A report out of Kenya this morning indicates that the Hague may be ratified there by the end of the year.

The Government will establish a central body to handle child adoption. Vice-President, Mr Moody Awori, said many committees that deal with adoption were inefficient, adding that the process was open to abuse.

Awori said budgetary allocations and legal requirements for adoption of children, especially from other nations, should be addressed.

With the number of orphans in Kenya now topping two million, change in the system is vital. The director of Children's Services in the country has called for a review of laws regulating adoption in hopes of streamlining the process.

We can hope that they remove the residency requirement, which would make it more likely that children could join families in other countries.

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Zambia is attempting to address their issue of increasing numbers of orphans partially by encouraging an American NGO, Operation Blessing International, to work with extended families.

The organization works with USAID to encourage local people to take in homeless children.

Their country coordinator for Zambia had this to say:

"We believe that orphans and vulnerable children can grow up complete when they grow in families where caregivers take care of them. We do not give “handouts” (frivolous things) to the caregivers, but we believe in giving them seed capital and skills so that they can start making a sustainable living. Seed capital is basically the materials and seeds necessary to do farming or business as opposed to money."

He also said that families in urban areas have developed what he termed a ‘Western attitude’ where they are reluctant to take on more children apart from their own.

Not exactly my perception of a "Western attitude", seeing as how almost everyone I come into contact with would be more than happy to take on more children.

I can only hope that this program is not encouraging people to take on kids as workers to help with the projects their 'seed money' funds.

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And finally, from Nigeria, another country with residency requirements that make international adoption functionally impossible ...

An orphanage named for that country's First Lady, Stella Obasanjo, has published figures recently.

The 21-year-old institution has so far, "given out 127 children on adoption," and reports they receive no less than for new children per month. There are presently 26 children residing there.

Sorry, folks, but these numbers don't add up for me: 4 a month, 127 children adopted over 21 years, 26 in care now?

With an expected 6.7 million orphans expected in Nigeria by the year 2010, the issue in Nigeria, like all of Africa is huge. For information on Nigerian adoption, see the US State Department site on intercountry adoptions from there.

The country, like Kenya, has residency requirements:

Nigerian adoption law requires a parent-child relationship be established before the court decision can be considered final. Each state determines the length of time it takes to establish the parent-child relationship.