Dear Adoptive Family,
For families who will be traveling soon, we have some news. Little AHOPE is in a new location. It is now closer to Layla, the Ritmo and the Yilma Hotel but further from the AHOPE guest house. That may affect where families picking up a child from Little AHOPE choose to stay.
AAI is now offering an additional guest house possibility for adoptive families wishing to have their child with them while they are in Ethiopia. This is the Ethiopia Guest Home. It is 30 to 45 minutes from Layla depending on traffic, somewhat more expensive but it has positive aspects as well. Details are now in the travel packet. Ethiopia Guest House’s website is at www.ethiopiaguesthome.com. Now our traveling families may choose either the Ritmo Guest House, the AHOPE Guest House, the KM guest rooms or the Ethiopia Guest Home if they want to have their children with them while they are in Ethiopia. Again, if you wish to stay in a hotel such as the Hilton or Sheraton, you are not allowed to have your children there by order of the Ethiopian government.
More good news: For families who have not yet had court hearings, the amount of time between filing cases and hearing dates is much shorter than it was a year ago. Most cases are scheduled for 4 to 6 weeks from filing. Last year is was 12 to 14 weeks.
There continues to be more and more scrutiny of adoption agencies as well as individual cases. At Layla today they were surprised by a visit from officials with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here is Temesgen’s report:
We have been surprised by two visitors--one from MOWA and the other from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They checked all our activities from documents to the kitchen utensils. They saw our contracts with our staff, the administration manual, and documents in relation to the project agreements that we signed with different stake holders. We were asked about the number of children we have placed so far, the procedures that we follow to track the whereabouts of the children, [this means post placement reports, folks!] orphanages that we are working with, our source of income, lists of our property etc.
I don't understand the purpose of the visit. But I guess that they are doing this for purpose of re-registration. The new NGO agency may decide not to re-register all agencies. There may some agencies that lose their licenses to operate in Ethiopia. After the visit we got positive feedback from both ministries.
Our re-registration will begin from Nov. 9, 2009.
With regard to referrals, we have referred several toddlers in the past few days. Gail reports that there are 12 to 14 babies and toddlers who are two or under whose files are not complete, so we hope to be able to refer them soon. For infant boy referrals, the next ones will go to families whose dossiers went in March of 2009. For infant girls, a couple of families who were on hold status came off and that means there hasn’t been much movement on that list. The next referral of an infant girl will go to a family whose file had been on hold and the next to the last family whose dossier went in November of 2008.
The office will be closed for staff training on Friday Nov. 6 and Wednesday Nov. 11, for Veteran’s Day, though Susan will be notifying families of court news on Wednesday.
Merrily and Susan
merrily@adoptionadvocates.org
susan@adoptionadvocates.org
Friday, November 13, 2009
In Process Update
Dear Adoptive Family,
For families who will be traveling soon, we have some news. Little AHOPE is in a new location. It is now closer to Layla, the Ritmo and the Yilma Hotel but further from the AHOPE guest house. That may affect where families picking up a child from Little AHOPE choose to stay.
AAI is now offering an additional guest house possibility for adoptive families wishing to have their child with them while they are in Ethiopia. This is the Ethiopia Guest Home. It is 30 to 45 minutes from Layla depending on traffic, somewhat more expensive but it has positive aspects as well. Details are now in the travel packet. Ethiopia Guest House’s website is at www.ethiopiaguesthome.com. Now our traveling families may choose either the Ritmo Guest House, the AHOPE Guest House, the KM guest rooms or the Ethiopia Guest Home if they want to have their children with them while they are in Ethiopia. Again, if you wish to stay in a hotel such as the Hilton or Sheraton, you are not allowed to have your children there by order of the Ethiopian government.
More good news: For families who have not yet had court hearings, the amount of time between filing cases and hearing dates is much shorter than it was a year ago. Most cases are scheduled for 4 to 6 weeks from filing. Last year is was 12 to 14 weeks.
