主題：【華爾街日報】中國家庭踴躍申請收養地震孤兒

中國家庭踴躍申請收養地震孤兒

Chinese Reach Out To Orphans

Already, the survivors of China's earthquake are putting together their own makeshift families. In the Jiuzhou Stadium in Chengdu, where thousands are being housed, volunteer Melody Zhang says she met a 'nice looking' one made up of a mother, a father, a grandfather and two children -- from four different families.

'They just naturally took care of each other,' says Ms. Zhang, the associate director of adoption agency Children's Hope International, who has been delivering supplies in Sichuan province.

As the focus of the earthquake-relief effort in Sichuan turns to aiding survivors, China is witnessing an outpouring of requests by other Chinese to adopt children orphaned by the disaster. The provincial Sichuan Internal Affairs Bureau has set up an adoption hot line and says it has received hundreds of inquiries from elsewhere in the country. So many people were trying to call it on Friday that the hot line almost always gave a busy signal.

The government tried to calm some of the eagerness on Friday by announcing on state-run news media that it would start making permanent arrangements for orphaned children only once reconstruction begins. 'Everything will be done strictly in accordance with the adoption law,' said a spokeswoman for the State Internal Affairs Bureau who identified herself as Ms. Gan.

The government hasn't yet offered any estimates of the number of children orphaned by the quake. Ms. Gan said that 'quite a few' children had been found at least temporarily without their parents but time was needed to try to find them. Inside the Jiuzhou Stadium, people post information about missing family members on a bulletin board.

The sad reality is that there may not be many orphans, officials say, because many of the estimated 50,000 dead are children. The earthquake came during school hours on a Monday and demolished many schools.

Orphans who have survived the earthquake need not only physical but also mental support, Ms. Zhang says. One 4-year-old girl she met, Shen Xiaoyu, had managed to climb out of the rubble of her day-care center on her own, but she refused to speak to anybody at the Mianyang Central Hospital. Ms. Zhang says her colleagues are working on a program to train volunteers in counseling children for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Authorities aren't showing any signs that they will make it easier for foreign families to adopt the children, after implementing tough new adoption rules last year. China's amended rules bar foreigners who are single, obese, more than 50 years old or currently taking psychiatric medications. In the past decade, well over 50,000 Chinese children have been adopted by foreign families, many of them American, in a process that can take years.

China's rationale for the policy change was that the government couldn't meet demand from prospective foreign families. Birthrates are falling in China, and economic growth has led to fewer parents abandoning their children because of poverty.

Now, the Sichuan earthquake has brought an outpouring of aid and sympathy from inside China.

One of those potential adoptive parents is Li Chuanxi, a 45-year-old survivor of China's last giant earthquake, in his hometown of Tangshan, in 1976. 'I could not move my eyes off the TV every day, waiting for the latest information on [Monday's] Wenchuan earthquake,' he says. 'I can't help crying whenever I see the kids' miserable faces.'

He says he discussed the matter with his wife, and they want to adopt two or three children if they are allowed. It is unclear if the government would amend its 'one child per family' policy for quake orphans. 'My apartment is big enough for newcomers to the family,' he says. They have a 19-year-old daughter.

The State Internal Affairs Bureau says so far there is more demand for orphans to adopt than there is need. 'We would have no difficulty at all sending every child here to families in China,' Ms. Gan said.

Geoffrey A. Fowler / Juliet Ye

2008年05月19日16:38

中

國四川大地震的幸存者正在組建自己的臨時家庭。誌願者張雯(Melody Zhang)說，在收容了數千名幸存者的成都九州體育館，她就遇到了來自四個不同家庭的一位母親、一位父親、一位爺爺和兩個孩子組成的“很不錯”的家庭。

擔任收養機構兒童希望救助基金(Children's Hope International)主任的張雯說，他們隻是自然而然地彼此照顧。她一直在四川省負責發放救濟品。

隨著四川抗震救災的重點逐步轉向救助幸存者，中國湧現了收養此次震災孤兒的大量請求。四川省民政局已經設立了收養熱線，並表示已收到全國各地的數百個谘詢電話。上周五撥打電話的人非常多，以至於熱線電話幾乎一直處於占線狀態。

政府努力平複一些人的迫切心情，上周五通過國營新聞媒體宣布，隻有在重建工作開始後才會對孤兒進行永久性的安置。國家民政部一位自稱姓甘的女發言人表示，所有事宜都將嚴格按照收養法執行。

政府部門尚未提供地震造成的孤兒人數大概有多少。甘女士說，有很多孩子至少暫時沒有父母認領，尋找他們的父母還需要時間。在九州體育館，人們在公告欄裏張貼了很多信息，尋找失去聯係的家人。

官員們表示，一個令人感到悲哀的現實是，孤兒數量可能不會很多，因為在估計的5萬名死難者中許多都是兒童。上周一的地震正發生在學校上課時，許多學校在地震中倒塌。

張雯說，從地震中幸存下來的孤兒不但需要身體方麵的治療，也需要心理方麵的支持。她曾遇到一個名叫申小玉的4歲女孩，地震後這個女孩自己從幼兒園的廢墟中爬了出來，但在綿陽市中心醫院她卻一言不發。張雯稱，她的同事正在培訓誌願者，為身患創傷後壓力症的兒童提供心理指導。

在去年對外國家庭收養中國兒童實行了更為嚴格的規定後，有關部門尚未表現出放鬆這一限製的跡象。中國已經修改了相關規定，禁止單身、肥胖、50歲以上和目前服用精神藥物的外國人收養中國兒童。在過去的10年裏，共有5萬多名中國兒童被美國為主的外國家庭收養，而完成整個過程需要數年的時間。

中國修改這一政策的出發點是，政府無法滿足潛在外國家庭的需求。中國的出生率一直在下降，經濟增長使因貧窮而遺棄孩子的家庭減少。

如今，四川地震讓中國人提供救助的熱情和同情心爆發了出來。

45歲的李傳喜（音）就是希望收養孤兒的人之一。他是1976年唐山大地震的幸存者。他說，我每天都在盯著電視，等待汶川地震的最新消息。每當看到孩子們可憐的臉時，我都忍不住會哭。

他說他同妻子討論了這件事，如果能得到允許，他們希望能收養兩到三個孩子。目前還不清楚政府是否會為地震孤兒修改“一對夫妻一個孩”的政策。李傳喜說，我的房子很寬敞，足以容納新的家庭成員。他們還有一個19歲的女兒。

國家民政部表示，到目前為止要求收養孤兒的人數已經超過了實際需求數。甘女士說，中國的家庭已經足以收養所有孤兒，在這點上沒有任何困難。

Geoffrey A. Fowler / Juliet Ye