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This thread could be in the General Sabla, but as it involves the actions of some couples, I believe it is also appropriate to open it here.

It has been many months that I heard (through our old member "Neena") about the existance of an orphanage in Al Khuwair and I am so thankful that, for the past two months, I finally had the chance to pay many weekly visits to this place.

It seems that many Omanis completely ignore the existance of this orphanage, where many children, between the age of 4 months to 16 years, live together in four separate compounds and are 'quite well' looked after by the government.

However, it is a fact that an orphanage can't be at all compared to a normal home. No matter how dedicated the employees are there, the kids do not experience the same daily love, care and joy our children would have with their own mothers or family members in normal circumstances.

Though the purpose of this thread is to make you aware of the existance of this orphanage, with the hope that you will take the time to visit it even once, my questions to you are:

~ Did you know that this orphanage exists and did you ever try to visit it? If no, are you willing now to try to give even on hour of your time per week or per month to these children?

~ As any orphans are waiting to be eventually adopted and have a 'home', would you accept the idea of adoption for you or for your family if you had the means?

I would love to adopt a child or even a bunch of children if I was given the chance. However, I was told that a woman needs to be married to able to adopt. Which in my opinion not fair at all!!

Nice thread Xp and good to make the public aware of such places.

My question to you when you go there what do you do exactly, is there a specific program you follow?

The second point is, is there any donation system they follow so that people can donate money to help them?

I was told that a woman needs to be married to able to adopt. Which in my opinion not fair at all!!
are you serious? :os , that doesnt really make sense at all.

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anyways.. yes i am aware of its existance. I think I visited it once during a class trip.

I personally wouldnt think of adopting If inshallah i can have children of my own. I think there are many let downs religiously when it comes to adoption.

i am not sure of that Nabs, i just heard .... however i liked to point what you said above. you will only adopt if you was not able of having children of your own. why is that? do you think that you won't be able to give love equally? i mean what is stopping you from adopting even if you have children of your own??

~ Did you know that this orphanage exists and did you ever try to visit it? If no, are you willing now to try to give even on hour of your time per week or per month to these children?
Yes, and i intend to visit...if not to help then to actually just see the place.

~ As any orphans are waiting to be eventually adopted and have a 'home', would you accept the idea of adoption for you or for your family if you had the means?
Yes, an aunt has adopted a boy from the orphanage and she is not married, so i dont think there is a RULE which exempts unmarried women.

My mum adopted another baby last week! :D Mum and her newborn baby came to sleep in my room yesterday. :p

That is nice sophy, question what are the selection criterias your mother following when adopting a child?

It means you have 3 sisters/brother now :)

thats sweet sophi (god bless your mom)..
Bloom i dont think its true.. My aunt adopted one and she is not married. so maybe you need to recheck your informations so that you can adopt as much as u wanted.

~ Did you know that this orphanage exists and did you ever try to visit it? If no, are you willing now to try to give even on hour of your time per week or per month to these children?

I do know that from Neena as well. Inshallah when i'm back (I said i will so inshallah i will keep my word).

~ As any orphans are waiting to be eventually adopted and have a 'home', would you accept the idea of adoption for you or for your family if you had the means?

If i could and it was possible and nothing inerfer's with the idea WHY NOT! making a baby happpy is .....

My question to you when you go there what do you do exactly, is there a specific program you follow?To my knowledge Icy there is no specific program to follow.

When I go there, it is my personal choice to spend my time with the infants, who are between 4 months and 2, 3 years, rather than with the bigger ones who need a bit less attention.

I often wish I could change their clothes or nappies when they are dirty or give them a bath if I really feel that they need one, but I don't think it is allowed.

Visitors are allowed during visiting time to play for hours with the children, hold them, give them a moment of love or joy, confort them when they cry, talk to them like any other kids. I often feed the babies too when it was time to take their dinner and such a simple actions is an unbelievable experience for me!

Visitors are welcome to give donations anytime. For what I have seen, the children are quite well fed and I got the impression that a company is in charge of preparing the food.

