Hello Families,
Thank you for the outpouring of responses from so many of you in regards to the new procedure for pictures. Our intention is to take the burden of taking photos off of our families and make the entire process better for the children, staff and parents. For a long time, we have been heavily reliant upon our parents for new pictures of the children. All of our parents have been gracious about giving their time and energy for this, which includes taking the long list of all children, making signs for the kids, spending their time taking pictures of all children at the IAN Care Center and Orphanage, and sorting and sending them to IAN upon return. IAN has grown, and with that growth has come challenges. We have been working on a way to make the process of picture taking more ethical and easier for all. After much discussion, I have created the photo policy, as well as all other IAN policies.
We have added two more staff to our in country team. In the coming weeks, we will have an additional third employee. With the new staff and increased number of children, IAN will now be responsible for taking children’s photos and updates. We will get updated photos once a month. We hope this will take the pressure off of traveling families so they will have more time to spend with their child(ren) and enjoy their time at the IAN Care Center and Orphanages. If for some reason we are unable to receive pictures from our staff on a regular basis, we will modify the policy and make whatever changes are necessary to ensure families are receiving pictures of their children.
Adoptive Parents will still be permitted to take photos of children and distribute them to families if they wish! With this policy, this can be done without first sending pictures through IAN. Parents will just need a signed release from the adoptive families before they can do so.
IAN understands the importance of having photos of your child(ren) for their future, and we want to continue to provide these to you.
We have emailed the updated Photo Policy with the Photo Release to all families. If you have any questions or concerns about this new policy, please contact your coordinator.
Thank you,
Joan Strauss, MA
Executive Director
No comments:
Post a Comment