Both Ends Burning: Organization devoted to solving international adoption crisis
Monday, October 31, 2011 – Red Thread: An Adoptive Family Forum by Andrea Poe
NEW YORK, October 31, 2011 – This is the beginning of a Red Thread series that will profile worthy organizations working to assist orphaned and foster care children.
Both Ends Burning is one of the newest but most influential organizations in the adoption community. Its focus is clear: fix the broken international adoption system.
“I started Both Ends Burning to create a culture of adoption and contest the current dysfunctional system that is damaging so many children,” says founder Craig Juntunen. “Our work is simply defined: to help more children have a chance to grow up in families.”
Juntunen and his wife are the parents of three children they adopted from Haiti five years ago. Since adopting his own children, Juntunen has become a champion of orphaned children around the world and has dedicated himself to working for change.
“Everyday I witness my own children’s development. They now have dreams and a chance to chase those dream,” he says. “But I have also witnessed kids languishing in orphanages in many corners of our world. They don’t have any dreams and they won’t have a chance to realize the inner greatness inside of them because of their circumstances.”