"Foreigners have adopted more than 500 Belarusian children since 1994, Galina Rudenkova, an official of the Belarusian Ministry of Education, told reporters on January 10 [2001]."
"Under Belarus' Marriage and Family Code, the Belarusian and foreign parents need a court's approval to adopt a child. Belarusian children can be adopted by parents living in the countries and provinces that have agreements providing for sharing information about the fate of the adopted child, Ms. Rudenkova said."
"Belarus has such agreements with Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and Sweden, a state in Germany, and six states in the United States - the countries that hosted Belarusian orphans during vacations."
"Foreigners who want to adopt Belarusian children must apply to the National Adoption Center (NAC). The center's phone numbers in Minsk are 284 7149 and 232 6701. The adoption procedures are very complicated because the NAC has to learn a lot of details about adoptive parents, Ms. Rudenkova said."
"At present more than 1,500 Belarusian children aged under 18 live with foreign adoptive parents, 7.800 children live with Belarusian adoptive parents and 12,000 children live with foster parents."
"The NAC gives priority to Belarusian parents, Ms. Rudenkova said. "
information from BelaPAN (Mensk, Belarus), No. 41; Wednesday, January 10, 2001; 6:50 p.m.
"Danish citizens adopted nine children from an orphanage in Zhodino, Minsk region, in the period from 1993 to 1997."
" 'I felt sympathy for these people because they decided to adopt rather difficult children who did not find themselves home among local families,' said the orphanage director, Lyudmila Nikolayeva."
"She was speaking at a January 10 [2001] news conference organized on the orphanage's 30th anniversary."
"The orphanage's workers have reportedly followed the destiny of the adopted children for seven years to make sure they find love and happiness in their new families. 'All the children are happy and have forgotten their orphanhood, regardless of the fact that two of them were black and three girls had physical deficiencies: one was born to an oligophrenic mother, the other was mentally retarded and the third had an in-born leg defect,' Ms. Nikolayeva said."
"The adoptive parents regularly inform the orphanage about the children's growth and sometimes bring them to relatives in Belarus, although the children do not remember their home country, Ms. Nikolayeva added."
"Children growing abroad stand out from others as they display internal liberty and sociability and do not have the stigma applied to the past, Ms. Nikolayeva noted."
information from BelaPAN (Mensk, Belarus), No. 43; Wednesday, January 10, 2001; 10:20 p.m.