Adoption watchdog suppresses Ethiopia findings By Mary Ann Jolley for Foreign Correspondent Updated Tue Mar 2, 2010 12:42pm AEDT One of Katie Bradshaw's adopted children was told by the adoption agency that she was going to the US on a study trip. (Supplied) RELATED LINK: Foreign Correspondent: Fly Away Children A powerful international adoption overseer is refusing to release the results of its inquiry into the disturbing activities of American adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia. The inquiry was launched after ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent exposed deep and dangerous flaws in the system. The Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) says it has completed its probe, but to release its conclusions would not be "appropriate". Foreign Correspondent's story last year exposed a dysfunctional, largely unregulated adoption industry in Ethiopia, where children were being harvested from families, and mothers claimed they were tricked into surrendering their children. Tonight's story unearths more disturbing developments: children wrongly portrayed as orphans and children pitched to adoptive families as being as young as seven when in fact they are teenagers. Ethiopia has not signed the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption, but hosts many adoption agencies boasting Hague credentials and claiming high standards of practice. Prominent adoption reform advocate Maureen Flatley claims JCICS is stacked with adoption agency figures and does a poor job of self-regulating. "We've really let the fox guard the henhouse," she said. "They are the 'big tobacco' of adoption. They are a trade association that nominally espouses the highest standards but which is harbouring the very people who have been involved in some of the biggest abuses in adoption - and they haven't laid a hand on them. "The JCICS has one goal and one goal only, and that is to avoid federal regulation of adoption. "Here is one of the biggest pieces of hypocrisy in adoption. If they're Hague-accredited, why are they doing business with a country that isn't a Hague signer? "The answer is that they know they have much more freedom to do whatever they want to do and to bully people in countries that aren't Hague signatories." Last year's Foreign Correspondent program focused on the activities of Christian World Adoption (CWA), one of the largest US agencies operating in Ethiopia. It featured video of a CWA representative asking families in one southern village if they wanted to surrender their children. The program also showed the plight of CWA client Lisa Boe, who adopted a "healthy" boy who arrived with a litany of serious health problems. Ms Boe spoke out and is now being sued by CWA. The agency repeatedly refused to comment before it finally allowed lawyer Curtis Bostic to be interviewed. "A half a million children in Ethiopia will sleep on the street. By sunset tonight 500 will die from starvation," Mr Bostic said. "There are children today who need what caring American and Australian families can bring them. "What Lisa Boe did was make a series of exaggerations and misrepresentations that has slowed and, in some cases, halted that process." Tonight Foreign Correspondent exposes more cases, including that of Journee Bradshaw, who claims CWA told her she was heading off on a study trip to the US, only to learn after her arrival that she would not be returning to Ethiopia. "I didn't know that I'm going to stay here," she said. "They never told me that I'm going to have a family I'm going to stay with and I'm supposed to be their daughter. They never told me that. I just find out when I got here." "You can't imagine the depth of her pain," said Katie Bradshaw, Journee's American adoptive mother. "No-one will understand the damage. It was as if someone had ripped the soul out of her body and just left her. It was absolutely unbelievable." -Watch tonight's program on ABC1 at 8:00pm. Contribute your stories to a special Foreign Correspondent/ABC News Online Investigative Unit special. Contact us and tell us your experiences of international adoptions in Australia.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Holiday Project Feeding Program in Arsi, Ethiopia

Thanks to the wonderful response to the AAI Holiday Project fundraising effort this year, we have begun a feeding project in a small town in rural Ethiopia, about 200 kilometers from Addis Ababa. The town was chosen both because of the need and because we knew of a partner organization, the Bethezasa Children's Association, that we felt confident could run and administer a quality program with the funds provided by the AAI office in Addis. AAI staff member Ivy Dash recently had the chance to visit the program and meet the students benefiting. Her report is below and we should be able to provide more photos very soon.

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The feeding center sponsored by AAI has been set up at an orphanage called Bethzata Children's Home in Arsi run by a gentleman named Sammy (I don't know his 2nd name). The first boy to show up was about 10 or 11 yrs old with great big beautiful eyes. Then, one by one, the pre-teens and teens started to file in. It was a weekday so they were coming from school in their uniforms. Most of their uniforms were tattered and faded and dirty but they were proud to wear them and proud to be in school.

