What are good adoption agencies for children victims in Haiti?
Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at
11:18 pm
My mother has always been interested in adopting a child, me being her only child and she cannot produce anymore children. With the tragedy that occurred in Haiti recently my mother heard that there were possibilities in adopting a child.
Her concern is is there any good sites for more information on this or an application form or process, she would highly appreciate to held the cause!
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Secretary Napolitano Announces Humanitarian Parole Policy for Certain Haitian Orphans
Fact Sheet
On Jan. 18, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State (DOS), today announced a humanitarian parole policy allowing orphaned children from Haiti to enter the United States temporarily on an individual basis to ensure that they receive the care they need—as part of the U.S. government’s ongoing support of international recovery efforts after last week’s earthquake.
DHS and DOS are working together to issue travel documents (either immigrant visas or humanitarian parole authorizations) for children who fall into the two categories described below. Once these children are cleared to travel, the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince will facilitate their evacuation to the United States so they may be united with their American adoptive parents.
Under applicable laws, unaccompanied minors entering the country without a parent or legal guardian are subject to special procedures regarding their custody and care. DHS coordinates with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement on the cases of these unaccompanied minors.
All cases will be evaluated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Depending on their circumstances, and information available some children will receive immigrant visas with permanent immigration status and will require no further processing. Those who enter under humanitarian parole status will need to have their immigration status resolved after arrival.
Eligibility for Humanitarian Parole
Category 1
Children who have been legally confirmed as orphans eligible for intercountry adoption by the Government of Haiti, were in the process of being adopted by Americans prior to Jan. 12, 2010 and meet the below criteria.
Required Criteria
Evidence of availability for adoption, which MUST include at least one of the following:
Full and final Haitian adoption decree
Government of Haiti Custody grant to prospective adoptive parents for emigration and adoption
Secondary evidence in lieu of the above.
Evidence of suitability for adoption, which MUST include at least one of the following:
Notice of Approval of Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition
Current FBI Fingerprints and background security check clearances
Physical custody in Haiti plus a security background check
Category 2
Children who have been identified by an adoption service provider or facilitator as eligible for intercountry adoption, were matched to prospective American adoptive parents prior to Jan. 12, 2010 and meet the below criteria.
Required Criteria
Significant evidence of a relationship between the prospective adoptive parents and the child AND of the parents’ intention to complete the adoption, which could include the following:
Proof of travel by the prospective adoptive parents to Haiti to visit the child
Photos of the child and prospective adoptive parents together
An Adoption Service Provider “Acceptance of Referral” letter signed by the prospective adoptive parents
Documentary evidence that the prospective adoptive parents initiated the adoption process prior to Jan. 12, 2010 with intent to adopt the child (filed Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition, and/or Form I-600, Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative, completed a home study, located an ASP to work with in Haiti, etc.)
Evidence of the child’s availability for adoption, which could the following:
IBESR (Haitian Adoption Authority) approval
Documentation of legal relinquishment or award of custody to the Haitian orphanage
Secondary evidence in lieu of the above
Evidence of suitability for adoption, which MUST include at least one of the following:
Notice of Approval of Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition; OR
Current FBI Fingerprints and background security check clearances
Other Orphaned or Separated Children
Given the severity of the disaster in Haiti, we understand that there are additional children that have been orphaned and/or separated from relatives and may also be in varying stages of the adoption process. DHS and the U.S. Department of State continue to evaluate additional eligibility criteria and will provide additional information as soon as it is available.
USCIS encourages U.S. citizens with pending adoption cases in Haiti to send us detailed information about their cases to HaitianAdoptions@dhs.gov.
Please visit the USCIS website at http://www.uscis.gov and the U.S. Department of State website at http://www.adoption.state.gov for more information and updates.
Last updated:01/18/2010
The adoptions you are hearing about are for children whose adoptive parents had already started the process - ie parental rights had been terminated, etc PRIOR to the earthquake. Agencies that facilitate Haitian adoptions have temporarily stopped their programs. As much as lots of good, decent people want to adopt these children, laws on ascertaining whether the parents are dead, whether there are living relatives who can take them, etc. have to be followed.