If any donation can be done, given toys, books, educative games and clothes will be great. If money has to be given, I would advise to hand it over directly to the person in charge of the Orphanage :)

I am happy to read that most members who post so far here do know the existance of this orphanage. I am also pleasantly surprised to read that some members relatives have adopted an orphan. May Allah bless them all!!

Sophis, you said that your mum has adopted another baby last week...does this mean that she already adopted one in the past? Did she adopt from that orphanage or from another source?

I think it is truely wanderful for her to have given a chance to a child to have a normal life and especially a family.

Najah, did your aunt adopt because she is not planning to get married and have children of her own, or is simply because she felt for the orphan and wanted to give him a chance in life?

I am happy to read that most members who post so far here do know the existance of this orphanage. I am also pleasantly surprised to read that some members relatives have adopted an orphan. May Allah bless them all!!

Sophis, you said that your mum has adopted another baby last week...does this mean that she already adopted one in the past? Did she adopt from that orphanage or from another source?

I think it is truely wanderful for her to have given a chance to a child to have a normal life and especially a family.

Najah, did your aunt adopt because she is not planning to get married and have children of her own, or is simply because she felt for the orphan and wanted to give him a chance in life?

I'm not really sure, i can't go ask her the details so i dont know and i dont really care. I hope its all to the good intention of sheltering one.

are you serious? :os , that doesnt really make sense at all.Actually it makes a lotta sense. Every child needs both a mother figure and a father figure. As long as a couple don't have serious problems, that would probably be the best environment to bring up a child. Sure, an orphan will probably be grateful to have one parent instead of none at all but having two parents will be more ideal. I think that's the logic behind not allowing single women (I think single men have even less of a chance of being allowed to adopt) to adopt. But like others here said, in Oman, single women are allowed to adopt.

I've never been to the orphanage but I would like to visit. I like the thought of providing a child with a family and a home that they could call their own. I think I would be willing to adopt once I get married, regardless of whether or not I end up having my own kids.

Thanks X
For Bringing this up.. Personnely this is my first time to hear that there is Orphans Home at al-Khuwair.. Before I know they use to be living at Hospitals.

Yes I guess its Everyone Duty to pay a Visit and make these Kids Happy and feel that are being well cared by Community at large. :weep:

Najah maybe ot depends on the age, do they allow any woman of any age to adopt?

Sophis, you said that your mum has adopted another baby last week...does this mean that she already adopted one in the past? Did she adopt from that orphanage or from another source?



Yes! We now have three adopted babies at home! :D LOL. Two were from the orphanage, one was from the hospital.

~ Did you know that this orphanage exists and did you ever try to visit it? If no, are you willing now to try to give even on hour of your time per week or per month to these children?

yah I am, and I always tell myself I should go visit it once .. but somehow I couldnt arrange a time. what are the visiting hours XP?


~ As any orphans are waiting to be eventually adopted and have a 'home', would you accept the idea of adoption for you or for your family if you had the means?
In case I dont have kids of my own, adoption is certainly in my mind. Also, maybe when I am old. and my children are in uni or something, I would think of adopting a young kid. It has a great religious reward, as prophet mohammed peace be upon him said that who takes care of an orphan would be close to him in Janna like the two fingers are close to each other.

Bloom, I dont think you need to be married to be able to adopt a child. I think if you reached a certain age and you are not married you are allowed to adopt a kid. There are certain criteria the ministry of social development have put to make sure the adopted kids would have proper life when they go to those who they have adopted them.

Yes I am aware of the orphanage in Al Khuwair. My sister paid them several visits when she was here for holiday in the summer, and what I know is that they give you a form to fill out if you want to help with anything and spend some time with the kids.

XP my question to you, since you seem to be going there very often, is what would they want a volunteer to do? Anything specific? Or just spending some time playing with the kids? I'd love to know more about this.

As for the adoption, I've always had the idea of adopting a child after graduating, but blossom just posted here that you can't unless you're married. Well what if you're not but you're capable of giving this child the love and care? Isn't having at least one parent is better than non at all?