Nepal's stolen children point to flawed system

By Claire Cozens (AFP) – 17 hours ago

KATHMANDU — Rajan Kumar Nepali did not know he was giving up his two young children when he put his thumbprint on a document handing custody to an orphanage in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

The owners of the children's home had promised to take care of his son and daughter while the 28-year-old labourer, who cannot read or write, tried to get his life back on track after he became addicted to drugs.

Instead, the children were put up for adoption abroad -- a highly lucrative business in impoverished Nepal, where campaigners say orphanages can make up to 10,000 dollars from each child.

Data: 02-03-10

Lettonia: stop alle adozioni internazionali, ma non per i bimbi special needs

La Lettonia non accetterà più, fino al dicembre 2012, nuove richieste di adozioni internazionali. Lo ha comunicato il Ministero del Welfare lettone in una nota ufficiale indirizzata agli enti stranieri accreditati a operare con le adozioni internazionali nel Paese.

Lo stop della Lettonia prevede però un’eccezione. Saranno accettate le domande delle coppie straniere disponibili ad accogliere bambini “special needs”, ovvero con bisogni speciali: bambini con più di due fratelli, affetti da problemi di salute o disagi mentali, con più di nove anni di età. In questo caso le autorità locali lavoreranno con gli enti stranieri per favorire la loro adozione.

La decisione del Ministero del Welfare nasce dalla volontà di promuovere l’adozione nazionale e garantire una mamma e un papà a quei bambini che con difficoltà trovano una famiglia nel loro Paese di origine.

Fly Away Home

Broadcast: 02/03/2010

Reporter: Mary Ann Jolley

Some children arrived in the United States believing they were only visiting.

Last year Foreign Correspondent exposed deep flaws and appalling practices in the international adoption industry operating in Ethiopia and the United States. Our story Fly Away Children generated a massive viewer response, triggered an industry investigation in the US and propelled the American media to probe the system. CBS News recently broadcast an investigation into the activities of an American adoption agency at the centre of Fly Away Children.

Adoption watchdog suppresses Ethiopia findings
By Mary Ann Jolley for Foreign Correspondent

Updated Tue Mar 2, 2010 12:42pm AEDT


One of Katie Bradshaw's adopted children was told by the adoption agency that she was going to the US on a study trip. (Supplied)

RELATED LINK: Foreign Correspondent: Fly Away Children
A powerful international adoption overseer is refusing to release the results of its inquiry into the disturbing activities of American adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia.

The inquiry was launched after ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent exposed deep and dangerous flaws in the system.

The Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) says it has completed its probe, but to release its conclusions would not be "appropriate".

Foreign Correspondent's story last year exposed a dysfunctional, largely unregulated adoption industry in Ethiopia, where children were being harvested from families, and mothers claimed they were tricked into surrendering their children.

Tonight's story unearths more disturbing developments: children wrongly portrayed as orphans and children pitched to adoptive families as being as young as seven when in fact they are teenagers.

Ethiopia has not signed the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption, but hosts many adoption agencies boasting Hague credentials and claiming high standards of practice.

Prominent adoption reform advocate Maureen Flatley claims JCICS is stacked with adoption agency figures and does a poor job of self-regulating.

"We've really let the fox guard the henhouse," she said.

"They are the 'big tobacco' of adoption. They are a trade association that nominally espouses the highest standards but which is harbouring the very people who have been involved in some of the biggest abuses in adoption - and they haven't laid a hand on them.

"The JCICS has one goal and one goal only, and that is to avoid federal regulation of adoption.

"Here is one of the biggest pieces of hypocrisy in adoption. If they're Hague-accredited, why are they doing business with a country that isn't a Hague signer?

"The answer is that they know they have much more freedom to do whatever they want to do and to bully people in countries that aren't Hague signatories."

Last year's Foreign Correspondent program focused on the activities of Christian World Adoption (CWA), one of the largest US agencies operating in Ethiopia.

It featured video of a CWA representative asking families in one southern village if they wanted to surrender their children.

The program also showed the plight of CWA client Lisa Boe, who adopted a "healthy" boy who arrived with a litany of serious health problems.

Ms Boe spoke out and is now being sued by CWA.

The agency repeatedly refused to comment before it finally allowed lawyer Curtis Bostic to be interviewed.

