Actress Deborra-lee Furness has joined forces with the celebrity “orphan doctor” to save the world’s forgotten children. Bryce Corbett reports.
To look at Deborra-lee Furness and Dr Jane Aronson on paper, they make the most unlikely of duos.
One is an accomplished actress in her own right and the wife of Aussie Hollywood sensation, Hugh Jackman; the other a Brooklyn-born paediatrician, an international authority on childhood diseases in developing countries and the wearer of spectacular eyewear.
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Yet to see them together in person and watch them interact with their adopted children is to understand the conviction that unites them — that a loving family is the most basic human right of every child on the planet.
Via her charitable Worldwide Orphans Foundation, Dr Aronson — or the “orphan doctor” as she is more commonly known — is leading an international charge to highlight the plight of orphans around the world.
Through her practice in Manhattan, she helps American couples who have adopted children from developing nations and whose new family members bring with them a legacy of exotic diseases from their country of origin.
Her most high-profile clients have been Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who brought their adopted daughter, Zahara, directly to her from the Ethiopian orphanage in which they found her.
“I know some of the kids that were next to my daughter [in the orphanage],” an emotional Angelina told a Worldwide Orphans Foundation charity gala in New York in 2005. “Two of them passed away, with symptoms very similar to hers. I really do believe that if I didn’t get her out at that time, she wouldn’t be here.”
Deborra-lee’s children, Oscar, 11, and Ava, six, were both adopted in the US, but the actress was only moved to resort to the American system when her attempts to adopt in Australia were bogged down in red tape.
Through her work with children’s charities, Deborra-lee became passionate about the plight of orphans around the world, bringing her into contact with Dr Aronson.
“The number of orphans in the world continues to rise, while the number of inter-country adoptions in Australia goes down,” Deborra-lee says.
“In the meantime, there are children languishing in orphanages all over the world, desperate for a nurturing environment in which to grow up. People think I do this because I have two adopted children, but that’s not the case.
“I have been to Ethiopia and seen two-year-old kids walking the streets. I don’t know anyone who could walk past that and not want to do something.”
“It has become a passion for me because if I hadn’t become an actress, I would have become a lawyer,” she explains. “And I am enraged at the huge injustice of it all. You only have to look at the figures to come to the inescapable conclusion that, as a country, we are anti-adoption.”
The huge injustice that Deborra-lee talks of is best illustrated by the statistics. UNICEF estimates there are some 13 million children in the world who have lost both their parents.
In the last decade, according to figures from the federal Attorney-General’s department, which oversees inter-country adoption, Australia welcomes an average of about 330 international orphans every year.
The US processed some 11,000 inter-country adoptions last year alone — delivering orphans from countries such as China, Vietnam, Russia and Cambodia into the grateful arms of US families.
In contrast, the Australian government allowed only 269 overseas orphans into the country in the calendar year 2008-2009, despite the many thousands of childless couples and hopeful parents queuing patiently to build a family.
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According to Deborra-lee, it’s a statistical imbalance of which we ought to be ashamed. “Obviously, adoption is a part of my daily experience and that motivates me,” she says.
“I can watch those World Vision ads and think, ‘That could be my son, that could be my daughter’. But I also just want every kid in the world to know what it is to be part of a family.”
The Australian Women’s Weekly and Deborra-lee Furness hosted a breakfast summit on reforming Australia’s adoption procedures in Sydney, on November 7. For further information on Worldwide Orphans, visit www.wwo.org.
Read more of this story in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: Do you think Australia should make it easier for citizens to adopt orphans from other countries?
Video: Deborra-lee Furness’ adoption battle
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