August 3, 2004 – This is a special summer for Rachel Connell and Bruce McEldowney, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire family who are hosting Sasha, an 8-year old boy from Russia, for a three-week stay. Sasha is just one of several children from Russia in a program that was just launched by the Waltham, Ma.-based Wide Horizons for Children, the largest private non-profit adoption agency in the Northeast.

The “Summer Horizons” program at Wide Horizons for Children brings older Russian children for a three week stay with an American family in the hopes that at the end of the stay, the family will move ahead with adopting the child. Similar programs nationwide have a nearly 100% success rate.

“We are thrilled to have Sasha with us,” Ms. Connell says. “Sasha is wonderful and immediately fit into our family. He and our son have already become fast pals. Sasha has incredible resilience and has jumped right into the typical summer experience of an American child. He is at YMCA Camp Lincoln and the counselors and children have embraced Sasha from the very beginning.”

Some of the activities that Wide Horizons planned for the families in this year’s program included Build a Bear. The organization donated teddy bears for the children to decorate and bring home. Also, the children have gone horse riding and there has been a picnic for all the host families.

Over 600,000 children in Russia are without parental care. Only 5% of the children over 5 years old will be adopted. At age 16, children leave the orphanage system to live on their own. Studies show that 33% of these children become homeless; 20% resort to crime to survive and 10% commit suicide.

Wide Horizons has a number of regional offices throughout the Northeast, including New Hampshire. Wide Horizons was founded in 1974 and is among the leading agencies nationwide. The agency has placed almost 8,000 children from 56 countries since its founding, and has donated $8 million to humanitarian aid overseas.

If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact:

May Seto at

mseto@whfc.org or

781/419-0368