Example of Shift to Domestic Adoptions in Kenya

At this time, Kenya is not a popular choice among prospective adoptive parents because it operates under Hague rules AND there is a 3-month foster homestay with the child before legal procedures can begin. Prospective families typically have to relocate to Kenya for 8 to 15 months to fully complete the adoption.

One local minister, Rev. Peter Ndungu,saw the plight of abandoned street children and created an orphanage, Happy Life Children’s Home. He tells of how at one time 85% of adoptions of abandoned infants were international adoptions and now 80% are domestic adoptions. “The home takes in mostly abandoned babies with no known family. The first priority is to adopt children to Kenyan families, for whom the cost is about 10 to 20 percent of foreign adoptions.”

Staying in Kenya during an international adoption process has a cost that  “ranges between $7,000 and $12,000, depending on where the adoptive family chooses to live.

Happy Life has adopted out 25 children and more than 40 are in the process.

Not all children will be adopted, and Ndungu says Happy Life is now housing older children in an arrangement akin to foster living, with schooling. The church [Heritage Presbyterian Church in Delaware] oversees both.”

Ministering to Kenyan children

[Contra Costa Times 5/25/12 by Greg Mellen]

The website in addition to having photolistings also gives the stories of those already adopted locally, sort of like a post-adoption photolisting. They also list residents that cannot be adopted-one child without papers,  one listing is about a child that has been stolen and the police are investigating and another shows children that may be reunited with their mother.

Our suggestion as always: Privacy protection for the children. The successes can be shared without going into extreme detail about the child’s circumstances and photographing them.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

  Domestic adoptions are possible even in countries that historically did not participate in adoptions. Notably, this story does not mention an adoption agency involved in the orphanage/church set up.