Advocacy and Foundation Work
Orphan Advocacy
Since its beginnings in 1986, our faculty and staff have been committed to the health and well being not just of the children lucky enough to be adopted into permanent and loving families, but to those who remain in orphanages and group care settings. This tradition of orphan advocacy, led by co-founder Dana Johnson, is strong today, with partnerships and collaborations across the globe. We provide medical consultations to nonprofit groups, serve on advisory boards, and testify before our own Congress and other government bodies throughout the world, all in pursuit of legislative and institutional changes that benefit orphaned children.
When Dr. Dana Johnson co-founded the Adoption Medicine Clinic, almost all of the advocacy work being done was in Eastern Europe. Today, advocacy work continues in many African countries. Dr. Johnson is pictured here in a recent trip to Ndola, Zambia, where he helped collect growth data on more than 300 orphaned children to help advise on how best to care for this population of children in the future. Learn more
If you would like to support our ongoing advocacy work, please contact us for more information or go to this page to make a tax deductible donation.
Care Center Training
Despite the best intentions of orphanage employees, most are understaffed, underpaid and undertrained. We have the ability to send specialists--like occupational therapist Megan Bresnahan--abroad to train staff to help orphaned children reach their potential and increase their quality of life. Here, Megan demonstrates exercises to help exercise the muscles of this child in an Ethiopian care center who has cerebral palsy.
Clinical Service Abroad
In addition to her annual work testifying to the welfare ministry in South Korea about the benefits of adoption, Judy Eckerle also travels frequently to provide medical care and consultation to low-resource orphanages, such as the one this boy lives in in coastal China.