● We are bringing orphaned children ages 7-15 from Ukraine to North Carolina to enjoy a three-week summer visit with a family.

● Children participate in day-to-day family life with their host parents. Hosting program community volunteers plan a day camp program for the children 4 days each week to accommodate for working parents.
● The daily activities at the camp include craft projects, English language lessons, sports activities, swimming, excursions to local sites: beach, parks, zoo, aquarium, bowling, hikes, etc.
● We will hold a Community Outreach event one day each week to give people who are interested in meeting the children a chance to interact with them.
● Outside of the day camp and weekly event, the children will be a part of typical family life with their host families.

● Host families are expected to involve the children in an active, nurturing environment, and to provide them with the basic necessities while they are here.
● Every family has enjoyed outfitting their hosted child with new shoes and play clothes.
● Hosts attend weekly events that bring all host families, children, and chaperones together.

● $1,000 program fee + the cost of the international airline ticket from Ukraine to RDU. The program fee pays for the child’s visa and passport, the orphanage’s paperwork, and the child’s local travel expenses and insurance. We expect the total cost of the program to be $2,500-3,000 per child.

● The first step in becoming a host family is to contact Redline United to receive a host family application and to find out about the next scheduled family orientation session. If your application is approved a background check will be completed for  your family to insure the safety of the host children. After a successful background check the program coordinator will inform you of the schedule for the payment of the hosting fee and begin the process of matching you with a host child. Additionally, please see below for required training for all host families.

● Before the children arrive, the host parents are required to attend training sessions (up to 12 hours) where they can learn about the experiences of post-institutionalized children and the issues they may face when hosting. Professionals who work with post-institutionalized children and families who have hosted older children will be a part of these training sessions. For any family that is not able to attend all required training sessions, they will need to complete and turn in required homework on the subject of the training session in order to participate in the hosting program.
● Additionally, successful completion of the 8-hour online course “Hosting Orphans from Abroad” through the BGCenter Online School is a requirement of the program.  You will need to submit your certificate of completion to the program coordinator in  order to participate in our program. Although this is an additional cost to hosting, we consider the preparation of our host families extremely important.
● Course Description:
“This course helps potential adoptive parents prepare for the hosting experience with older children from foreign orphanages and have a lot of “How?” and “Why?”questions answered. The instructors go into every detail of your encounter with a post-institutionalized older child in your own home, explaining what to expect and how to manage this unique opportunity.”

● Each child is covered by a major medical insurance policy ($0 deductible) during their stay that will cover accidents and emergencies. This policy does not cover any pre-existing conditions the child may have, or dental or vision care. Visits to pediatricians for minor illnesses or medical care will be the responsibility of the host family.
● Families may be able to find local health professionals that would be willing to provide pro-bono medical services that are not covered by the emergency medical policy.

● Our goal is to keep a child in the same home for the duration of the program and we ask host families to commit to hosting for the entire three week period. Because of their past many of the host children will have a difficult time with the change of a host family during their visit. However, sometimes unexpected things happen within a family that will prohibit them from continuing to host the child. In these instances, we will move the child to another family.

● Many families are interested in adopting the children they host or meet through the program. There are some children who are already adopted and living in the United States because of the families they met during a prior program. You may want to experience having an older child in your house before you adopt, or you may simply want to give a child a vacation away from the orphanage for a few weeks. Regardless of your reason to host, please be aware that Redline United is a humanitarian aid organization and not an adoption agency. The main goal of this program is to allow the host children to experience a three-week vacation as honored guests as part of a family. While we are excited about the potential of adoption for these children, we are not an adoption agency.
● Ukrainian law indicates that you are not to preselect a child for adoption. However, Ukraine does allow for you to request a specific orphan if you met them during an exchange program or on a trip to an orphanage in Ukraine. There are no guarantees that you will be approved to adopt a specific child. The Ukrainian government selects your child for you after consulting with you and considering your requests.

● Age Requirements: Under a Ukrainian law which came into effect on April 24, 2008, prospective adoptive parents must be at least 21 years old, and at least 15 years older, but not more than 45 years older than the adopted child.  If only one of the adoptive parents complies with these age requirements, the adoption can be completed in the eligible parent’s name only. If the child is being adopted by a relative, the age difference is not considered.
● Marriage Requirements: Foreign citizens must be married in order to be eligible to adopt from Ukraine.
● Residential Requirements: There are no residency requirements to adopt in Ukraine.

● Yes, we welcome individuals and families to host children even if they are not interested in adoption.

● No. Translation support and resources are provided to assist families. There are always translators available at the day camp and a Dial-a-Translator list for translation help by phone at other times.

● Please see volunteer section of our website to learn about volunteer opportunities and to sign up to help!

● It is helpful to live near the Triangle Area to host so that your child can participate in the weekly community event. However, it is not required if the family is willing to come to the Raleigh area for the first few days of the program, is able to host a child without the day camp, and is willing to advocate for their child in their local community.

● Oftentimes, the children come with just the clothes on their back and a small plastic bag of personal items. Our team plans to provide each host family with a bookbag for each host child with a few necessities they will not have – toothbrush, change of clothes, etc.  Any gift giving is optional, but our advice is to moderate your giving over the three weeks that the children are in the United States. Families often make the mistake of giving their child anything they want during the first week of their stay, and this leads the child to believe you have an endless source of income in addition to creating a spoiled and confused child for the remainder of the child’s stay.
● Dr. Ronald Federici, who specializes in older institutionalized children, further explains to need to avoid over-stimulating your host child in his article. Here’s a quote from that article: “Even the most experienced family can be challenged by the older post-institutionalized child. The temptation to give love, affection, and an abundance of stimulation is so tempting due to the parents honest desire to “make up” everything the child has lost in the years of institutionalization. Often, the more the parents give immediately upon arrival, the less they get in return in the long run…”

● The ages of the children traveling to the United States are between the ages of 7 and 15.

● No. This is a strict rule that we cannot change. It is the requirement of the Ukrainian government and the US Embassy that the children return to Ukraine at the prescribed time. Any violation of this rule endangers the future of the whole program as well as the future of the child you are hosting.

● Some want to bring their older host child to the United State to go to school or college. This option is possible, but extremely difficult, particularly due to the English requirements of the TOEFL exam. This process is not a part of our program. You may contact a local lawyer in your city who specializes in student visas.

● The children involved in our hosting program have been recommended to us by the director of their orphanage based on good behavior. We do not have any medical history on the children. However, we do know that any children with serious diseases (such as AIDs or cancer) are housed in separate orphanages. Among the children that do travel, the orphanage director cancels the trip for a child who has any minor illnesses.
There are some organizations that offer services to families to conduct further medical and family history research on a child, such as Dr.Ronald Federici’s Russian and Ukrainian Adoption Project.