| In the early hours of Dec 26th 2004 the Western | | | | fielding phone calls from well-meaning families wanting |
| world awoke to the unfolding horror that we came | | | | to adopt a child from one of the countries |
| to know as the Asian Tsunami. Those of us still | | | | hit.Adoption experts say the best thing people can |
| recovering from obscenely large amounts of food | | | | do is to donate money to causes that directly help |
| and drink from the previous day sat transfixed as we | | | | the children. They say it's wrong to take a |
| watched a horror story of biblical proportions unfold | | | | traumatized child away from the environment that |
| before our very eyes.The United Nations estimated | | | | they have grown up in. |
| that the Asian Tsunami left more than five million | | | | "Adoptions, especially inter-country ones, are |
| people homeless, including about 1.5 million children | | | | inappropriate during the emergency phase as children |
| most of whom became orphaned. The outpouring of | | | | are better placed being cared for by their wider |
| emotion from around the world was of mixed benefit | | | | families and the communities they know," said the |
| as far as the region was concerned in that yes we all | | | | charity Save the Children in a statement released Jan. |
| dug deep into our pockets and yes we all lobbied our | | | | 6, 2005. |
| Politicians to something about it and yes bizarrely this | | | | International Adoption needs to be well planned |
| tragedy may have had some knock on effect in the | | | | "The last thing they need to do is be rushed away |
| movement to alleviate Third World debt and poverty | | | | to some foreign land," said Cory Barron of Children's |
| but the blessings were mixed as far as the people on | | | | Hope International, an American adoption agency. |
| the ground were concerned.Since the disaster, | | | | "We have to think of the child first. |
| adoption agencies around the world have been | | | | |