Guatemala seeks domestic fix to troubled overseas adoptions
Central American nation recruiting adoptive and foster parents internally
By Oscar Avila
October 26, 2008
VILLA NUEVA, Guatemala — At church on Sundays, Juliana Tocay fibs and introduces 3-year-old Katerin as her daughter. The truth is too complicated to explain.
Tocay is Katerin’s foster mother, making her family part of a much-watched test of whether this Central American nation can take care of its own needy children.
After essentially closing off the pipeline that sent nearly 5,000 children for adoptions in the U.S. last year, Guatemala has launched an ambitious campaign to recruit foster parents and even adoptive parents at home.
Only a few dozen families are participating and, as Tocay’s experience illustrates, it will be a tall order to change the culture of a country that typically views only biological children as true members of the family....
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