Zdenka Pepelová has a doctorate in cultural studies, but is currently on maternity leave in Trenčín, while Gabriel Bekö is a Slovak working as a research fellow at a Danish technical university in the town of Nærum. Both are 32 years old and they also have something else in common, or rather someone—two children in Kenya adopted from a distance.
My peers Zdenka and Gabriel decided five years ago to support two Kenyan children through long-distance adoption, that is, regular monthly financing of education costs for the boy, Benson, and the girl, Yvonne. They chose a branch of the Czech Center Narovinu in Slovakia (www.centrumnarovinu.cz). When I ask about their motives for deciding to support a child in a developing country at a distance, Zdenka simply explains her actions by saying, “targeted help is much more effective than supporting large organizations with massive campaigns,” which she does not trust. When I inquire about the reason for this distrust, the well-read cultural studies specialist explains that she is referring to disagreement with some activities of globally known organizations and how their humanitarian aid is implemented. Gabriel adds that problems with local corruption in that developing country contribute to reduced trust.

This Slovak, now working in Denmark, remembers clearly how, despite the then not entirely favourable financial situation, a group of young friends and acquaintances managed to join together to adopt a specific child. Today his scientific work also deals with environmental issues: “The number of ‘environmental’ or ‘climate’ disaster survivors in the world will keep increasing. We also have to think about those who are not as fortunate as us—here in Europe.”

One of the UN Millennium Development Goals is to achieve universal primary education with the aim of ensuring that by 2015 boys and girls around the world have the possibility of completing a full basic education. It is hard to say whether this will be fulfilled in two and a half years. But by supporting children’s education in developing countries through long-distance adoption one can at least attempt it. In addition, if the change in living conditions of the adopted child also improves the entire family—then that boy or girl has a greater chance on the labour market thanks to newly gained knowledge, which can help secure the functioning of the whole household.

When asked whether my male and female respondent would adopt another child from the African continent, I got an unhesitatingly positive answer. According to Gabriel, such an act changes for the better not only the life of a person in Africa who deserves it somewhere there, but also the donor-parent themself, making them more considerate and modest. When I clarify the question and ask whether they would also adopt an HIV-positive child at a distance, I receive the same and equally quick answer. Gabriel notes that “we are all born with the same rights. Today HIV and AIDS can already be controlled—one can live with this disease for a long time. Children who are sick in this way require even greater support—even from a distance.”

According to Zdenka, investing in education is the best thing that can be done. “By allowing a child to go to school, we also provide the basic necessities, including clothing and food, and thereby also support the development of the child’s social competencies.” At present, the two selected children in Kenya are sent, as a multi-person group of former friends and acquaintances from university, around 65 euros each per year through Centrum Narovinu.

How to choose the child we adopt

When choosing an adoptive child, Gabriel did not set any specific requirements: “All children in the world deserve education, health, and happiness equally.” For Zdenka, the decisive factors were the child’s living conditions and the family situation. The photo was not decisive, but it still had a certain intuitive weight.

When I ask my respondent directly whether she considers it ethical to choose a child by photograph/physical appearance, she answers that a photo does matter, since it is a kind of “personalization” of adoption. She regards criteria such as the family situation and place of residence—an assessment of basic living conditions and access to education—as much more important. Yet people somehow naturally “in the first place evaluate visual material.” A photo also immediately provides basic information about the child (age and gender). According to Gabriel, there is nothing wrong with choosing a child by photo—one has to choose one from the enormous number, and attraction can help in building the relationship. “At the beginning, unfortunately, it is like choosing a car, or any material thing, in our world,” Gabriel says, apologizing for this expression. “All the ‘items’ offered function the same way—after all, we choose and form an attachment to things on the basis of appearance. Even though we know that appearance does not matter for children, it still matters a little, especially in relation to children who we might never see in life.”

From Centrum Narovinu they both receive information on how their money is used, namely support for their two adoptive children through letters from the children, assessments from teachers there, sent report cards, photos, and also an itemized list of what was purchased for teaching needs. Gabriel notes that he himself visited the adoptive children (the 15-year-old Benson and the 8-year-old Yvonne) in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2011 and that all sent materials are genuine.

The kind of aid for Africa that makes sense

Last summer Gabriel visited several schools, and thus also adopted children of other Slovak and Czech adoptive parents. He also met difficult children, or difficult parents, who wanted money from donors and female donors from Slovakia and the Czech Republic in hand. However, the organization Centrum Narovinu creates a separate account for each child at the start of adoption and sends money directly to the school, where the child receives a uniform, teaching aids, and food. “Within long-distance adoption, one knows exactly whom and how one is helping. It is a personal, trusting relationship with a specific boy or girl, and with the whole family too.”

When I ask Zdenka whether this type of support in developing countries (that is, education support in the form of long-distance adoption) makes sense, I assume the answer will be positive. “This type of targeted help makes sense—because it creates active change ‘from within’,” she says. “The individual gains the opportunity to get an education, that is, to improve their own living conditions, and later thereby become employable on the labour market.” The greatest benefit of long-distance adoption, according to my respondent, is already in its basic principle—improving access to education. When, as a cultural studies scholar, she reflects on the issue of globalization and the import of our cultural patterns and values into a specific African country, she admits it is not an easy and complex issue—with no clear long-term solution. She does not know the correct answer to this problem but adds that it is important to “support through education support and help improve the living conditions of specific children, even at the cost that indigenous culture may be ‘contaminated’ by European cultural patterns.”

Gabriel concludes that “in the past, the ‘excessive sophistication’ of our world indirectly caused poverty for others.” So a desire for global justice, solidarity with those who are decent people yet victims of politics or climate change in that developing country, can be a sufficient motive for this kind of help.

Text: Božena Baluchová, Photo: Gabriel Bekö
This journalistic feature is being carried out as part of a planned series of articles on the topic of ‘adoption at a distance’ (support for the education of children on the African continent, implemented by Slovak non-governmental organizations) as a result of the course Reporting and Writing About the Development World at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which was made available to Slovak participants by PDCS and the MVRO Platform.