Guidelines for Long-Distance Adoption of minors and young people
The Agency for Non-Profit Organizations
- recognizing the highly ethical and social value of long-distance adoption as a form of international cooperation and human solidarity aimed at the development of the person and particularly of children and young people in distress (risk of poverty and marginalization), through the promotion of an effective relationship among the protagonists of solidarity and enhancement, according to the principle of subsidiarity, of the social and cultural context of the beneficiary;
- being aware of the fact that in the field of international cooperation there are subjects culturally motivated, organizational forms and institutions and different styles of intervention, whose projects involve beneficiaries that can be minors, adults, families or well-identified communities in distress from all over the world;
- believing that the establishment of a set of principles can contribute to promote this form of solidarity, by guaranteeing transparency, information and professionalism of the interventions;
- believing that the establishment of these principles must primarily regard long-distance adoption whose beneficiaries are minors or young people, both because most of the projects are addressed to them and because they offer special protection and care to the weakest and most vulnerable subjects (i.e. children and young people), in compliance with the contents of the Italian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations;
- remembering that the Convention on Children's Rights, approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on November 20th 1989 and ratified by Italy with the law 176 of May 27th 1991, expressively recognizes "the importance of international cooperation for the improvement of life conditions of children from all over the world, particularly in the developing countries", and it underlines the need to "take into account the importance of traditions and cultural values of everyone for the protection and harmonic development of the child";
adopts and promotes the following
Guidelines for Long-distance Adoption of minors and young people
Art. 1 - Definition of Long-distance Adoption (LDA) of minors and young people
Long-distance adoption is a form of liberality, consisting in a periodic delivery, within a certain period of time, by one or more private citizens or other subjects, of an established amount of money to an organization, aimed at international solidarity projects that:
have one or more minors or young people in jeopardy of poverty or marginalization as the addressees of the projects;
promote the family and social contexts, well-identified, within which the child's personality develops;
encourage the interpersonal relationship between the supporters and the beneficiaries and/or the creation of a relationship of human closeness and knowledge.
Art. 2 - Other definitions
In compliance with the above-mentioned Guidelines, the following terms are adopted:
"LDA Organization": it is the authority or the non-profit organization that encourages the public, in any form, to adhere to LDA projects and takes care of the realization by collecting and delivering the funds and promoting, through its mediation, the relationship between supporters and beneficiaries and solidarity culture;
"Project organizer": it is the person, accurately selected, that, on behalf of the LDA Organization, manages the solidarity project in Italy, keeps regularly in touch with the local organizer and the supporter, to whom they guarantee full information about the project and the funds destination;
"Local organizer": it is the person that, appointed by the LDA Organization, guarantees the contact with the beneficiaries of the project and their active involvement, realizes the project by addressing the economical support to concrete situations;
"Supporter": one or more individuals or other subjects that adhere to the LDA project, committing themselves morally to acts of liberality;
"Beneficiary": one or more individuals, minors or young people, that, directly or by a family support or by other identified social contexts where their personality develops, receive the resources, services and facilities thanks to the economical aid of the supporter.
Art. 3 - General commitments of the LDA Organization
it has to be an authority or a non-profit organization, and therefore it mustn't distribute, either indirectly, either any incomes coming from the management, or funds, economical resources or capitals during the life of the organization, unless the destination and distribution are mandatory by law;
also in the realization of the LDA project, it has to respect the Declarations and the international Covenants and the norms reported in the attached list (see Attachment 3);
it has to respect the obligations in compliance with the current legislation for the legal subject that the Organization has appointed, and , in any case, it has to issue a Statute, in the form of public act or private authenticated or registered written document, as well as the annual balance sheet or report, highlighting ins and outs directly referred to the LDA activity in respect to other activities undertaken by the same organization, whether solidarity-addressed;
it has to guarantee that the project organizer issues an accurate book-keeping, updating it with the funds raised and delivered to the local organizer and with the received documentation; it also has to guarantee that the local organizer issues an accurate book-keeping, updating it with the funds received and the relative destinations of them to be sent to the project organizer;
it has to develop LDA activities, also within broader interventions of international cooperation, based on projects that, in a clear and complete way, have the following elements at least:
the identification of the beneficiary/ies;
the essential information about the family, social, territorial, political and economical context where the beneficiary lives;
the definition of the form of the economic aid, specifying whether the support is directly delivered to the child or the young person/s, or to the family or other well identified social contexts where the beneficiary's personality develops, or how the above-mentioned forms are combined;
the definition of the relationships between the supporter and the beneficiary that the LDA Organization, through its mediation, makes it possible and encourages;
the specific objective of self-development to pursuit through the project;
the duration of the project itself;
the name and the contacts of the project organizer, and the name and the functions of the local organizer;
the amount of money requested to the supporter, the deadlines of the payments, the minimum period of time during which the aid is requested;
the percentage of the administrative, management and communication expenses of the Organization in respect to the total amount of money requested to the supporter;
the specification of the resources destinations in aid to the beneficiary.
