Down Syndrome, also called Trisomy 21, occurs when a person is born with an extra, third, copy of the 21st chromosome. In Russia, approximately 2,500 children are born with Down Syndrome each year and 85% of them are placed in orphanages. Source.
At the time of the ban on US adoptions 20 children with Down Syndrome had met the American families who wanted to adopt them. 15 of these children remain in orphanages more than two years later despite intense efforts to find other placements for them.
"Children with Down syndrome [still] very rarely find a family in Russia," say experts from the charity fund "Volunteers to help orphans."... According to the coordinator [of the] foundation, Marina Andreeva, recently Russians began to take more in the family "difficult" children with intact intellect...but children who are diagnosed so-called mental illness, in Russia little chance." Source.
An even greater number of American families had begun the process to adopt Russian children with Down Syndrome, but had not yet traveled to meet their prospective sons and daughters. At least two of these children, who would have come home to the US in 2013, have since died in orphanages. Almost all of the rest continue to live out their days in institutional care.
3.21 has been designated World Down Syndrome Day and the theme for 2015 is "My Opportunities, My Choices." Today PURO remembers in particular those sunny* little ones whose opportunities and choices were suddenly and catastrophically limited by Federal Law of the Russian Federation no. 272-FZ. You are not forgotten, sweet children.
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*In Russian, children with Down Syndrome are sometimes referred to as солнечные дети or sun children.
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