An American couple in Knoxville, Tennessee have started a fundraising drive in their hometown to complete the adoption of a child from Guyana, but the Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency in Guyana, Ann Greene is maintaining that the agency which overlooks all adoptions has “absolutely no record of the couple making any application to adopt a child in Guyana”.
The couple Allen and Stephanie Harden have launched a website to raise over US$15,000 to offset all the expenses of the adoption. But in Guyana there are no fees attached to adoptions. Persons looking to make adoptions would have to make court filings once they would have been approved but there is no way those fees would amount to anything close to the figures.
The Harden family were reporting as telling the media that the adoption is being processed through an American adoption agency based in Texas. They said they were sent documents from that agency which shows a breakdown of the costs and among the costs they are being charged by the agency, are costs for adoption services in Guyana.
The Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency says that her agency has no record of the agency making any application for any adoption. She explained too that it must be made clear that in Guyana there are no costs attached to the adoption of children.
“We do not charge for adopting children. There are no costs. The persons adopting once they would have been approved would have to take on court and legal costs but this agency does not charge for adopting children. That does not happen and we have no record of that family’s name in any adoption document”, Ms. Greene said.
The Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency is concerned about the reports of the family being charged in Guyana for the adoption. She said even if the couple come through an agency, their names would have to be submitted to the agency. Ms. Greene said her officers will continue going through records to see if there is any trace of the American couple’s names or the agency that is representing them.
Allen and Stephanie Harden appeared on one of the television newscasts in Tennessee talking about their efforts to adopt a child from Guyana. They have launched a fund-raising website to assist them with the costs and also have plans to visit Guyana as part of the adoption process explained to them by the agency in Texas.
On the agency’s website, Guyana is listed as one of eight countries where it has “Waiting Child programs available”. The agency boasts of having facilitated 8,000 adoptions worldwide.
