From a European PAP, concerning the meeting held on the 13th:

"They have decided to take off all the referrals with both birth parents alive. At least my agency had 7 families that have been informed. Now they are asking for death certificate but, at the moment, suppossed to go on with adoptions with at least one birth parent alive..."

This may only affect this particular agency and/or country; please let us know if your agency says their referrals are similarly affected.

From a PAP using a non-US agency:

"They have 'stopped' all the adoptions of children with at least one of biological parents alive...It's going to be a meeting in Addis this thursday 13th between Ministry and MOWA to clear it up...
On the other hand, adoptions from Gambella region are also stopped as they need an aproval from the Gambela president."

More from this European agency about the Gambella region:
"About Gambela orphanage: they need regional approval for each orphanage and this next friday, at least Selam Orphanage will have this approval in MOWA at Addis Abeba."

*Please note that I simply pass on what agencies around the world are telling their clients, when asked.


1/12/11 update:
A US agency with a care center in Addis recently received approval from the President of Gambela to complete adoptions. A representative inspected their care center last month. Also, this agency has not heard (or told their clients) that there will be any additional stipulations on adoptions, such as children with a living parent being unavailable for adoption.

Birth family court dates

It seems that several agencies have been told that the birth family hearing and adoptive family hearing will now be held (at different times) on the same day. Though at least 2 US agencies with recently assigned court dates were still given two separate dates as in the past, others have already started to receive one single date for both the birth family hearing and the court hearing that adoptive parents are required to attend.

Court Re-Opening

A couple agencies are saying court will resume on Monday, September 27, with others saying it's closed through the 27th and re-opening on Tuesday the 28th.

US Embassy staff shortage

At least 2 different US agencies have told their clients that embassy dates have recently been cut in half. This is supposedly due to a staff shortage at the US Embassy (unknown if its just for the summer or permanent). This change was announced suddenly, and some families with previously assigned embassy dates have recently been told their appointments have been pushed back.

A US agency has given an update concerning the situation in the Oromio/Oromia region:

-They believe the MOWA office for the Oromio region is still officially closed.

-Despite this branch of MOWA being closed, they have written the necessary letters for this particular agency's paper-ready children. [We can assume it is likely they have done or will do the same for other agencies.]

-MOWA will be implementing new procedures for this region, and last Friday they gave some training about these procedures to all orphanages in the Oromio region (20 orphanages have been shut down in Oromio, hopefully reopening soon with the new procedures in place.)

-This particular agency has not yet received any court dates for people who will need to be present at the court hearing under the new court system. They asked the court when they think new court dates will be issued, but they wouldn't give them a timeline.

More on the 9 orphanages and the Oromia hold

Here are the locations of 7 of the 9 orphanages with revoked licenses, if this is of interest to anyone (as far as we can tell, the licenses have not been restored yet.)

Adera Child- located in Addis
Almaz- located in Nazareth/Adama (Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia region)
Biruh Zemen- located in Sebeta (Debub Mirab Shewa Zone of the Oromia region)
Help for the Needy- the branch located in Zeway/Ziway/Zway (Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia region)
Holy Savior- located in Wonji/Wenji (Misraq Shewa Zone of the Oromia region)
Kunket/Kunkeet- located in Addis
Tsega- located in Addis

*The only two that have been verified by an adoption agency are Biruh Zemen and Help for the Needy. The others are according to adoptive parents with children from those orphanages.


As you can see, several of the orphanages are in the same zone of the Oromia region. The Oromia region has been a problem area for adoptions for awhile now. According to PAPs from various agencies (these apply to Oromia region only):
-New adoption guidelines will be introduced after the May elections
-The regional MOWA office is closed
-Several orphanages are having licensing trouble, as seen above
-Paperwork is not being completed for some referred children, probably due to the MOWA office being closed

To read comments discussing the situation, see this post.