According to Rainbow Kids, two American adoption agencies Bethany Christian Services and Spence Chapin have announced pilot international adoption programs in South Africa. Both agencies have experience with special needs adoptions. I don’t have specific information about waiting children, but one can only assume that there may be South African orphans with HIV in need of adoptive families.
South Africa signed an international convention on inter-country adoptions
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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.
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Children of All Nations has HIV-positive children in need of international adoptive families in their PERU program. Peru is a Hague country. According to the agency, married adopting parents should be between the ages of 25-55 or single men & women applicants should be between the ages of 30-50. There is no minimum length of marriage and no restriction on the number of children living in the home. Prospective adoptive parents should be at least 18 years older than the child. The agency indicates that exceptions can sometimes be made. Other agencies working in this country include CHSFS, Carolina Adoption Services and Illien Adoptions.
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One World Adoption Services is advocating for waiting children with HIV in BELIZE. According to adoption.state.gov: Belize is a Hague country. At least one of the parents must be 25 years of age or older and no fewer than 12 years older than the child. Married couples and single individuals can adopt. Single men cannot adopt female children. These restrictions can be waived if the court finds that special circumstances are warranted.
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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).
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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.
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Children with HIV are currently registered for international adoption in Moldova according to Carolina Adoption Services. Waiting child profiles can be seen on RainbowKids.com. According to the agency, parents’ age should be between 25-50. Married couples and single women are eligible with this agency (I need to do more research to find out if the Moldovan government allows single men). Two trips are required of 7-10 days each. Moldova is a small country in Eastern Europe between Ukraine and Romania. I’m not sure if unrelated children can be adopted simultaneously. As of January 2011, there was a boy born in 2007 and a girl born in 2005. Moldova Adoption Yahoo Group.
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Taiwan has waiting children with HIV registered for international adoption. World Association for Children & Parents (WACAP) is placing children with HIV from Taiwan.
According to Adoption.State.gov and the placing agencies:
Age requirements: One parent must be at least 20 years older than the orphaned child and the other must be 16 years older. (Generally aged 25/30 minimum to 50/55 maximum to adopt children with HIV).
Marriage requirements: Prefer couples who have been married at least 2-5 years (depending which agency you talk to). Single applicants are not currently being accepted.
Travel: At least one parent must travel to Taiwan for 4-6 business days.
Other adoption agencies which place children from Taiwan and have placed HIV+ children (from other countries) include: Children’s Home Society and Family Services (CHSFS), Bethany Christian Services, and Wide Horizons for Children and possibly Children’s House International (which was advocating for a sibling group of 3 in October 2010).
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In a continuing series of posts about international adoption country programs, the latest country known to have waiting children with HIV is POLAND. Contact Nina.
According to Adoption.State.gov, Rainbow Kids and Children’s House International (CHI):
*The requirements below are flexible for special needs according to CHI
Age requirements: Adopting parents must be at least 25 years old (according to CHI). Parents are generally within 40 years of the age of the child (fathers up to 45 years older according to Rainbow Kids).
Marriage requirements: Married couples and single individuals may apply. (5 years preferred with no previous divorces according to CHI).
Timeline: 4-12 months
Travel: Two trips are required (total of 4-5 weeks according to CHI). Only one parent must travel for 2nd trip.
*Inquire about a sibling group of 3 who were waiting as of October 2010*
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China is by no means new to international adoption; Americans adopted more children from China last year than from any other country. This is a stable, well established program. For a long time, children with HIV were not listed for international adoption (not due to any shortage of HIV+ orphans), but now that China is mostly a special needs program, there are some HIV+ children starting to be listed.
Try contacting Adoption Advocates International (very experienced with HIV adoption) and Chinese Children Adoption International.
According to Adoption.State.gov and Rainbow Kids:
Parent ages 30-55.
Child ages 10 months – 13 years.
Married couples married at least 2 years. Previously divorced couples must be married at least 5 years. No more than 2 divorces. Total value of family assets $80K. Family income equals at least $10K per family member. Both parents should have high school equivalent degree.
Single women are now being accepted for children with special needs such as HIV. They must not have more than 2 children already living in the home, with the youngest child being 6 or older. They can adopt one child at a time with one year interval between adoptions. Parent age 30-50 or for parents over 50, no more than 45 years between the age of the child and parent. Total value of asset $100K. Income equals at least $10K per family member.
See above links for health requirements and criminal history of adopting parents.
Timeline is about 8-12 months for HIV+ children. After receiving a referral, it takes about 4-8 weeks to get travel approval. Travel time in China is up to 2 weeks. Only one parent must travel.
Always consult with the agency as they may have slightly different information that the outline above.
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