Calvia Town Council to fund adoption costs

Staff reporter CALVIA Town Council will help families who adopt a child, by granting aid of up to 80 percent of the travelling expenses involved in the latter stages of the adoption process. Such aid will also pay a high proportion of expenses incurred by parents who have to spend time, for administrative purposes, in their adoptive child's country of origin. Calvia's mayor, Carlos Delgado, was presenting a new list of measures yesterday, that the Town Council has set up to support parents in the area who are adopting children from underprivileged backgrounds. He was accompanied on the occasion by the councillor for Social Welfare, Teresa Martorell, and by the president of the Association for Adoption in the Balearic Islands (AIBA), Ramón Rotger. Delgado explained that local government would give economic assistance to families resident in Calviá who adopt a child from another country, and will pay 80 percent of the transport costs and expenses of the family who have to go to the adopted child's country of origin. The mayor confirmed it was a pioneering measure, hailing Calviá Town Council as “the first to implicate itself directly in the adoption process by helping out with travel and day to day expenses in the children's countries of orgin”. Any residents in Calviá, who are adopting a child from an underprivileged nation, between 26 September and 31 December of this year, can apply for this assistance, if certain prerequisistes are met. Amongst these prerequisites is the necessity to have lived for at least two years in the municipality before the date of application for government assistance. Aspiring parents should also be able to present official documentation endorsing the adoption. It will similarly be essential to be able to justify travel to the adopted child's country of origin. This financial support for international adoption, is only one of a number of measures that Calviá Town Council has established on a global scale. Other broad aims include administering subventions for development projects in underprivileged countries and the management of emergency funds to support humanitarian actions in cases of urgent need, such as natural disasters.