Towards a new adoption culture

Each one of us has a specific view of adoption. Based on preconceived ideas, life experiences, intuitive feelings and more sophisticated re-
flections, this view gives a particular meaning to the very concept of adoption; a concept that, in addition, is essential in the social work of protecting children. There are few subjects which reveal, as much as adoption does in a particular society, in a given historical period, the value of childhood, the need for pulling together in a common effort,
the power of indignation, the incomprehension
of administrative and cultural obstacles, the im-
perative need to do something, the idea of family, and, to a certain extent, the meaning we give to life.

In Brazil, as in other countries, our major challenge is to develop a new adoption culture for the child, for that child who needs to find a new family, to have the possibility to grow up with the protection he/she deserves during childhood. If we can accept that an abandoned child is the most serious sign of the deficiencies of a society, we can understand the degree of our responsibility. By culture we understand the interaction of a series of behavioural models, beliefs, institutions, spiritual and material values developed and transmitted collectively by all communities. The «culture» concept is also associated with de-
velopment, the creation of new values; culture is always associated with transformation.

When we speak of adoption, we are talking about the construction of a life project for thousands and thousands of children, we are talking about the creation of civic moral values, the future of our society and the collective efforts to improve human rights and values.