Parade of Orphaned Children in Mato Grosso is Criticized

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A parade of children and teenagers aged four to seventeen  awaiting adoption, promoted in a shopping mall in Cuiabá on Tuesday May 21st, was criticized on social networks.

The Associação Mato-Grossoense de Pesquisa e Apoio à Adoção (Mato Grosso Association for Adoption Research and Support – AMPARA), the organizer of the event, defended the initiative, emphasizing that it promotes “social coexistence in a world that treats them as if they were invisible” and “shows the diversity of family construction”.

The parade, held for the second time and part of actions linked to Adoption Week, was conducted in partnership with the Comissão de Infância e Juventude (Children and Youth Committee – CIJ) of the Mato Grosso State Bar Association (OAB-MT).

The event was authorized by Judge Gleide Bispo Santos, of the 1st Juvenile Court of Cuiabá.

In a statement, AMPARA advised: “The OAB-MT and AMPARA repudiate any distortion of the event associating it with dark periods of our history, and reiterates that at no time was there an overexposure of children and adolescents.”

The quote is a reference to criticisms on social networks made by Eduardo Mahon, a lawyer and member of the Mato Grosso Academy of Letters, who compared the parade to the old slave trade markets in which they were sold.

The organization’s memo also reads: “No child or adolescent was forced to participate, and they all expressed their joy to the organizers at the possibility of participating in an event like this.”

“Children and adolescents who paraded did so together with their “godparents” or with their adoptive parents. The holding of the event occurred under absolute judicial authorization granted by the juvenile courts of of both Cuiabá and Várzea Grande, with the support of the judiciary, “adds the text.

In November 2016, at the first edition of the parade, two adolescents were adopted.

The statistical report of the National Adoption Register of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) provides that 8,700 children and adolescents in Brazil are waiting for a family.