Agency News
New agency of Adoption Associates, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia
Adoption Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of HOPE for Children, Inc., an agency of Adoption Associates, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia. With this new office, AAI families will have access to programs in India and Colombia, and HFC families will have access to all of AAI’s international programs.
In celebration of this announcement, AAI is offering limited-time fee reductions to families signing up for the Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Russia programs. For more information, visit our news item or call 616.667.0921.
Special Advocates Needed for China Camp in Beijing
AAI is currently recruiting Special Advocates to travel to Beijing, China in October 2008 to spend time with older orphaned children during a five-day China camp. Special Advocates will have an opportunity to get to know these 30 individual children. Upon returning to the U.S., Special Advocates will partner with AAI to search for potential adoptive parents for these healthy and special-needs children, aged seven to thirteen. Special Advocates would be required to pay their own expenses. Applications for special advocates must be received by AAI by August 1, 2008. For additional information, please contact Kimberly Hall at khall@adoptionassociates.net or Mary Zoet at mzoet@adoptionassociates.net.
Nepal Delegation Visits AAI
A group of Nepalese officials, along with AAI’s Nepal Coordinator, visited Michigan in May. The delegation included key people from the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare and the Nepal Children’s Organization, the two entities in Nepal that oversee international adoption.
The delegation visited two AAI families that have come home with children from Nepal and also spent time at AAI’s corporate office in Jenison, Michigan, meeting with AAI staff and waiting families.
“Nepal’s push couldn’t come at a better time for international adoption agencies,” said Michelle Dykema, AAI’s program manager for Nepal. “AAI is one of 11 U.S. adoption agencies the Nepalese delegation planned to visit [in May] and the only one in Michigan. Already this year, AAI has placed three children from Nepal. Twenty more families are in the process of adopting from there.” —The Grand Rapids Press
For more information on adopting from Nepal, please contact AAI at 616.667.0921.
Change a Life—Change the World! Children’s Benefit Banquet
Table hosts and event sponsors are needed for AAI’s Change a Life—Change the World! 2008 Children’s Benefit Banquet, which will be held on Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 6pm. This wonderful evening will feature an AAI Children’s Choir, interviews with AAI families, dinner, and dessert.
Funds raised at this banquet will go toward AAI projects, such as: Hosts of Hope, which connects older Russian orphans with U.S. families through a summer hosting program; China Camp, which unites Chinese orphans and “Special Advocates” from the U.S. at a camp program in Beijing; Our Call to Nepal, which helps AAI-sponsored orphanages in Nepal provide food, clothing, and shelter for their residents; and Embracing Ethiopia, which provides poor and orphaned children in Ethiopia with food, clothing, education, and medical care.
For more information, call Tom Gill, Director of Fund Development, at 616.667.0677.
