Ethiopia Program Update: June 2012

Program Report:

Dear Families:

We hope by now that all of you have listened to our State of the Program call last week. We want to take a moment to reiterate some of what we discussed in writing. We have heard from many of you since the call; please continue to reach out to your Case Manager or any member of our team with your questions.

History of Placements of Ethiopian Children in the USIn 2003, the year that WHFC was first licensed to place children from Ethiopia, there were only three US adoption agencies working in Ethiopia and a total of 165 American visas were issued for adopted children by US Embassy in Addis Abba. Over time, the adoption program blossomed. By 2006, five or six adoption agencies had been granted licenses to work in Ethiopia, and 731 children came home to American families. At the peak of international placements from Ethiopia in 2010, there were over 70 worldwide agencies providing adoption services in Ethiopia and 2,511 children received US visas.

Decline in US Adoptions from EthiopiaIn 2011, the number of children placed from Ethiopia in the United States decreased for the first time since 2003. The decline was sharp with 1732 children coming home, one third the number of adoptions from the previous year. WHFC's program falls right within these trends in Ethiopian adoptions. In the peak years, we placed well over 100 children a year and in 2011 and the beginning of 2012, we have seen a sharp decline. Even more difficult for our waiting families, is our predication that the number of children served in the program will continue to be far less than what we saw several years ago.

What Is Happening to Children Who are Orphaned in Ethiopia? Most child welfare experts estimate that there are somewhere in the

Ethiopia  Program Horizon Kids

Kid of the Month

Kidist (f) DOB: 1/29/07

Kidist is waiting due to her age and medical needs. She is a little girl who appears to be several years older than her assigned date of birth, likely seven years old according to the doctor’s estimate. Additional information is available in her file.

** A subsidy of up to $10,000 is available for the family matched with this child.

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range of 4-6 million children who have been orphaned by one or both parents in Ethiopia. That number has remained consistent over the lastten years, even while intercountry adoption reached its pinnacle. Intercountry adoption is a wonderful way to help an individual child or children in need in another country, but it will never be a means to solve a national child welfare crisis like the one that exists in Ethiopia. With or without intercountry adoption, nearly all children who are orphaned live in desperate poverty; most are cared for by their extended birth families or communities and not in orphanage care. This should be the goal for all but the smallest fraction of children who are orphaned, those who are facing serious life-threatening illness and malnutrition and those who lack any adult caregiver. These are the children who are hurt by the declines in international adoption and these are the children we are committed to serving in our adoption program at WHFC.

Why is Adoption Decreasing?As any adoption program develops and the number of children being adopted increases dramatically, as was the case with Ethiopia, the governments of both the placing country and the U.S. can become concerned about why there is such a significant increase, and whether the adoption process is being conducted in the best interest of children. Both governments start scrutinizing every aspect of the process, to make sure that the children being placed in fact need adoption services and that the process by which they are being adopted has not been corrupted due to personal interests. The placing country may also begin to have concerns about what it means for its children to leave the country, and feel shame about not being able to provide for its own children.

Intercountry adoption by more affluent countries inevitably results in the influx of significant financial resources to a very poor country. Certainly, there are many ethical Ethiopian and American professionals working in international adoption, but the potential for financial gain can make the climate ripe for corruption and unethical practice. As adoptions from Ethiopia increased, so did the number of orphanages that were placing children. Over time, orphanages were being created solely for the purpose of transitioning children through the adoption process. The potential for ethical infractions increased. While the Ethiopian government took steps to rectify this by revoking the licenses of several orphanages with known infractions, it continued to be a challenge. In addition to the problem of regulating orphanage operations, the Ethiopian government is charged with a similar duty to monitor the activities of every adoption agency that is licensed to work in Ethiopia. As there are 70 agencies with active licenses, this is also a huge responsibility. The reality is the government has very limited resources to dedicate to child related services, and with the larger child welfare crisis at hand, this is not the most critical need in Ethiopia. Despite their best efforts, the Ethiopian government may not

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have the resources to properly monitor and regulate the operations of both orphanages and adoption agencies. This is a critical challenge and ultimately puts the future of adoptions in Ethiopia at risk. As you are aware, the SNNPR, once responsible for 80% of the international placements decided, in light of this problem and other concerns, to close to intercountry adoption. This is clearly a large factor in the recent sharp decline in placements.

