Foreign nationals interested in adopting Rwandan children are getting frustrated over the long process after the government allegedly kept their formal requests pending, leaving many unsure of what to do next.

In 2017, the government lifted a ban on international adoptions, but up to now no single foreign adoption has been finalised, yet there are many requests coming in.

“My request has been pending for such a long time and I’ve never heard back. I also know other foreigners who sent in their requests and are getting tired of waiting,” said a foreign national who has made a formal adoption request.

Rwanda ratified the Hague Convention, which could have put pressure on the government to reinstate international adoptions.

The country banned international adoptions during the tenure of former minister in charge of family and women promotion, Valerie Nyirahabineza between 2003 and 2008 when it came to light that four Norwegian men, who approached her looking to adopt 400 children, had a contract with hospitals to sell the children.

After the ban was lifted, many foreign nationals who were interested in adopting Rwandan children thought all the issues had been sorted, but it seems that was not the case.

The National Commission for Children (NCC) has previously said that they don’t just give a child to anyone becuase they work with central authorities to vet the people interested in adopting children.

“We only accept applications through the central authority for international adoptions from the country the person is from, and those that meet all the criteria don’t even exceed five so far and many are individual applicants,” said Hategekimana Lambert, the acting director for adoption, protection, and promotion of child rights unit at NCC.

“We have not exhausted local options and this is the country’s priority and we have many local applications for adoption,” he said.

He said that since 2017, only two international adoption requests have been cleared.

The commission conducts investigations through Rwanda’s embassy in that country, to find out who the applicants are and why they are interested in having a child.

They also find out about the family’s lifestyle and how they make a living, before endorsing an application. However, the process has been found to be bureaucratic.

The commission’s priority is on local adoption and raising children through foster homes.

The commission starts by trying to locate any existing biological parent of the child, then any existing relative, then makes efforts to get a local foster family is interested in adopting the child.

It is only after all that has failed that they look into foreign adoption.

In 2012, the government came up with a programme dabbed Let's raise them in families, intended to integrate all orphans into families and close down orphanages; reconnect children to their biological parents and those who didn’t have either to be linked to their relatives or be taken in by local foster families.

Currently, 3,251 children have been placed with families, 522 have been placed with foster families and 551 are still in orphanages, which also work as hostels, while the rest have been connected with their extended families.

By 2017, out of the 33 orphanages, which were a home to 3,325 children countrywide, 14 orphanages had been closed and 2,294 children taken in by families.