Ethiopia Article

I did a quick search on the posts I have done that mention Ethiopia and the number is huge.  Today, there is an interesting story in “The Atlantic” well worth reading.  Adoption Inc: How Ethiopia’s Industry Dupes Families and Bullies Activists.  Go read the article.  Tell me why the industry is still not being forthright with families.  Tell me how it is in the child’s best interests to have mis-information about their family and not have preventative steps taken first.  Tell me why the industry has not learned from their many past mistakes, in many countries.

The following link takes you to a post I did in August, 2011.  When will be a good time to talk about corruption.  I want you to watch the videos at the bottom of the post from 2007 and hear what Tom Di Filipo said back then.  At the worst time for Guatemala, and when Ethiopia was just a blip on the radar.  Then tell me why Ethiopia did not become a model of all the good adoption could be, not what it has become.

Around the 5:00 mark in the first video Tom stated this as to when intercountry adoption is appropriate:

“In the full spectrum of children services intercountry adoption should be one of the last resorts and the only part I would disagree with what Louise mentioned is that we would encourage preventative measures to be taken, sometimes it takes as little as $20 a month or $50 a month to enable a family to keep their child rather than abandon them or relinquish them for adoption whether that’s domestic or international and certainly foster care plays a big role in providing a full spectrum of services to children.  But that prevention piece is something that the International Development Community really needs to take a look at.” (watch the video in case I made a mistake in the transcript and watch his facial expressions). 

At the end of the first video he admits that some adoptions are trafficking but doesn’t like to use the term trafficking because the children have a permanent home, hmm they had a home before, too.  Go watch the videos.  Tell me why the preventative part wasn’t the industries first and foremost requirement in Ethiopia.  They hold themselves up as working for the best interests of children, so show me what they did to prevent a child from needing adoption in Ethiopia.