Suggestion for Saudi unadopted children situation

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=106338&d=1&m=2&y=2008&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

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The problem is that most orphans are not fair skinned. Rida says about 85 percent of them have African features and are unwanted by Saudi adoptive families who perceive these children to be outsiders.

“Their looks indicate that they are not of Saudi origin,” she said. “They are the children of illegal residents of Makkah.”

Rida says adoptive families make it clear that they aren’t interested in these children and specifically ask for light-skinned tots. She warn that this phenomenon of leaving these children — widely perceived to have been dumped by illegal aliens on the Saudi street or the product of extramarital affairs — will eventually exacerbate social problems

“These children grow up to hate Saudi society,” she said. “It will take us a long time to rehabilitate them. These children are the result of immoral relationships, poverty and lack of religious values.”

Abandoning babies is clearly a global issue, but the problem is exacerbated in the Kingdom due to the large numbers of uncounted people living outside the system, either as pilgrims that overstayed their visas to eke out a living in the Kingdom or by undocumented migrants crossing from poorer countries in the region.

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Nisrin Al-Ghamdi, a psychologist, said that while she wouldn’t call the problem endemic to Saudi Arabia, she does think it could be addressed more compassionately. “In the West orphans are raised and given an education regardless of their origins,” she said. “In Arab countries these children are often considered sinful. They’re raised under psychological suffering and they grow up hateful.”

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If police failed to find the parents of these children they end up in charity organizations such as Um Al-Qura. The officer couldn’t provide statistical data on the number of abandoned babies found in Makkah, which is home to a high number of illegal residents.

Rida said that her organization typically received these babies from the government after it is informed by the hospitals that received the babies from the police.

Islamic scholar Sami Khayat said that Islam encourages marriage in order to prevent the problem of abandoned children. From a religious perspective, abandoning a child implies two sins: one of having an illicit sexual affair and the other of not taking care of one’s offspring.
“Whoever is not (caring for his children) deserves punishment now and on the Day of Judgment,” he said.

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I totally agree with the psychologist and the scholar Mr. Sami Khayat. I want to point out that the US in reality is not quite comparable because while it is true that an orphan is not discriminated against and receives an education, many women in the US obtain abortions, which is even more abhorrent than the having an affair and not taking care of one's offspring. So I'd like to make a suggestion so that you don't get pressure in the Kingdom to have more abortions like there is in the US.

I suggest that a foundation be established to create foster living centers for children who are not adopted. If the child cannot be adopted into a family, then let the families come to the child. You would pay good married couples or honorable single men and women (to be like aunts and uncles) to be permanent residents of the foster living centers. They would be group mothers and dads and extended family to all the children who reside in these foster living centers. This will give the abandoned children a positive family and learning experience. When they become of age they will be feeling loved citizens of the Kingdom and will have received religious instruction and not have the abandonment, hate and resentment problem. When they grow up and become of age I believe many of them will adopt their own kind from the same positive foster living centers where they were raised. This will solve the problem of preference for light skin children as the darker skin children grow up, become of age, marry and adopt younger children as their own. This would also provide honorable and charitable jobs for many Saudis. Elderly couples who have already raised their children may want this job. Poor couples who are good parents would want this job so that they have a good and safe place to live and an "instant family." And since the children would be raised in the foster center by light skin people who would love them and care for them and be their mothers and fathers they would not have negative experience with Saudi adults whom they will eventually join in society when they grown up. Also I think that attitudes would soften as the years go by of such a foundation and people observe how family ties are developed regardless of the abandoned child's origin and skin color. A child should not, ideally, feel like they are "waiting to be adopted" and "no one picks them out." If they are immediately put in a family organized foster center that is their life and they are immediately part of a family and not waiting for something that may not occur and feeling rejected. So all children could go into this system and some may be adopted but the rest are not the rejected ones without a mom and dad because they will have had a family from the very beginning.

I hope you find this idea helpful, with blessings for caring for the children of the children of Allah everywhere.