Latest Adoption Statistics
ICBF recently updated their adoption statistics. Below is a summary of those statistics which were current as of July 1, 2009.
In 2008, there were 2,542 children of all ages placed for adoption. Of which, 1,019 were placed with Colombian families and 1,523 were placed with Foreign families. It would be important to note that COLOMBIAN families are families in Colombia or families with at least 1 Colombian parent living abroad.
Between January 1, 2009 and July 1, 2009, there have been 1,227 children placed for adoption in Colombia -- 524 to Colombian families and 703 to foreign families. Of these, 174 were placed by Casas Privadas and 1,053 were placed by ICBF.
ICBF would like to point out that as of July 1, 2009, there were 8,127 children and adolescents that have official declarations of adoptability and belong to the category SPECIAL NEEDS. Special Needs in Colombia is defined as children with disabilities, children over 8 years of age, and sibling groups of 3 or more. These children are available immediately and families requesting children in this category will receive PRIORITY and PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.
Here is the breakdown of the 8,127 adoptable children in the Special Needs Category:
743 ---- children younger than 7 that belong to large sibling groups
480 ---- children younger than 7 with a physical or mental disability
3,460 -- children between 8-17, some belong to sibling groups
1,679 -- children between 8-17 with a physical or mental disability
598 ---- children over 18 in a good physical state
1,177 -- children over 18 with a physical or mental disability
Comments
Interesting. In our case (our child was 14 when we finally got her), it took us 9 months to go through the process, and we were told it had taken longer because "she was older."(Actually, her papers were lost because of her advanced age: they went to a number of wrong offices before they were finally found.)
I am skeptical about the "priority and preferential treatment".
thanks for your great blog.
Do you know what are the exact definitions in ICBF for special needs children, meaning physical disabilities? E.g. is the club-foot a special need?
The list shows "large" 743 sib groups up to age 7. Was that really an ICBF designation? I'm curious how large the groups can be if the oldest child is 7? We're waiting for a referral of a sib group of two up to age six and are wondering why the wait is so long when the children are already cleared for adoption.
http://raisingcolombiankids.blogspot.com/2009/09/august-2009-icbf-wait-list.html
You'll note that for sibling groups of 2 -- from 0 to age 6 they are referring to famlies whose applications were approve by ICBF in August of 2007 -- so you have about approximately a 2 year wait from the date you were approved by ICBF.