ABOUT US
‘Compassion for Orphans’ (CFO) is a Christian not for profit organisation established in 2003 to facilitate the adoption of legally adoptable overseas children into loving New Zealand families.
The inspiration for 'Compassion for Orphans' dates back to 1996 when our current Chief Executive adopted his seven year old daughter from Russia.
Moved by the plight of orphans and abandoned children that were left behind, he developed a strong desire to respond and as a result of this desire founded ‘Compassion for Orphans' to help find loving families for these children.
The vision includes scrupulously applying international best standards and cutting out as many costs as possible so that the average New Zealand family could afford to adopt these children.
We are governed by a Board of Trustees comprising of six people, three of whom are qualified social workers. Our operational team are three staff plus four social workers.
We currently have adoption programmes with two signatories of the Hague Convention, Chile (commenced in 2006) and Thailand (this is a new programme commenced in March 2018). We are also licensed to facilitate adoptions from India but we have not commenced this programme yet. Some of our families' stories can be viewed in the testimonials section of our website.
SERVICES
Once applicants have been approved by the New Zealand Central Authority as suitable to adopt, CFO will work with the applicants right through to the completion of the adoption and also provide post adoption support and other services. Our services include:
Pre-Adoption Education and Preparation;
Compilation of documentation required by the overseas country;
Translation services;
Full representation in the country that applicants travel to (including assistance with travel, accommodation, accompanying to meetings, interpretation, translation, visas etc);
Communication between all relevant local and Government agencies and departments;
Advice, encouragement and support during the adoption process;
Post Adoption Support;
Assistance with searching for birth families;
Continuing education on adoption related matters.
REASONS FOR WORKING WITH US
We scrupulously apply international standards such as those outlined in the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption;
We only work with countries who have ratified or acceded to the Hague Convention due to the Convention’s fundamental principles such as the protection of the child’s best interests, safeguards for the child against abduction, sale or trafficking and the framework of co-operation between member countries;
We are completely transparent with all processes and in the provision of information with regards to steps in the process, people who you will be working with and the costs involved;
One of our primary goals is to reduce the cost of adoptions as low as possible. We continually seek to minimise the costs to applicants;
We will not charge you a fee for our work (to date, donations have covered our operating costs). However, applicants are required to pay costs charged to them directly by service providers or reimburse us for costs made on their behalf.
ACCREDITATIONS AND LEGAL STATUS
Click on the link below to view Compassion for Orphans accreditations:
Compassion for Orphans' accreditations
