Response obtained from an email interview between Girls Adoption Connect and leadership from OneSky for all children. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
OneSky's response:
OneSky's mission is to partner with governments and communities in Asia to provide responsive care and safe learning environments so that marginalized young children can thrive. Because we're an international early childhood care and education nonprofit and not an adoption agency, we do not work with families in the US or internationally who are seeking to adopt. Our work is very much focused on the children while they are in the orphanage or in other venues that support early childhood education, such as early learning centers, independent child care centers, and more.
We’re very happy the number of children in orphanages in China has dropped so significantly — from over 6 million when we started working there in 1998, to less than 50,000 now. Many of our supporters are adoptive parents and adoptees, so we are well aware that this official announcement to end international adoption brings with it a huge number of emotions and questions. OneSky really appreciates the responses provided by CCAIs Co-founder and President, Joshua Zhong, which have been shared by Girls Adoption Connect.
OneSky will continue to work in the orphanage system in China delivering programs for young children with special needs and moving as many children as possible into our Loving Family foster care program. Because of our history and success in China, we have recently been asked by the governments in Mongolia and Vietnam to help improve the care of children living in orphanages in those countries. We already provide caregiver training for parents and childcare providers in Vietnam and Mongolia and are excited to explore how we can serve orphanages in low-resourced communities there.
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