Frontier Horizon Hosting Program FAQ and Agreement

Yes, please do! We encourage and welcome individuals and families to host children even if they are not interested in adoption. Our primary goal of the travel program is to raise awareness of the children's needs to foster the improvement of the health, education, and general welfare of all orphan children in Ukraine. Therefore, the travel program itself raises funds for that purpose. You help us achieve such goals by hosting a child.

Many families are interested in adopting the children they host or meet through the Frontier Horizon Travel Program. There are a large number of children who are already adopted and living in the United States as a direct result of the program. You may want to experience having an older child in your house before you adopt, or you may simply want to give a child a vacation away from the orphanage for a few weeks. The advantage of the program is that it affords a number of life-changing opportunities for both your family and the child. Regardless of your reason to host, please be aware that Frontier Horizon is a humanitarian aid organization and not an adoption agency. The main goals of this program are ultimately to improve the health, education, and general welfare of orphan children in Ukraine. While we are excited about the potential of adoption for these children, Frontier Horizon is not an adoption agency. If you choose to adopt please be aware the process is handled separately from our organization, and we do not have any control or influence over the adoption process, nor do we have any affiliation with adoption agencies.

This Frontier Horizon Program is primarily a Travel Program, therefore, we cannot and do not choose all adoptable children. Many children are available or are in the process of becoming available for adoption, but we cannot guarantee the availability of every child.

Absolutely not! Many of the children to travel to the United States through the Frontier Horizon Travel Program would never have the opportunity to visit America or stay with a family if people only interested in hosting did not participate in our program. Our program is a Travel Program, not an adoption program. Our goals are to raise awareness and to provide orphaned children with a cultural and educational experience in the United States. The Travel Program has a 50-60% adoption rate, so there are many children who participate in the program and are not adopted. We strive to help as many children as possible, and there are numerous ways in which Frontier Horizon tries to help the children. Donations for basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine, and education as well as short-term humanitarian aid trips and grants for self-sufficiency projects or building repair all help to meet such needs. This program is just one more resource to improve the lives of the children with whom we work. Often, families who do not adopt still take a vested interest in their hosted child’s future by funding that child’s basic needs and/or future education.

Oftentimes, the children come with just the clothes on their back and a small plastic bag of personal items. Any gift giving is optional, but our advice is to moderate your giving over the three weeks that the children are in the United States. Families often make the mistake of giving their child anything they want during the first week of their stay, and this leads the child to believe you have an endless source of income in addition to creating a spoiled and confused child for the remainder of the child's stay.

The ages of the children traveling to the United States are between the ages of 6 and 17.

Frontier Horizon staff in the United States and Ukraine work closely with the orphanage Directors and orphanage staff to select children who have good behavior, positive attitudes, and good grades in school. Children are selected with the intention of the Travel Program and trip to the United States as a reward for them. Despite our process, children do end up traveling to the United States who have behavioral and emotional issues. Please be aware of this when hosting.

NO! This is a strict rule that we cannot change. It is the requirement of the Ukrainian government and the US Embassy that the children return to Ukraine at the prescribed time. Any violation of this rule is breaking the law and it endangers the future of the whole program as well as the future of the child you are hosting. If necessary, legal action will be taken.

No. Having a child in your house as part of the Travel Program does not mean the child will be reserved for you to adopt. Older children are not adopted as frequently as younger children, but there is still a possibility that your hosted child may be adopted by another family. Thus far, almost every Host Family that has wanted to adopt the child who they have hosted has been able to do so. In the past, there have been a few families who have not been able to adopt the child they hosted because the child was adopted by another family.

The children involved with the Frontier Horizon Travel Program come from different orphanages within Ukraine. The orphanage director usually chooses the children on the basis of good behavior and good grades. We do not have any family or medical history on the children. However, we do know that any children with serious diseases are housed in separate orphanages. Among the children that do travel, the orphanage director cancels the trip for a child who has any minor illnesses. If you do decide to adopt the child you are hosting, you will receive all of the child's family and medical background information from the National Adoption Center.

Some families who do not want to adopt want to bring their child to the United States to go to school or college. This option is possible, but extremely difficult. As with adoptions, this process must be handled apart from Frontier Horizon. You may contact a local lawyer in your city that specializes in student visas. You may also refer the lawyer to Frontier Horizon if he has questions you cannot answer.

We will send children to any state within the United States, but we request that interested families try to bring at least five children to each host city. We require a minimum of two children per each translator/guardian per area. If there are one or two families interested in hosting children, we suggest they try to find a few more families to host children as well, in order to bring at least five children into your area. Families must pay the airfare from Washington, D.C., or JFK, New York, to their local airport. If you have fewer than five children in your area (an area is defined as a two hour driving radius), you must also pay the translator/guardian's fee of $1800. (Note: The cost of the translator/guardian’s airfare can be split among host families.) With five or more children hosted, the translator/guardian's airfare is waived.

Many host families want to keep in contact with the children they host in order to help them with basic needs and/or their education. This is one of the main goals of the program and it is strongly encouraged. You may keep in contact with the child you hosted through e-mail, and you may send money and/or packages to the child as often as you please. You will receive the e-mail of a translator, upon request, who will translate letters and ensure that your gifts get to your child for a nominal, monthly fee.

Yes! Frontier Horizon runs three or four short-term service trips each year that you may join. The children absolutely love having their host families visit them in Ukraine, and actually seeing the orphanages and the children in their “homes” proves to be a life-changing experience for our teams. Please contact us if you are interested in traveling on a team or if you would like to organize a team to travel to Ukraine through Frontier Horizon.

As long as all of the application materials are included, single women can host children as well. We do not restrict our hosts to married couples or families.

All of the children who travel to the United States are insured through HCC Medical (please visit http://www.missionaryhealth.net/Daytripper.pdf for policy information). This insurance is for emergency purposes only. If you have an emergency, immediately contact Frontier Horizon staff. You can look up doctors and hospitals that participate in the PPO online at http://hccmis.cmn-global.com. Please note this insurance is for medical emergencies only and cannot be used for general care clinics, hospital visits or physician appointments. Families may choose to take their children for a check-up at their own expense; often a doctor or dentist will do the work free or give a discount if they know the children are international orphans.

Frontier Horizon, through our insurance policy noted above has all children insured throughout the United States. Travel Program children may not leave the United States.

It is the responsibility of host families to serve as the guardians of Frontier Horizon Travel Program children at all times. Please contact us for more information on our policy regarding this.

No, host families are not permitted to take their hosted children outside of the United States. Neither the children’s visas nor their insurance will allow the children to leave the United States.

Yes! We encourage you to contact families who have had experience hosting in the past. The following families are willing and interested to share their experiences with potential host families and potentially adoptive families: Send an email to reference@frontierhorizon.org and a