A Renton-based adoption agency has found homes in America for nearly 10,000 children born overseas in its 25 years, including close to 500 from Russia alone.
One of those Russian children is now at the center of an international controversy.
Because of confidentiality rules imposed by Russia, the agency, WACAP or World Association of Children and Parents, can say nothing about the circumstances surrounding the child’s adoption and subsequent return alone to Russia.
Its offices are on South Second Street, just across from Renton High School.
According to media reports, the child’s adoptive name is Justin Hansen. In Russia’s Far East, where he once lived in an orphanage, his name was Artyom Savelyev.
His American grandmother told the Associated Press that her daughter adopted Artyom in September. In recent months, the grandmother told the media, the child had become violent, threatening to burn down the family’s home.
The grandmother put Artyom on an airplane in Washington, D.C., to return to Moscow. She arranged to have a man meet him at the airport. The Russian government notified a WACAP representative in Moscow that the child had been left at the Ministry of Education the morning of April 8, Renton time.
WACAP has explained what steps it is taking to investigate the situation and in general its policies regarding foreign adoptions in a fact sheet posted on its Web site.
Many of those policies, including post-placement services, are mandated by the child’s birth country, in this case Russia. For example, Russia requires four post-adoption visits and reports over three years. The first visit comes after six months or roughly in late February or early March in Artyom’s case, based on the grandmother’s statement of when the adoption occurred.
Those policies are discussed under the question, “Why didn’t WACAP catch that there was a problem?”
Russia has suspended WACAP’s license to operate there while the case is under investigation.
About 1 percent of WACAP-arranged adoptions have been dissolved and the agency has found a new family for the child.
“If WACAP has any indication that a child is not safe or a family is having difficulties, U.S. state laws obligate us to take all necessary steps to protect the child,” according to the fact sheet. The words “any indication” are underlined.
Medical and psychological evaluations are obtained for each child from a Russian orphanage or Russian government, said Julie Snyder, a WACAP spokeswoman.
“We tell them (prospective parents) everything we know,” said Snyder. Any new information that’s learned is also passed on to the families, she said.
A master’s-level social worker interviews each prospective adoptive family several times to determine “emotional and marital stability,” according to the fact sheet. All families travel twice to Russia before an adoption, including an initial one to visit with the child.
Before a child is formally adopted, an international adoption specialist will review the child’s family history and examine the child for fetal alcohol exposure, according to the fact sheet.
Finally, a Russian judge approves the adoption, after asking the adoptive family questions about their motives for adopting a child and their commitment to that child.
WACAP was founded in 1976 by a group of adoptive families. Then, the “W” in the name stood for Washington, because the focus was on adoptions mainly in Washington state, according to Snyder.
The agency now arranges adoptions in Russia, Thailand, India, China, Korea, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Vietnam. Adoptions from Vietnam have been on hold since 2008, pending a new agreement between the United States and Vietnam, Snyder said.
WACAP also facilitates adoptions of African-American infants and children from the U.S. foster-care system domestically, she said.
A nonprofit organization, WACAP is supported by private and corporate donations and adoption fees.
WACAP has about 40 employees in its Renton office, said Snyder. It has offices in Moscow, New York and Ethiopia and contract workers in other countries.
Not as widely known are WACAP’s humanitarian efforts around the world, according to Snyder.
Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, WACAP received numerous calls from families seeking information about adopting a Haitian child or providing humanitarian aid.
However, the agency doesn’t have a presence in that Caribbean country, but answered general questions about adoptions and referred callers to other humanitarian agencies, said Snyder.
The agency first arranged an adoption in Russia in 1995, although it had provided humanitarian aid, such as medical supplies, to Russian orphanages starting in 1993, said Snyder.
Here is the complete WACAP fact sheet:
