Hope’s Promise is an approved agency with the Nepal government to facilitate adoptions. Hope’s Promise began working in adoptions from Nepal in 1993.
On August 6th, 2010, the United States Government, specifically the DOS and USCIS branches suspended adoptions of abandoned children in Nepal. There are 80 families who received referrals before that date and are now termed “pipeline families”. Four of those families are Hope’s Promise families who are now caught in a nightmare state of limbo not knowing when or if they will be allowed a US visa to bring their adopted child home.
Please review this petition to Congress http://www.petition2congress.com/3710/ and sign, supporting the adoptive families and the 80 Nepali orphans caught in this nightmare.
Please go to the US Department of State’s website http://adoption.state.goc/news/nepal.html for information on the Nepal adoption process and current alerts.
Holiday Heartbreak for Orphans
56 American families are facing a heart-breaking holiday season this year due to U.S. policy in Nepal. These families are struggling to bring home their legally adopted children who are stuck in Nepal awaiting visas that will allow them to enter the U.S.
Some families are stranded in Kathmandu – many since August 2010. Other parents wait anxiously in the U.S. while their adopted children remain in orphanages, knowing that every day spent in an orphanage is a developmental disaster. Families are divided by thousands of miles.
The families have sent hundreds of letters to President Barack Obama and their Congressional representatives asking for help to get these children home in time for Christmas. In a recent conference call with the adoptive parents, the Department of State (DOS) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed that no evidence of fraud has been found in any of the cases.
Some of these adopted children have developmental delays due to malnutrition or institutionalization. Other children have diseases, such as rickets, caused by nutritional deficits. Many of the children have stunted growth due to malnourishment. Nepal is an impoverished country and orphanages struggle to fulfill basic needs. Early intervention is critical for these children.
According to Dr. Nancy Curtis, the director of the International Adoption Clinic at the Oakland Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA and a leading expert on international adoptions, “Institutional care in early infancy profoundly influences a child’s development and even affects the development of the neural structures and pathways of the brain itself. As a consequence, these children are at an elevated risk for social, emotional, and cognitive delays. It is not too late to effectively intervene, but it is absolutely clear that there is no time to waste.”
These children need to come home to America before any more damage is done. The families farthest along in the process have spent thousands of dollars in legal and investigation fees and on extended in-country stays, in addition to the costs associated with the adoptions. At least one family in the group is being forced to sell their house to bring home their daughter. Others risk losing their jobs or income as they stay in Nepal for an extended period. Several are taking out loans and/or soliciting donations from friends and families. The policies of the US Government are placing these new families at severe financial risk in an already tough economy – in order to investigate cases where the DOS has already admitted there is no evidence of fraud. The families contend that this policy is no longer in anyone’s best interest.
The DOS halted adoptions in Nepal last August citing systemic irregularities on the Nepal side that raised concerns – however it stated that it would allow the “pipeline families” who were already matched with children to complete their adoptions pending an investigation. The DOS has completed these investigations and found no evidence of fraud. They have granted seven visas and sent the remaining cases to USCIS for lengthy and costly adjudications. Although DOS will not provide specific evidence to explain their refusal of visas, it appears that they are denying visas in any case where they can’t prove the absence of fraud. That is: they are assuming a “guilty until proven innocent” position on these cases. The families maintain that this is an unreasonable burden of proof that is harming the children who desperately need to come home.
The families caught in this bureaucratic nightmare are undergoing emotional, financial and, in some cases, physical hardship and all for one reason: their children. These children are their sons and daughters. They are truly abandoned. The parents are fighting to give these children an opportunity to be raised in loving, stable homes in America instead of in orphanages in an impoverished country that has a caste system and cultural biases against orphans.
The families ended their letters to President Obama pleading that he intervene to help the majority of the families avoid the lengthy and costly adjudication process and, instead, save that money for college funds. If the President does intervene, he will give these 56 families a Christmas gift they will always remember.
The families have a website featuring photos of the children caught up in this legal limbo and links for you to sign a petition to help get these children home:
http://theywaitnepal.blogspot.com/
Nepal information and statistics:
Nepal is a small landlocked country in South Asia located in the Himalayas. It shares borders with China and India. It is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with almost one-quarter of its population living below the poverty line.
50% of all children under 5 in Nepal suffer from chronic malnutrition or growth stunt due to malnourishment; 13% suffer from acute malnutrition (UN World Food Programme)
Approximately 28,000 children under 5 die each year from easily preventable illnesses (UN Food and Agricultural Organization)
Nearly one quarter of the population live on less than $1 a day (UN FAO)
Sources:
FAO/United Nations 2010 Nepal Report:
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/tc/tce/pdf/CAP2010_NEP.pdf
UN World Food Programme – Nepal:
http://www.wfp.org/countries/nepal
