National Adoption Week is all about transforming a child’s life and as well as being a charity supporting people with learning disabilities and children and family in need, Norwood is also the only registered Jewish inter-country and domestic adoption agency in the UK, transforming the lives of many children and families each year, from the Jewish and the wider community.
In the run up to National Adoption Week, Norwood was asked by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to host a rare visit from the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Norwood was delighted with the opportunity and arranged a party for nine families who have adopted children through Norwood and the Chinese agency. The party took place at the end of October at the charity’s Kennedy Leigh Sure Start Children’s Centre in Hendon and representatives from the Department of Children, Schools and Families also joined the festivities.
The children brought along photographs of themselves to give to the Chinese visitors in an album which was presented to Ms Weiwei, the Deputy Director General of the CCAA, by two of the children. The children also did some drawings before enjoying a delicious tea.
Over half of the UK's inter-country adoptions are from China and all of the adoptions go through the CCAA. Over the last 30 years, hundreds of thousands of female children have been abandoned at birth, largely as an unintended consequence of China’s ‘one child’ policy. Many of these children have been adopted, some by Norwood’s families.
David Hardyman-Rice, a parent of two children adopted from China, said, "We decided to adopt our second daughter through Norwood and we had an extremely positive experience. It was a great opportunity for our girls to meet other Chinese children and for us to meet the CCAA. We met the man who matched our child and that completed the circle for us."
At a formal meeting later, Ms Weiwei said how glad she was to see how happy the children were. She explained that fewer children are being abandoned in China today and that it is becoming easier to place children within China. Whilst this is good news, it does mean that the wait for British families hoping to adopt from China is longer than it used to be. All the children adopted from China are welcome to return and Ms Weiwei suggested that a trip to China is most meaningful for children aged ten or over.
Gay Saunders, Norwood’s Head of Domestic and Inter-Country Adoption, said, "It was a privilege to have the opportunity to introduce the CCAA to some of our families and also to be able to discuss current adoption issues directly with the CCAA. The children and parents enjoyed the party very much and the visitors from CCAA were extremely moved by seeing how well the children have settled into their families."
