Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The China Center of Children’s Welfare and Adoption(CCCWA) posted a notice today notifying agencies that all activities of the One-on-One programs, Journey of Hope Programs and Summer/Winter Hosting Programs will be terminated. Through these programs, the CCCWA has allowed agencies better access to the children with special needs in orphanages for the purpose of finding homes for them. Barker has had the privilege of participating in a Journey of Hope program in 2014 and in multiple One-on-One Programs, which we call our Partnership Program, since 2011. We found these programs not only beneficial for the children being adopted but also for those that were left behind as we were able to provide assistance to orphanages that promoted the quality of care for the children there. We were also able to provide medical resources for children at the orphanages we worked with over the years.

What does this change mean for families adopting through the China program?

As far as matching goes, under the new policy all agencies will be matching their families with children through the shared list. In other words, a family can be matched with a child from any orphanage in the country. Even though we won’t be able to meet the children in person like we used to do with our partnership orphanages, we feel confident about our ability to obtain additional information on children as needed. We also anticipate this change could potentially benefit families in Barker’s program given the projected number of children available on the shared list and our extremely short list of families waiting to be matched at present time (In fact, we have matched all families who have submitted a dossier to China as of date.)

For more information call our office at 301-664-9664.