At 9 months old, baby Getahun was described as happy, active, and laidback. He had been adopted the month before from Ethiopia, by Kyle Wohlers and Matthew Willis, a couple living in western Washington state.

“He enjoys looking at brightly colored objects and just watching what is going on around him,” wrote a caseworker with Bethany Christian Services in an adoption follow-up report in 2010.

Now 13 years old, Getahun, identified here by his middle name to protect his identity, was small. At 16 pounds, he was in the 1st percentile for weight when he arrived in the U.S. His weight fluctuated over the years, but remained low by American standards.

Getahun’s adoptive parents initially attributed his low weight to malnourishment as an infant in Ethiopia. Later, they cited an unspecified eating disorder borne from neglect he’d experienced prior to being adopted.

That explanation didn’t sit right with people in their small community on Lopez Island, who reported noticing that Getahun and his adoptive parents did not connect with each other. Was Getahun's state the result of long-term trauma from being an orphan, they wondered, or was something else going on?

Scandal at Foster Parents Netherlands

Type

newspaper

Publisher / broadcaster

The standard

Patrick Stuebing, from Leipzig, is continuing his fight to make incest legal

Was adopted as a child and didn't meet his sister Susan Karolewski till his 20s

Started having sex a month after meeting and now have four children together

Previously speaking of relationship, Patrick said they 'do not feel guilty' about it

By HARRIET JOHNSTON FOR MAILONLINE

Location: Brussels – Belgium

Working conditions: 80% (desired starting day: as soon as possible)

About Defence for Children International:

Defence for Children International is a leading child rights focused and membership-based grassroots movement. Created during the International Year of the Child (1979), DCI coordinated the NGO’s input for the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. As a worldwide Movement, our aim is to ensure an ongoing, practical, systematic and concerted action towards the effective implementation of the human rights codified in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by means of effective, multi-level coordination and active membership within key networks and fora. DCI membership includes 37 grass-roots organisations (National Sections and Associated Members) in five different continents, involving over 300 trained and specialized local staff and volunteers, who contribute daily to defend and protect the human rights of children. In all that we do, we aspire to orient our work so that it is transparent, accountable, socially-transformative and sustainable.

DCI-World Service Foundation: a strategic institutional tool in Brussels

History Fiom

Fiom stands for freedom of choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy and for the right to parentage information. The current Fiom organization originated from many predecessors and has existed since 1930.

Fast to:

2001 - 2014

1990 - 2000

Background

IAVAAN was founded in 1991 as an international NGO. Beginning in 2001, because of interest expressed by groups and individuals in a number of countries in having their own national "Committees" for IAVAAN, work was done to restructure IAVAAN and to provide for the creation of these Committees. The first Committee to be organized was the U.S.A. Committee for IAVAAN, which held its initial organizing meeting and elected its officers in Washington, D.C. on March 28, 2001. Committees are in formation or being considered in each of the following locations. Groups or individuals domiciled outside the U.S.A. should contact the USA Committee in the interim, and they will be put in touch with the appropriate organizers by USA Committee volunteers or staff.

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_____________________________________________________________

Country Affiliates

Australia Committee Netherlands Committee

Canada Committee New Zealand Committee

Germany Committee Romania Committee

Guatemala Committee South Korea Committee

India Committee Switzerland Committee

International Agreements

IAVAAN seeks to support the drafting, implementation and the improvement of various international agreements which have as their goal the betterment of conditions and services for children and families. A listing of international agreements IAVAAN is presently focusing on appears below.

Hague Conventions

United Nations Conventions

(Please click on the to view the agreement.)

BIOETHICS PROJECT

Cloning

Egg Bank

Embryo Adoption

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN, DEFINED BY INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICES

In the June 10 Extra, the Voice of America news release about “illegal adoption rings” was discussed. As it happens, the words “illegal adoption rings” never appears in the UNICEF report. The closest the report comes is using “variety of criminal offences,” most of which are alleged to be the work of “recruiters.” Because “trafficking” is such a loaded word, a look at the ILPEC paper (ILPEC is the Latin American Institute for Education and Communication, which represents International Social Services (ISS) in Guatemala) is needed. The ILPEC report says: “Trafficking of children in Guatemala refers to the excessive number of children who leave Guatemala through international adoption, without efficient control, transparency, regulation over prices, and a clear knowledge of the child’s origin.” ILPEC goes on to provide a list of U.S. adoption agencies, with this allegation: “The following list of agencies was taken from Internet (sic) and it is important to observe the supply of children, in this case within the United States, as if they were manufactured according to the public demand [emphasis added].”

Thirty-three agencies are listed, including such well-known names as The Gladney Center, Holt International Children’s Services, Los Ninos International Adoption Center, PLAN International Adoption Services, and Wide Horizons for Children, just to mention a handful. The information seems as if it may have originated in International Concerns for Children’s Report on Intercountry Adoption, given the format and information provided. In the June 12 Extra, a comparison of the definition ILPEC uses for trafficking and what actually takes place in Guatemala will be provided.

Archives of "EXTRA"

William L. Pierce, President and Executive Director for the U.S.A. Committee of IAVAAN, June 12, 2002