybody else there has their own interest, everybody else there has a lawyer to speak for them – mom, dad, DCF [state Department of Children and Families]."

Florida's guardian ad litem program, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary Tuesday, depends on trained volunteers who are supposed to act as independent investigators and advocates for children. State law requires that every child in foster care be provided with an advocate. But the program has its critics.

"It should be abolished," said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, a nonprofit watchdog organization that monitors the nation's many child-welfare systems. "A child's voice in court is not the GAL's [guardian ad litem's] voice."
Wexler said the volunteers, who are overwhelmingly white and middle class, may be well-meaning, but often bring with them an inherent racial and class bias that fails to serve families who are disproportionately poor and minority.

Continue story:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/law/os-law-and-you-and-guardians-20100322,0,4194381.story?page=1

To learn how to become a Guardian Ad Litem in Florida: 
http://www.guardianadlitem.org/

An Editorial on Adoption from Christianity Today

210 Million Reasons to Adopt
Haiti's devastating quake reminds us that orphans matter to God.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/april/13.55.html?start=1
 
Two years ago, a Christian couple from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, fell in love with an abandoned toddler, born with a disability and living in an orphanage in rural Haiti. Already adoptive parents of a Liberian child, Katy and Josh Manges decided to adopt the toddler, Malachi, who has a treatable bone disorder.

Then the January 12 earthquake that crushed so much of Port-au-Prince, costing an estimated 230,000 lives, put the prayerful plans of the Manges family in limbo. It also laid bare before the world how badly orphans and vulnerable children may be treated when they get caught up in red tape, corruption, and political correctness.

For the Manges family, the outcome was success. In late February, Malachi arrived in Miami into the welcoming arms of his new family. Yet the adoption required two years of effort, delayed by local politics and requiring a personal signature from Haiti's prime minister. At the last minute, rioters at Port-au-Prince's airport derailed Malachi's departure, falsely alleging that he and other adoptees had phony paperwork.

This episode stands alongside another, the still-unfolding saga of the Idaho Baptists who were arrested on suspect charges of child trafficking. The latter may have a long-lasting chilling effect on inter-country adoption just when adoptive parents are needed more than ever. There are 210 million orphans worldwide, and adoptions to the U. S. have dropped 45 percent since 2004.
The greater problem isn't with potential adopting parents. It's with a system that is severely broken. Christian leaders and churches have much to offer in advocating for the reform of confusing adoption laws, stronger enforcement of international norms, and making adoption more affordable, more visible, and a more honored practice.

Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, recently told Christianity Today that immediately after Haiti's quake, many agencies fielded waves of calls from people with a strong impulse to take Haitian orphans into their homes. Rather than dismiss or belittle this impulse, Medefind encouraged them to consider the many ways of supporting the children, recognizing that adoption is a long and uncertain process. Family reunification, orphanages, extended family care, and child sponsorship all have a role to play in meeting the needs of vulnerable children in crisis or chronic need.

But Medefind is quick to note that powerful political and cultural barriers often make adoption an arduous process that takes too long and costs too much. "The reality is that there are thousands of children, before and after the earthquake, who are genuinely in need of parents," he says. "To the extent that parents can't be found, we should not relegate children to living on the streets or [in] orphanages. The political and cultural factors often become unspoken reasons why children are forced to remain in institutional care or on the streets, which is a profound tragedy."

The political and cultural barriers stem from warped ideas about what is in a poor child's best interest. It isn't in the best interest of abandoned children to grow up destitute and barely literate, regardless of the imagined cultural benefit of remaining in their home country. Haiti itself is a vivid example of injustice. The government tolerates a modern form of child slavery by allowing 225,000 children ages 6-14 to work as restavecs (unpaid, indentured domestics).

Adoption, domestic or inter-country, should not be looked down upon as inferior at best or as a last resort. The 150,000 South Korean orphans adopted worldwide (99,000 to the U.S.) since the 1950s testify well to the durable difference a loving adoptive family can make.

For Christians, the biblical basis for adoption bears repeating. The Book of James beckons every true follower of Christ to become involved in the lives of orphans (and widows). It's not for married couples only. Godly, never-married singles have successfully adopted, and most readily affirm the ideal that each child should live with a mother and father—whenever possible. So, Christian singles should not be automatically excluded from the pool of possibilities for adoption.

Adoption experts provided CT with four ways churches can increase their involvement:

• give adoptive families space to tell their stories in church;

• find ways to give small starter grants to people interested in adopting;

• encourage the adoption of children with special needs; and

• develop a full spectrum of responses, from child sponsorship to adoption.

CT recently talked with a never-married woman who adopted a young girl from Kazakhstan into her home (at a personal initial cost of $36,000). For her, the question was, "Are we talking about live souls?" Not mere "victims" or "political symbols" or "the needy," but children for whom Christ died, who need a home where the love of God is lived and shared with the least of these.

Dance Troup of Haitian Orphans will be In Orlando March 27 & 28 to Raise Money For Their School

From the March 24 Orlando Sentinel:

Haitian orphans help rebuild schools through dance


by Victor Manuel Ramos, Orlando Sentinel


Eleven Haitian boys, ages 10 to 17, will perform this weekend at two Orlando-area churches, hoping to raise awareness about their country's needs and collect funds for their schools in Haiti.

