17 May 2011

Conference Call.

Our adoption agency had a conference call this afternoon about the changes with MOWCYA's letters. Here are my notes. They probably won't make sense to you, so if you have any questions, just ask! I'll answer 'em. :) (MOWCYA=Ministry of Women's, Children's and Youth Affairs)

Adoption Conference Call-May 17th, 2011

MOWCYA-submit recommendation letter to court

Made announcement that they’ll write 5 letters a day last week
ET program is in the process of changes
Last week, MOWCYA did write more than 5 letters a day

NOT Ethiopian law and not written into any adoption law
Increase waiting times

Not concerned about shutting down adoptions in ET
Time for family to complete adoption could increase
Nobody can know for sure how long the adoption process will go
Expect increase of waiting time by a few months

Purpose of only writing 5 letters a day-is it due to overworked and understaffed?
Political things going on. Gov’t. wanting to make sure that children coming out of ET are children in need of adoption, cases were truthful. Small staff and they have a lot of work to complete. Complex situation.

Wait times dossier to ET to referral-same as on website and will continue to update on website
Varying time frames for families to pass court

Worst case scenario-5 letters a day and would increase wait time by several years. NOT happening today

Will see a delay of few months of waiting time

Older children can be less, but it depends on if they have those children coming in for adoption

Potential delays will be getting court date or getting through court-after family receives referral

Able to give referrals, travel ET, completing process, passing court

Less delays for families open to special needs-depending on special needs, court is open to working for them

Wait times and concurrent family building options in regards to adoption programs and pregnancy-will get some more info out about it
Looking to redefine policy

While in ET program, application sent to them

How many letters were written before 5 letters a day?-average between 30 and 50

When will children be added to waiting child list?-depends on what children are available
Over next few weeks, kids will be added. Depends on who is in orphanages

When will we see referrals come in?-can be affected by health of children at different times. Hopefully over next few weeks.

Would youngest age referred change?-depends upon what children end up being referred to our orphanages. As wait times continue, some ages will increase

Are many children in transition homes that are currently not referred?-transition home is almost always full. Rare that there are lots of spaces in there. There are children in transition home that haven’t been referred.

How many orphanages AWAA is working with-4 main orphanages and 4 private orphanages-Ebenezer and Kid’s Care are largest orphanages


You're welcome for the confusion.

1 comment:

Mel said...

Thanks for that info! This whole process is such an unknown for a newbie, it's nice to get some information from others who are around the same steps in the process that we are.
Melissa