"A half a million children in Ethiopia will sleep on the street. By sunset tonight 500 will die from starvation," Mr Bostic said.

"There are children today who need what caring American and Australian families can bring them.

"What Lisa Boe did was make a series of exaggerations and misrepresentations that has slowed and, in some cases, halted that process."

Tonight Foreign Correspondent exposes more cases, including that of Journee Bradshaw, who claims CWA told her she was heading off on a study trip to the US, only to learn after her arrival that she would not be returning to Ethiopia.

"I didn't know that I'm going to stay here," she said.

"They never told me that I'm going to have a family I'm going to stay with and I'm supposed to be their daughter. They never told me that. I just find out when I got here."

"You can't imagine the depth of her pain," said Katie Bradshaw, Journee's American adoptive mother.

"No-one will understand the damage. It was as if someone had ripped the soul out of her body and just left her. It was absolutely unbelievable."

-Watch tonight's program on ABC1 at 8:00pm. Contribute your stories to a special Foreign Correspondent/ABC News Online Investigative Unit special. Contact us and tell us your experiences of international adoptions in Australia.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Bulgaria Closing All Orphanages

In radical attempt to fix its child-care system, the Bulgarian government has announced plans to shut down all of its orphanages and homes for disabled children.

Citing past failed attempts to create real change in the current system, the government has set a 15-year deadline for scrapping the old and starting anew.

"According to a new strategy paper approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, the country's 137 communist-era welfare homes for orphans and disabled children will be closed down," the Independent News & Media has reported. "The more than 7 500 children living in such homes will be placed in foster families or adopted to help better integrate them into society."

March 1, 2010. Swaziland International Adoptions Halted. We have been informed by the Department of State that on February 24, 2010 the government of Swaziland informed the U.S. government that no international adoption cases will be processed until the Department of Social Welfare finished its reassessment of adoption procedures. The only grandfathered cases are those already in process in the Swazi High Court. Swazi officials have not released an expected completion date for this review.

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War child trafficking between Bosnia and Italy

Jagoda Savic found some of the victims of child trafficking after 14 years, with the address protected by Court's sentence and among 61 millions of citizens in Italy. She organized a meeting betwen some victims and their biological parents and presented the allegation about child trafficking in front of Special Department for Organized Criminal within State prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 1992 initiated the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Approximatelly 130 children, entrusted to state institutions, were transfered abroad to save themselves from war danger. They belonged to orphanage of Zenica and orphanage of Sarajevo and to a group of children, born by raped women, who were first transfered to Zagreb. 46 of them, from orphanage of Sarajevo, were sent to Italy on 18. 07. 1992. All others were transported to Malaysia, Pakistan, Libia and Spain.

Their previous legal status was „ temporarily collocated“ in orphanage, due to serious family difficullties. They were not abandoned by their parents. But, 29 of them were adopted in Italy without agreement of their biological parents.

Violation of article 8 of European Convention for Human Rights, a right to have family life, was officially recognized in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Human Rights Chamber and it's successor , Commission for human rights within Constitutional Court judged on 08. 09. 2004 in cause CH/ 03/ 14689 that Bosnia and Herzegovina did neither well timed action nor all appropriate actions to unify some of parents with their children.

Where do we stand?

So I finally broke down a couple of weeks ago and ordered blinds for Calvin's room. JC Penney was having a sale so I got them for half price. All that is left to buy for the room is a blue area rug. However, at this point I am not sure if it going to be a little boy room or a guest bedroom. News coming out of Bulgaria is very dim for families who are hoping to adopt under 3 children that are healthy. Older children and special needs are the main priority for Bulgaria.

***Disclaimer to adoptive parents, young healthy children in all countries are being adopted by the citizens of the country or in foster care. Special needs and older children seem to be the norm now for foreigners who want to adopt*** This is for China, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria. The only countries I know of that have young healthy children being adopted are from Ethiopia.

I am hearing from Bulgarian chat sites that young healthy children referrals probably won't be made until next year. So where does that leave us? Our paperwork expires Nov and we will have to make a decision as to how much longer we want to wait...Cathryn is already 5 and Caroline is 7. Heavenly Father, make your will known to us. Not our will but yours be done. God's plan is always better than ours.

Posted by Chris and Celeste at 1:41 PM 2 comments