Russia Program Updates

By now you should have received a general email from us regarding the New Communication System that we are implementing.  You also either received an email from your Adoption Consultant or will be receiving one shortly introducing you to your in-country contacts.  As this new communication begins to take effect over the next several weeks, here are several key points to remember:

As most of you are probably aware of, adoption in Russia today isn’t what it used to be several years ago.  Due to rapid economic growth inside the country and a rising interest in domestic adoption and foster care among Russian citizens, we are seeing that more and more children that are available for foreign adoption will have some medical issues at the time of referral.

Furthermore, the rapid economic expansion that Russia is currently experiencing has resulted in the fact that there’s an inflow of migrant workers from the former republics of USSR to many Russian cities.  As a result, we are seeing an increase in the number of children available for adoption that will have Asian features.

It is no secret that the adoption process is extremely time-consuming and that much preparation is required on both the side of the families and the adoption agencies they are working with. 

This is especially true in the case of Russia adoption where each region has its own requirements and regulations on how the adoption process is handled.  Moreover, Russia is always undergoing changes, which means new regulations regarding international adoption are constantly developing in each of the regions. 

Children’s Hope had 13 court dates scheduled for the month of July and nine first trips for families in the Russia Program. At this time we already have 7 families scheduled for August for their own second trips for court, to officially adopt their child(ren). Congratulations to all of these families!

Missouri, Illinois, New Hampshire, Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Maine, Arkansas, Alabama, Virginia, California, New York and the District of Columbia.

Through Children's Hope in 2008, there are 46 Russian children who now have new loving homes with 34 families across the United States. There are already another eight families who are scheduled for court dates this month as well.

During the first four months of 2008, the Children's Hope Russia Team sent a total of 3,751 different documents to Russia for our families. Many of these documents were in duplicate or triplicate, so the actual amount of documents sent is quite a bit higher.

2008 Adoptions completed: 33 (23 boys and 10 girls)

Things are up and rolling in the Russia program, with over 100 families working on their registration packages and 13 families traveling in the first week of April alone, on either their first trip or second trips.

DOCUMENTS PREPARATION WEBSITE:
To aid families in the completion of their documents, Children's Hope is constantly upgrading our new internal website. Please periodically check the website for updates. http://docs.childrenshope.net

In March alone, 25 Children’s Hope International families made travel arrangements and boarded planes to one of a plethora of Russia regions. Some families traveled for the first time to be matched with their child; other families are experiencing their joyous second trip in which the family finalizes their Russian adoption and bring them home to their forever family in the US. We are very excited for our families and for the Russia program!  

Russia Travel – Big News! In February, 18 families are traveling into Russia for their first trips to meet their adoptive children and their second trips with include their official court ruling and the opportunity to bring their children home. In next several months we expect up to 40 families to travel each month. We are very excited for our families and the Russia program!

Children's Hope International is happy to announce that as of December 14, 2007, we were officially accredited in the Russian Federation!

We received the official order #355 from the Ministry of Education, signed on December 14. We also received an accreditation certificate #31 (pictured left), issued on December 19, 2007, granting us authority to place children for adoption within the territory of the Russian Federation. This accreditation will be non-expiring.

Pictured: Children's Hope International's Certificate of Accreditation. For the certificate's English translation, click here.

Children's Hope International is happy to announce our representative general is invited to the Ministry of Education to receive Children's Hope accreditation this Friday, December 21, 2007! As soon as we receive the documents (order from the Ministry of Education and the accreditation certificate) we will publish this on our website. Please visit us again soon for the update.

Children’s Hope is anxiously awaiting news on accreditation. We have not heard any concrete news about our accreditation, but all Children’s Hope families will be notified immediately upon its confirmation.

Children's Hope received news of eight international adoption agencies, seven based in the U.S. and one in France, receiving their accreditation in Russia on Wednesday, July 4. The Russian Ministry of Education has listed eight additional accreditations as of July 19. Although Children's Hope was not one of the first accredited, we welcome this information and are excited the accreditation process has finally begun! As the accreditation process proceeds, we will be notified of the timetable for the next batch of agencies to be accredited. New updates will be released as specific official information is received. For those new to Children’s Hope or to Russian accreditation, the article “American Attitudes Exposed: Russian Re-accreditation Reveals Delinquent Post-Placement Report Problem” in this month’s issue of Adoption Today (p. 8-9) provides clear and concise information and background on the re-accreditation process currently underway. Click here to read the article online.

Children's Hope received news that eight international adoption agencies, seven based in the U.S. and one in France, received their accreditation in Russia on Wednesday, July 4. Although Children's Hope was not one of the first accredited, we welcome this information and are excited the accreditation process has finally begun! As the accreditation process proceeds, we will be notified of the timetable for the next batch of agencies to be accredited. Over 115 agencies are registered as NGO's and are awaiting accreditation. New updates will be released as specific official information is received.

The Russia team continues to work with families waiting in the process while we await accreditation in Russia.

We have it on the best authority: the Ministry of Education continues to work on processing the accreditation and delays are due to paperwork issues alone. There are no rumors circulating about a moratorium or for Russian adoptions to discontinue. We believe the accreditation issue will be resolved within the next several months allowing us to work in all of our nine current regions. Children’s Hope will begin working in two new regions as well, Perm and Krasnoyarsk.