A few weeks ago, Holt received two special guests from the Philippines at our headquarters in Eugene, Oregon. Professors Susana Ortega and Maria Lyra del Castillo both serve on the Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB), which functions as the central adoption authority in the Philippines. Holt works closely with the ICAB board to place children from the Philippines with families in the U.S., and this visit provided Dr. Ortega and Dr. Castillo with an opportunity to learn more about Holt International and meet directly with our staff in the U.S.

Although this was Dr. Ortega’s first visit to Holt, Dr. Castillo remembers visiting our offices and meeting Bertha “Grandma” Holt in the 1970s.

“What I felt really excited about when I visited in the past was that I saw how many older kids were being placed in homes. [Holt] was really a pioneer in that area,” Dr. Castillo shared with our staff at a special reception for our guests.

Through the years, Holt has developed unique recruitment efforts to find families for older children and children with special needs in the Philippines. In 2011, Holt led our inaugural Philippines Ambassador trip in which volunteer ambassadors traveled to meet a small group of older children. Alongside Holt staff and social workers, the ambassadors got to know the children and then returned to the United States excited to share the children’s stories with prospective adoptive families. After incredible success placing children through this program, Holt led our third annual ambassador trip in 2013.

“With the summer hosting and ambassadors, we have placed many older kids,” Dr. Castillo said. “We are really blessed.”

During the reception, both Dr. Ortega and Dr. Castillo also shared about recent changes to the ICAB board’s oversight of the Philippines international adoption process. One significant change occurred years ago when ICAB began recruiting board members from different professional fields.

“With the multidisciplinary board, people are coming from different sectors,” said Dr. Castillo, who as a professor of social work comes from the academic field.

While Dr. Castillo has served on the ICAB board for the past 20 years, Dr. Ortega joined as a consultant in 2009 and now serves on the placement committee that matches families with children. “Different people come together once a week to discuss the cases, including a doctor, a lawyer, an NGO representative, a psychologist and a social worker,” explained Dr. Ortega, who as a professor of psychology voices the psychologist’s perspective in the matching process. “We want to make the best possible choice of adoptive parents for our children.”

Although the process to adopt from the Philippines tends to be long, Dr. Castillo attributes the somewhat longer process to the great care ICAB takes when making such life-changing decisions on behalf of children. “They are very careful when they match families in the Philippines,” Dr. Castillo said. “I appreciate the input from different disciplines, and it is great for me to see the improvements.”

Thoa Bui, Holt’s senior executive for programs in S.E. Asia, has also observed through the years how the Philippines international adoption process has become one of the strongest and most respected in the world. “People often see the Philippines adoption system as a model,” she says. “They have delegations visit from all over the world.”