The Stages:
1. Intake
2. Review of adoptee’s documents
3. Contract 7 years
4. Total of 3 years family roots search in India
The Timeframe:
I. Two years: gathering information about the adoptee.
II. One year: searches in the field.
III. 6 months: arranging the reunion.
IV. A final three and a half year subscription fee to cover ARCs costs
Description of ARCs Procedure
First Step – Intake
Send an email (with the subject line Adoptee Case) to info[at]againstchildtrafficking.org with all the information you have about your adoption. Copies of any paperwork from India will be most helpful.
This material might include letters between the Indian orphanage, or the adoption agency, and your adoptive parents. A useful exercise is to note down any oral information that your adoptive parents may have been given from India.
We don’t need the paperwork from the receiving country, such as a Home Study.
Kindly scan the documents into PDF files and send to us. This will enable us to review your paperwork and assess the chances of being able to find your Indian family.
In case you don’t have any paperwork or information, do contact us for guidance on how to proceed.
We will get back to you within 14 days and arrange an appointment with our Intake Case Worker, either via skype or locally if you are in the same country as the Intake Case Worker.
Second Step: Search for identifying information
All our searches are carried out within the legal guidelines laid out in Indian law under CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority)
We group adoptees from the same region of India and organise searches and field visits together. This helps keep travel, accommodation and other costs down. The ideal group number is five.
The objective of this step is to find the name and address of the original family and the adoptee’s orphanage. Once we have the name of the orphanage we can start the long process of extracting the information from them and following the papertrail.
We will provide all clients with a short progress report every three months.
Third step: Actual search
Once we have found the essential data (parents’ names and adress) we can start the actual search.
We use a combination of our carefully built up network in India, consisting of social workers and human rights lawyers who specialise in child rights and adoptee rights cases.
We carry out the search with the utmost discretion, in order to avoid creating social problems (e.g.a mother had a child out of wedlock, was persuaded to hand it over for adoption; the issue was covered up and she didn’t tell her new husband and/or children).
Once we find the location of the mother/family we provide frequent updates to the client and enter into detailed planning about the next step: reunion.
We expect from you to do a DNA test for confirmation.
Fourth step: Reunion
Once we have found the family and/or the mother, and they agree to a reunion, the client is advised to prepare for a reunion within 12 months.
The detailed travel plans must be closely coordinated with us. We routinely give advice on accommodation, transport, car rental etc, visa issues and more. All these costs have to be covered by the client and are not included in our fee.
We coach and prepare the families beforehand. We also brief the adoptees on how to avoid the various social problems that can occur.
Eventually, our clients will meet up with their family for the first time since their adoption.
Finally, we will share all the information with you, provided the families agree.
Fifth Step: Aftercare
We provide ongoing legal and social work advice to Indian families if requested.
We also require that ongoing communication between adoptees and families goes through us, as there are numerous opportunities for misunderstandings as well as a language barrier.
