FacePalm Friday

Welcome to this week’s edition of FacePalm Friday.

This is where your hosts will list their top picks for this week’s FacePalm moment—something they learned or read about this week that caused the FacePalm to happen (you know, the expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, shock, disgust or mixed humor as depicted in our Rally FacePalm smiley).

We invite you to add your FacePalm of the week to our comments. Go ahead and add a link, tell a personal story, or share something that triggered the FacePalm on the subject of child welfare or adoption.

Your Host’s Selections:

(1)Kent Bush/ Ethiopia Article

This article appears in many places on the internet this week. Kent Bush: Adoption in Ethiopia leads to a charitable mission

Of course they report the misleading orphan figure as if that corresponds to how many kids need adoption :”there are more than 5 million orphans.”

It goes on to tell about a charity. “It was during one visit to Kechene –– an orphanage for girls in Addis Ababa –– that she found a calling and put a name on it. She befriended a young girl named Lelt and became close to her.

While at the orphanage, Neel-Parker discovered that the mattresses that Lelt and the other orphaned girls were sleeping on were nothing but moldy, foam remnants. She knew something had to be done.”

Compare that to Gladney’s discussion on their blog (Gladney partners with Kechene) from 2009:  http://takeactionforahope.blogspot.com/2009/06/kolfe-kebetsehay-and-kechene.html
“Finally we went to Kechene which is mostly for older girls but there are also some babies. It is an old orphanage for the Deaf building and the girls keep their rooms nice. It is pretty bare in the common areas, but on a pretty piece of land with trees and woods.”

They keep their rooms nice but are in moldy mattresses 2 years later??? What did adoption fees go for?

The charity is named for this girl who then went missing. They assume that there are only 2 possibilites-she ran away or was kidnapped. They can’t fathom that she also may have gone back to live with her family. Most children in orphanages have living family.

Lastly, my pet peeve with sponsorship programs just for the child and not taking the whole family into consideration always (not as an extra $15 a month second thought) is that this sets up for separation of children from the family.  “more than 40 kids have                             been sponsored, but as many as 260 could benefit from the programs.” This model that is an abject failure in Haiti needs to be moved away from everywhere.

(2) Australian Petition to re-open Ethiopia based on UNCRC?

As if Ethiopia cares about UNCRC at all.
http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/sustain-its-pledge-to-un-rights-of-the-child-and-reopen-the-ethiopian-intercountry-adoption-program

(3)Tennis Tournament for the adoption agency

Of course it does not mention specifically how the money will be used-to defray adoptive parent’s costs? potential birthmother costs? The reporter would never think to ask why does the agency itself need money if PAPs pay thousands in fees. The giddy excitement over adding a domestic program and the use of “orphan” with domestic adoption also get facepalms for this one.

http://www.wwaytv3.com/video/2012/07/tennis-tournament-helps-fund-adoption-agency

(4)Both Ends Burning is baaaaaaaack. This time with a new facepalmtastic “dcoumentary” called Stuck.

Of course Senator Landrieu is hosting the CCAI preview event on July 31.

http://bothendsburning.org/happening/stuck/

“Millions of orphans face a crushing wait, while a broken system keeps them from the one thing they need: a family. STUCKis a new documentary, narrated by Mariska Hargatay, that exposes how the current system is damaging children and discouraging adoptions and how we need to fight for the rights of children to grow up in a family, not an orphanage.

International adoption to the United States has dropped 60% since 2004 going from 22,991 to only 9319, in 2011. [Relevance?]

A Congressional preview of STUCK  will take place in Washington D.C. at 6 pm July 31, 2012, at West End Cinema, 2301 M St. NW. Senator Mary Landrieu is the honorary host. Families featured in the documentary along with the founder of Both Ends Burning, Craig Juntunen, will host a Q & A session after the movie.” [Oh Yippee! a Q and A!]

(5) ASA agency begs former clients to bail them out on Facebook

Wonder at the epitome of greed!

Lawsuits claim adoption agency did not intend to deliver [My San Antonio.com 7/27/12 by Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje]
“A plea for donations

On July 10, Zuflacht apparently posted comments on a Facebook page for former ASA clients. In it, she blamed the agency’s closure on a host of issues, including “morning after pills” and “the acceptance of unwed mothers.”

It included a plea for group members to send money.

“We had to file bankruptcy and, of course, people are furious with us,” the post read. “We are asking those adoptive parents whom we helped to build their families to help us repay these people who were so harmed by our closing. We are setting up an account at Frost National Bank in San Antonio that will be administered by an impartial third party. The sole purpose of this account will be to try to repay those individuals who suffered financial loss due to our closing.

“You are all aware of the high cost of adoption so you can imagine that we need to raise a huge sum of money. Any amount you can give to help us will be so appreciated. Please help us make our waiting adoptive parents whole. We need your help.”

Pam Thomas, a Frost spokeswoman, said the bank couldn’t confirm anything about the account because of confidentiality rules.”

 (6) COA taking 302 days to respond on a complaint just to say that they didn’t actually investigate squat