Did anyone see the CBS report on CWA/Ethiopian adoptions?

[Erica in PA]

I'm wondering if anyone saw this story on the news, and what your reactions were, especially if you have experience with CWA or international adoption in general.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/15/cbsnews_investigates/main6210911.shtml

 

CWA refutes the story here: http://www.cwa.org/cbsnews-response.htm

 

Googling CWA Ethopian Adoptions brings up quite a few people who say that they were misled by CWA in various ways. I'm curious about this, especially because my sister in law is in the process of adopting from Ethiopia through CWA and expects to bring her son home in the next few months. I found the report troubling, and the response not entirely convincing, but I don't have all the background that some people might. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences, positive or negative, about CWA?

[stripe]

I was extremely disturbed but, I must confess, not particularly surprised that this goes on.

 

(I don't know anything about this organization in particular.)

[Guest daverjay]

I just want to share with you all: I have dealth with CWA for over 5 years now. We adopted with them 4 years ago, and are doing so now in Ethiopia. CWA has never been anything but above board with us, and helpful at every turn. They answered every single one of CBS's allegations in an interview with CBS, and proved every one of them wrong. CBS chose not to use any of that documentation, or interview in their story. You heard one side of it, and that is all. Nearly all of that documentary was an outright lie, with misrepresentations...some bordering on the absurd.

 

In Ethiopia, no parent can relinquish custody of a child without consent by the parent and a judge in court, on two different occasions. CWA has nothing at all to do with that!! It is all in their courts system. Without the court decree and the parent's signature relinquishing rights, an adoption can not take place!! This and many other facts were ones that CBS chose to not mention in their ridiculous fraudulent story.

 

CWA does amazing work all around the world, especially in Ethiopia, where they find good homes for children that have no hope. They even help families over there, that are not involved in adoptions at all.

 

Don't believe everything you see on the networks news shows...in fact, most of it is bogus. This one is a tragic distortion and outright misrepresentaion of the facts. I have seen the footage, and read all the rebuttals. CWA is not at fault here, and should be applauded for what they do. CBS has reckless disregard of the truth, looking for ratings, not caring who it hurts, including these precious children.

 

CWA needs our prayers, and we as a people should not watch a network that would slander a good humane organization who is sincerely trying their best to do The Lord's work.

 

Dave

[stripe]

Not to mention that it is possible that such adoptions have taken place -- the piece had three sisters who were old enough to remember life in Ethiopia and their father (their mother had died) and express their feelings on the matter. And apparently there are many other such cases in Ethiopia. So, while it might sound better to say problems don't exist, it's obviously not the case.

[Cindy in C-ville]

I do believe that things like this happen, whether in Ethiopia, Ukraine, China, wherever. When there is money involved (and there is a lot of money) and nations with weak infrastructures (I can only speak directly to Ukraine), corruption abounds. Human trafficking is BIG money and it takes a great deal of discernment, to see whether a situation is truly a legitimate adoption situation or human trafficking. For us, we wrestled with whether the money/energy we would be doing a better thing by investing in Katya in UKRAINE than bringing her here. We wrestled with whether we should "sponsor" her through school, support her grandmother, and just be people across an ocean that care for her. A HUGE factor for us was Katya's grandmother's genuine desire for her to be adopted, and adopted by our family. BUT, there was one single mom I met who was desirous of her girls being adopted so that they could come to America for school. A student visa would be an option, but these are so hard, if not impossible to get. This mom GENUINELY loves her girls and is a GOOD mother. She just can't afford to give them the life she'd like. To me, it doesn't sound like adoption is the best option, but rather helping this mom to make a life for her girls. I share this to say that sometimes it is SO murky. Sometimes permanent decisions are made (like with this family who adopted the children from Ethiopia) and you just have to do the best you can, and for us, this means trusting that God is a Redeemer, Restorer, Healer ....

 

I am absolutely NOT an expert in all things adoption. The above comes just from our experience. There are people who have much more wisdom than we do!

[michelle l]

I saw the piece. Sooooo sad. I know another family with adoptions from Ethiopia who were not given accurate information about their children's histories. It's so important for people to be aware of ethics issues in adoption, and to be willing to pull back from an agency or situation if there are concerns. It's difficult though, because in general people go into it trusting their agencies to do what is right, and even learning about adoption from their agencies, so they might not recognize ethics issues even if they occurred. I feel for the families and kids affected by all this.:(

[Erica in PA]

 

In Ethiopia, no parent can relinquish custody of a child without consent by the parent and a judge in court, on two different occasions. CWA has nothing at all to do with that!! It is all in their courts system. Without the court decree and the parent's signature relinquishing rights, an adoption can not take place!!

 

 

I have read this argument elsewhere online, and I find it to be a bit of a straw man argument. I didn't see anywhere in the story where it was claimed that the parents did not sign the papers, or that CWA stole away children without parental consent...rather it was that CWA was being overly aggressive about encouraging poor families to give up their children for adoption. A poor, struggling parent may well sign the papers to give their child what they consider to be a better life, but that doesn't necessarily make the process ethical. On one video, a woman was seen asking a group of villagers on behalf of CWA who would like to send their children to America, and telling them to leave their children there if they did. In the follow-up, the attorney for CWA denied that this was in any way coercive, but I think many people would disagree with that.