Adoptions in Zambia have multiplied since House of Moses and our other two homes opened. Our other two nurseries, the Kanyama House of Martha and the Bill and Bette Bryant home opened in 1999 and 2001 respectively. House of Moses in 2000. The age ranges of our children are from birth to age 10. (We do stretch the rule sometimes and have a few 12 year old children). Our homes are intended to be "safety nets" whereby we have the time to locate and empower extended family, or place children into foster/adoptive homes. There does come a point though where children have had to be moved into an orphanage type home, but we think we can find families for many of them.
As a side note: House of Moses was selected by UNICEF and the United Nations in 2003 as a "Best Practice Model in sub-Saharan Africa" and was presented to the Global Fund as an example of work being done in Africa. (The bad news is that NONE of the money flowed to the program!) Graca Machel Mandela who visited with us at that time said, "I have never before seen anything like House of Moses in Africa."
House of Moses has sparked much interest both domestically and internationally because it is a unique model providing 24/7 nursing care for pre-mature and high risk infants. Before House of Moses came on the scene, infants died for lack of milk and basic care. Most of our babies have lost their mothers, many in childbirth. Some are abandoned in the maternity ward, and others are found in places too gruesome to mention. They are brought to us by the police, the Department of Social Welfare or "Good Samaritans." Some children admitted to the home are under 2 pounds, and although we have no specialized medical equipment, the babies do survive and thrive! Although many of the mothers are HIV+, her infant has a 7 in 10 chance of NOT acquiring the virus. Another 1 in 10 will become infected through breast feeding, but we still have more infants that are HIV negative than HIV positive.
In just the year prior to our opening our first home in Kanyama, there were only two formal adoptions in Zambia for the entire year. Since that time our adoptions have been steadily increasing. In all, 76 of the babies and children in our homes have been placed for adoption, most of them into Zambian families. One went to Namibia, one to Holland, twins to Australia and less than a dozen have come to the USA, but most of the USA adoptions have been just this past year as regulations have been loosened.
Our vision for the future, and as funding permits, is to open homes like House of Moses in other areas of Zambia and possibly in other sub-Saharan African nations. We have had visits from Government representatives from Mozambique and Rwanda who have invited us to come to help them start a similar program. We, for the time being, have had to decline. We know there are many couples who would adopt children from Africa and why stop in Zambia? But in God's time, not our own.
House of Moses has a physical capacity for 40 children, but at the moment funding for only 25 (and that is stretching it!). Older children and children with special needs are also in our homes and we believe there are families waiting for them as well.
We are now seeing some of the other child care facilities in Zambia beginning to look at adoption as an option and ACE is planning to further advocate in that direction from our well recognized platform. UNICEF has said they would be open to having ACE be involved in drafting the national adoption policy which is now in motion and of which UNICEF is integral.
We look forward to seeing what God will do!
