Adoption agency's bankruptcy devastates families
Adoption agency's bankruptcy devastates families
HAYLEY MICK
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009 03:00AM EDT
An agency that helps Canadians adopt children from Africa has filed for bankruptcy, creating an uncertain future for scores of children and financial and emotional hardship for their prospective new parents.
Kids Link International Adoption Agency made the announcement yesterday, shocking an estimated 200 families who are in the process of adopting children from Ethiopia and Ghana.
"I can't even tell you how devastated we are," said a woman who asked not to be identified. She and her husband have given the agency almost $20,000 and expected to meet their adopted Ethiopian child within months.
"We're done. We have no money left. We can't do this again."
Kids Link, which operates out of Cambridge, Ont., under the name Imagine Adoption, posted a notice on its website yesterday saying the agency's board of directors met on July 10 and decided to pull the plug.
"It was clear that the funds in the bank accounts are not sufficient to service the families in the Kids Link Program," said the letter written by Susan E. Taves of the financial recovery services company BDO Dunwoody Ltd.
Parents were told that an investigation is under way and to expect a legal notice by Friday. The letter said the agency's owner, Susan Hayhow, and her partner, Andrew Morrow, travelled to Africa yesterday.
Rumours about trouble at the agency surfaced late last week, after some prospective parents received warnings from adoption practitioners. But their urgent calls to the agency went unanswered - and only late yesterday afternoon did they discover why.
"At the end of the day, it's two years and almost $20,000 later, and all we're left with is a lot of heartache," said a woman from Victoria who was in the process of adopting from Ghana before she was told, in mid-June, that the program had been stalled. The $15,000 she's invested has not been returned.
She's also anxious about the children waiting for homes. Imagine Adoption runs two transition homes in Addis Ababa, where infants and toddlers live until the Canadian families they've been matched with can take them home.
"I'm sickened about the whole thing," said Noel Sanche-Spencer, who returned home from Addis Ababa on Sunday with the one-year-old daughter she adopted through Imagine Adoption.
She said a staff member told her that employees had not been paid, and they were worried the children wouldn't get enough to eat.
"To find out that some of these children are in limbo and their financial support is cut off is hard to deal with," Ms. Sanche-Spencer said.
Matthew Garside, who lives in Paisley, Ont., said he just wants to know the next steps. He's in the process of adopting the biological brother of twin boys he adopted two years ago through Imagine Adoption.
"He will come home to Canada," Mr. Garside said. "I'm not deterred."
Canadian adoptions from Africa are on the rise. Last year, there were more than 100 from the continent, a more than threefold increase since 2002. Most are from Ethiopia - now the second most popular country for Canadian international adoptions - rising from 13 adoptions in 2002 to 96 in the first nine months of 2007 (the most recent data available). South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo have begun sending children to Canada in the past five years.
The trend is in large part due to supply and demand: China's adoption program is slowing down drastically - there are now five-year waiting lists for Chinese infants - so Canadian adoption agencies are searching for new programs. Many are turning to Africa, where conflict, poverty and disease have orphaned millions of children - 12 million from HIV/AIDS alone.
Latest Comments
STK
7/14/2009 1:49:16 PM
A struggling orphan in Ethiopia is fortunate enough to be chosen to be part of a new loving family only to have her heart ripped out in the cruelest fashion? A wonderful couple struggles to create a family for years and then, so close to having their dreams come to fruition in such a beautiful and selfless way, have it torn out of their reach again in the most cowardly way possible? I am heartbroken and disgusted. Our government cannot allow this to happen. We must help these children and their parents who want to love them and raise them.
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Ingrid_Phan?euf
7/14/2009 1:43:45 PM
My husband and I have given nearly 20,000 to Imagine Adoption IN Trust. What does In Trust mean? Are we protected? Can we get our money back? I have been working two jobs for two years. I am 43. My son died three years ago. Has all this been for nothing? How can a government licensed agency do this to people? The Ontario government should answer for this.
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Ena
7/14/2009 1:30:09 PM
For those decrying the government stepping in to help these families, please remember that this isn't simply a monetary issue. My sister and her husband are currently in the process of adopting through Imagine. Their adoption has passed the court process, which means that these children are legally theirs. This alone makes her luckier than so many of the families caught in the middle of this travesty. However, she is currently on route to Ethiopia, terrified that when she arrives she will a) be unable to find her daughters,as from what we've been told,children are starting to be moved out of Imagine's transition homes into other orphanages, and b) that she will be living there for months, waiting for the children's citizenship papers from Canada.This is an impossible drain on finances, as well as a very difficult family situation. Her husband has had to stay behind,(someone has to work to pay for all of this) and has no idea when he will get the chance to meet his daughters.
There are many, many families in this situation, who after years of patience, hard work (and yes, some substantial amounts of money), find themselves victims of a situation that they have no control over. My sister has been waiting for over two years for her daughters.
I urge anyone who feels strongly about this to write their local MP, Canadian Immigration, and anyone else they can think of. We are hoping that the government will understand what an emotional and financial strain this will be on the many families affected in this way, and to issue emergency passports/visas to children whose case has already been through the court process. We are also urging the government to ensure that the children, if nothing else, are put through the citizenship process in a timely matter - the sooner we can bring them home to their loving families and out of the chaos that Imagine has created through their negligence, the better.
My thoughts and sympathies are with all of the families affected by this.
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Private_Me
7/14/2009 1:28:52 PM
Further to JulietB's comment, the Ontario Government gave us no option but to use an adoption agency, so for this to happen to people who are trusting their money to someone because they are legally obiliged to do so, it sickens me that this is even possible.
We are adopting through a different agency, so I can only imagine how the affected parents must be feeling. My heart truly goes out to them.
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N of One
7/14/2009 11:57:33 AM
A bit more information related to Ensign Deadmeat's post, from an affected prospective adoptive parent. We provided money to Imagine in trust, for future services, normally in two separate payments that occured during the process. The first was provided to Imagine in trust, and was cashed by them once the adoption package reached the Ministry for approval. The second was provided for services and fees in the adoptive country, and was only cashed later in the process (I believe when the child proposal was sent, but I could be a bit wrong).
With respect to the money situation, a lot of couples would have provided the money in trust, to be cashed later on in the process, and refundable until that step was completed - however, once bankruptcy enters into the equation, there is no certainty that any of that money "in trust" will be refunded, even if that step was never reached (i.e. the money provided in trust prior to the Ministry's receipt of the package, for a couple who's package never reached the Ministry).
Under normal circumstances, the couples could have requested the money back; however, in dealing with a bankruptcy proceeding, we are looking at the possible loss of money for services never rendered. I think most of us understood very well the risks that were involved, but normally would have considered the risks associated with the adoption not proceeding, not from the company going bankrupt prior to services being rendered.
I'm providing this as more context - for us, and for everyone, the money is only a subsidiary issue. It pales in comparison to the emotional heartbreak that we are going through. Hearing last week directly from the company that they are working through some of the in-country issues, to finding out yesterday in the media that they are bankrupt, and that our avenues to adopt our child are dwindling (there are few companies that are licensed for either Ghana or Ecuador) was a huge shock.
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