We were just informed by our agency that the Ethiopian government is going ahead with plans to close specific orphanages over the next few months; these institutions are being closed for a variety of reasons. One orphanage is connected to our agency, although the relationship is extremely new and (to my knowledge) few, if any, referrals have come out of this particular program. Instead, the relationship has involved the creation of humanitarian programs, which will continue to build with the hope that the orphanage can apply to be licensed again in the future.
The closure of orphanages was discussed back in March when the slowdown happened, so this is not particularly surprising. I'm glad that our agency will, at this time, not be overly affected by these decisions, and they strongly support efforts to ensure ethical adoptions. We hope the institutions they work with will not be affected in the future.
Referrals will likely be extremely slow in the coming months as court closes in Addis for the monsoon season.
Holy Moly. I hadn't heard this yet. Thanks for sharing the most recent news.
ReplyDeleteI really hope agencies/orphanages have some notice on this. I remember the original discussion but no follow up from that (until today). Gotta love bracing for more bad news.
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Our agency had one orphanage close, but they are working with multiple orphanages and were aware it was coming. I'm sure it will slow down referrals, though, but that is probably for the best in the end. S
ReplyDeleteHi S--I'm glad to hear they had notice. That makes me feel a little bit better.
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praying for Ethiopia, especially for the government officials and of course, for the sweet orphans. praying that God works in hearts and forges change for the better of those gorgeous babies. In the mean time, we are here to journey alongside you!
ReplyDeleteI had heard about the few orphanages that closed a week or two ago, but not that they were part of a bigger scheme. This should be interesting to watch play out. I'll be curious to hear what our agency says; they tend to be a bit cautious with what information they pass along because they want to make sure it's accurate. This is helpful on one hand (because we don't get caught in the rumor mill) and frustrating on the other hand since we usually end up hearing the rumor mill anyway! Usually the court closure doesn't affect referrals going out, but there are definitely other factors at play this year.
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