When selecting an international adoption program, one aspect that draws families towards the China's Waiting Child program is the chance to play a role in the matching process. With this unique process in place, the access that each agency has to children's files can have a great impact on the wait time for families. Over the past several years, GWCA has worked with orphanages throughout China to continue building relationships, enabling us to reach total of 8 Orphanage Partnerships! These partnerships have helped us expand our China Waiting Child program, placing more and more children with their forever families. 

What are orphanage partnerships?
With thousands of Waiting Children in China, agencies have begun to partner with specific orphanages. These partnerships allow adoption agencies to give back to Chinese orphanages by providing them with the resources to help prepare children's files for international adoption, and improving programs within the orphanage, giving each orphan the opportunity to thrive. This also means the orphanage provides any new files that are prepared exclusively to their partner agencies rather than releasing them to China's shared list. This gives each child a greater chance of being placed, as the agency begins advocating for their adoption immediately. Some orphanages partner with multiple agencies in order to best advocate for their waiting children. It is not uncommon that we will learn of certain children before their files become available. This allows and even greater chance for child advocacy.  

Why are they important?
Orphanage partnerships are an important part of the China Waiting Child adoption process, as they benefit all parties that are involved. Not only do they contribute to the well being of each orphan within the institute, they help in the process of finding them a forever family by ensuring that their files are prepared and provided to an agency. This benefits the agency as they receive both files for Special Focus and Non Special Focus children. These files can then be reviewed by any families that are in process with the agency, as they have exclusive access to the file for a period of time. Partnership with an orphanage also allows for better and quicker updates, more photos, and more videos that aid in the placing of children with their forever families.

In a recent trip to China, GWCA coordinated an Orphanage Partnership Training with several doctors and staff from partner orphanages. This allowed an opportunity to educate our partners on how we can work together to better match the waiting children. GWCA also held an open discussion among the various orphanages where they were each able to discuss areas in which were working for them or where they need help. It was incredible to see so many individuals come together and and be open to bettering the lives of these waiting children. We love our partnerships and value the opportunity to work so closely with those that care for and work with the waiting children on a daily basis.