Peer support

The Asian Adult Adoptees of British Columbia (AAABC) is a volunteer organization that serves the Asian adult adoptee community in BC. Originally formed in 2009 as Triple ABC, the group relaunched with its new name in 2016, after a hiatus of several years. In this article, AAABC president Myla Choi shares what the organization is all about.

An interview with adult ally and youth in care advocate Violet-Rose Pharoah.

What inspires you to make art and be a part of art projects that focus on the experiences of foster care?

As someone who is naturally quiet and introverted, I find that art provides the opportunity for me to explore and express my feelings. My involvement with art projects focused on foster care stems from my own personal lived experience, as well as the belief that art is a powerful transformational tool in creating change.

Being adopted isn't easy. It can be a very scary process. That is normal for most people. I was very scared going through the whole process of adoption. It's okay to be scared because being adopted is a very big change that will affect your whole life.

I got over my fear of being adopted by talking to friends and family about my feelings. I talked to people who I knew have been adopted to help me get over the fear of adoption.

Founded in 1998, AKOMA is a monthly get-together for adopted children of African heritage and their parents. In this interview, organizers Catherine Marshall and Harriet Fancott (who also happens to be a former Focus on Adoption editor!) explain what it’s all about.

Tell us a little bit about AKOMA.

Each year, approximately 15 of Moomba’s 40 campers are adoptees or foster kids!

Summer camp, with a twist

Camp Moomba’s motto is “Friends together having fun.” Campers enjoy all the classic activities that make sleep-away camps magical, from rock climbing and sailing to campfires and arts and crafts. They also bond over something unique. The camp is run by YouthCO HIV & Hep C Society, and each Moomba camper either lives with HIV or has a family member who does.

Like any newly married young couple, we (Nazima and Riyad) loved to dream about the next stages our life together. We enjoyed the strong

I’m a mom of four children, all adopted at different ages and stages. My first child was born in the US in 1997 and adopted as a newborn. In 2006  I adopted three more children from Liberia in West Africa. They were 2, 4, and 13 years old (though the 13 year old wouldn’t actually join our family until he was nearly 19).

In 2006, Liberia was a country in turmoil, it was just a few years after the civil war had ended, the infant and child mortality rates were incredibly high, and the adoptions were being processed relatively quickly.

To whom it may concern,

Whether it's moving to a new foster home, an adoptive home, back with birth family, or agingin out at 19, it's something all youth in care will experience at one point or another. Sometimes those transitions are smooth and expected; other times they're scary and happen without warning. What was a positive experience for one youth could have been super stressful for another.

Claire’s 10-year-old son, Adam, was adopted from a Russian orphanage when he was 19 months old. Her second son, Ethan, joined their family from foster care at age 7. In this 12-part series, Claire shares the “fast and furious learning” she and her family experienced when they adopted an older child. This series ran from 2013 to 2016.