You know we almost always bring the kids without their parents, unless it’s a life and death situation, but it’s very difficult to get a visa for parents to travel. We’re easily able to get visas for just the children so that’s what we do in almost all cases.
Even if the child is an infant?
Even if the child is an infant, yes, I’ve traveled with a 5 month old infant.
So, Kristi, you’re almost like a surrogate mom for these children.
For such a short time! It’s really an amazing experience, but you have them for this transition period where they’re coming from their country to go to their host family in the U.S. To the little boy whose hands were burned, George, I was Mom, he called me Mom. He’s the love of my life, he’s such a doll.
Is your organization considering working with adoption agencies as well?
In a lot of cases the kids have parents so they’re not eligible for adoption, even if their parents would give them up, they’re not eligible. In the case of Emmanuel, who I just brought over, he is an orphan, and his host family is interested in adopting him. So, in some cases, that can happen. The children have to come back on the visa with which we bring them over, so the adoption … is completely separate. For our legal purposes they have to go back with the visa that we have received for them. We really want to keep our focus on raising money for the costs associated with getting a child to the U.S and then getting them back to their family.
How do identify the children who need the most help?
In some cases we’re there on the ground ourselves and we see the children. There are a number of kids in Budaburam, which is the name of the refugee camp in Ghana, so there are children there that we identify ourselves. But, in a lot of cases we have people on the ground there who know the work we’re doing. We just started working in the Ivory Coast this year, we have a liaison there. We did some press there so now the liaison is contacted by families who need help. People are aware that he’s working with U.S and that their children can get help. Every time I go back there, and I’ve been back twice since January of this year, there’s always a room-full of children and parents waiting for me to check them out. The first time it was so unexpected. I was there in June of this year and the liaison said, “Can I meet you at the hotel?” and I said, “Sure,” not knowing that there was going to be a room-full of people and kids, all waiting.
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