I wanted to thank everyone who has contacted us in the last few days about hosting! Your response has been incredible and we are humbled by your willingness to help the Haitian children. With the overwhelming numbers of emails we are receiving, it may take us some time to contact you individually. So, in an attempt to answer some of the questions, I will try to answer some of the most common questions here:
1) At this time, there are numerous groups working to help Haitian orphans connect with the American families who have been in the process of adopting them. These children have already been identified, are in the adoption pipeline (which is long and winding) & their many of their families have been waiting for them for some time. These children come from many different orphanages, but hopefully a plan will be put into place to help them receive visas to come here without those adoptions being finalized in Haiti. There are a number of different government groups working on this but you can find out information at this link:
Be The Answer for Children
2) We are not a part of the process described above. Angel Missions Haiti works specifically with children who have medical needs. At this time, I do not know how the earthquake will change that mission, but it is obvious that the need to provide medical care for children will increase. While we do not believe that the need will be immediate, it is likely that we will need host families in the near future for children who need live-saving medical care here in the US. We have no time tables for when we might need families nor do we know how many we will need. In the past, most of the children in our program have not been orphans. This may or may not change, but please know that we are not an adoption agency nor do we work with any specific orphanage.
The length of time children stay here in the US has always been dictated by their medical care. Some only stay for a month or so, others have stayed up to a year. Host families must be willing to care for and treat their host child as one of their own. There are no stipends or allowances to cover costs. We arrange for the major medical care, but often host families arrange for a pediatrician in their area to donate care for the usual kid stuff (ie: ear infections, colds, rashes, etc.) Before a match is made with a family & a child is placed, all these details are discussed and plans are put into place.
3) Thank you to everyone who is willing to open their homes & hearts and host one of our children. We would like to build a database of families who are interested in hosting this medically involved children. Generally, the hospital & doctor that agrees to provide care for a specific child determines in which area of the country that child will stay. Families from all states are accepted. If you are interested in applying, please fill out the application on our website under the "mission" tab (scroll to the bottom of that page). The website can be found here: Angel Missions Haiti - there are three links for pdf files all highlighted. Please download all three. Once you have completed the application, please email them to me at: AMHfamilies@hotmail.com
4) As is true with all NGO's working in Haiti, the greatest need at this time is for funds. Please consider donating. You can find a Paypal button on this blog. Our funds are going to provide medical care in Haiti and to purchase supplies, food & water for those coming to us for aid. We have a number of medical professionals who are interested in going to Haiti to help. We have several partner organizations who are already there on the ground who we will support once Vanessa arrives. It is impossible to guess how this response will develop over the next weeks & months, but we have worked in Haiti for many years before this earthquake and our commitment to the Haitian people, especially the children, will continue for years to come.
Thank you again for your prayers and your support! They mean more than we can say...
If you have any questions about the application or instructions, please email. We promise to respond as quickly as we can.
Fran
No comments:
Post a Comment