Miriam's Comments on Celebrities and International Adoption

When I adopted a war orphan from Vietnam, I didn't think I could stop the
war or affect racism. I wanted to save one child who was living in an
orphanage situation in the middle of the war where the mortality rate for
orphanage children was 90%. Was I on an ego trip? Does it matter?
Childlren were living in cages, allowed out of their "cribs" for two half
hours a day for feeding. No one talked to them. They had no toys. They
were toddlers who could not learn to explore their environment because for
"safety reasons", they were kept in cribs with bars over the tops to keep
them from escaping. There was never enough food. There were no
inoculations against disease. There was no medical care. There were two
nuns caring for 200 children with two people coming into the orphanage each
day to help clean it out. There were no mattresses or sheets. The children
urinated and deficated through the bars of their "cribs" onto the floor and
someone sluiced out the floor once a day. I read a description later,
written by the son of one of the women who cleaned, which said that the room
smelled like a zoo.

Today I heard a BBC reporter describe orphanage life throughout Africa and
it wasn't all that different. So I don't think it matters what the "real"
motives of the celebrities are or whether they're put on a "fast track".
What matters is that a child will be fed and clothed and receive medical
care and be loved as part of a family. He will have the opportunity to grow
to his full potential.