There continues to be more and more scrutiny of adoption agencies as well as individual cases. At Layla today they were surprised by a visit from officials with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here is Temesgen’s report:
We have been surprised by two visitors--one from MOWA and the other from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They checked all our activities from documents to the kitchen utensils. They saw our contracts with our staff, the administration manual, and documents in relation to the project agreements that we signed with different stake holders. We were asked about the number of children we have placed so far, the procedures that we follow to track the whereabouts of the children, [this means post placement reports, folks!] orphanages that we are working with, our source of income, lists of our property etc.
I don't understand the purpose of the visit. But I guess that they are doing this for purpose of re-registration. The new NGO agency may decide not to re-register all agencies. There may some agencies that lose their licenses to operate in Ethiopia. After the visit we got positive feedback from both ministries.
Our re-registration will begin from Nov. 9, 2009.
With regard to referrals, we have referred several toddlers in the past few days. Gail reports that there are 12 to 14 babies and toddlers who are two or under whose files are not complete, so we hope to be able to refer them soon. For infant boy referrals, the next ones will go to families whose dossiers went in March of 2009. For infant girls, a couple of families who were on hold status came off and that means there hasn’t been much movement on that list. The next referral of an infant girl will go to a family whose file had been on hold and the next to the last family whose dossier went in November of 2008.
The office will be closed for staff training on Friday Nov. 6 and Wednesday Nov. 11, for Veteran’s Day, though Susan will be notifying families of court news on Wednesday.
Merrily and Susan
merrily@adoptionadvocates.org
susan@adoptionadvocates.org
For families who will be traveling soon, we have some news. Little AHOPE is in a new location. It is now closer to Layla, the Ritmo and the Yilma Hotel but further from the AHOPE guest house. That may affect where families picking up a child from Little AHOPE choose to stay.
AAI is now offering an additional guest house possibility for adoptive families wishing to have their child with them while they are in Ethiopia. This is the Ethiopia Guest Home. It is 30 to 45 minutes from Layla depending on traffic, somewhat more expensive but it has positive aspects as well. Details are now in the travel packet. Ethiopia Guest House’s website is at www.ethiopiaguesthome.com. Now our traveling families may choose either the Ritmo Guest House, the AHOPE Guest House, the KM guest rooms or the Ethiopia Guest Home if they want to have their children with them while they are in Ethiopia. Again, if you wish to stay in a hotel such as the Hilton or Sheraton, you are not allowed to have your children there by order of the Ethiopian government.
More good news: For families who have not yet had court hearings, the amount of time between filing cases and hearing dates is much shorter than it was a year ago. Most cases are scheduled for 4 to 6 weeks from filing. Last year is was 12 to 14 weeks.
There continues to be more and more scrutiny of adoption agencies as well as individual cases. At Layla today they were surprised by a visit from officials with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here is Temesgen’s report:
We have been surprised by two visitors--one from MOWA and the other from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They checked all our activities from documents to the kitchen utensils. They saw our contracts with our staff, the administration manual, and documents in relation to the project agreements that we signed with different stake holders. We were asked about the number of children we have placed so far, the procedures that we follow to track the whereabouts of the children, [this means post placement reports, folks!] orphanages that we are working with, our source of income, lists of our property etc.
I don't understand the purpose of the visit. But I guess that they are doing this for purpose of re-registration. The new NGO agency may decide not to re-register all agencies. There may some agencies that lose their licenses to operate in Ethiopia. After the visit we got positive feedback from both ministries.
Our re-registration will begin from Nov. 9, 2009.
With regard to referrals, we have referred several toddlers in the past few days. Gail reports that there are 12 to 14 babies and toddlers who are two or under whose files are not complete, so we hope to be able to refer them soon. For infant boy referrals, the next ones will go to families whose dossiers went in March of 2009. For infant girls, a couple of families who were on hold status came off and that means there hasn’t been much movement on that list. The next referral of an infant girl will go to a family whose file had been on hold and the next to the last family whose dossier went in November of 2008.
The office will be closed for staff training on Friday Nov. 6 and Wednesday Nov. 11, for Veteran’s Day, though Susan will be notifying families of court news on Wednesday.
Merrily and Susan
merrily@adoptionadvocates.org
susan@adoptionadvocates.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)