Ethiopia
Thank you so much for praying!
Thank you so much for praying for the future of adoption in Ethiopia. As we shared in our last email update the officials in Ethiopia were meeting and discussing the possibility of ending all international adoptions from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a country with of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 percent of children throughout the country are missing one or both parents. This represents an estimated 4.6 million children – 800,000 of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. (UNICEF) With millions of orphans in Ethiopia alone our hearts were breaking with the possibility that they may no longer allow international adoptions. But, we are so happy to report that ET has decided to continue with adoptions! Here is the update from our agency!“This week, a meeting was held by the Adoption Network (collection of agency representatives around the world working in Ethiopia) and MOWA (Ministry of Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs). The Network and MOWA meet fairly regularly but what made this particular meeting newsworthy is that Minister Zenebu and other high level MOWA officials went on record saying that there is no plan to stop adoptions.
Instead of closing or decreasing adoptions, they are focused on continued efforts to eliminate bad practices in Ethiopia. The rest of the news indicated that the Minister expected work to continue “as normal.” So, this is WONDERFUL NEWS! And we are THRILLED! Here is the announcement that has been broadcast all over this week:
Very positive news coming from Ethiopia. Yesterday Minister Zenebu, along with other high level MOWCYA officials, met with agency network representatives. In this meeting it was clearly expressed from Minister Zenebu that she does not plan to work to stop adoptions, but desires to focus on eliminating bad practice in Ethiopian adoptions and focus on good practice. She stated that both MOWCYA and the Ethiopian Government do not plan to shut down adoptions within Ethiopia. She encouraged agencies to continue their work as normal.”
Thank you so much for praying with us as we await our adoption from Ethiopia as well.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
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