About

AFAAD connects, supports, and advocates for the needs of the African diasporic adoption and foster care community on a global level through community outreach and education, legislative advocacy, research, and social gatherings.

Founded in 2006, AFAAD is the first international nonprofit organization of its kind that brings together adult adoptees and fosters care alums from across the global African diaspora.

Who is AFAAD? AFAAD is one of the first adoptee led organizations specifically for adoptees and foster alums of African descent. We are from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds. As adult Black adoptees, we are domestic adoptees, we are transracial and international, we are those who survived foster care systems across the world, we are those adopted and raised by members of our own families. We are adopted to London from the U.S., to Sweden from Ghana, we are mixed Korean and Black, Caribbean, Afro-Latino, we are adopted to isolation and to diverse cities across the U.S., we are international and multilingual. We are multi-cultural, multi-racial – we are the diaspora.

AFAAD believes providing connections for and creating space to make visible the adoption and foster community in Black/ African diasporic cultures worldwide will give support to those who otherwise remain isolated in their experiences. As adoptees and fosters ourselves, we believe coming together, even simply to hear one another’s stories and experiences, is a powerful tool for those of us who have for so long felt we are alone.

One of AFAAD objectives is to ensure that conversations around adoption, in both academia and in popular culture, progress in a way that include contributions by adult adoptees. We support those who are conducting cutting-edge research, restructuring child welfare laws and policies, and creating new artwork, performance and films that reflect our unique experiences and perspectives. We place race, culture and connection at the forefront of our stories. We are committed to voicing a powerful message about kinship, family, race, survival, and global black identities.

Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora (AFAAD):

Amazing group of Teens AFAAD members worked with Summer 08

• is a social and political network for adopted and fostered adults to network and create lasting friendships, heal, and celebrate through local and international gatherings,

• is a network for adoptee activists, policy/advocacy work and research who are interested in legislative advocacy,
• provides consultation and resources to adoption agencies, social work organizations, policy workers, and media

• provides updated information on upcoming adoptee-related and other related African Diasporic community events,

• provides youth mentorship programs and activities for African Diasporic adopted and fostered youth,

• provides resources to surrounding communities interested in learning about the experiences and research of cross-cultural, international, inter-racial adoption,

• contributes critical and groundbreaking interventions in African Diasporic scholarship,

• an international professionals network for adoptees and foster alums between multiple African Diasporic sites.