Ethiopia-The Reality Behind the Spin

In January 2011, The US Department of State conducted a conference for those interested about or in the process of adoption from Ethiopia. PEAR was invited and gave remarks and a statement can be found at http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2011/01/pears-remarks-for-dos-conference.html and http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-monday-january-24-2011-us-department.html.

Ethica also attended, and their notes and tips can be found here: http://www.ethicanet.org/ethicas-meeting-notes-from-u-s-department-of-state-meeting-ethiopia-adoption-solutions-into-action

Several weeks before the conference, a Dutch investigative team aired a report about trafficking in Ethiopia adoptions on television in Holland. It has since been given English subtitles and can be viewed in 3 parts here:
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYpm3V0XFu8

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M9ZQr4Ug08&feature=related

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAjGfSzKnB0

REFORM Talk has read and listened to all of the above. .

We strongly urge all readers to read and listen to all of the above.

The Dutch videos clearly show biological families in Ethiopia being lied to about what will happen to their children, while being promised money or home repairs at the same time. Falsified papers showing that living biological parents are deceased is also shown. This particular lie allows a child to be labeled as “abandoned” instead of “relinquished.”

The evidence shown on these videos cannot be disputed. Ethiopian children are being purchased solely for the purpose of adoption to Western countries.

With the facts stated in the notes of the conference, coupled with the disgusting dishonesty in the video, Rally is wondering how one can deny the systemic ethics issues in the Ethiopia adoption process.

Read these statistics again:
*Adoptions take place from only 2 regions

*90 percent of cases submitted to the Embassy need further clarification

*67 percent of cases are done by 10 agencies

*65 percent of children being placed are less than 4 years of age (even though the overwhelming majority of orphans in Ethiopia and the rest of the world are over 5)

*Ethiopia adoptions increased almost 13 percent from FY 2009 to FY2010, making it the second-most sending country to the US

*One-quarter of the 200 orphanages are indicated to close due to malfeasance.

Does that sound like a little bit of an issue or a system-wide disaster? Do you honestly think your agency is telling you the whole truth? Watch the videos again, please.

Let’s spell it out more clearly: With 90 percent of adoption cases needing clarification and the top ten agencies doing 67 percent of these cases, that means that the top 10 agencies are indeed involved in the bad paperwork.

It is exasperating to read two of the “vulnerabilities” from the Ethica website:

* “Expediting the process means that there is not enough time for due diligence”

*“ASPs choose orphanages to work with, orphanages choose ASPs; there is neither transparency nor regulation in this process

While the other things listed are due to how Ethiopia has set up their system, these two alleged “vulnerabilities” are not Ethiopian-made. Instead, they are conscious choices made by adoption agencies. Choosing to make their adoption process move along quickly, and choosing which orphanage to work in are actions wholly controlled by an adoption agency. While this is not vulnerability, it does need to be addressed now.

Additional Thoughts


Potential Abuse
Prospective adoptive parents who hit or otherwise physically or emotionally abuse their new adoptees while still in Ethiopia was another topic of discussion during the conference call. Notes from Ethica state: “There have been reports of parents hitting their children, yelling at their children. This is extremely harmful to newly adopted children and has serious consequences for the future of the program. This is why APs are now required to stay in guest houses. There needs to be a real change in the way parents behave in country.” And: “Adoptive parents should seek out pre-adoptive education on child development and attachment.”

But isn’t that what pre-adoption education is supposed to be about? And isn’t this education supposed to happen before and during the homestudy process? The recommendations for “real change” are seemingly only about changing public behavior while in Ethiopia; in other words, if prospective adoptive parents remain hidden in guest houses, who’s going to know how they treat their newly adopted children?

Here is a reform solution: Better screening during the homestudy to not approve parents who hit children.

Inconsistencies
When any adoption agency (Hague-accredited or not) presents inconsistent paperwork or the adoptive parents have ethical concerns about their adoption while in the process of completing their adoption, what should they do? It’s called be the ethical person you know you are—no matter how much you want to adopt—and then Walk Away and Demand Your Money Back.

Think that is harsh? Then watch those videos again.

According to the notes following the conference, Ethiopia does not appear to be going down the road to becoming Hague-compliant any time soon. Choosing a Hague-accredited agency isn’t going to help in this situation where 90 percent of the cases need more information.

Prospective adoptive parents need to prepare for the worst-case scenario no matter where they adopt from.  What is on the videos is but one of the worst case scenarios. Are you really willing to live with that situation and heartbreak in your home?

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