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Davion’s caseworker will have to decide whether Davion’s biological family can offer Davion a well-balanced home and the financial, emotional and spiritual support he needs.

Meanwhile, Eckerd released this statement on their website:

“Thank you so much for your interest in helping Davion. His courage and faith have inspired the world. We are so touched and humbled by the international response to his desire to have a forever family.”

“Due to the overwhelming response, please be patient as we sort through the enormous volume of calls, emails and letters that have poured in from around the world. We promise that we will respond to each and every request.”

“In addition to Davion, please know that there are hundreds of children just like him that are in need of a forever family in Eckerd’s system of care.”

No kid should have to make a public appeal as a last resort to find a family. Davion deserves to be adopted by a family who loves him, but unfortunately he has waited much longer for a formal adoption, in part, because he’s black.

Nationwide, black children are 2.7 times more likely to be places into care than white children, according to studies. And black kids wait in the foster care system 30 percent longer than other children.

More than 400,000 children across the country are in foster care, many of them black. A report by the Center for the Study of Social Policy shows that  African-American youngsters are more likely to be steered into foster care at disproportionate rates than whites, and are often “negatively characterized and labeled” by child welfare workers.

Davion has been waiting to be adopted for 15 years and it’s unclear how much longer he’ll have to wait. But Connie Going, Davion’s caseworker, said the 10,000 requests to adopt Davion is a good indication that he will be placed with a loving family very soon.

 

ANALYSIS: Black Orphan to Nation: ‘I’ll Take Anyone…Love Me Until I Die’’  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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