A Child's Hope Foundation
Founded in 2002, Paul and Carolene Cook started A Child’s Hope Foundation to give orphans and volunteers alike an experience of love, charity, and hope for the future.
In 1997, Paul and Carolene Cook adopted their beautiful daughter, Megan, from China. In 2001, Megan’s adoption agency came to the Cooks and asked them to donate to improve an orphanage in Haiti. They donated some money and thought a little more of it.
A few months later, the agency returned to the Cooks and asked Paul if he would take a trip to Haiti to see what his donation really meant to the kids there.
Paul said, “It was only then, when I saw the desperate plight of orphans in Haiti, that I knew I needed to do more than just donate money. I needed to personally get to work on this problem and help save the lives of these kids. We named our charity ‘A Child’s Hope Foundation’ because we believe it is every orphan’s hope to belong to a loving family.”
In 2002, A Child’s Hope Foundation started by building an “Adoption Orphanage” in Haiti—a short-term home for children to stay until they were adopted. Hundreds of volunteers traveled at their own expense to help in construction efforts.
After dozens of children were adopted from that facility, The Hague Adoption Convention introduced policies that made it incredibly difficult for families to adopt internationally. As a result, since 2004 there has been a 74% decline in adoptions to the US.
Because of security issues that arose in Haiti, A Child’s Hope Foundation stopped taking volunteers there and began partnering with orphanages in Mexico instead. We have since hosted more than 6,000 volunteers, who have brought their resources and skills to improve the living conditions of the children. We are also now returning to Haiti to continue the work there!