It has to use the funds in compliance with the objectives as clearly stated in the LDA projects to which the adhesion is requested;
in realizing promotional campaigns, it has to respect the requisites of accurate information and fair advertizing, in compliance with the laws and the Title VI ("Social communication") of the Self-regulation Code of Advertizing, with the primary objective to protect children's rights;
if images for promotional purposes are used, it has to guarantee the consensus and respect of the rights of the subject reproduced, and to specify whether the subject is the beneficiary of the project or not;
it has to operate according to the criteria of collaboration with other organizations that act in the name of solidarity and peace in the same geographical areas or sectors of intervention;
it has to operate loyally in collaboration with the Agency of Non-Profit Organizations; to provide the Agency with the Statute, the annual balance sheet and/or the report, as well as other documentation or information that might be requested and necessary to the accomplishment of the institutional functions of the Agency itself;
it has to send an annual report to the Agency, drafted according to the indications given by the Agency itself, that describes the activities of the LDA and confirms the respect of the commitments reported in the Guidelines.
Art. 4 - Commitments of the LDA Organization towards the beneficiary
it has to guarantee that the LDA projects are undertaken and conducted with the participation and involvement of the beneficiary or of those who have parental rights or legal protection, whether this is identifiable, or the responsibility;
it has to train the local organizers and guarantee that they operate fairly and in the primary interest of the beneficiary, evaluating the needs expressed, and in compliance with the LDA project;
it has to commit itself to giving continuity to the solidarity projects undertaken;
it has to provide only the perspective supporter with the information and the picture of the beneficiary;
Art. 5 - Commitments of the LDA Organization towards the supporter
it has to provide the supporter with prompt, correct and complete information about:
- legal nature of the Organization
- address and contacts
- the experience in the LDA activities
- the possible membership to association network and coordination;
it has to provide the supporter with a copy of the Guidelines, in case of adhesion;
it has to provide the supporter with the Statute, the annual balance sheet or the report of the Organization, also if the publicity is not necessary;
it has to inform the supporter about the nature of the moral responsibility while adhering to a LDA project; it has to inform the supporter about the importance of their economic contribution to the project and therefore about the necessity, from a moral point of view, of giving prompt notice in case of interruption of the financial aid;
it has to provide the supporter with prompt, clear and complete information about the LDA project, developed according to the Guidelines, and therefore complete with all the elements as stated in Art. 3 e, for which the adhesion is requested, also in relation to its evolution and, in case of conclusion, its results;
it has to promptly inform the supporter about significant changes, like the suspension or interruption of the project supported, committing itself to using the resources exclusively for the specific objectives communicated to the supporter;
it has to encourage, through the mediation of the LDA Organization, the relationship between the supporter and the beneficiary, promoting periodic mailing and authorizing visits to the beneficiary's country for the supporter;
it has to provide the supporter with clear and prompt information about the possibility for the supporter to benefit from fiscal deductions deriving from the economic support offered;
it has to protect the right to privacy of the supporter, in compliance with the laws.
Art. 6 - The tasks of the Agency of Non-Profit Organization
The Agency of Non-Profit Organizations commits itself to accurately establishing, updating and advertizing the List of the LDA Organizations that have adhered to the present Guidelines, acting as a surveillance body for the contents of the Guidelines in the forms and modes according to its institutional role and taking into account the characteristics and amount of activities of the Organizations;
the Agency accepts the registration to the List of LDA Organizations that have requested it and declare to respect the commitments undertaken contained in the present Guidelines; the Agency will also monitor the LDA Organizations already registered; it can also highlights any failure to the commitments undertaken; if the failure were confirmed, it can set a deadline and, according to the severity of the conducts, it can report, even through public communication, the failure and, under request of the Organization, cancel the LDA Organizations from the List;
the Agency of Non-Profit Organizations enables the LDA Organizations that adhere to the List and respect all the commitments contained in these Guidelines to use the title "Authority adhering to the Agency of Non-Profit Organizations Guidelines for Long-distance Adoption of minors and young people" in their own informative material;
The Agency of Non-Profit Organizations commits itself to promoting the culture of children's rights, the LDA culture and activity, also by publishing, with the authorization of the people involved, examples of good practices;
The Agency of Non-Profit Organizations commits itself to promoting the establishment of meeting places for the active subjects in long-distance adoption.