Fruits of Ethiopia Report

Earlier this week, REFORM Talk begun discussing the background of the Fruits of Ethiopia Report .

Pound Pup Legacy  has the 126-page pdf archived. This post will share excerpts from the first third of the report.

This study looked at 25 random files from 2004-2009. “These files were crosschecked during field visits, by meeting and interviewing the birth families.” Information from “studies, legal documents and documents concerning children’s rights” were obtained. “Interviews were held with several organisations (Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian).”

Limitations

The following limitations of this study were notable

• The research on pending adoptions came to an abrupt end, when in an early stage two wrongful adoption pipeline cases came to light. It was then that the local representative of Wereldkinderen came to know about this research project. Wereldkinderen’s representative threatened to report the researcher to the Ethiopian Immigration or Police. As a consequence this research also came to a premature end.
• The abovementioned threat was felt as seriously putting the researcher’s security at risk.
• Wereldkinderen could not make available all the essential guidelines and other formal documents relating to children’s rights in Ethiopia. This added a lot of work to the project.
• Wereldkinderen had to made quick decisions and requested this report in a short timeframe. More time would have been needed to provide a deeper analysis of the researched cases, and to give a broader picture.

You can read about all the limitations that were encountered during this study on Page 8.  We feel it is necessary to underscore the importance that the group that limited this study was Wereldkinderen, the Netherlands Intercountry Child Welfare Organization, that commissioned the study and is involved in placing children from Ethiopia.

Conventions and Constitution

For those readers unfamiliar with the Conventions on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention, we recommend looking at Pages 9-11.

Article 36 of the Ethiopian Constitution explains the children’s rights (Pages 12 and 13.)
“Every child has the right:

1. Children of healthy parents cannot be adopted. (See Page 19.)
2. The Ethiopian Guidelines incorporate the principals of the CRC. Therefore before considering intercountry adoptions, other care options have to be truly and actively sought. (See Page 21.)
3. Ethiopian law collides with other country’s laws about updating the birthfamily about the child’s wellbeing. (See Page 22.)
4. The transfer to the agency-run transition home is only allowed AFTER adoption is approved in the court. (See Page 24.)
5. Ethiopian law collides with other country’s laws about retaining family bonds and maintenance of the family. It “explains why Ethiopian families may well expect their adopted children to care for them in the future.” (See Page 28)

Most of the institutions licensed for residential orphanages have been turned to be a temporary shelter of children waiting for adoption.

Despite a substantial improvement in the procedure of the adoption process some agencies have been suspected to jeopardize and bend the rubrics to prepare children for illegal adoption. This was observed from the discussions with the concerned government bodies during the interview of the assessment. Evidences of child trafficking from regions were increasing for adoption purposes.”

Scientific Research: Depression Problems and Coping Mechanisms of Parents Who Relinquished Their Children for Inter-Country Adoption, Addis Ababa University, June 2009 (Pages 36-37.)

“A Master thesis which was submitted in June 2008 was retrieved through local contacts. In the study 45 birth parents were involved…

Based on the findings, the following conclusions are made.

• Birth parents manifest psychological problems, particularly depression, and the level of depression was significant that most of birth parents experienced moderate and severe level of depression after they relinquished their children for inter-country adoption.

• In the study it was found that the majority of birthparents never met their relinquished child; didn’t meet with adoptive parents; and they never met their child physically after relinquishment. This shows that there was no communications among adoption triad after adoption was concluded, and hence, the arrangement of adoption is closed.

• The study showed that the major cause of relinquishment of children for inter-country adoption is poverty that birthparents faced at the time of relinquishment. It was found that almost all birthparents had earned a meagre income during relinquishment.

• Birthparents employed prayer and talking to friends as major coping strategy to overcome their psychological problems.

• Counselling service was not in place both before and after birthparents relinquish their children for inter-country adoption, and no clear demarcation was made by adoption agencies and orphanages regarding whose’ responsibility should be to provide such services for birthparents.”

Table 3 showing birthparents’ manifestation of psychological problems, specifically depression gives this conclusion: 50% have severe depression; 69% relinquished due to poverty of 45 studied.

June 2009 Meeting with Embassies (Page 38)

“Meetings were held with the Austrian, the Canadian Embassy and the US Embassy.

Specifically the meeting with the US and Canadian Embassy revealed that neither of these Embassies does yet any deeper checks into the background of the children before visas are issued.

Consequently not much oversight is yet applied from the side of the Embassies.

The US embassy voiced its concern about the increased number of cases of abandoned children.”

Summary of Findings (Page 41-43)

Nothing positive was found. Photos of US facilities are on Page 42.

“In most cases there was no proper counseling, no other support was offered to keep the family together. Also no efforts were made to find a suitable manner of care for the children in Ethiopia.

In fact, intercountry adoption was and is used as a first option, not a last resort.

In more recent cases, relinquishment forms were found. This may have been an attempt to bring adoptions in line with Hague standards, but the forms were insufficient and this waiver of rights is against Ethiopian law.

In general a lack of understanding of the Western concept of adoption was found. Most parents or relatives expect updates about the adopted children, and expect their return once the children are older than 18 years old.

In a number of cases the information in the adoption file and the Court order appeared to be incorrect. For example, parents were declared dead – while they were not. Also some birth dates appeared incorrect.
The researched cases give a bleak picture of the Ethiopian adoption reality. It appears that there is a system of collecting children from villages. Orphanages send their busses. Child recruiters are paid monthly salaries. These recruiters are also active in health centers and other places where families go for help.

“While traveling the country, the presence of the foreign adoption agencies is omni present. The big US agencies pump significant amounts of money into Ethiopia. Holt for example has overtaken a complete government health post in Shinchicho, giving Holt access to the 250.000 people living in this region.

Children´s Home Society and Family Services operate “Sipara” a Mother and Child Health Center.

Christian World Adoption invests currently in a whole comprehensive village for children and adjacent accommodation for adoptive parents.

It is clear that Ethiopian family services are becoming increasingly dependent of the funding of foreign adoption agencies, risking that in ‘return’ more and more children will need to be found for intercountry adoptions.”

REFORM Puzzle Piece