Most of these boys and teens used to roam the streets of Haiti's impoverished cities, shining shoes, begging or looking for the next place to sleep, event organizers said.

But organizers created a refuge for street children through seven schools funded through the U.S.-based Haitian Timoun Foundation. They formed The Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti, a dance troupe.

Like much of the country's infrastructure, their schools were damaged in the January earthquake, so they have been touring churches in Arizona, Nebraska, California and now Florida to seek support. Orlando is their last stop before returning to Haiti.
Their performance is a combination of drum music, dancing and acting. Admission is free. The churches will collect donations, and the troupe will sell artwork.

"A lot of it is them telling the stories of their lives, how they have been abandoned by parents and how they struggle to survive every day," said Gail Seeram, an immigration attorney organizing two area presentations.

The troupe will perform at
7 p.m. Saturday at First Haitian Baptist Church of Orlando, 4701 Lenox Blvd.;
and at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 2140 W. S.R. 434, Longwood.

orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/os-haiti-relief-street-children-20100323,0,7269913.story

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Improved

From the Be the Answer blog (http://betheanswerforchildren.wordpress.com/ ) -

Joint Council is pleased to confirm that the Adoption Tax Credit (ATC), which was scheduled to expire in 2010, was extended for one-year (through December 31, 2011). The highlights of the ATC are:

• The maximum credit was increased from $12,150 to $13,170,

• The ATC is now retroactive to January 1, 2009. This represents a potential increase of $1,000 for adoptive families.

• The ATC was made refundable. If a family has no tax liability, the IRS will refund the amount due.

The extension of the ATC through 2011, was passed as part of the health care reform bill which was signed into law by President Obama on Monday, March 22, 2010. There was some concern that the ATC would be included in the reconciliation process, however we have confirmed that it is not part of reconciliation which means the ATC is law until December 31, 2011.

Joint Council along with many other advocates and adoptive families have long advocated for making the ATC permanent. We applaud Congress and the Obama administration for the extension and continue to call for a permanent tax credit.

The ATC is a critically important element in finding permanent families for children in the U.S. foster care system and the children of our world, who live without permanent parental care. The ATC makes adoption a viable option for many families who may otherwise be unable to afford to adopt. We again applaud the extension and improvements to the Adoption Tax Credit.

Orphanage in the Philippines Needs Just $500 to Reach Their Goal

Update
From Safe Harbor International Philippines - S.H.I.P:
We are now $500 short of reaching our goal of $5,000 for the jeep. Thank you to all of you who have sent money for this need; please continue to pray that we receive the $500 that we are lacking towards this purchase. God bless all of you for keeping this ministry in your prayers.

http://www.shipfoundation.org/

Orlando Church supports group that helps Ugandan orphans

An Orlando Sentinel story by Jeff Kunerth-
March 15, 2010
The civil war that ravaged Uganda for a generation is over, but the consequences of that conflict remain: tortured land, economic ruin, displaced people, orphaned children.

It's those children — the thousands whose parents were killed by war and disease — that are both the burden and the hope of an African nation in the midst of rebuilding itself.

"Our children are having a lot of problems," said Norman Okot, 71, whose grandson is one of those who lost his parents to HIV/AIDS. "They are not able to go to school because nobody can look after them."

Okot was in Orlando Sunday at Discovery Church for the screening and discussion of a documentary about his grandson by the non-profit advocacy group Invisible Children. The film, Emmy, recounts how AIDS killed the boy's father when Emmy was five and his mother when he was 12.
He is now 17 and in high school on a scholarship from Invisible Children. The San Diego-based secular organization has raised enough money to send 600 Ugandan children to high school and another 200 to college.
It costs about $35 a month for a Ugandan child to attend high school — money that even children with both parents cannot afford, said Comfort Okello, a 25-year-old Ugandan woman who works in economic development for Invisible Children.
"We feel this is the only way we are going to rebuild the future," Okello said. "By putting them in school, we are giving them wealth that can nobody can take away. "
At Discovery Church, support of Invisible Children is part of the church's mission to work for long-term solutions to local and global problems, said Cole NeSmith, who heads a young people's ministry.

"Invisible Children wants to help these kids out with education and mentoring and maintaining a long-term perspective," NeSmith said. "Their long-term investment is really what we value in the lives of these kids."
A committed dedication to educating a generation of children whose lives have been filled with loss and suffering is the only way for a poor, agrarian country like Uganda to recover from the devastation of war and disease, Okello said.

"You see a kid who is homeless, a kid who has no parents, and the kid is praying for just to have an education. That is all he is asking for," she said. "We feel that by investing in these children's future, ten years from now we have a stable generation."

Orlando Adoption Support Group

The Orlando Adoption Network was created for all families involved in the world of adoption, either at the beginning or end of their adoption journeys.
Their goal is for the Network to serve as a source of strength, comfort, support and information. Because each family's journey is unique, everyone has their own set of experiences to share.

They have monthly casual meetings in East Orlando. Snacks and childcare are available!