{"id":904,"date":"2011-03-05T07:40:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T07:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2011\/03\/ethiopia-to-cut-international-adoptions-by-90.html"},"modified":"2011-03-05T07:40:51","modified_gmt":"2011-03-05T07:40:51","slug":"ethiopia-to-cut-international-adoptions-by-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/03\/ethiopia-to-cut-international-adoptions-by-90.html","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia to cut international adoptions by 90%"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Voice of America<\/a> Web site is reporting that Ethiopia is planning to cut adoptions by 90 percent, processing only 5 children per day instead of 50. According to the report, this is based on a directive from the Ethiopian government, and an “alert” will be posted to the State Department’s inter-country adoption Web site.<\/a> (Note, other than the VOA report, I have not been able to verify the directive or the alert from the State Department. I am re-posting this solely on the credibility of Voice of America, an established news source.)<\/p>\n

Here is the story in it’s entirety.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia is cutting back by as much as 90 percent the number of
\ninter-country adoptions it will allow, as part of an effort to clean up a
\nsystem rife with fraud and corruption. Adoption agencies and children’s
\nadvocates are concerned the cutbacks will leave many Ethiopian orphans
\nwithout the last-resort option of an adoptive home abroad.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia’s
\nMinistry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs has issued a
\ndirective saying it will process a maximum of five inter-country
\nadoptions a day, effective March 10. Currently, the ministry is
\nprocessing up to 50 cases a day, about half of them to the United
\nStates.<\/p>\n

A copy of the directive provided to VOA says the
\nreduction of up to 90 percent in cases will allow closer scrutiny of
\ndocuments used to verify a child’s orphan status. <\/p>\n

Ministry spokesman Abiy Ephrem says the action was taken in response to indications of widespread fraud in the adoption process.<\/p>\n

“What
\nwe have seen so far has been some illegal practices. There is an abuse.
\nThere are some cases that are illegal. So these directives will pave
\nthe way to come up with [safeguards],” said Abiy Ephrem.<\/p>\n

Investigations
\nhave turned up evidence of unscrupulous operators in some cases
\ntricking Ethiopian parents to give up their children, then falsifying
\ndocuments in order claim a part of the large fees involved in inter
\ncountry adoptions.<\/p>\n

American couples often pay more than $20,000
\nto adopt an Ethiopian child. Such amounts are an enormous temptation in a
\ncountry where the average family earns a few hundred dollars a month. <\/p>\n

U.S.
\nState Department statistics show more than 2,500 Ethiopian orphans went
\nto the United States last year. That is more than a ten fold increase
\nover the past few years, making Ethiopia the second most popular
\ndestination for Americans seeking to adopt overseas, after China. <\/p>\n

Child protection professionals generally welcomed efforts to clean up the system. <\/p>\n

Some,
\nhowever, questioned the motive behind the cutback. One adoption agency
\nrepresentative who asked not to be identified called the policy
\n“ridiculous”, and said it appears to be in retaliation for recent
\ncriticism of the government’s lax oversight of the process. <\/p>\n

Abigail
\nRupp, head of the consular section at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa
\nsays the cutback is likely to result in a drop in adoptions to the
\nUnited States from last year’s 2,500 to fewer than 500. She says the
\nbiggest concern is for the estimated 1,000 children currently in the
\nadoptions pipeline, who may be forced to wait more than a year for their
\ncases to be considered.<\/p>\n

“We share the government’s concerns
\nabout the vulnerabilities in the process. But certainly we have concerns
\nabout children who would be waiting longer for their adoptions to be
\nfinal. That would mean they would be in an orphanage or transition home
\nfor a longer period of time,” she said.<\/p>\n

Rupp said adoption
\nagencies in Ethiopia should take the directive as a cue to be
\naccountable for each case they bring forward, including knowing exactly
\nhow children in orphanages came to be there. She said government
\nofficials have indicated they may close as many as 45 orphanages as part
\nof the effort to clean up what critics have labeled a “baby business”.<\/p>\n

Ted
\nChaiban, head of the Addis Ababa office of the U.N. children’s agency
\nUNICEF, called the new rules “an important step” in rooting out
\nirregularities in the system and finding family-based local solutions
\nfor what the government estimates are 5 million Ethiopian orphans.<\/p>\n

“What
\nis important is that any child deemed to require care be looked at in
\nterms of a range of options starting from family reunification all the
\nway through inter country adoption. In that respect the work being done
\nby the ministry needs to be strengthened and supported,” he said.<\/p>\n

U.S.
\nEmbassy officials late Friday indicated they are posting an adoption
\nalert on the State Department’s website addressing the concerns of
\nAmericans who will be affected by the Ethiopian government directive.
\nThe alert can be seen at www.adoptions.state.gov.
<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If true, this is difficult news for many children and families–particularly those who are already somewhere along the process (which include many good and close friends of mine).<\/p>\n

First, please PRAY for the children. <\/b>They are at the center of this decision and the ones impacted most dearly. There are too many orphans waiting for families. While I heartily support alternatives to adoption, simply cutting back by 90 percent will not will these into existence.

Second, reach out to a family that YOU know that is adopting from Ethiopia. <\/b>This news will hit them like a sucker punch. Be a comfort for them. Many of them will walk an even more uncertain road, and will need someone to listen. They’ll need to vent. <\/p>\n

If anyone has any relevant updates, please post in the comments section.<\/p>\n

Click here to subscribe to Red Letters.<\/strong><\/a> Click here to follow Tom Davis on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Voice of America Web site is reporting that Ethiopia is planning to cut adoptions by 90 percent, processing only 5 children per day instead of 50. According to the report, this is based on a directive from the Ethiopian government, and an “alert” will be posted to the State Department’s inter-country adoption Web site.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"\nEthiopia to cut international adoptions by 90% - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/03\/ethiopia-to-cut-international-adoptions-by-90.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethiopia to cut international adoptions by 90% - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Voice of America Web site is reporting that Ethiopia is planning to cut adoptions by 90 percent, processing only 5 children per day instead of 50. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}