Wow. So this morning I took part in a 6-hour teleconference on “How do we move forward to ethically and transparently protect children, birth families and adoptive parents in Ethiopia?”, which was attended by representatives from the US embassy in Addis, the Ethiopian ambassador, adoption agencies and government officials in both Addis and Washington, DC. Perspectives were given on the ethical nature of adoptions in Ethiopia, both strengths and weaknesses. It sounds like certain areas are working very well, yet there are still allegations of fraud and other issues that have not resolved. Very interesting stuff, and definitely food for thought--I’ll be digesting this for days (ha ha--see what I did there?). The conversation did bring up tons of questions for us, and we will be speaking with our new social worker (who will see us through to the bitter end) next week, and she just arrived home from Ethiopia, so I’m sure she will have an interesting perspective.
I really wanted to listen in on this--but alas I was at work all day today.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious about more details--what you heard to be the biggest strengths vs. weaknesses. It's all so scary sometimes.
Our agency director was just in Ethiopia too!