Buying and selling Ethiopian kids in the name of adoption

JCICS Conference call: Adoptions gone TOXIC

againstchildtrafficking.org

ACT received through the grapevine the audio file of the Conference Call of the Ethiopian Caucas of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services held on 6 March 2014.

Presenting themselves as an advocacy group for children, for real the JCICS is nothing more than the voice of the adoption industry.

In view of transparency, we hereby make this audio, as well as the transcript, public:

FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

The transcript is in need of improvement, so if anyone can help in putting names, clarifying text, please contact us at info@againstchildtrafficking.org

Here some interesting bits of their business meeting:

“It becomes a toxic situation”

Tom DeFilipo (JCICS): I couldn’t agree with you more and I also think we need to have a holistic approach to this and it needs to be coordinated and kind of strategic. So I know, someone said this, that the Network is doing something, xxx they have been very effective the last couple of years. So I like to try and engage that a little bit more. xxxx Find out what they are doing.  Reach a coalition, not informal something loose, we all know what we are all doing, so it is not something as a strategic fashion. Because the concern that I have is that if you notice the stuff that is in the press, whether it is here or in Ethiopia, is not coming from the traditional sources that we have seen xxx. The Save the Children and Unicef are not out there publicly xxx adoption. That is very strategically on their part. They recognized that one of their problems is based on their PR views and they were kind of creating an atmosphere and position needlessly in public.

So, I would assume that they are still not advocating for a stoppage of international adoption, but they are not doing that publicly.

With that said, if you look at other countries, whether it is Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Guatemala , to a certain extent Russia, when it turns toxic in the public and international adoption becomes criminal, it becomes demonized, it is trafficking, whether it are judges, people from the Regional MOWAs, national MOWA. I predict that the same thing is going to happen in Ethiopia as in other countries, which is people will be afraid to be xx as traffickers, by their colleagues, within the Government, as traffickers. We know you are a trafficker, we just cannot proof it. That kind of an idea. I have seen that in country after country. It becomes a toxic situation, and then no matter what you do, you don’t get any advancement. In Guatemala that’s true all up to a point where we sat down with allegations of USCIS, the US Department of State, Members of Congress, advocacy groups going down continually, and you still had a complete fear of processing any adoptions. And that is true for Kyrgyzstan as well as other countries a little. So that’s  my concern. That’s my biggest concern actually. And I think that we need to advocate with the Government for sure, but at the same time if we don’t do anything in the public forum, to counter the demonization, I think we are going to be seeing the downside of a complete stoppage in the future.

“Countering through the media”

All God’s Children (Julie):  As far as advocating directly with the Government, I think we have been doing that for years now. I personally have been involved in trying to start to get them a centralized authority, and we took them all the way to China and the US to show them a centralized system in other countries. That’s something great, we would  love for you to be involved. Do this more often. But it is not backed by action and so, I think, whenever we directly approach them, they always said the nicest things and then they go back out there and don’t do adoption. And I really think that we should be going more to the public than directly to Government, because they’ll gonna tell us what we like to hear anyway. For instance, the Minister – after she said what she said on media, when she was confronted by the Adoption Network, she denied having said that. And actually accused the reporter of having been paid-off and she was not the one who said that. Imagine that. She said it, and still denied it in front of adoption agencies. Because in that meeting room she tells them they are partners and she does not want to shut them down, but she is supportive. But then she is turning the environment toxic and she is making sure that no children enter an orphanage, or once they enter an orphanage cannot leave an orphanage, and yet to their face says that is not something she is doing. It really is very strategic and I think we need to start being really strategic and as far as the media goes…

Right when this thing came out, we did go directly to adoptive families and they were very interested. They sent us a lot of videos of what they are doing with their families. Some of them are really well done. And we have started some production of those families, pick up their children or when they meet the birth family and years later we are capturing that on video in Ethiopia. But if we could once again maybe organize it, actually come up with airtime, it is not going to cost too much. Families really want to participate. To really show that adoption is a good option for children and to counter that through media would really be urgent that we all are on the same page and come up with a plan and not so much rely on the Adoption Network. Because they have been doing that for years and it really hasn’t gotten us anywhere.

Tom DiFilipo: If I could just drag on on that one more time, the concern I would have about promoting or showing kids here in the US is twofold. No threefold:

1. It is not working
2. The accusations, the primary accusation is not the kids aren’t doing well here in the United States. But the way they get to the United States, that they are bought, sold and trafficked. So, by just showing that – not that that is what you are proposing, but an overreliance on kids are doing great, and adoption is a good  thing, it really doesn’t work and I am not sure if what we create is a less toxic environment. We have to demonstrate that we are doing other work. That we are not there to just grab kids and the way we get kids for the adoption system as a purpose and a really clean process.

“Buying airtime”

XX: Yeah, we were not doing it for a lot of money, we are doing it from Ethiopia. I have been doing it before, when I worked for Adoption America World. We did a domestic adoption campaign. It is not a lot of money. We can maybe put that together and send it to everyone and whoever wants to jump in can and I think as an encouragement we can maybe mention that agency as a sponsor or whatever. And then it is a matter of just buying airtime nationally. I think that is worth the while.

XX: Are you talking about public service announcement, or are you talking about literally purchasing airtime?

XX: Literally purchasing airtime.

XX: Oh that’s heavy money.

XX: It is not: you are thinking US heavy money. In Ethiopia purchasing airtime is not the same amount of money as it is here.

FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE