Villa Hope Celebrates 20 Years of Making the Difference in the Lives of Children
Villa Hope International Adoptions is proud to celebrate twenty years of making the differences in the lives of homeless children around the world.
More than twenty years ago a group of adoptive parents decided to take on the challenge of taking their adoptive family support group, Alabama Friends of Adoption (AFOA), to another level. The group decided to begin doing humanitarian aide work in developing countries such as Mexico and Bolivia. The group sent donations of medical supplies, clothing, and formula as well as traveling to these countries as volunteers in the orphanages. After several of these trips, the group decided to take on another challenge, becoming the first international adoption agency in the state of Alabama. On August 8, 1988 Villa Hope International Adoptions became an officially licensed child placing by the Alabama Department of Human Resources.Over the past twenty years Villa Hope has placed hundreds of children from Latin America, China, and Eastern Europe with their forever families. We have watched these children grow from babies to teenagers to young adults!
As the daughter of one of the founding members of Villa Hope, Pat Baldwin, I have had the wonderful opportunity to grow up in this agency. I have traveled all of the countries we have worked with in Latin America, "working" with my mother. As a teenager, I volunteered in several of the orphanages, helped escort a child to the U.S. on a medical visa, and even lobbied in Bolivia to keep international adoptions open. It has been an amazing opportunity to be able to have this background and work to take Villa Hope to the next level as an adoption agency.
In honor of our anniversary, I would like to bring the focus back to what brought Villa Hope into existence, humanitarian aide. Villa Hope has recently begun a humanitarian aide project with the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). We are assisting the CCAA in training nutritionist who will work in the social welfare institutes. The cost to send 1 nutritionist through the training program is $550. Vila Hope hopes to make an annual contribution to this project in the amount of $2,200, enough money to send 4 nutritionists through the program! Villa Hope also hopes to begin a similar project in Peru. We hope to "adopt an orphanage" in Peru and send regular donations to buy what is needed most in the orphanage.
I would like to ask all the past adoptive families, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends to make a donation to our humanitarian aide project in celebration of Villa Hope's Humanitarian Aid Project. Your donation is 100% tax deductible and will go directly to assist with one of these projects. You can give in two ways, write a check or visit our Donations Page You can also give anytime you make a purchase from Amazon.com by registering for 1-click shopping and entering Amazon.com through the Villa Hope Store Page
Thank you to all of the founding members of Villa Hope, all of the staff, and board members for making Villa Hope what it is today. A special thank you to all of the families who have allowed us to be a part of your adoption journey.
Sincerely,
Anne Baldwin, LGSW
Executive Director