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On February 15, 2010, CBS News reported “that growth has turned Ethiopia into fertile ground for child trafficking – a country in which some American agencies and their staff engage in highly questionable conduct.” Three children, sisters who are aged 7, 4, and 6 (or so it was stated), were shown on video to prospective adoptive parents. Their story appeared to be a tale of heartbreak and heartache; their mother dead, their father dying of AIDS. “A life of prostitution is all but assured – if not adopted – saved – by a loving American family.”
Well, not exactly.
It was just such a pitch that spoke to Katie and Calvin Bradshaw, reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian. They adopted all three girls through a U.S. agency, Christian World Adoption.
“Aside from the gender of the children, everything else proved to be a complete lie,” said Katie.
In truth, the three sisters, Journee, Maree and Meya – were actually much older: 13, 6 and 11.
While their mother was dead, their father was healthy and very much alive. He was living, by local standards, a middle-class life – an extended family able to take care of the girls as middle sister Meya showed us first hand.
“My godmothers, my aunt, those are my mom’s friends, my uncles, my dad, my dad’s friends, that’s my brother,” she said [while watching a video of her family in Ethiopia].
CWA is no stranger to scrutiny, especially where Ethiopian adoptions are concerned:
Adoptive families allege that many children brought to the U.S. are not even orphans, that prospective parents are misled about a child’s health and background, that local families are recruited – and sometimes even paid – to give up their kids.
Which the Bradshaw sisters say is exactly what happened to them.
“Your dad was paid,” Keteyian asked Meya.
“Yes,” she said.
“From Christian World Adoption,” Keteyian asked.
“Yeah,” she replied.
“For you to be adopted?”
“Yup.”
“You were sold?”
“Yeah,” she said.
Christian World Adoption is one of 70 agencies licensed to operate in Ethiopia. Beyond the alleged payment to their father, the Bradshaw sisters say they were told by local employees of Christian World they were only coming to America for an education; that they could return home when school was out. Not true. In fact it’s virtually impossible to reverse an adoption in Ethiopia.
“I thought I was going to be kind of like an exchange student,” Journee said. “Honestly, I never knew that I’m going to be here forever.”
Curtis Bostic, attorney for CWA, believes the allegations are completely unfounded; he maintains that there will always be people–adoptive parents–who misunderstand what they are told or are unhappy with their adoption experience. The fact remains that it is impossible to rule out corruption in every instance of adoption. But is this really just exclusive to Ethiopia? Is Ethiopia merely the target since the number of adoptions has risen so dramatically in recent years? Many critics of this video claim the story is one-sided and is a result of “sloppy journalism”. The comments, posted at the bottom of the story’s text, are incredibly passionate. Is the video an expose gone wrong? What are your thoughts?
CWA’s Response to CBS News: http://www.cwa.org/cbsnews-response.htm
While it is possible that the girls are lying in hopes to be reunited with their birth family, my gut feeling is that they’re telling the truth. Thinking of the situation that happened just recently during the Haiti disaster (when that group of people were arrested trying to take children out of the country without permission), some people claiming to be doing ‘the right thing’ are doing anything but. All that I can hope is that CWA gets shut down and the people who did this are thrown into jail for their crimes. I also hope that the birth and adoptive parents of these kids can work something out in the children’s best interests. While it may be impossible to undo an adoption in Ethiopia, it would be criminal to keep these kids from their family, especially if the family was lied to.
After reading CWA’s response to the CBS report, it’s clear that stories like these become cases of “he said, she said.” Without seeing firsthand the stories or situations, it becomes difficult to judge. I’m very interested to hear the result of the case against CWA.
Also, if CWA’s allegations are true, then CBS’s report is no longer sloppy journalism, but misleading. Much more serious.
What doesn’t make any sense about this story is, what is an agency’s motivation to “purchase” a difficult to place, older, sibling group? Most sibling groups like this end up on Ethiopia’s waiting lists indefinitely, unfortunately. Here’s both sides of this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ5dVI_zXQc … Although there are hardly two sides. The accusations made against CWA don’t seem to have much (if any) evidence to back them up.