[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 123 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 THE GROWING CRISIS OF AFRICA'S ORPHANS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2014

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, a hearing that I convened 
recently in my subcommittee addressed a very important humanitarian 
crisis: the more than fifty million children orphaned on the continent 
of Africa.
   Indeed, to put this in perspective, as one of our witnesses, 
Shimwaayi Muntemba, pointed out, with such a number, the orphans of 
Africa, if grouped together in a single country, would be the fourth 
largest country in all of Africa--after Nigeria, Ethiopia and the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
   The factors contributing to this crisis are varied, starting with 
war and civil unrest, which have displaced millions--wars that have led 
to the deaths of parents and other adult relatives, leaving children to 
fend for themselves. Or sometimes children are separated from their 
parents in a mad flight for sanctuary, never learning if their mothers 
and fathers are alive or dead. They may never know if they are orphaned 
in reality, or if both parents turn out to have survived and are alive 
in a refugee camp somewhere else. Such parents, too, agonize over what 
ever happened to their children.
   Other children are indirect victims of HIV/AIDS, which has wreaked 
such devastating havoc on the continent, or other diseases. They could 
have lost one or both parents to this or some other dread disease. 
Often being forced into the role of the primary caretaker of younger 
siblings, their childhood innocence is ended by the burdens of adult 
responsibility.
   As with many of the humanitarian crises that confront the continent, 
there is a big picture aspect to this one, one which we as Congress 
certainly need to address. There are important strategic implications 
of so many children and adolescents left without fathers or mothers. We 
have all heard of the scourge of child soldiers, how orphaned children 
are recruited and brutalized, themselves turning into remorseless 
killers. Terrorist groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army, under the 
rapacious warlord Joseph Kony, actively recruit child soldiers.
   And if humanitarian reasons are not enough to compel Congress to 
rally behind the efforts to address the issue of Africa's orphans by 
USAID and countless charitable organizations, many of them faith-based, 
then strategic concerns and the effect this has on stability throughout 
the region, should be reason to sit up and take notice of this tragedy.
   But behind every statistic about orphaned children, behind the pie 
charts and graphs, there is also a portrait in miniature: a lonely 
child who is left without a mother or a father, perhaps dealing each 
night with the pangs of hunger, or just seeking a place where one can 
lay one's head down in safety until the morning comes. That child 
awakes to forage and fend for another day. Behind every statistic, 
there is a young boy or girl who has to deal with the sense of 
abandonment, or with the trauma of having seen parents killed before 
his or her eyes. There is a little soul, a young person, whose inherent 
dignity has been scarred in a world itself wounded, where there is so 
much pain, suffering and darkness.
   These children are in need of love and compassion, of simple needs 
being met. Those who do find loving homes and families are truly the 
lucky ones.
   One remedy for this crisis is inter-country adoption, which 
sometimes brings children from Africa to our shores to provide them 
with loving homes. This is, of course, only a partial remedy, because 
for every child who is given a loving home, there are many more for 
whom there is never will be such a refuge. At best, they may end up in 
an institutional orphanage, which is a topic fraught with controversy. 
While the best ones, again often faith based, help address the 
developmental and educational needs of children, the worst may abet 
trafficking. In some cases, such institutions do not even shelter 
orphans per se, but rather children who are placed there by parents who 
think that their children will get better education and nutrition than 
what they themselves can provide. Clearly, such institutions can never 
provide the type of love that a father and a mother, along with any 
siblings, can give.
   An issue that was addressed in the hearing was the role of inter-
country adoption in helping address, at least in part, the crisis of 
orphans. Some of the testimony was critical of the role of our State 
Department's Office of Children's Issues in the Bureau of Consular 
Affairs. Such testimony needs to be heard, for we can, and we must, do 
better.
   We also heard about an adoption issue that has received a lot of 
attention on Capitol Hill and was the topic of a resolution authored by 
my good friend and colleague Collin Peterson of Minnesota, which I am 
happy to say was passed by the House, after being marked up by my 
subcommittee and then the Foreign Affairs Committee.
   Last year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo suspended the 
issuance of exit permits for Congolese children adopted by foreign 
parents--impacting hundreds of U.S. families. The suspension means that 
Congolese children adopted by American parents cannot leave the country 
to go to their new homes--even though the parents have been officially 
declared the legal guardians under Congolese law.
   What's more, despite the exit permit suspension, Congolese courts 
have continued processing new adoptions, leading to a backlog of 
adopted children who are unable to leave the country.
   More than 900 American families are caught up in varying stages of 
this adoption limbo--breaking hearts.
   This is a deplorable situation for these children, and for their 
distraught families. Indeed, we will hear about this from one such 
family that has been impacted, as well as an advocate for families that 
have been impacted.
   Finally, I also want to say a word to those parents who have endured 
not only burdens that are financial, but ones that are primarily 
emotional, separated from the children that they have voluntarily 
welcomed into their lives. Your hardship and pain is deeply noted by my 
colleagues and I, as well as our staff members, many of whom have 
worked not only on passing Congressman Peterson's resolution, but also 
have pushed our State Department and the Government of the DRC to 
resolve this issue.
   Please continue to persevere, and do not give up hope! We remain in 
your corner.

                          ____________________