What Can WHFC do to Combat These Known Problems in EthiopiaWe believe that the single most important factor in developing a program in adoption is to be able to find the proper staff in Ethiopia. From the onset, Dr. Tsegaye Berhe has been with us, advising and guiding us, as our program developed. Dr. Tsegaye is a child welfare expert, who fundamentally holds the best interest of children in the forefront of every action he makes. He has built a team of committed and dedicated staff in Ethiopia that shares his, and WHFC's, values and ethics in placing of children in adoption. This has become a critical factor most especially in managing our relationships with orphanages, and is essential to the integrity of our program. However, even with this highly professional staff, we realized very early on in our adoption program, that the Ethiopian government was not going to be able to properly regulate adoptions or provide level of due diligence that we required. About five years ago, we recognized the need to conduct an extra interview with the birth family that relinquished the children, to ensure that they were properly educated about what adoption meant, and also to verify the child's background information provided by the government. For the past three years, we have required documentation of this interview for every child referred to one of our adoptive families. These extra measures help provide us with a stronger understanding of why children were identified for adoption, and to ensure that adoption was in the child's best interest. However, despite all our efforts and best intentions, we remain concerned about the government's ability to identify which children truly need adoption and which children might have other resources available to them. In our post-adoption program, we see that information provided directly by the government and by birth families is often inaccurate. We will continue to make every effort to work in an ethical manner and seek the best quality of information about children, but some of these systemic problems in the adoption system are beyond the reach of any outside agency no matter how strong their staff. We are concerned about how these limitations may impact the future of adoptions.

Our goal through this challenging time of declines in adoption is to maintain the integrity of our program, and to continue to serve vulnerable children in Ethiopia who still need us, as well as our adoptive families who are eager to welcome a child into their homes. We have decided to limit our recruitment of new families, accepting only applications from families who are applying to adopt

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specific Horizon Kids. This will allow us to fully focus on the families who are currently in the program, and the children who are assigned to us for placement.

Strong Advice for Current WHFC Ethiopia FamiliesWe currently have about 120 families who are applied to adopt from Ethiopia. Many families will not be successful in adopting within the next 12, or even 24 months. It is impossible for anyone to predict what the state of adoptions from Ethiopia will be that far into the future. We are continuing to encourage families to apply to other adoption programs, especially those programs that are in need of adoptive families, such as Russia or China Special Children. Some families may also want to consider domestic adoption either through WHFC or through another agency licensed in their state. The only families that should not have a back up option are: families who do not want to adopt if they don’t adopt from Ethiopia, families who have a strong preference for Ethiopia and who are married and young enough to have other adoption options if they had to start over in a year or two, and families who, after consulting with their Case Manager, believe that they are potentially close enough to receiving a referral to postpone a double application decision for six months.

Thank you for your attention to this update. We continue to be very proud of all of our efforts in Ethiopia to serve vulnerable children and families and we remain deeply grateful to all of our adoptive families who partner with us in this mission to support this beautiful country and her people.

Program Activity

Court/Travel: The average time from referral acceptance to bringing your child home is 6-10 months. Families are currently waiting between 3-5 months after accepting their referral to travel for a court date. After families complete their first trip to appear in court, they are waiting between 2-4 months to receive their embassy appointment and travel home with their child.

Child Group Number of children Referred Time Families are waiting

Infant 0-18 months 26 months

Child 19 -36 months 26 months

Child 36 - 48 months 23 months

Child 49 months and older 1 referral 10 months

Young sibling group 26 months

School aged sibling group 1 referral (3 children) <1 month

So far in 2012… Total number of children referred in 2012: 39Total number of arrivals for 2012: 36____________________________________Total number of children referred in 2011: 64 childrenTotal number of arrivals for 2011: 96 childrenTotal number of children home from Ethiopia: over 1,100 children

In the month of May, we received 2 referrals (4 children).

Amara (f)

Amara is a little girl who has been waiting for a family for many months. She has no known medical needs. Although her legal age is six years old, she is likely considerably older. One pediatrician estimated her age as eight years old, another doctor thought she could be as old as eleven or twelve. She is unlikely to have had much formal schooling. She is fluent in her regional language Wolaign and has exposure to Amharic as she was cared for in Addis for six months. Amara enjoys playing with other children in the orphanage and is reported to have good social skills with peers and caregivers.

Ideal families should be comfortable beginning parenting a child whose age is unknown. Over time, and with the help of professionals, Amara’s new family will need to assess her physical, emotional and cognitive development and determine an appropriate and likely age for her. Parenting experience or other experience with school-aged children would be helpful but is not necessarily required.

Whether Amara is eight or eleven years old, she need a family to commit to her and help her grow up to meet her fullest potential. Please help us find a family for Amara!

Wide Horizons For Children's Horizon Hope children are individual children highlighted from our Waiting Children, or Horizon Kids program. One child at a time will be highlighted as a Horizon Hope Child until that child is matched with a family. WHFC is offers an adoption subsidy to help reduce the financial barrier in the recruitment of a family for this child. WHFC has awarded a $5000subsidy toward her adoption.

