adoption

Terre des Hommes facilitated international adoptions between 1967 and 1998. During this time Terre des Hommes placed more than 2,800 orphans and abandoned children for adoption in Germany. Most of these children came from East and Southeast Asia and Latin America. While adoption placement work constituted only a small part of our diverse activities, it significantly shaped the public perception of Terre des Hommes .

A look back

Perhaps no other issue has shaped the identity of Terre des Hommes Germany and the organization's public image as profoundly over the years as its adoption work. Working with abandoned children played a crucial role from the very beginning of Terre des Hommes . In June 1967, a plane carrying war-wounded children from Vietnam landed in Germany for the first time. This airlift was organized by volunteer Terre des Hommes staff. Further flights followed. The activists of that time soon realized that an airlift alone was insufficient for the medical care of war-wounded children. Many children had lost their parents and relatives. Thus, they began searching for German parents willing to adopt Vietnamese orphans. This was uncharted territory for Terre des Hommes , as there was hardly any experience with international adoptions in West Germany at the time. In 1994 terre des hommes once again made headlines with this issue when the organization's general assembly decided to discontinue its active placement work. By then, approximately 2,800 children, mainly from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador, had been placed.

Further development of adoption policy

Within Terre des Hommes critical debates about adoptions have repeatedly provided new impetus for the further development of its work. This includes, for example, a multi-year international campaign against child trafficking, which also critically examined the trafficking of children involved in adoption. Terre des Hommes also campaigned for the ratification of the Hague Convention, which in 1993 finally established binding regulations for cooperation between states in international adoptions.

The cover of the brochure on the history of adoption work

Brochure »We are looking for parents for children«

The brochure “We are looking for parents for children” offers a detailed documentation and review of the adoption work of Terre des Hommes , which ended in 1994.

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