Councelling

Pre-Adoption

When a child is born into a family it is biologically integrated in the family. From this position it begins a journey of emancipation and independence. When a child is adopted into an (unrelated) family, its early life journey is towards integration and assimilation. Adoptive parents and children have first to move towards bonding and attachment. This process requires counselling from experienced and experts.

Pre-adoptive preparation workshops are held periodically at SOFOSH. Issues taken up at the workshop range from:

  • In what circumstances children are admitted to the child care centre.
  • The situation of unwed mothers
  • Child Care at the Child care centre
  • Undertaking adoption
  • The importance of sharing the fact of adoption with the child
  • Medical Profile of the children
  • Communication & parenting – Legal process for adoption.

Post Adoption

Adoption is not an event which happens one day in the life of a family. It is an on-going journey and like all journeys, there are twists and turns along the way. After adoption parents find many issues which they need to handle with sensitivity and skill.

Towards this goal SOFOSH initiated an Adoptive Parents Forum in 1988, to provide parents a platform to share their experiences. Challenges and support to each other. Through the collective efforts of this forum, important achievements included securing the right to Birth Certificates for adopted children and adoption leave (at par with maternity leave) for adoptive parents.

ROUTINE ACTIVITIES – POST ADOPTION

Regular meetings of Parents Forum are conducted by SOFOSH in which issues relating to the following are addressed: The Topics range as follow:

  • Sharing the fact of adoption
  • Challenges of parenting
  • Experience Sharing
  • Education & schooling
  • Diet & Nutrition
  • Challenges faced by family and child
  • Family life education, Legal issues like will and inheritance etc.
  • Teenage Issues

Individual counseling to adoptive families, both parents and children, are provided by the counselors and empathetic staff at SOFOSH.