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Program Criteria Parental Requirements: Why Children are Available: Family Background: The children undergo a full medical workup, including various blood tests. Once in the Ukraine, the prospective parents may take their proposed child for further medical tests. Wait Times: In-Country Time Required: Child's Citizenship: Post-Adoption Requirements: Costs: Documents Required
About
the Ukraine In the past, Ukraine suffered from the economic hardships of Soviet rule. Government corruption and inefficiencies and a general breakdown of infrastructure left it with severe economic problems. This created a large economic underclass. While the Ukraine is now a democracy and the economy is improving, many families and single women do not have the resources to care for children, and have little choice but to relinquish them to the care of the state. As well, parents convicted of crimes or who have been judged unfit parents can have their parental rights terminated. There are almost 25,000 children in orphanages in Ukraine. About 7,000 children are adopted every year, 2,500 being placed internationally. |
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TDH Canada is undertaking a vacation program for children living in orphanages in Ukraine.
Thousands of kids in Ukrainian orphanages face a bleak future. These children long for a family experience, even a temporary one. Despite good care in the orphanage, few are prepared to start a life when they leave the orphanage at age 18, as they are provided with neither a higher education nor vocational training which will serve them in finding gainful employment when they are on their own. As a result, many innocent children leaving Eastern European orphanages are co-opted into drug dealing, the sex trade, or organized crime. TDH, at the request of the Ukrainian government, is initiating this year a summer vacation program for children from 7 to 13 living in Ukrainian orphanages. We would like to offer these children an enriching cultural and educational experience in another country, and so we are looking for families who will collaborate with us in this innovative program. This type of program is not unknown in Eastern European countries. In fact, some children have spent summer vacations in several countries over past years - and their lives are enriched for it. They are pre-selected by the orphanage directors as children who have the qualities that would allow them to benefit from exposure to another culture, including openness, a desire to relate to others, and physical and emotional health. We are still looking for families willing to host these children during the month of August. Hosting families are asked to pay for the cost of the program and of bringing the child here (about $2600, a tax-deductible donation), and to provide the child with a quality experience: spending time with the child, introducing the child to cultural and recreational activities and events, or doing family activities. Those who are interested may apply to be a host family. For the security and protection of the children, you will be asked to provide a vulnerable sector (police) clearance, a medical certificate and 3 letters of reference. Families will be interviewed individually in a home visit. The happiness you may bring to a child who has little in his or her life cannot be measured in time or money or effort. We urge you to consider this program, which allows you to make a significant difference for one child. For more information please see the attached letter. If you are interested and would like to fill in the preliminary application, please download it here (PDF, 160 kb), fill it in (no signatures necessary at that point) and send it to Manon Parent, who is responsible for the program. You can also contact Manon at the Vankleek Hill office, 613-216-2565. Tentative arrival day for the summer hosting program is July 30th 2010. The following is a brief description of the Ukrainian program, as offered by TDH Ontario. For more in-depth details, contact TDH Ontario. Please note that due to the nature of international adoption the information here may change without notice. Ukraine has taken a strong line in a fight against corruption in adoption. Facilitators and agencies are not allowed to engage in identifying children for eventual placement. By limiting families to only adopting children who have been registered with the Ukraine State Department of Adoption and Child Protection (SDA) of the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports in Kiev, and by allowing any approved family to adopt any available child, specific children cannot be reserved for specific families. This has largely removed financial incentives to "adoption facilitators" and makes it impractical for them to attempt to coerce birth parents or forge documents for specific children. Any family can adopt any legally available child. The SDA reviews each dossier. The TDH representative in Ukraine will verify that the dossier has arrived safely and is being processed. If the documentation is found to be in order, the application will be approved, and the adoptive parents will be sent a letter to come to the SDA. This process normally takes 20 working days. During this waiting period in Canada, the family will be referred to medical/psychological consultants who could be available to consult with the family on a long-distance basis when they are in the Ukraine to help them make their decision on the suitability of the child. Once in the Ukraine, the parents meet with the adoption authorities, and will be told which children in the database of adoptable children meet the criteria in their homestudy. The parents have the opportunity to study the dossiers of the available children and may visit one or more of the children at the orphanage where the child resides. They will receive a formal referral letter from the SDA. On arrival in the region of the orphanage, the parents must go to the Tutorship Body, to receive permission to visit the child. At the orphanage, they can spend as much time with the child as they wish, and will receive detailed information on the child's medical and social history, development, and learning habits. If the parents decide that this is the child they wish to adopt, they may take the child to a pediatrician to confirm their decision. They must also, by obligation, take the child to one of the Designated Medical Practitioners in the Ukraine, specified by the Canadian Immigration Services. Once formal notice of acceptance of the child is given to the Ukrainian authorities they will issue the necessary approvals allowing the applicants to adopt the child. A date for the court hearing is set to legalize the adoption. The adoption decision is a judicial one, with the effect of the rupture of the bonds between the child and his/her family of birth, and the creation of a new bond of filiation between the child and the adoptive parents. The child retains his/her Ukrainian nationality. On the request of the adoptive parents, the tribunal will change the surname, name, and patronymic of the child. There is a 10 day waiting period before the final adoption decree is issued. New birth certificate and travel documents are obtained for the child, and the process of Canadian Immigration is completed with the submission of these documents to the Canadian Embassy. With the issuance of the Canadian visa, the child may return to Canada with the adoptive parents. Follow-up reports, legalized at the Ukrainian Embassy or Consulate, must be submitted by the parents until the child reaches the age of 18. At present, adoption does not automatically confer Canadian citizenship on the child. The adoptive parents must make an application for sponsorship of a child to be adopted with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. TDH provides guidance and the necessary forms for this. |
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Ukraine Program
