Canadian Friends...Asking for Your Help Once Again

We interrupt this time of excitement for an important request. I would ask once again that you plese take time to contact your MP on behalf of the International Adoption community in Canada. We have done this in the past with great success and once again our fellow adoptive families require your help.

Monday, an announcement was made the Imagine Adoption/Kid's Link had filed for bankruptcy. I have 3 friends who are involved at varying stages with this agency and all are hurting greatly. The agency has closed it's doors and locked them tight leaving many families with many unanswered questions and broken hearts.

PLEASE contact your local MP and anyone else you think would be of help…but ESPECIALLY your MP. The pressure has to come from here to get emergency visa’s issued, as well as have the waiting files transferred to another agency so those waiting for court dates or referrals have an agency working for them in Ethiopia. Please contact them and tell them you are aware of the Imagine Adoption bankruptcy and that there are legal children of Canadian citizens who need their government to intervene and get emergency visa’s issued. The more pressure and awareness the quicker things will move along. Please also mention that the government should stand in the gap for the children who were waiting for referrals from Imagine and the Canadian families who are also waiting…we owe it to them.

Here is a sample of a letter you can send....

Hello, my name is xxxxxx and I am writing to you for your help as my elected official.

As I hope you are aware, recently an adoption agency called Imagine Adoption / Kids Link International suddenly and without notice closed it’s door and declared bankruptcy. While the circumstances around that are suspect, we know that a bankrupt trustee is investigating.

The more concerning issue, and the one which I am asking for your involvement is the state of the current files in process for adoption. These are Canadian citizens who need their government to take action. Here are the areas of concern that need attention;

1. There are families who have been through the court system in Ethiopia and the children who are in the Transition homes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia are legally their children. Children of Canadian citizens. The homes they are in were funded by the now defunct agency so time is of the essence. These Canadians need the Canadian government to order emergency visa’s so that these families can bring their children home. It is our understanding that the Foreign Affairs office needs encouragement to make this happen as quickly as possible for our fellow Canadians.

2. There are families (Canadian) who were given a referral (a child in the care of the agency has been matched with the family) and they were awaiting court. The agency would normally have someone to represent the family and ensure that all the necessary paperwork is completed. These families need our government to ensure that someone is there to continue that work. We are aware of other Canadian agencies who have offered to help facilitate this, however the proper Canadian and Ontario government branches need to work together quickly to make this happen.

3. There are families (Canadian) who were waiting for a referral. Loving homes waiting to welcome in a child. These families have paid a lot of hard earned money in trust that the agency here in Canada would facilitate their process. Again, other agencies can take on this load, but we need the Canadian government to push this forward.

As you can see this is a huge crisis and we would ask you to help. There are families in your/our constituency that are effected in this way, and more importantly … fellow Canadians from coast to coast effected by this.

Please use all your available resources to make this right and pursue the means to right this wrong.

Thank you in advance for your support in this.

As many of us rally together we can cause changes. We saw this both in the Canadian Citizenship process and more recently in receiving immediate health care coverage for our children.

I humbly ask once again that you please help families whose heart's desire it is to have children but more importantly, to fight for those innocent children in Ethiopia who may otherwise not know what it is to have the love of a mother and father.

Thanks!!