| Does Holt offer intercountry adoption services in Uganda? | Top |
Holt is pleased to announce the beginning of a pilot adoption program in Uganda. We are working in conjunction with the government of uganda, the Ministry of Justice, and Ugandan child welfare professionals to develop an intercountry adoption program that demonstrates the best standards of practice within current Ugandan child welfare laws.
Current Ugandan law stipulates that families must reside in Uganda for three years before adopting a child. This law was instituted years ago to discourage adoption after Uganda experienced adoptions that were either not conducted ethically or later proved not to be in the best interest of children. Recent exceptions to this regulation, however, have been made through a legal guardianship in Uganda and a final adoption in the United States. Our demonstration project is positioned to ensure that the best child welfare practice is followed from the outset and that adoptions are conducted ethically.
Holt's programs in Uganda continue to provide support to communities and households so that children can remain in their families and culture through a large family preservation program. Holt believes that efforts are best directed to family preservation and strengthening services which can provide support to a large number of children and offers intercountry adoption as an option for those children who cannot be reunified with their birth families and who are best served by being adopted abroad. |
| What services does Holt support in Uganda? | Top |
| Holt’s primary goal in its alliance with Action for Children is helping HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children remain with extended family in their village community by providing counseling services and other support that enables heads of households to support their family. Children receive assistance under a community umbrella of interaction and protective support. The target populations include; families that are headed by children (child-headed families), families that are affected by HIV/AIDS or other terminal diseases like cancer and TB, families experiencing abject poverty; families that cannot afford meeting their basic needs, single parent-headed families with many children/orphans due to HIV/AIDS, and grandmother/father headed families caring for orphans whose parents (sons and daughters of the grandparents) died of HIV/AIDS. Holt and Action for Children’s major project objectives are threefold; Community Child Counseling and Assistance Services, Income Generating Activities, and Children’s Brigades. |
| What locations in Uganda does Holt’s partner, Action for Children, provide services? | Top |
| The areas served include three communities on the outskirts of Kampala: Kyanja, Kiwatule and Kiswa as well as the community of Apac, located in Northern Uganda, and the community of Masindi in the Western part of the country. |
| How can I help support Holt and Action for Children in their efforts to assist homeless children and at risk children and families in Uganda? | Top |
| You can help support the efforts of Holt and Action for Children by sponsoring a child in Uganda (see this link), or if you are looking for a more specific way of designating funds on a larger scale, please contact Holt’s Development Representative, Rose Freshwater (rosef@holtinternational.org) to discuss options. In October of 2003 Holt hosted a trip to Uganda for a donor team. In the future, similar opportunities may become available. |
