FAQ Categories 1. Genreal FAQ's 2. Children > Situation 1 3. Children > Situation 2 4. Children > Situation 4 5. Adoption Questions 6. Family Preservation... 7. Sponsorship Questions GENERAL QUESTIONS Q: What is your organization like? A. Ours is a non-profit, voluntary organization. It is primarily concerned with children in difficult circumstances. The objective is to secure and/or strengthen family life, for all round health, development and education of such children. Q: What are the sources of funding? A. Our sources are varied. They have ranged from individual donors, groups, trusts, corporates, the government at different levels, and international funding bodies. Q: Who are the children you serve? A. We serve: Children who have lost their own family permanently, or Children at risk of a blighted future due to neglect during family crises, and Children who come from underprivileged families and need support to continue schooling so as to acquire education for improving future prospects. Children > Situation 1 Q: How do you find the children who have lost their family permanently? A. The children in need of permanent rehabilitation are either relinquished in our care by the birth parent/guardian or they are placed with us through the Juvenile justice system. Q: How do you care for such children and how do you plan for their future? A. IAPA does not have a residential institution for the child's care. Instead, the children awaiting adoption are placed in care with foster families, for individualized, personal care.. The child stays in the foster family untill such time that a suitable permanent family is identified for adoption/guardianship and the mandated social and legal process is completed. For more information on Adoption, click here. Children > Situation 2 Q: What crisis situations cause neglect of the child? A. The crisis could arise due to a variety of socio-economic circumstances, such as, accidents, desertion, serious illness or death of a parent/s, economic set back or displacement. Q. How do you help these children and families? A. By providing supportive services we make efforts to prevent disintegration of the child's family. Q. What are the support services? A. Support is extended in the form of financial aid where necessary, counseling, tapping of community resources on behalf of the family, helping make suitable child care arrangements. Q: What are the kinds of measures offered to protect the child? A. To protect the child from separation and disintegration of his or her family, assistance is offered. This is done at the point that the child's family/others approach the Juvenile Justice system to admit the child/ren in an institution. All possible alternatives for the child's care within own family or extended family or even with a caring neighbour are discussed and examined with the family. The objective is to help keep the child in the family fold and familiar environment so as to prevent traumas of being displaced, or being put in an institution. The child & family are assisted under the family preservation or fostercare programme. For more information on the programme for Family Preservation & foster family care alternative, click here. Children > Situation 3 Q. What programmes does the agency have for education of the underprivileged children? A. The Educational Sponsorship Programme of IAPA addresses the hurdles that the children and the families face to pursue education. Q: What kind of support for education is crucial to improve the future prospects of the underprivileged children? A. The crucial part of the support is to make learning an attractive activity for the child. Deprivations rob the child of his/her energy and sufficient motivation for maintaining sustained interest in studies. The family stresses further weaken his or her motivation. Relief is provided to the child and the family through supplementary financial aid for school related expenses, provision of extra nutrition, additional tutoring, opportunities for cultural, sports and personality enrichment to the child. In addition, family counseling helps encourage parents and sustain their efforts for the child's education. Mental Health awareness programmes equip parents and teachers make the child's total environment more responsive. The periodic health check ups, Child Guidance Services, and referrals for specific services aims at a wholistic approach. For more information on the Sponsorship programme, click here. Adoption Questions Q. What is involved in adopting a child? A. Adoption involves a life long commitment. To safeguard the interests of the child as well as the families concerned, definite procedures are laid down. These are regulated and monitored by the State authorities and the judiciary. Q. Who does one contact for information on adoption? A. For domestic adoption, a list of agencies recognized/ licensed for adoption can be obtained from the State's Department of Child & Family Welfare. The AdoptionIndia website that is maintained by the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) is the primary resource for information on inter-country adoption. Q. What are the procedures? A. Adoption procedures relate to social and legal matters. As a first step, personnel of a recognized agency may be contacted for exchange of information and guidance. This first contact is helpful in establishing eligibility of the prospective adopter/s and may help in determining the next steps if the idea were to be pursued further. If it is mutually decided that the agency will work further with the Prospective Adoptive Parent/s (PAP), it conducts the social process and helps through the legal process, and thereafter. Q. What are the Social procedures? A. Social procedures consist mainly of a Home Study. Adoption agencies in most cases proceed to initiate it when the PAPs have compiled most of the required documents. A qualified staff of the agency conducts a home study with the PAPs through a confidential, one to one relationship. The study has the dynamic purpose of examining the different aspects related to adopting a non-related child. Besides examining social & psychological, financial & legal issues, the process gives the PAPs a chance to reflect on their life as a whole and implications of adoption as it relates to them as individuals, as a family and others significant in their life. It also allows the agency to assess suitability of the PAPs and further assists them with the preparation for adoptive parenthood. The home study report thus prepared, serves as a record to give a broad picture of the PAP for identifying an appropriate match. It also forms part of the dossier, required by the Court, for the legal process. Q. What are the Legal aspect of adoption? A. Legal aspect of adoption is somewhat unique in India. Personal Law of each community governs the matter of adoption. Only the personal law for Hindus has a legal provision for adoption in the Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act 1956. Such provision is absent in the Personal Laws of other communities. Persons belonging to the non-Hindu communities have to resort to the common law available for legal guardianship - the Guardian & Wards Act 1890. PAPs are awarded permanent legal Guardianship of the child whom they desire to raise as their own. Most of the adoption agencies have a list of lawyers they work with and they help and guide the PAPs about the legal process uder an appropriate legal provision. Q. Can a single person adopt a child? A. In principle, a single male or a female adult above 21 years of age can adopt a child, provided the age difference between the child and the adopter is 21 years. However, a married couple would receive preferance over a single adopter, given the situation in both cases being equal. Q. Is the residence, race or nationality an issue in adoption? A. Yes, it is. The child's placement within the country facilitates easier assimilation within the adoptive family and avoids any complexities arising from nationality issues and in case of another race, the contrasts in complexion and appearance. The official policy in the order of preference is as follows: Placement within an Indian family in India, Placement within an Indian family residing abroad, Placement within a family with one parent of Indian origin, A family of another nationality and race. Q. What are the procedures for an Indian family residing in another country and/or holding citizenship of another country? A. The procedures for inter-country adoption necessarily need to be initiated in the country of residence. A home study report has to be made by a local person/agency that is enlisted by the Indian authority concerned (CARA). Such an agency is termed: "Sponsoring" agency. The agency in India that works with children is termed: "Placement" agency. For details on the procedures, consult AdoptionIndia website. Q. Are Indian children placed in adoption with foreigners? A. Yes, Indian children are placed with foreign nationals. Q. What procedures are applicable to them? A. The same as for non-resident Indian family, as mentioned above. For details on the procedures, consult AdoptionIndia website. Q. How is the child and suitable prospective family matched? A. To the extent possible, and given the realities of the children awaiting adoption, the prospective family's requirements related to the gender and age of the child is given due consideration. Q. What are the costs involved? A. Costs cover the following heads of expenditure: Legal Fees Child maintenance costs Medical\Hospitalisation expenditure Agency Service charges These vary from place to place, length of child's stay with the agency, child's medical condition and treatment required. Family Preservation/Foster family alternative for the child in crisis Q. What are the common crisis situations that call for outside help? A. A child is in crisis when mother is critically ill, father has to go to work to earn wages and there is no responsible adult to look after and supervise the child. OR, The mother is a single parent, either widowed or deserted and the child is left unattended while mother is at work. OR, A grand parent who is the sole support of the orphaned child is in failing health and wants the child placed in an institution. Q. How does the agency serve a child in a crisis situation and what help can one extend? A. Depending upon the child's and the family's situation, the agency worker intervenes with a plan of assistance that may be short term or long term. Material aid is an important part of assistance, but counseling and mobilizing other support services are equally important to strengthen the family. That is where the financial contributors become invaluable partners of the agency in this programme. Q. How many such children are being assisted by the agency? A. At a given time, the agency has between 100 to 125 children and their families receiving assistance. Q. What is the amount of financial help provided for assisting a child? A. The amount to supplement day to day care and maintenance of the child is Rs. 500 p.m. at present. Different sources of funding are tapped to meet the individual specific needs, such as, for medical treatment, special educational/vocational courses, transportation costs, seed money for a member of the family to start a venture and work towards self sufficiency. Sponsorship Programme Questions Q. Who is a Sponsor? A. An individual, a group, a Trust or a Corporate body that contributes financial assistance to individual children for facilitating their education and all round development. Q. What is the minimum commitment required of a sponsor? A. The minimum period for which a sponsor makes commitment is one year. The agency encourages personal communication between the sponsor and the child. Some sponsors continue to assist the child year after year till the child has reached a certain point in the educational attainment. Depending on the sponsor's preference, a long- term relationship could develop. It may be through personal contact in the case of a local sponsor, or by correspondence in other cases. Many a child has felt invaluably inspired to do his or her best simply in the knowledge that there is someone so interested in him or her. The agency sends a brief profile of the child and the family at the outset. This includes the child's photograph and scholastic record. Thereafter, every six months, the child's progress report is sent with any noteworthy happenings in the family. Agency acts as a channel for communication between the sponsor and the sponsored. Q. What is the contribution for sponsoring the child for a year? A. At this time, the minimum contribution for one year is Rs.4,000. The money is dispersed, on the basi of the needs. In the beginning of the school year, a larger amount is needed for the school accessories. Thereafter, it is disbursed on a monthly basis in most cases. What are the different ways you, as wellwishers can offer help? A. You can lend a hand in many ways to better a child's future. For example: Contribute Rs.6000/- towards the child's care in the family, through our Family Preservation Programme. Support Education for a child with Rs.4, 000/- per year, through our Sponsorship Programme. Provide maintenance allowance for the child in a foster family, awaiting adoption, by contributing Rs.2,000/- per month. Contribute to our special fund for medical emergencies, expensive diagnostic tests and hospitalization costs. Contribute to our Corpus Fund and help us recruit and sustain competent staff as well as meet increasing administrative expenses through the interest accrued. Create a climate for adoption through publicity, personal contacts through the arts, through media. You can even put childless couples in touch with us. Contribute your professional skills. Help in recruiting foster families for children in need - you might want to assist us yourself! Volunteer assistance in our various activities for children.