Has she considered Ethiopia?
don’t listen to the first poster.there are HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of orphans in Haiti.the best thing to do would be to contact an adoption agency and request information on international adoption.
Foster care.
None. If you want to help a child in Haiti, donate to UNICEF, that way the money will go to helping them find a family member. They need money, not a new family. They HAVE families, but many cannot be found yet.
There aren’t any. Nobody will know for the best part of a year yet whether the Haitian children in need of care are actually orphans or just kids who have been separated from their families.
If your mother wants to help, that’s great. I recommend she donates money to a reputable charity. Or, if she wants to help a particular child, she could consider child sponsorship.
There are A LOT of kids here that need homes.
You’ve had some excellent answers but to add to them, please be aware that there are reports of children being taken across the border in large numbers without their (very much alive parents) under the premise of receiving ‘medical treatment’ Those parents are unlikely to see their kids again
Child traffickers take full advantage of situations like these and you should be VERY aware that a child labelled ‘orphan’ is not necessarily so
Sending aid to the families is the only humanitarian course of action to be taken at this time
Help them find their families…not replace them! You can’t just say oh I’m sure everyone is dead, come with me.
Donate to a fund which helps people find their parents and relatives, it sounds awfully like your tring to benefit from a tragedy. They need support, couciling, clothes, food, help rebuilding their lives with their loved ones…why dont you help with that?
If you really want to adopt it doesnt take a natural disaster…become a foster parent or help abandoned or abused children…there are so many ways to help!
Because of the disaster, a lot of children that were not spoken for before the earthquake are in US right now. A whole plane load of them landed in PA earlier this week. They were taken for physicals and will be placed in temporary lliving situations until either their parents or family can come for them or adoption can be arranged.
I sure hope they find good homes. They are such special children. Anyone would be blessed to have one. What little troopers those kids are, totally amazing.
Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for wanting to give an orphan a family. There are a lot of people who are against adoption under any circumstances. They demonized people who want to adopt as child stealers, and it’s ridiculous. That said, your mother does want to make sure she does everything possible to make sure the adoption is done right. The parents have actually terminated their rights permanently (under no coercion) and there is no extended in their own country who wants to raise them.
Right now Haitian adoptions that have not been underway before the earthquake have been stopped for the reasons that have been sighted in previous posts. They need to make sure children who are alone are actually orphans and don’t have parents or extended family members looking for them.
But it will resume at some point, might be a few years. The break is good, your mother doesn’t want to be in a situation where she bonds with a child then finds out there is a family and she has to let the child go.
There is always the foster care system in this country, there are plenty of children who need homes and there is more information available about the child’s background (medical, abuse history).
I’m adopting domestically myself.
Good luck to your mother!
HAHA! LOL.
None.
‘S not happening.
Since the earthquake, the legal adoption process has been halted to give a chance for children to be reunited with their parents or extended family members. If you are offered the chance to adopt a Haitian child, you should be aware that you might be dealing with criminals who either just want to steal your money and disappear, or else take your money and hand you an abducted baby.
UNICEF believes that there is now a black market in abducted Haitian babies and young children who are being sold to adoptive parents from foreign countries by kidnappers misrepresenting themselves as legitimate adoption services.
Here’s a link to an article in the German press describing the abduction of 15 babies and toddlers from a Haitian hospital.
http://bazonline.ch/ausland/amerika/Unicef-15-Kinder-aus-Spitaelern-in-Haiti-verschwunden/story/27468701
If you don’t read German, you can get a translation from Google.
http://translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=ru#de|en|
There is a good chance that the parents of some of the Haitian "orphans" who have been so hastily evacuated from Haiti are STILL ALIVE and wondering where their children are. If you’ve adopted one of them, then you’ll have to decide whether to send the child right back to Haiti (at your expense) or join the Haitian abductors in the crime of kidnapping as an accessory after the fact.
Over-eager sentimentalist do-gooders often do more harm than good. They go in to a place with many good intentions, but little real information, and no safe-guards, and they blunder about making a big mess, while handing a pile of money to criminals who secretly laugh at them.