Burkina Faso is a West African country home to approximately 20 million people, most well-known for its distinct music culture. It contains multiple rivers, lakes, and streams, but is a relatively flat country with the exception of a few plains of rolling hills. Originally a French colony, Burkina Faso achieved independence in 1960. While overflowing with vibrant culture, it is known to be one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The capitol is Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso is party to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention). Therefore, all intercountry adoptions between Burkina Faso and the United States must meet the requirements of the Convention and U.S. law implementing the Convention. Hague countries have additional safeguards to ensure ethical adoptions and tend to be more stable and predictable in processing adoptions.
All adoptions in Burkina Faso are completed through a collaborative effort between an adoption service provider approved by the Burkinabe Central Authority, Ministère de l’Action Sociale et de la Solidarité Nationale, who handles international adoptions and orphan care in Burkina Faso.
Couples who have been married five years or more can adopt from Burkina Faso. At least one spouse must be a minimum of 30 years old and neither spouse may be older than 53. Adoptive parents must also be at least 15 years older than the adopted child. Preference is given to couples without a child, followed by couples with only one child. Burkinabe law allows for a maximum of two children in the home after the placement of the adopted child(ren). If prospective adoptive parents already have one child in their home, they are not able to adopt more than one child from Burkina Faso. However, this requirement can be waived if the family is adopting a child with special needs or a child 6 years of age or older.
After being matched with a child, the adoptive parents are required to take one trip to Burkina Faso. The trip is approximately 15 days, wherein the couple are united with their child and attend multiple appointments, allowing the child to exit the country and return to the U.S. with their new family.
Nightlight Christian Adoptions is committed to preparing families for the adoption of a child with special needs. We provide pre- and post-adoption education and information regarding medical resources.
Within 30 days of your arrival home, you must have a home visit by your home study provider. Your home study provider will prepare post-adoption reports and submit them to Nightlight at 1 month, 12 months and 24 months from the date of placement and then every 3 years from the date of placement until the child turns 18, with at least ten printed photos to include pictures of the whole family and pictures of the child alone. Reports must be notarized and apostilled. These reports include your child’s developmental progress and pictures. This is a very serious commitment; Nightlight is committed to showing the Burkina Faso government and birth families that children adopted by US citizens are healthy and well cared for. Compliance with post adoption reports is also required by The Hague Convention. Therefore, Nightlight charges a fee to monitor and process these post placement reports and also requires families to pay for the cost of the post placement report in advance.
To learn more about adopting from Burkina Faso, you may contact us, call our office at (502) 423-5780, or email inquiries to Gracie at gracie@nightlight.org.