Yes! We now have three adopted babies at home! :D LOL. Two were from the orphanage, one was from the hospital.Sophis, may your home be blessed, as your parents took such wanderful decision to adopt not one but three orphans! It is such a good deed to give the chance to these kids to have a better life and most importantly a home.

If it is not too private, may I ask you what was your first reaction when your mother told you that they wanted to adopt? Did your brothers and sisters reacted positively to this news? Lastly, did any of the adopted kids had some troubles adapting the first weeks out of the orphanage or hospital?

Please do not answer the above questions, if you feel unconfortable.

what are the visiting hours XP?

Arby, to be honnest, I have some serious communications problems with the staff there as they all speak Arabic mainly and me English. One thing for sure I understood is that all visiting hours stopped at 6:30pm, I suppose because the children are ready to go to bed.

From my observation, it seems Thursdays are opened days, where anyone is welcome to visit the orphanage and spend time with the children. I also believe that anyone can come during the week, but it is better to get introduced to the Head of staff before.

I was very happy to hear that most of the children attend the government school during the day, so I presume only the babies and toddlers are present in the morning. I understood that if a male desires to visit, he needs to ask the permission of the administration which is located within the orphanage. I would advise to call beforehand. From all my visits, I only see the presence of women.

XP my question to you, since you seem to be going there very often, is what would they want a volunteer to do? Anything specific? Or just spending some time playing with the kids? I'd love to know more about this.This is a good question Dr N and I will try to find out if we can do more than just sit and play with the children.

As I said in my previous post, I have some problems communicating with the staff, but I really get the impressions that they do not let us do a lot more. For instance, in many occasions find some toddlers in dirty clothes and I wish I could change them, but I got the impression that there are 'appointed mama' who are each in charge of a certain amount of kids per day. They allowed me to feed the babies, when it was time to give them their dinner and they were so many at a time, but nothing much more.

I have also asked if I could take some or even one of the kids at home for the day, so he/she could see another environment, be away from the orphanage, play in the garden, go out with us as any normal kid would do etc... but the orphanage sadly told me that it was not allowed and that the kids have to remain within the compounds. There is always the possibility of adopting, which of course always crossed my mind, but this decision doesn't depend only on me.

intresting, I always thought it was closed on thursdays .. thanx XP for the information.

The orphen house is near my colleg i go there when ever i am free! I play with thekids over there they just love this! They hug you all the time and they call you ablla"teacher" all the time! And my eyes feild with tears when ever i go from there they start crying and beging you not ot go!
I want to adopt one but i have to be in the age 21 with a job and insurance and i dont know many stuff! Sadly a canadian lady wanted to adopt a lil girl from there but they didnt alowed here! Just cuz she's not Omani .I'v spoken to the lady and she told me she just wanted to give her good home and good education! I feel sad for her she's so good and the girl want her too so badly! The goverment is afraid that the girl can get another religion then islam that what she told me! I go there during eid holidays to play with the kids and give them dsum presents! The thing is my parents help me alot and its not only me it my mum my 3 sisters and dady ! We all go there to share with them every little happy thing!

If it is not too private, may I ask you what was your first reaction when your mother told you that they wanted to adopt? Did your brothers and sisters reacted positively to this news? Lastly, did any of the adopted kids had some troubles adapting the first weeks out of the orphanage or hospital?

Please do not answer the above questions, if you feel unconfortable.

No problem my dear X-Press :) . I am my mothers only child, so I was the only one who had the shock! I was very surprised at first, but I didn't feel anything much as she adopted the first boy the summer I had already graduated! The following autumn I was leaving for university anyway. She's always wanted a boy and I was leaving home, so I suppose that's why she wanted to adopt. :) She adopted two at first "because she felt too sorry for them". Much later she adopted the third, and I did have a major shock when she did. Too many babies!

As for trouble, they had none! In fact I think they were happy leaving that place and having all the attention over here! They are mashallah so loving and adapted really fast. :)