New York — The first Muslim adoption agency in the United States will hold its fifth annual reunion and gathering for parents who have adopted children from Morocco for the first time this year after it began operating formally as New Star Kafala.
The reunion will be held on June 6, at 2:30 p.m. at the Studio AVCom Visual Arts Center in Sterling, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.
The event is expected to draw 130 parents, adopted children, friends and supporters from around the country.
“It is important for adopted children to keep their ties with their homeland, their culture and roots,” said Wafa Bennani, a Morccan-American Board of Directors President who helped organize the reunion. “We try to bring Morocco to them in a fun, cultural celebration while recognizing their success in having a forever family to call their own.”
“New Star is committed to ethical adoption practice,” said New Star Kafala Executive Director Barbara J. McArtney, an attorney and founding member of Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform. “Transparency, cost-effectiveness and giving back to children who remain without parental care is part of our core mission. Long term, we hope to raise awareness of this problem in Muslim countries where international adoption is only one small solution to a much larger problem.”
McArtney said the agency is creating a supportive community of Muslim adopted families in the United States, “not only for them but to assist the children who remain in institutions where their prospects of a productive future are bleak.”
New Star Kafala is the only faith-based adoption agency in the United States that specifically helps Muslim families adopt, a process known in most Islamic countries as “kafala,” the Arabic word for custody. Before transitioning to New Star Kafala, it operated as Graham's Gift Children's Foundation, a New York State child placement agency operating since 2001.
Very few Islamic countries allow foreigners to adopt and those that do require parents to be Muslim. New Star currently has adoption programs in Morocco and Pakistan.
Under the Universal Accreditation Act effective July 14, 2014, all international adoption services must be performed by a Hague accredited, supervised or exempt entity or person. Previously, parents could adopt independently. That is no longer allowed for Americans residing in the United States. New Star currently operates as a supervised provider until it completes its own Hague accreditation, expected later this year.
Morocco slowed foreign adoptions in 2012 while courts reviewed new guidance from the country's Justice Minister. One of the guests at the reunion will be Keltoum Touab, a court administrator from Meknes, one of the few cities in Morocco where foreign adoptions currently are being processed. Moroccan adoption guidelines require parents to submit yearly updates, including medical information and school reports, to the Moroccan Embassy in the United States until a child is 17.
Fazlul Zubair and Fatima Shahnaz Iqbal-Zubair, of California, adopted their son from Morocco in 2014 when he was 5-months-old. (Most children available for adoption in Morocco are boys).
“Having a Muslim Adoption Agency allowed us to seamlessly interface with the host country and ensure that their laws and regulations are followed,” Fazlul Zubair said.
He said families hoping to adopt from Morocco should take the time to understand the rules and requirements. He and his wife spent three weeks in Morocco while waiting for guardianship, permission to leave the country and the U.S. visa.
“There is a lot of down time as you are waiting for paperwork to be processed, so make plans to enjoy the country with your new addition to the family,” he said.
New Star Kafala has a formal agreement with the Rita Zniber Foundation, which runs Le Nid, French for “the Nest,” an orphanage in Meknes, Morocco.
New Star Kafala is unique because part of its mission includes helping to resolve the issues that lead to children being abandoned in the first place. 6,000 children are abandoned in Morocco each year, according to INSAF, an NGO. That number has been increasing every year.
Attendance registration for the reunion is open on Eventbrite and a $30 donation at the door is requested to help cover expenses.
For more information, www.newstarkafala.org or on Facebook.
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