Sam, Emma and Elsie, seen at a Wellington playgroup in 1992, were born in Romania and adopted by New Zealanders. Listen to Department of Social Welfare advisor Paula Dickens talk about the criteria prospective parents need to meet before adopting a child from another country.
Transcript
The first and main criteria is very general and that is, will any proposed adoption serve the best interests of the child. And that in a way includes the best interests of their adopted family and so far as their need to become intertwined. But one of the criteria that many people in New Zealand have difficulty with and that is the one about meeting the child's needs in respect to their race, their and their culture and religion and so on. And that often presents a barrier to couples who are perhaps wanting to adopt an Indian child or Chinese child and so on. As far as the Romanian children are concerned, then couples in New Zealand who were interested would have to show that they had some particular qualities or characteristics that would enable them to sort of bridge that gap for the child as he or she grew up.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)
Reference: EP/1992/1079a
by Phil Reid
Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (Inter-country adoption/Reference: 6106 )
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.