Our Rationale
By Arun Dohle, Founder of ARC.
Over the last ten years we have carried out searches for adoptee´s families in India. We have done this with a view to demonstrate that it is possible and to get the legal framework changed.
We did this work with optimism and energy and we didn’t charge any of the adoptees we have helped appropriate fees (apart from their direct costs in India).
We have proven that we can get done things, things that no one else can get done.
We were hoping to eventually get grant funding but this has, so far, eluded us.
All our work was subsidized: by myself my adoptive parents, Roelie Post (the founder of ACT), by Anjali Tara Babanrao Pawar, as well as some senior lawyers in India.
No organisation can work full time for a decade without charging some sort of fee. The time has come for us to do this, even though it pains us to charge adoptees.
The model I’m presenting is based on two things: solidarity and ensuring that the lives of adoptees are not disrupted due to their search.
It is based on the belief that we have to act as a community and share this incredible burden.
We have to understand that the base of our organization (ACT) is in Europe.
We have to calculate our fees in Euros. We have to pay our living expenses, at least partially, in Euros.
I believe that the authorities should assist adoptees with their searches, but currently they do the opposite: they block us.
Our aim is that the authorities in India digitalize all birth records and employ social workers to assist adoptees.
But there is a long way to go. We have to fight for it.
To reach that goal we need a financially sustainable organisation.
We charge adoptees a flat fee as it is not fair that one adoptee has to fight in court for three years before breaking through and, based on this experience, another adoptee comes along and gets teh information easily.
Therefore we now charge all the adoptees the same fee. This is fair and equitable.
To see the list of our costs please visit this page: Explanation of our expenses.
