Azerbaijan provides an array of services for adoption and foster care

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

The birth of a child brings the greatest amount of joy to each family. The births of the world's sweetest human beings, their first steps, and first words are indeed something magical for parents. However, newborn children lay a lot of new responsibilities on the shoulders of family members, especially the parents.

Bringing a child into this world is not the only task to be fulfilled. Both parents are responsible for doing their best to raise and educate the child in order to grant society another useful personality.

Unfortunately, as a result of various social problems, many parents abandon their children without care and attention or leave their own responsibilities to the government.

According to local experts, the most common reasons for child abandonment are social problems in single-parent families or an immoral way of life by the parents.

Also, due to social problems, poorer families cannot provide their children with necessary care, placing responsibility for these children upon the government. The government, in its turn, cannot turn from the children away, as the duty of the state is to be the vanguard of the lives and health of the younger generations.

But the main problem in this regard is the lives of the foster children after leaving the orphanages. Children leave orphanages without a means of livelihood. Most of them have problems with employment and their places of residence. Government support is needed to resolve the problem.

Umid Yeri children’s orphanage Chairman Nigar Mansimli told local media that the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Azerbaijan is addressing the housing problems of foster children.

"The staff has started to compile a list of orphans who are now outside the walls of the orphanage. As far as I know, the construction of special houses designed for foster children has already been started in Masazir," she noted.

Regular monitoring of the existing system of social protection for children without parental care shows that as of today, the most important issue is the introduction of services that provide social and legal, psychological, and educational support to the families to overcome the crisis, as well as to prevent the abandonment of the children and separation of children from their parents.

Local families preferred

As in many countries, there are families who are unable to have a child in Azerbaijan. This problem in major cases leads to divorce. Experts believe that the solution for the prevention of the break-up of families is the adoption of a child, which is generally regulated by Azerbaijani legislation through the Family Code, Civil Procedure Code, as well as the Constitution.

The government is generally interested in child adoption mostly by local families despite the huge desire from foreign nationals to adopt Azerbaijani children. This is characterized by the national consciousness, cultural richness, character, and temper.

According to national legislation, children who are deprived of parental care, were not adopted by their close relatives, or repeatedly offered to local families can be adopted by foreign families.

In general, children deprived of parental care are those considered for adoption by local families. The children who are rejected for adoption by local families are considered for foreign adoption. Children can be adopted only in case where they are not supported by their parents, or close or distant relatives.

The main criterion for international adoption is ensuring suitable conditions for children's well-being. People whose custody rights were revoked earlier by court ruling, as well as those who cannot fulfill their parental obligations due to poor health cannot adopt Azerbaijani children either.

Registration for children under the age of three who are listed for adoption is carried out by the Health Ministry, while children between 3 and 18 years of age are recorded by the Education Ministry. The final decision on child adoption is taken up by a court.