Alta., feds to help families left in lurch by adoption agency

Alta., feds to help families left in lurch by adoption agency

By KATIE SCHNEIDER, SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 19th July 2009, 12:39am

CALGARY -- The province is teaming up with the feds to help speed up the international adoption process for Albertan families after the agency they were counting on went bankrupt.

Ontario-based Kids Link, which operates Imagine Adoption, announced Monday it had gone belly-up, leaving 64 families, including six whose adoptions have been approved, in the dark.

HELP WITH THE PROCESS

Alberta Children and Youth Services has been working with the federal government's international adoption desk in Ottawa and the Canadian embassy in Nairobi, responsible for Ethiopia adoption cases, to try to facilitate the visa and passport part of the process for those approved families, said spokesman Trevor Coulombe.

Some families, who have already received word from the countries saying their governments have approved the adoptions through the court system, are just awaiting paperwork to go through to be able to pick up their child.

"We're trying to expedite things ... to make sure there's a strong line of communication between the province and Canadian government," Coulombe said.

"We're trying to make sure the families come to the forefront, so the Ts can be crossed and Is can be dotted."

The provincial department is involved because it already plays a role in helping families adopt, by assessing them to ensure they are a suitable match.

WORKING ON A PLAN

"We have a role to play in the adoption process," he said.

Some of the orphans have been matched with parents that are now in transitional care centres.

The International Adoptive Families Association is also working on a plan to rescue the adoptions, possibly by purchasing the Imagine Adoption operation.

KATIE.SCHNEIDER@SUNMEDIA.CA

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