Ethiopian adoptee hopes adoption is moving in the right direction

Newsday - BBC World Service

In this radio segment from Newsday, Aselefech Evans, an Ethiopian adoptee who was adopted to the US at the age of six, speaks about her support of the Ethiopian Prime Minister's decision to adopt a child. In 2018, the Ethiopian government banned the adoption of Ethiopian children by foreigners. Now, Evans believes, the decision by the Prime Minister and his wife to adopt a child could be a model to promote more domestic adoption in the country. "I think it's so important," says Evans, "to keep the children in their country of origin so that they are able to be immersed in their culture." Evans continues, "I had a very positive adoption experience, but I know that for a lot of adoptees, they have struggled because a lot of their parents raised them in racially isolated places where they didn't see a lot of people that looked like them."

Evans tells some of her adoption story, including her memories of being loved by her birth parents and then being told at a young age that her birth parents were dead, which she later uncovered was not true.

"There was a lot of discrepancy on my documents as well as my [birth] parents were told that we were going overseas for education. And so adoption wasn't a term that was understood, it was a taboo, people didn't talk about it and my parents didn't know that they were relinquishing their ties. So I think there was some corruption on the ground that happened. My parents were poor and uneducated and I think they were taken advantage of in some ways. When there's money involved, most of the time there's some corruption there...I think the problem lies in that there isn't enough conversation between the receiving and sending countries and it's not transparent. And also the birth parents have no idea, if this country doesn't understand the term 'adoption' and what that encompasses, how can they make the right decision for themselves?"

Evans shares her advice for authorities and adoptive parents in Ethiopia, including listening to Ethiopian international adoptees, investing in mental health services for child adoptees, and acknowledge birth parents by educating them on adoption, helping them to make the right decision for themselves, and providing a social safety net that would allow them to keep their children.