After a period of quiet while officials in India made changes to the adoption process–World Association for Children & Parents (WACAP) is now seeing adoptions in India up and running successfully for families interested in children with medical needs. Each month, information about a group of children with medical needs is shared with the agency. In recent months WACAP has been seeing toddlers and young children with HIV on India’s list. The agency has a grant program that offers a $9,500 grant to (eligible) families who adopt an unidentified child age two or older with HIV from India. Eligible family incomes must be less than $125,000 a year after subtracting $3700 for each child in the home. The family must be paper ready with a complete homestudy and dossier before being able to review child information. You do not have to be of East Indian origin to be matched with a child with HIV. With the new system in place, WACAP strongly encourages families who are interested in adopting children with HIV to apply to the India Program! Please email Jo Reed in FamilyFinders@wacap.org or Priyanka Joshi, PriyankaJ@wacap.org manager of WACAP’s India program, or call her at 206-575-4550.
WACAP (www.wacap.org) is a non-profit adoption agency.
RainbowKids newsletter dated February 7, 2012 is reporting about 10 children with HIV in need of adoptive parents. All of the children are listed with the very reputable agency CHSFS. Contact firstname.lastname@example.org about these little ones:
- Girl in Eastern Europe born 10/2007
- Boy in Eastern Europe born 7/2009
- Boy in Eastern Europe born 7/2008
- Boy in Asia born 3/2004
- Boy in Latin America born 11/2008
- Girl in Latin America born 11/2004
- Boy in Latin America born 6/2009
- Boy in Latin America born 10/2003
- Boy in Latin America born 5/2003
- Boy in Africa born 3/2007
Lutheran Social Service of MN has a pilot adoption program for Burundi. The agency has indicated that HIV+ children are in need of families. Married couples must be married 5 years. Single females age 30-55 can adopt. There is no restriction to the number of children in the home. Parents must not have any major medical conditions or criminal background. Total travel is 3-4 weeks.
Children Available: Agencies place children from the “Priority Adoptions” Program. Through this program, hundreds of children in Peru are registered to be placed with families. The children with special needs are of various ages between 2-16.
Parent Qualification: Married couples should be between 25 and 55 years of age. Prospective adoptive parents should be at least 18 years older than the child. Divorce is acceptable. Singles are accepted for this program. There is no minimum length of marriage and no restriction on the number of children living in the home. Exceptions may be made to parent ages…please contact a licensed agency for more information.
Timeline: The family can travel 2-3 months after dossier is complete and referral is accepted.
Travel: In the case of an adoptive couple, both parents must travel to Peru to finalize the adoption. Stay in the country is approximately 4- 5 weeks. One parent may leave Peru after the court process is complete (2-3 weeks in country). During the stay, Peruvian social workers evaluate the child and family’s bonding progress.
Children of All Nations and Villa Hope have had HIV-positive children in need of international adoptive families in their PERU programs. Another agency working in this country is Lifeline Children’s Services.
Peru is a Hague country.
See also the Peru Adopt Yahoo Group
According to Madison Adoption Associates, international families are needed for waiting children with HIV. Single men, single women and married couples may adopt. According to adoption.state.gov, the adoptive parent must be at least 27 years of age and at least 16 years older than the child to be adopted at the time of the application. The maximum age gap between the adoptive parent and the child and the child to be adopted must not exceed 45 years. Check the agency websites for further guidelines. Another agency to consider is Hand In Hand which has done many HIV adoptions from a different country or Children of All Nations. There are other American agencies working in the Philippines as well.
If you are in Canada, try Formons Une Famille adoption agency which is currently processing special needs requests. Formons Une Famille Philippines Yahoo Group (Canada) and Adoption_Phillipines (in French).
Children’s Home Society & Family Services is looking for families for 2 unrelated Caucasian children. Log in to Rainbow Kids before clicking the links below to see the listings then contact the agency directly for photos.
Girl. Date of birth October 2007. This little pixie has bright eyes and short brown hair. She is a child with HIV waiting for a loving and supportive home. Single women and married couples may adopt her. Applicants should be between the ages of 25-55 with no serious health concerns and no mental health issues. Very minimal criminal history. No restriction on the number of children in the home.
Boy. Date of birth November 30, 2008. This little peanut has huge brown eyes with long eyelashes. He’s a child with HIV waiting for a loving and supportive home. He needs a family very soon. Single women and married couples can adopt. Applicants should be between 25-55 with no serious health concerns and no mental health issues. Very minimal criminal history. No restriction on the number of children in the home.
The adoption agency All Blessings International has announced an adoption program in Liberia. According to the website, there has been a partial lift of the moratorium on adoption from Liberia and 3 agencies are now licensed to place children with medical needs. They are partnering with a Liberian agency which has HIV+ children in their program. The agency indicates that adopting parents must be over age 21, two parent families are preferred by Liberia although single woman can apply. I don’t know if there have been any successful adoptions by single men in Liberia. Large families are welcome to adopt. More information about adopting from Liberia on the adoption.state.gov website. I don’t see any health restrictions listed for the adopting parents. Another agency to speak to about Liberian adoption is Americans For African Adoptions (AFAA). This agency has experience with HIV adoption from other countries.