Russia Program Updates

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.