1. Where, geographically, are you located?
We are located in Guatemala City, Guatemala in Central America.
2. How long have you been at this location?
We opened the doors of Hannah’s Hope in Guatemala City in 2001
3. What made you decide to go where you are?
As an adoption and orphan care agency, we saw a great need to have a presence in Guatemala since there where so many children on the streets living in poverty. Once we had decided to begin adoptions in Guatemala we wanted to work with an orphanage in the country that we could trust and one that had no corruption involved like many of the other orphanages we saw. Since Guatemala didn’t have many governmental restrictions on how to run an orphanage, we knew we could go in and make our vision of a Hannah’s Hope come true.
4. What is your current living situation?
The capacity of Hannah's Hope Guatemala is 75 children with the present staff, space, and beds. You can imagine the large amount of resources it would take to care for so many children. With the present financial situation, Hannah's Hope Guatemala has what it needs to house 29 children - but that's less than half of its full potential.
Children at Hannah's Hope receive:
Healthy food, water, clothing and shelter
Individualized medical attention
Age-appropriate-education and stimulus
A structured, nurturing environment with supervision and discipline
Trusting, loving relationships
Biblical and moral instruction and training
Special outings and parties
Right now we have these children living in two spacious two story homes. These homes are located in a safe gated community in Guatemala City.
5-6.What is the community that you are working with living situaion?
What are specific living conditions for the children in the community? (i.e. food, clothing, education, shelter).
Guatemala city has an upper class, a large lower class and a very small middle class. The city has a few nice neighborhoods and parts of town with very modern buildings. It also has many slums with people living in homes made of tin and cardboard as well a dump that many people search thtough for food. In Guatemala many poor children do not go to school, instead they work or beg. In the part if Guatemala, Izabal, many children are lacking the basic needs for survival like food.
As one of the ten poorest countries in Latin America, Guatemala is home to nearly 7.1 million people living below the poverty line. Many of these are children. With an amazingly indomitable spirit, these children struggle daily for survival in unspeakable conditions.
7. How do the children get there?
An estimated 370,000 children are orphaned in Guatemala. Source: UNICEF, 2005
The children are sent to Hannah's Hope by the government after being abandoned, mistreated or ophaned.
8. How are these necessities funded?
Through advertising, fundraising, our home sponsorship program, missions, and also through orphan care fee’s in adoption.
9. Is the education, if provided, more textbook based or basics-of-living based? Please give an example.
The children go to a near by school. This is a way for the children to connect with other kids their age outside the home and receive a good education. This education is more text book based.
10. Approximately, how many of the children have a living parent/guardian?
A majority have a living parent but have been abandoned, taken by the govt because of abuse in the home or given up for adoption. Only a few or 100% orphaned.
11. Of the children that have a living parent/guardian, what are the reasons that they abandon them?
Some reasons, but not limited to, are poverty, rape and insanity of the mother.
12. Approximately, how many of the children have never had any contact with their parent?
I would say one fourth. Some spent their first years of life with their biological family. Also, some were often visited during their adoption process.
13. Out of all of the children abandoned, what are the main factors for their parents leaving them, i.e. death, drugs, violence/gang relation, work migration, unknown, etc.
Poverty, violence and death.
14. Are all of the children up for adoption?
No, on December 31, 2007 Guatemala suspended all inter-country adoptions. Currently, the country is in the process of implementing a new Hague compliant adoption law.
When adoptions were open an abandoned child could not be up for adoption until his abandonment was confirmed by the courts. This process is very long. Normally it takes at least two years for a child to be declared abandoned by the goverment. After this declaration, being that adoptions are open, the child may go in adoption.
15. Who (demographics) are adopting the children?
A majority are U.S. citizens and few are Guatemalan citizens through All God's Children International.
16. Where are the children being adopted to, geographically?
USA or Guatemala
17. What does the adoption process consist of?
When the Guatemala program was open for adoption this is what the adoption process looked like. It may be different once it reopens depending on new laws that are being put into place.
Completion of dossier: 3 to 4 months: Once contracted with AGCI, the next step is to complete a dossier and home study.
Waiting List: 6-9 months: Adoptive families may wait six to nine months to receive the referral of an infant boy or girl. While families are waiting for their referral, AGCI will process the dossier through the Guatemalan Consulate and have all documentation translated.
First Trip: 3-4 days: Once an adoptive family accepts the referral of a child, both parents will travel to Guatemala for three days to meet their child and child’s birth mother, and sign the power of attorney which officially begins the adoption process.
Adoption Process: 6-8 months: During this time, AGCI will process all required documents through the US Embassy, Family Court and Procuduria de General (PGN). Once the PGN offers a favorable opinion on the adoption, the child’s birth mother signs the final deed of adoption. Once signed, AGCI will gather all final documents and submit documentation to the US Embassy. The Embassy will then issue a date and time for the child’s immigrant visa appointment and the adoptive family can travel.
Second Trip: 3-5 days: One or two parents can travel to complete the US immigrant visa appointment and bring the adoptive child back to the United States.Post-Placement: Once the child is home, AGCI requires post-placement visits and reports at three, six, and 12 months. Children adopted from Guatemala are considered automatic US citizens if both parents travel on the first trip.
Adoption Timeframe: From application through the finalization of the adoption is 18-21 months.
18. What happens to those who do not get adopted?
They stay at Hannah's Hope till their abandonment is complete and they can be adopted.
19.How are people, in general, being informed of the current situations of the orphaned children, their community, and their issues?
We periodically send out mailings with information on what’s going on in Guatemala. Also we send out E-journals monthly with this information also. For our monthly sponsors we send out quarterly updates with children’s stories, prayer requests, what the missions teams have been working on, and other Hannah’s Hope updates.
20. Who is supporting them, be it money, food, education?
A large majority of our supporters are families who have adopted from Hannah’s Hopes or people who have visited on a missions trip. They’ve been our strongest supporters since they’ve been in Guatemala and have seen all that we do for the children.
22. What can help spread the word?
I think that the best way to let people know about what Hannah’s Hope does in the Guatemala is by letting those who know what we do tell their stories. There’s only so much we can do without having the personal touch of knowing someone that’s been there, or even knowing a child who’s life has been touched by Hannah’s Hope. We’ve had adopted children from Hannah’s Hope Guatemala host benefit dinners, make videos, and even have garage sales where all the proceeds go to Hannah’s Hope. We feel extremely blessed to have such amazing supporters who take the time to be our voice in places we could’ve never gotten a chance to spread the word about Hannah’s Hope.
21. What is working on spreading the word?
Grass Root Marketing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment