HISTORY
Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW) is an organization which only recently (2018) came active but has some important targets to pursue.
First of all, we strive to be a platform for all Chilean Adoptees, all over the world and anyone else who is or feels connected to them or wants to know more about our history. Eliminating the country borders where Chilean adoptees went to live due to their adoption. The scope is to unite in a single platform which so far did not exist.
The reason to have set up this platform is due to recent developments in our birth-country. Since February 2018, there is an investigation led by “Ministro en Visita Extraordinario; Mario Carroza” of the Appeal Court of Santiago. A judge with a significant amount of experience in regards to Human Rights cases, appointed by the Supreme Court of Chile to handle this investigation. It is referred to as the investigation of Illegal Adoptions and Child Trafficking and seeks to identify those involved in these illegal practices.
Mr. Carroza, today accompanied by a colleague judge Mr Jaime Balmaceda, are investigating the flow of children that have been send to other countries to be adopted abroad. In Chile there is a history of babies being taken away from their mothers right after birth. However, it is not limited to babies or newborns only. We have come across cases of children being as old as 9 years when subtracted from their families. In Chile, this phenomenon is referred to as Illegal Adoptions and Child Trafficking and today the results of the official investigation have confirmed that the complete public system of Chile was involved.
Doctors, nurses, midwives, hospitals, social workers, lawyers, judges, the child protecting authority and the civil registry, all have been having their involvement as per the findings of investigation team. But also nuns, priests, and even ambassadors and consuls have been identified of being involved.
CAW is following the actualities very closely and is connected with important official teams throughout the country. We are working closely with the team of Mario Carroza. Since 2018 the Chamber of Deputies have set up an investigation commission that looks at the administrative irregularities where the Chilean State has failed to protect their most vulnerable citizens. Why are files and archives not available anymore and how is it possible that registrations of birth do not exist so that adopted children, even within Chile, are unable to find their biological parents which in the basis is a standard Human Right…
CAW speaks with birth-mothers and adoptees who have been victimized by these child-trafficking-practices as well as with people in politics from deputies to senators to hear their stories and comments. We have been invited by the Investigation Police (PDI) to play an important role in their investigations. The department of the PDI which investigates the irregular adoptions work directly at the orders from the office of Mario Carroza.
CAW is included within the realisation of a new law that will give an answer and solutions to our double identity which 99% of all Chilean Adoptees have today (which is completely different to a double nationality). We are raising awareness by speaking with radio stations on a national and international level towards the history of our birth-country.
The Investigation team of Ministro Carroza is looking at the operations behind the child-trafficking-practices and looks to identify those involved in order to have them stand trial. The amount of official claims received in 2018 has already surpassed the amount of 10.000 individual cases.
Unofficial numbers are going as far as 20.000 cases, however, this is not a confirmed number.
VISION
CAW follows the happening in Chile today. We listen close to the investigation teams and the investigation commission to see how we can help. We have the contacts with the adoptees worldwide and we speak many different languages between each other. Our input has become of importance.
But we are also young as an organization and so we have to stay on top of the work we do; maintain neutrality and objectivity in order to look for constructive goals on different levels.
As a platform we speak with adoptees all over the world. Also within the borders of our birth-country. So far we have not seen any adoption which has been dealt with regularly but that does not mean that a regular adoption would not have taken place.
Not only do we help to bring awareness to the adoptees, also to the birth-mothers and birth-families in Chile we are helping them to explain that what has happened in the past, they are not alone in their situation
Where would a vulnerable family start with their search…
Helping adoptees to be re-connected with their birth-families is a crucial part of our work. We are building a strong network in Chile in order to be of help on many levels.
Working together with the investigation-teams we made a decision to implement a secured space on this website where adoptees can upload their adoption documents so that they will be included into the official investigation. By providing this option, more data can be investigated, information can be crossed and more “dots” can be connected towards the identification of those involved. For the investigation teams this is important to get an understanding of how the child trafficking practices actually got to be so strong during the 70s, 80s and 90s. It will hopefully help to send out a strong signal into the world that these violations against the basic Human Rights will never happen again!
We cannot change our histories but we can make a difference for the future!
MISSION
CAW will this year become an official organization. Once we have obtained the status of being a legal entity, it allows us to help those adoptees who would like to be represented in the upcoming stages of the legal process of our irregular adoptions. Many Chilean adoptees do not speak the language today and so this is where see the need to continue what we have started.
Many adoptees today reach a point of curiosity towards their biological families. Although our adoption papers have proven to be falsified and many adoptees read that they have been abandoned by their birth-mothers: today the PDI of Chile declares that these documents are false in almost all cases they have come across with. Which makes the adoptions illegal.
Our history according to our documents is therefor not sufficient enough and we want to know our real identity. Our identities are based upon our histories. Where have the right to know where we come from and how we got to the place where we are today. If the investigation teams today have acknowledged that most adoptions were handled illegally, than our birth-families must have a different story as the one we always believed it to be.
And this results into a huge amount of adoptees who are looking for their birth-families today. CAW helps them with the support of a powerful network of volunteers in Chile and around the globe. We are all connected and we will always try to confront our work with respect and humbleness towards anyone who is willing to help us or to join us.
Today we know that all of us have a part of indigenous blood running through our veins. We are fighters. In our histories we have never given up. This is our time to get the truth onto the table. Create awareness on all levels. Helping adoptees with the language and get them to know the culture of the country they have once left, and are now willing to explore their identity and history.
“We are just getting started”
Alejandro Quezada, Founder of Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW)