Ukraine – Ministry of Social Policy Statement on Intercountry Adoption
March 21, 2022
Ukraine – Ministry of Social Policy Statement on Intercountry Adoption
On March 13, 2022, the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy issued the following statement on Intercountry Adoption Under Conditions of Marial Law – A Clarification. The Department of State is pleased to provide the following official translation. Official Ukrainian updates about a range of issues related to the invasion, including the evacuation of children residing in institutional care, are available on the Cabinet of Ministers website.
OFFICIAL TRANSLATION
Intercountry Adoption Under Conditions of Martial Law –
A Clarification from the Ministry of Social Policy
Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, published March 13, 2022, at 22:19
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Recently the mass media and social networks have been filled with notices about the willingness of foreigners to adopt a child from Ukraine and with appeals that Ukrainian children need to be adopted abroad.
The Ministry of Social Policy emphasizes that under current conditions intercountry adoption is impossible and that disseminating such inaccurate information contains signs of fraud and violations of the rights of the child.
This is why we appeal to all concerned citizens, civil society organizations, and international organizations not to disseminate misinformation and not to endanger children.
In reality, because of risks to the life and health of children as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine, children and families with children are being evacuated to safe areas within Ukraine as well as beyond Ukraine’s borders to other countries, including member states of the European Union.
This is stipulated by international law and practice that pertains to intercountry adoption in such conditions.
The policy of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees with respect to adoption is that children who are evacuated to other countries as a result of an emergency situation, including children who are granted refugee status in the territory of other countries, cannot be adopted because the majority of them are not orphans or do not have official authoritative confirmation to that effect.
Such children require appropriate temporary care for possible reunification with [their] families in the future rather than adoption.
In addition, adoption must not be carried out if:
– there is hope of successfully finding and reuniting families in the best interests of the child, and
– a reasonable period of time has not yet passed (usually at least two years) during which all possible steps were taken to find the parents or other surviving family members.
Countries of origin of such children and countries of their temporary residence must make all possible efforts to find the family members of such children before they can be considered eligible for adoption.
This is stipulated by national legislation of Ukraine that pertains to intercountry adoption.
In accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, adoption of a child who is a citizen of Ukraine by foreigners or by citizens of Ukraine who reside beyond its borders requires the consent of the National Social Service. It is this Service that oversees matters pertaining to intercountry adoption.
The National Social Service is not currently considering cases and is not providing consent and/or permits for the adoption of children by foreigners or by citizens of Ukraine who reside beyond its borders. Because of active hostilities, it is impossible to ensure high-quality verification of documents of foreign citizens who have expressed a desire to adopt a child, to ensure contact between the prospective adoptive parent and the child, to establish the child’s opinion regarding adoption by precisely this person, to obtain findings and the consent of interested parties (parents, institutions in which the children lived, guardianship and trusteeship bodies, etc.).
Without such verification and preliminary work there is a great risk that the child could fall into the hands of fraudsters, persons who would not ensure the child’s rights and best interests, or human traffickers.
When the situation permits resumption of high-quality verification of documents of foreigners who are prospective adoptive parents and of the preliminary work required for the process of intercountry adoption, the Government of Ukraine will inform the public and competent authorities of foreign countries without delay about the terms and specifics of resuming intercountry adoption.
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Ukraine Adoption Update
March 9, 2022
The Office of Children’s Issues has received many inquiries from prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) at all stages of the adoption process in Ukraine who are understandably concerned about the safety of the children.
Many families have previously hosted the child they wish to adopt and hope to find a mechanism to bring the child to the United States until the crisis in Ukraine resolves. We are also hearing from hosting organizations and other humanitarian groups who seek information about how to bring Ukrainian children to the United States outside of the intercountry adoption process. Right now, the situation in Ukraine is fluid. We are in touch with Ukrainian authorities who have expressed concern about moving children out of Europe at this point. Our understanding is that children may depart Ukraine with their legal guardians, who are often the orphanage directors, if other required criteria are met. The Ukrainian government has confirmed they are not approving children to participate in host programs at this time and are taking measures to ensure their safety in neighboring countries.
We will continue to seek clarifications from the Ukrainian government for how parents with final court approval and final orders of adoption may proceed. PAPs may find helpful Information for U.S. Citizens In the Process of Adopting in Ukraine on our website.
We are in close touch with the Ukrainian government which confirms that most children have already been evacuated to Poland and are receiving all appropriate care, including specialized medical treatment, as necessary.
We hope this confirmation that the Ukrainian government is monitoring the children’s safety and care will bring some relief to families seeking to adopt. We appreciate your assistance in sharing the Ukrainian government’s efforts with your clients who are in earlier stages of the process and to any concerned individuals or organizations that may consult with your agency.
The situation is evolving. We will continue to communicate with the Ukrainian government and will provide further updates as they become available.
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Adoptee Cultural Exchange in Spain!
In our years processing adoptions running heritage tours and exchange programs, we have often been asked what it is like for Chinese adoptees in other areas around the world. So we created our Adoptee Cultural Exchange Program, A.C.E.
This exchange program provides Chinese adoptees a chance to explore their heritage and meet other children who have the same life experiences as they do all within the safe confines of a host family who also adopted a child from China.
All the American girls are very well integrated in their families and they get along really well with the Spanish girls. They are becoming very good friends.
Each family is doing different things in different parts of Spain: they are going to the beach, to the swimming pool, to the mountains, doing cultural visits… They really want the girls to have fun and enjoy their stay in our country.
Our Program Coordinator in Spain
This is one of the most unique cultural exchange and heritage tour opportunities available for a Chinese adoptee, and we are the only U.S. agency currently offering this opportunity! To learn more click the banner below!
Haiti Referrals!
We are so excited that CAN has received 3 kiddos referrals from HAITI in the past two months!! We’re also thrilled to announce that 4 Haitian children came come home to join their Forever Families!
We cannot wait to see what the future holds for our Haiti Program, and would love to talk with you about the adoption process.
CAN is currently accepting adoption applications for 2019, and we work hard to advocate for all of our children!
Please contact Becca, our Haiti Case Manager, at becca@childrenofallnations.com to get more info or schedule a call!
We’re eager to speak with you and to bring more amazing kiddos home!
Heart to Heart Hosting
Connecting children with their cultural heritage can be so helpful for children and your family. A great place to start is at home, and what better way than to host an exchange student!
Meet The Vitek Family!
Hosting Unai was a family decision that we made because we wanted a role model for our 6 year old son and we could not be happier with how everything turned out! Unai, was more than just a role model, he really was another family member!
Unai was a great student and had no problems adjusting to high school in the US. We were worried about how well we would be able to communicate with each other, but his English was very advanced and we had no problems. We would work on homework all together after school and always had dinner together at the end of the day. He really just meshed with our family so well. Unai was into skateboarding, surfing and skiing and was even able to teach our son how to surf after a few trips to the beach!
We have learned so much from Unai over this past year. Mainly that we have a lot of love to share with others and we are more than willing to share with the exchange students that stay with us. Our son has learned a lot too. He can speak a bit of Spanish now and is more willing to try new things. I think Unai opened our hearts to hosting and showed us the huge impact personal connections make.
Mrs. Vitek, host parent with Student Ambassador Exchange
Hosting an exchange student is a great way to connect over shared and new experiences. Students come to the US to study at a US public high school, and live with host families. These students are ambassadors in their host communities. Students are encouraged to share their country, and culture with their host family and their community. Plus, Children of All Nations offers its own program called Student Ambassador Exchange so you can work with the same CAN team members you already know!
Students are from nations all over the world and are between 15-18 years old and have a wide variety of interests. Students are selected for the Student Ambassador Exchange Program based on their academics and comprehensive English abilities. And Host Families can host for a few months, a semester or a full school year, so there are options that work for your families.
And there are NO application fees or direct costs for hosting! The only things host families have to provide exchange students are:
- A bed in a shared room, with a child of the same gender or in their own room.
- Three meals a day. (Students bring their own money to cover meals when going out)
- Transportation to school and activities if a school bus is unavailable.
- A supportive and caring home.
Meet the Exchange Student and fill out an obligation free application to see the student’s full, unblurred profiles!
5 Reasons to Adopt from Poland
For families looking to begin the process of adopting internationally, selecting the right program can seem like a daunting task. In addition to your family’s specific adoption desires (child’s age, needs, etc.), you have to consider what each program has to offer, from the wait time to the travel requirements. Below are five reasons why your family might want to consider adopting from Poland.
We are so excited to share that we will be sending a team from Children of All Nations to Poland this fall to meet with representatives at adoption centers and visit orphanages! These trips not only help us develop and grow our programs, but they provide us with resources that help place more and more children with loving Forever Families. Keep an eye out for program updates coming later this year!
1. Healthy and Waiting Children
Poland’s international adoption program has both a Healthy Track and a Waiting Child program, making it a great fit for families with varying adoption desires. Children in the Healthy Track are generally age 8-15, while children in the Waiting Child track can be as young as 1 year old. The Waiting Child adoption program provides families with the opportunity to be matched with children that are considered more difficult to place based on their age or special needs. Much like the Bulgarian Waiting Child adoption process, families in Poland’s Waiting Child program have the opportunity to play a role in the matching process, as they can request to be matched with a child that their agency is advocating for.
2. Fast Process
While the wait time for many international adoption programs continues to grow, families adopting from Poland’s Healthy Track generally receive their referral within just 12 months of submitting their dossier. Since families in the Waiting Child program are able to request a match earlier on, the process of bringing a Waiting Child home is often even faster! As with any program, however, these wait times may vary based on the age range, gender, and needs that your family is open to.
3. Siblings
In addition to placing older children and children with special needs, Poland’s Waiting Child program strives to find loving forever families for sibling groups of two or more. Adopting a sibling group is an amazing way to provide a shared future to children who have a shared past. If you are considering adopting a sibling group and would like more information, read our blog post “Six Reasons to Adopt a Sibling Group” or contact our CAN matching specialists today.
4. Eligibility
As each international adoption program has its own set of eligibility requirements, families are often surprised to find out that while they may not qualify for one program, there are others which may welcome them with open arms. Poland’s eligibility requirements are relatively open, allowing families to begin their adoption journey once they are just 25 years old. Visit our Poland adoption page for more information on the program’s eligibility requirements.
5. Single Women Are Welcome
While some international adoption programs are only open to married couples, Poland welcomes single applicants for both the Healthy Track and the Waiting Child adoption program! For more information on adopting as a single parent, contact Children of All Nations today!
Resources
– Learn more about our Poland adoption program
– Contact a CAN matching specialist
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They’re Home!
We’ve heard the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words,” but this selfie is worth SO much more. Look at those smiles!
These two adoptive parents recently traveled to the Philippines to welcome a sibling group of FOUR into their family! Now, just weeks after they all returned to America, everyone is getting settled in and having a wonderful time. We are so happy that everyone made it home safely, and we can’t wait to continue following their journey.
If your family is interested in learning more about our Philippines Waiting Child adoption program, contact our CAN matching specialists at shelby@childrenofallnations.com or visit our Philippines adoption page.
Share your selfie with us by sending it to ana@gwca.org today!
Read MoreFamily Home From Guyana
With one of our amazing families bringing their child home from Guyana this week, we wanted to share a blog from another one of the families in our Guyana adoption program who brought their kiddos home nearly two years ago! If you’re interested in learning how you can begin your Guyana adoption journey, contact our CAN matching specialists or visit our Guyana adoption page today!
Well, blogging hasn’t happened in a while! We’ve been a little busy – became a mom again for the 4th and 5th time! We are loving life with 5 kids. Miles and Kallie have added so much joy, laughter, noise, and fun to our family! I’ve had several blogs I want to write on our adoption story but there is one I just couldn’t wait to write anymore. So if you will all bear with me as I share a few adoption stories in the coming weeks – some things are just to good to not share!
My family (husband and 3 biological children) headed to Guyana (South America) to adopt Miles and Kallie (siblings) We stayed in a furnished apartment. Guyana is hot/humid and there is not much to do there (like really – there is nothing to do there!) so our days were filled with homeschooling (yep, perks of homeschooling you can do it anywhere), swimming in the pool, and in the evening we would all cuddle up and watch a movie.
One night the kids wanted to watch Horton Hears a Who – I love this book, I’ve loved this book for a long time. Last summer we spent a week in Tahoe with my husband’s family and visited a traveling Dr. Seuss museum that included his rare hats. Super fun trip and we learned some really neat stuff about Dr. Seuss. There were rare paintings he had never planned on releasing to the general public and the stories they told about his work was wonderful. But the explanation for Horton Hears a Who I will never forget – they told us that Dr. Seuss wrote Horton Hears a Who against abortion. I researched this and there are conflicting reports as for whether he actually wrote it for this purpose or not, but it sure made the book stand out to me in a whole new way.
For those of you who have never read Horton Hears a Who the general story is that a large elephant hears a noise on a flower that has a speck on it. The tiny speck has the entire town of Who-ville living on it. Horton and his enormous ears are able to hear the town and he promises to take them to a place of safety. Horton has a great quote “a person is a person no matter how small” and he goes through all sorts of teasing and weather and perils to finally put the speck in a safe place so the town of Who-ville can survive.
Now back to my story (sorry totally derailed) . . . my kids decide to watch Horton Hears a Who one night while in Guyana. I’m cuddling up with Kallie on the couch watching this super funny movie and the Lord so sweetly spoke to me. He reminded me of all the times I was back in America feeling crazy because my heart and my arms were breaking for my babies in Guyana that I couldn’t get to quick enough.
Adoption is hard, it isn’t like when you are pregnant with a child and everyone knows you are expecting because – well. . . it’s obvious by that cute little basketball under your shirt and the jar of pickles in your hand!!! When you are “expecting” with adoption no one knows and you want to shout it from rooftop. Every time you buy a piece of clothing or their beds or their toothbrushes you just feel like a crazy lady and end up telling the checker at Target all about the kids you are adopting only to have them look back at you like a deer in headlights wondering why on earth I had to get in their lane. Oh yeah friends, lived this out more humiliating times than I should have. Yes, I have some super amazing stories where when I couldn’t contain myself and started sharing with strangers about the children I didn’t have and they were equally as excited with me – one in fact has become a friend because she just had to know when we were bringing our kids home and has been praying for me ever since! But there are plenty of times I shared and people just confirmed the craziness I was feeling by the look on their face. It’s hard – adoption is so hard!
I also can’t say enough thanks to those who followed up constantly on where we were in the process – why? Because though most days I had nothing new to report it made Miles and Kallie feel real, it made me not feel so crazy, and you so constantly reminded me of the faithfulness of our Savior. You see like Horton – we had a speck in Guyana. 2 beautiful children – “my Who’s” that no one knew existed, that no one knew needed help and home and mom and dad. Yet somehow by the grace of God, He put us in the exact right place at the right time so we heard “our Who’s” tiny cries, their longing for a family, their need for safety and protection and love.
I sat on the couch that night watching Horton Hears a Who and sobbed and sobbed. I was living the real life Horton Hears a Who! We serve a God who also says “A person is a person no matter how small” and He heard them and brought us together. I had “my Who’s” finally safe on my lap cuddling watching a movie and it was all too much for my hea
rt. Too much amazement at the goodness of God, too much gratefulness that He chose me to be their mom, too much love for “my Who’s” and it was simply a night I needed to share with you.
Friends, I don’t know where you are at in life right now, but I do know that we serve a God who hears our cries – ALL of them. From the smallest child to the greatest it makes no difference. I just want you to know as you read this your Father hears you.
About Post Author
Children of All Nations (CAN), operated by Great Wall China Adoption, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas. Since 1996, Children of All Nations has assisted may international countries in placing more than 9,000 children with forever families. Between the headquarters located in Austin, Texas and our sister offices all over the world,
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