Children in the program of long-distance adoption and their families go through many challenging life situations and they often write about them in the letters for the adoptive parents. If they are facing a very urgent problem, they usually directly contact the child´s coordinator and ask for advice.
If the coordinator, upon discussing the issue with the family, comes to the conclusion that the adoptive parents could be of some help in the case, the coordinator contacts the Czech office. We then together with the adoptive parent try to find the best way to help the child and the family.
For such cases, there is a possibility of an extra payment which is not directly connected to the child´s education and which lies beyond the program of long-distance adoption. The money that the adoptive parents send to their African children every trimester is used exclusively to cover the children’s´ tuition- but this payment is something extra. It is mostly used to cover unexpected medical expenses of the child or someone from his/her family, to pay a high school or university debt, to buy extra food, laptop for university students, or a bike for a child, that lives far away from school and has to commute many kilometres every day. First we always check with the Kenyan coordinators that the extra payment is really necessary and only then, if the adoptive parents also agree to it, the extra purchase can be realised.
It is necessary to say, that the Kenyan coordinators provide such services beyond their responsibilities in the project of long-distance adoption and the organisation takes a significant amount of their time and energy. The administration related to the growing number of extra payments is more and more demanding and that is why we have decided to introduce an administration fee of 6 % from the extra payment.
The minimum fee will be 30 Kč (1 EUR) and the maximum fee 1000 Kč (38 EUR).The extra payments thus help the children in the program of long-distance adoption but they are not a means of randomly improving the children´s life conditions. All the cases need to be very carefully evaluated.
In this way, thanks to an adoptive parent, we were able to help the family of Patrick Owino (51509) to build their own house. The family had had to pay a monthly rent and the adoptive parent decided to help the family buy their own property. Thanks to their payment of 30 000 Kč the family now has a clay house and one worry less.
Another story concerns a boy Chriswarena Ongei (51548) and his family. Since they live 7 kilometres from the lake, they have to use a pump in order to supply themselves with water. Unfortunately, one day the water pump broke and the family did not have enough financial means to repair it. Also in this case, an adoptive parent decided to help out and sent the family an extra payment of 12 000 Kč for which they were able to buy a new water pump. The family is very happy and grateful for this help. They also use the water for irrigating vegetables which they grow on a little field next to their house.
The last case concerns David Otieno Odongo (40216), Business Management and Administration graduate. David successfully finished his studies and his adoptive parent decided to support him in starting his career. David was left with some extra money after covering the tuition and his adoptive parent agreed that David can invest them. Based on a research he carried out in the slum where he lives, he decided to open a business which would be half electronics and half barbers´ shop. His adoptive parent liked the idea so nothing stood in the way of us sending David the extra money to help him start his business. He has been doing great. He keeps thorough records of the sold electronics. Thanks to the help of his adoptive parent, he is not only able to support himself but also his mother and sisters, who are still at school.
