What’s Happening in International Adoption and with Children’s Hope?
I sincerely want you and all families working with Children’s Hope International to have assurance and understand the restructuring that Children’s Hope is going through because of certain changes in international adoption.
Basically, all adoption agencies are scrambling to re-invent themselves according to the new realities. So is Children’s Hope. Here are some examples of what is happening.
- China referrals have slowed to perhaps 1/4th of what they were. The current wait time for referrals is 32 months and still climbing.
- Vietnam adoptions continue for families who already have referrals but no new applications until if/when the U.S. and Vietnam authorities sign a new memorandum of agreement.
- Guatemala was the second largest destination for adoptive families and it has been closed to new adoptions.
- Most countries have been very slow in giving referrals causing the wait time in most countries to increase.
- Korea is making announcements regarding closure of international adoptions by 2012.
International adoption agencies are reporting that new restrictions and fewer referrals are creating a crisis for them and that is certainly true with Children’s Hope.
This year the Hague accreditation process was inaugurated for certain countries which have signed to be in that process.
Of the countries where we work, that includes only
China
Colombia.
These are the only two countries we work with that require Hague Accreditation in order to accept new applications. Because we have not get received Hague accreditation, that means CHI cannot take new applications, but all CHI families with dossiers already in the country are ‘grandfathered’ in and can complete their adoption using Children’s Hope. Not to worry
We have a few families in process of completing their paperwork for China and when we receive those they will be transferred to a sister agency who will submit it in country. Otherwise the CHI families with dossiers already in country should complete without any problem.
We are still able to submit dossiers to Colombia as long as the family has an I-600a. Any others we will work to submit through a sister agency.
It does NOT apply to
Russia
Kazakhstan nor
Ethiopia
These are not “Hague Countries” and we are pleased to say everything is proceeding reasonably well. At this time there is no need for you to be concerned at all about “Hague” accreditation in these countries; Russia is slow but moves forward steadily. Kazakhstan is slow and has its own requirements. Ethiopia is all sunshine.
Vietnam is in its own category: It does not require an agency to have Hague Accreditation but it is now closed to all agencies in regard to new applications until a new Memorandum of Agreement is signed between the U.S. and Vietnam . When / If that agreement is signed, it is likely that Vietnam will require Hague accreditation.
Vietnam
Meanwhile, the CHI dossier waiting list remains the same. Everyone keeps their place in line and nothing changes. If/when Vietnam decides to return all the dossiers logged in with DIA, those dossiers will be held in our HCMC Vietnam office until a new agreement is reached. When the new agreement is reached and if CHI does not have our Hague accreditation, we would work with one or more agencies to smoothly transition families to those agencies to complete their adoptions. CHI will not abandon you and you will be taken care of through the end of your adoption.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
- Is Children’s Hope International continuing to seek Hague accreditation through the COA (Council on Accreditation)? Yes, we are. Vigorously.
- What is the COA? They are the accrediting agency contracted by the U.S. State Department to give approval for Hague.
- Is Children’s Hope International accredited by COA. Yes we are, and in good standing since 2002, and are now reapplying through them for “Hague” approval.
- Is Children’s Hope licensed / accredited / or approved by the authorities in China , Colombia , Russia , Kazakhstan , Vietnam , and Ethiopia ? Yes we enjoy the honor of being approved and commended by in-country authorities in all these countries.
- Can you trust Children’s Hope to complete your adoption directly or with the assistance of a sister agency? Absolutely.. We are in relationship with sister agencies that have agreed to work with us if needed, to complete your adoption or to complete any portion. Also you should know that if your file is transferred to a sister agency, it will not negatively affect your scheduled referral at all. Your LID remains constant.
- Why didn’t you get “Hague” approval this time around? We have now determined that it was because of two former Russia department staff who forged names and misused their notaries. In so doing they violated the law and the principles of this agency. That was more than 15 months ago, but we understand that Hague feels there needs to be more time elapsed before approval. We have put in place an approved Corrective Action Plan to ensure absolutely clear use of cross-checking and notaries on all documents.
- Why did you close your branch offices? As you can see from the above or get from the nightly news and the internet, International adoption has taken a drastic downward turn in the last 18 months. In an effort to adjust to these changes about six months ago we closed 8 branch offices to save money. As a part of our restructuring and necessary cost saving, we made the decision for all adoption processing to be centralized in the main office in St. Louis . We closed 8 offices at that time and 7 remained open only for Social Services such as post-placement reports. All families had been transferred to the St. Louis office but the branches continued to help families with social services such as homestudies and post-placement reports. When the largest number of cased were resolved, the remaining were transferred to other agencies in that state.
- Why have all families been transferred to the St. Louis central office? For two reasons: One, because we have a strong staff in the home office in St. Louis who are in touch with everything that is going on with the latest changes in the countries. The second is, that with the limited number of new applications coming, it was not financially feasible to keep the offices open. I understand how nice it is for you to have a more local person to work with and I regret that we cannot continue that – but we just cannot. We do promise to serve you well from our central office.
- Are you going out of business? No! There is absolutely no such intention or danger by closing our branch offices and downsizing our staff. We are still strong and want to stay that way to serve you in the completion of your adoption.
- Is Children’s Hope for sale? Unreal. We have talked with sister agencies about cooperating with them for services until we can get our Hague accreditation, but nothing more. Beware: Chat lists are not the sources of good information. We are a ministry to help orphan children find homes, health and hope. We are not a business. Our Foundation continues to find ways for thousands of orphans to be helped who will never be adopted. We have raised over one million dollars in goods and services in China alone the first part of this year and are praying to God for the means to help many more in many countries.
- How many adoptions will Children’s Hope complete this year? Based on the first 8 months, it should be about 450.
- Are we shutting down our Yahoo Groups? Yes, we can no longer maintain these sites. Please call your adoption consultants if you have a question or problem. They will be able to give you the correct information.
- How can we help Children’s Hope?
a. Believe in us. We are your agency and are totally committed to completing your adoption for you. We will not let you down.
b. Support us in our efforts to make it happen for you. We are supporting you and will do whatever it takes humanly speaking. We pray daily as a group for God’s favor and wisdom in all things.
c. Pray for us. The staff is working hard and getting fired at, sometimes viciously, by some people who believe the rumors of chat groups – but refuse to believe the simple truth. How can that help? An email of support will go a long way toward lifting them up. I believe that probably 95% of adoptive families are sensible, understanding and rational. We would like to hear from you too.
d. Be patient. We didn’t cause the long wait in China or create the political snafus in Vietnam . Please don’t blame us. A wonderful child is waiting for you but not on the schedule you started with. How can it help to complain or blame?
e. Be understanding, please. In your own personal budgeting or in your personal business, did you ever have to make changes to make it work out? We did but we are still here and plan to be here for a long time to come.
f. Don’t worry. We are going to be here for you and have made every provision financially and otherwise to complete your adoption and see you through to the last post-placement report. Really! We cannot regulate what governments may do, including our own, but we can promise you that as long as there is a door open we will be going through it with you.
I plan to communicate with you at least every month about general adoption matters. Program directors will also be sending out regular emails regarding specifics within your program.
I pray that God will guide and bless you with success in your work and family,
Dwyatt Gantt
Executive Director
(314)812-1799 Direct Line
dwyatt.gantt@ChildrensHope.net
Home Office
11780 Borman Drive, St. Louis , MO 63146
Tel: (314) 890-0086 - Fax: (314) 812-1819
www.ChildrensHope.net Help an Orphan! CLICK HERE
1 comment:
Wow!
Thanks for sharing that-it helps to know some specific ways to help and to pray.
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