In order to fix the problem, Craig first sought to understand it. He approached the problem as a business man, and commissioned studies to get a handle on the depth and breadth of the orphan crisis. Initially Craig assumed there were not enough people interested in adopting kids. However, he learned quickly that his assumption was dead wrong. The number of potential adoptive parents grows every year, but so does the number of orphan children. There are millions of kids who need a family, and many families who want to adopt, and yet adoption is in free fall decline.
So where’s the rub? Craig discovered the root of the problem to be political and social apathy. “The reason apathy persists is very few people have any awareness of the issue.”
In 2010, Craig Juntunen founded Both Ends Burning - www.bothendsburning.org. - a non-profit organization whose mission is to defend every child’s human right to a permanent loving family through outreach, advocacy, and engagement. His first major initiative was to produce STUCK, an award-winning documentary that tells three compelling stories of families and children stuck in the broken system of international adoption, each of whom are separated by bureaucracy and apathy for far too long.
A silent social tragedy
What Craig did next, everyone who knew him thought was crazy.
He rented a tour bus, and set out around the country to expose a silent social tragedy.
Craig took the film on a barn-storming tour last spring, traveling on the tour bus to sixty cities in eighty days. In the end, his crazy idea seems to have worked. Local and national media paid attention. Craig’s tour and the film were the subject of feature stories and interviews everywhere he went.
Over 1000 people volunteered to help bring STUCK to their cities across America. And for those who came to see the film, the UNSTUCK movement was born.
Once people saw the film, and understood that the problem even existed, they shared Craig’s outrage and indignation and they shared Craig’s desire to find a fix. Craig was overwhelmed by the positive response he received in community after community, but his experience affirmed his belief that there comes a time when you know too much to walk away.
At the close of the STUCK tour, hundreds of people from over 37 states descended on Washington DC to demand change and participate in the Step Forward for Orphans March that Craig dreamed up as the culmination of the STUCK tour. In the end, tens of thousands
of people have joined Both Ends Burning and the UNSTUCK movement was born.
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