EthioStork

US DOS issued a notice on December 11, 2012 about this business.

 See here and pasted below:

“Notice: Status of EthioStork International Social Service Consultants
The Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs requested the Department of State provide clarification to U.S. families on the licensing of the organization, EthioStork International Social Service Consultants.  The Ministry informed the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa that the organization EthioStork is not licensed to facilitate intercountry adoption by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Charities and Societies Agency.  The organization is licensed to provide consultancy services by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and social affairs counseling services by the Addis Ababa City Administration Trade and Industrial Development Bureau.

For additional information on agencies licensed in Ethiopia to provide services related to intercountry adoption, please refer to the List of Adoption Agencies Registered in Ethiopia on the website of Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington, D.C..”

Ethiostork’s website bills itself as offering webinars about adoption, “International Document Consultation” ,”Over The Phone Translation Services”, “Birthparent/History Tracing” and “Travel and In-Country Accommodations”

Their blog reveals a lot more. The January 23, 2012 post says “Adopting From Ethiopia if Your Country Does Not Have an Adoption Agency Where You Live

Do you live in Ireland, England, or any other country with no adoption agency licensed in Ethiopia? EthioStork may be able to help! Contact us…”

We found a US blog that recollects their “services.”The Place Gods Calls You posted on September 22, 2012 about EthioStork’s involvement with  their adoption.

The blogger discusses meeting another EthioStork client in December 2011 during one of the blogger’s Ethiopia adoptions. The blogger went on to immediately get involved AGAIN with a previously failed adoption , this time employing EthioStork for “clearance” services. The adoption completed in August 2012. Excerpt:

“She broke all ties with the agency and hired a consultant to help her finish the adoption process, EthioStork, based in Virgina and run by an Ethiopian-born American woman, Duni Zenaye, fluent in both American and Ethiopian customs and intimately acquainted with all stages of the adoption process.  My prayers had been answered.  We at least had a plan.I contacted EthioStork on Christmas Eve, the day after we arrived home.  A few weeks later I received a reply from Duni.  She agreed that Mente’s adoption was awful on many levels, and she wasn’t certain that she could help, but she offered to try.  I sent her some information and awaited her response.  Meanwhile, we mobilized other adoptive families to provide support to the orphanage.  Some missionary friends offered to facilitate providing food and helping to pay bills there.  Duni visited the orphanage on a trip to Ethiopia in March 2012.  At that point she understood Mente’s paperwork problems and knew how to fix them, but she needed the approval of several governmental officials for it to happen.  We contracted with her formally.  In May, she advised us to apply with a new agency, one she had selected for its reputation for ethical work in Ethiopia.  Mente’s paper problem was nearly resolved, but there was still no guarantee that he would be sent to the new agency.  I gathered signatures and notary stamps, pressed our friends for recommendation letters, and hired a social worker for a new home study.  On June 1st, Mente was transferred to our new agency’s transition home, and I could breathe again knowing that he was in a stable environment.  We completed our dossier in just 4 weeks, and Mente was formally referred to us by our new agency in June.

We had little hope of receiving a court date prior to the 6 week court closures of the Ethiopian rainy season.  Courts generally close for the season in the first week of August and reopen in October.  This year, the courts remained open until August 22, and we were given a court date on August 6th.  We returned to Ethiopia, this time certain that all was in order, and Mente became our son.  We received our Embassy clearance just over a month later, and now we return to Ethiopia to bring him home.  God can indeed do anything.”

You need to look at their timeline to see that after EthioStork intervened in the case at the orphanage level – a case that was originally denied due to birthmother willing to parent, that AWAA took over this case  and somehow “referred” the child to them after EthioStork intervention and the grandmother relinquished.

EthioStork obtains “clearances.” Other agencies then “refer” already-identified, previously-denied children. DOS only now issues alert (while US Ambassador Susan Jacobs is in Ethiopia) that really doesn’t stop anything from occurring since agencies happily get involved with the completion of adoptions in these circumstances and US Embassy continues to rubberstamp visas. Same crap, new year…pardon me if I don’t swoon with this “news”…

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