Perhaps you were thinking of adoption previously.  Or, you may be responding to the immense need that has surfaced from the tragedy of Haiti’s earthquake.  We  sincerely appreciate your interest in adoption and your further concern and compassion in the midst of this very tragic situation.

Following natural disasters, we always receive calls from compassionate people wondering if it is possible to quickly and easily adopt orphans from the affected countries.

The answer is no, and there are good reasons:

• It is often difficult to readily determine if a child is truly an orphan. Families become separated and it might take many months to re-connect.
• Even if a child is found to be an orphan, it may take many more months to locate extended family who might be able to provide a home for the child
• There are security and safety issues, making it dangerous for adoption workers and adoptive parents to travel to, or within, the country.
• Normal communications and travel facilities are usually disrupted.
• Local governments are often fully occupied, providing aid and restoring basic services - the departments and resources that would ordinarily be devoted to adoptions are often not available.

In the specific case of Haiti, although accurate information has been hard to obtain, we know that relevant government and judicial offices have been destroyed, along with the documents that were in them, and some officials have been killed, making it very difficult to complete existing adoption files. Until the infrastructure is rebuilt and fully functional, it is unrealistic to think of new adoption applications being processed more quickly than usual. As such, we cannot provide timelines for any processes.

That being said, it is quite probable that when things settle a little, Haiti would benefit more than ever from adoptive families being ready to adopt its most needy children. It takes four months and more to go through the process required by BC regulations to be approved for adoption and then to prepare and translate and legalize all the required documents for a Haitian adoption. So anyone who is serious should apply now in order to be ready when Haiti is.

As such, you are able to apply to our agency, pursuing BC approval to adopt from Haiti.  However, since the process is currently at a stand still due to the present circumstances, we cannot guarantee when your dossier would be sent to Haitian orphanages.  It is our continued hope that relief efforts will remain strong and that such processes will begin in the near future.

In response to the overwhelming number of calls, we have decided to offer our community a Haiti Information night.  This will be an evening of awareness on the adoption process, its present situation in the midst of crisis, while offering the community an opportunity to help.  We have invited 3 humanitarian organizations that will share what they are doing on the ground in Haiti.  This will also give people a further opportunity to reach out in support. 

Monday February 8, 2010 at 7pm

MEI Secondary Auditorium

31655 Downes Road, Abbotsford, BC

If you are a bc resident interested in Haitian adoptions, please contact HaitiBC@hopeadopt.org

If you are a non-BC Resident, please contact HaitiCanada@hopeadopt.org   While we do not currently handle out of province adoptions from Haiti, we are reviewing our ability to do so in future.  If you would like to be on our Inquiry list, please email us and we will provide you with future updates.

DUE TO THE HIGH VOLUME OF CALLS AND EMAILS THAT WE ARE EXPERIENCING, PLEASE NOTE THAT IT WILL TAKE TIME TO GET BACK TO YOU.  PLEASE PROVIDE AS MUCH CONTACT INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE. AS WELL, PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FAMILY COMPOSITION (AGES OF CHILDREN, YEARS MARRIED, ETC) 

YOUR PATIENCE DURING THIS TIME IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.

THANK YOU.