Ask the … Case ManagerWe will use this section as a chance for our waiting families to ask questions of the Ethiopia Team and other adoptive families. If there is a question you would like to see included here, please email Emily at egreising@whfc.org.

Dear Case Manager: I have been reading the Monthly Updates and I listened to the recent call-in session, and it seems that things are becoming more uncertain and difficult in the program. I am struggling with the idea that I may not be able to adopt from Ethiopia. I know I want to be a parent even if I can’t adopt from Ethiopia, but it is hard to imagine myself falling in love with another country after thinking for so long that my child will come from Ethiopia. Can you help me?

Dear Client: Please know that you are not alone. I have been working with a lot of families in the last several months who feel just like you do. I know that all of our families began this process filled with excitement and anticipation about building their families and helping an Ethiopian child. Once our families commit to the program, I know they also commit to learning about Ethiopia and its culture, to engaging with the Ethiopian/Ethiopian adoptive community, and to caring deeply about events and circumstances in the country and on the continent. Whether or not you adopt from Ethiopia, you will always feel some connection to it.

Although you may consider a different path to parenthood, I do not believe that your time in the Ethiopia Program has been wasted or without purpose. The energy, thought and commitment you gave to this country can be transferred to another culture, part of the world or type of adoption. In addition, I feel certain that you will not lose your passion for Ethiopia. Even if you adopt from Russia, your eye may still be caught by news articles about Ethiopia, you will still love to go to your favorite Ethiopian restaurant, and you might join in the festivities for Ethiopian New Year or Christmas. The child you adopt domestically who has a Hispanic birth parent may enjoy dancing to Ethiopian music and having a Quinceañera celebration. You may even wish to travel to Ethiopia to take in the sights, sounds, and smells that you have been imagining for so long. Even though you may not have a child in your home who was born in Ethiopia, creating a multicultural household and developing respect for another country and culture will enrich your life and the lives of the children in your family.

Once you have completed your adoption, whether from Ethiopia, domestically or through another part of the world, or should your path lead you in a direction other than adoption, you may also choose to help the country in ways other than adoption. There are many wonderful organizations, including WHFC, helping families in need in Ethiopia. You may decide to assist a family through an empowerment or sponsorship program, or you may improve the lives of a whole village by donating to a clinic, supporting a medical mission, school, or clean water project. Participating in these efforts is another way to honor your connection to Ethiopia and add meaning and significance to the time you’ve spent with Ethiopia and its people in your hearts and minds.

Cultural Corner : FUN FACTS ABOUT ETHIOPIADid you know that Addis-Ababa only become the capital of Ethiopia in 1887? Addis Abeba (as usually spelled in Ethiopia) was formally known as Finfiné, a town in the Oromo region of Ethiopia. It was Emperess Taitu, the wise and powerful wife of Emperor Menelik II, who suggested the new location for the capital. She is also accredited for naming the capital “New flower” or Addis Abeba.

What was the capital of Ethiopia prior to 1886? The cities of Axum (Tigray Region), Lalibela (Wollo Region), Debre-Berhan (Showa region) and Gondar (Gondar Region) have all been important capitals throughout Ethiopian history. Ancient castles, obelisks, imperial monasteries and churches, are still found in these locations, still attracting many visitors from around the world.

Italian names in Addis-Ababa? Even though Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia was brief (1936-1941), the fact that many Italian ex-patriots have called Ethiopia home has left Addis-Ababa with….

•Mercato (Market in Italian): Africa’s largest open marketplace was renamed Mercato by the Italians. It covers several square miles in the Addis Ketemadistrict and employs an estimated 13,000 people in 7,100 business entities. The city’s largest mosque and big cathedral also sit fairly close to each other in the Mercato.

•Piazza (center in Italian) is also a popular local market place in Addis. In between jewelry and clothing shops, sit small Italian cafés like Enrico, Kiriaziz, and Gebre-Tensae.

Upcoming Support GroupGeneral Support and Community Building: July 2012

WHAT IS A PHONE SUPPORT GROUP? It is a group of parents who call in every week and support each other during their wait. These sessions are designed to help prospective parents talk to each other, exchange ideas, figure out how to cope when the wait is hard and celebrate when they receive good news.

WHO RUNS THIS GROUP? Africa Case Managers: MollyRose Arp-Sandel, MSW and Emily Greising, MSW.

WHEN ARE THE MEETINGS? This group is time limited and runs over a five eek period. The meetings are every Tuesday at 2: 00 pm (EST) and run for 50 minutes. You can call in from home or work. The meetings will be held: starting July 10th-through August 7th. Space is limited.

MORE QUESTIONS OR READY TO SIGN UP? Email Emily at egreising@whfc.org