Ethiopia Adoption Program

It is all about the children!

Dillon Southwest is thrilled to announce that we are now able to place children from Ethiopia through a collaborative working relationship with Illien Adoptions International, Inc. a licensed adoption agency in Georgia. This arrangement will allow Dillon Southwest to help children in Ethiopia who are in need of finding good, permanent homes.

The goal of both Dillon Southwest and Illien Adoptions International is to provide professional, ethical and quality adoption services with a focus on communication and continuous program oversight and evaluation. This work will be enhanced and supported by dedicated and experienced in-country staff.

The children available for adoption are from infants to early teens. These children also include sibling groups and children with special needs.

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Program Description

Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa that is favorable to intercountry adoption. US agencies are licensed under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) which is under the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice oversees all of the intercountry adoption activity and the process has many built-in safeguards.

The US Embassy coordinates with the Ethiopian government to ensure the eligibility of the orphans.

Ethiopia is a country comprised of many different ethnic groups and the children available for intercountry adoption are representative of these ethnic groups. The children who are available for intercountry adoption range in age from infants to older children, sibling groups and children with special needs. Families may state their preference for a boy or girl. Families seeking to adopt two unrelated children must be pre-approved by Dillon Southwest and Illien Adoptions International.

Ethiopian children have become orphaned or are abandoned for a number of reasons stemming from the country's overwhelming social issues of widespread poverty and disease. When a child has been orphaned or abandoned, he or she must be registered with the government to initiate a two-month waiting period after which the child can be declared legally eligible for adoption. In Ethiopia, there are many waiting children of every age who have been declared eligible for adoption.

Many of the children are orphaned because their parents did not have access to adequate nutrition or medical care. All children available for adoption have been tested for HIV, Hepatitis B, and venereal disease. The children are provided chest x-rays for TB screening, if suspected. The medical care provided at the orphanage is better than some but there is much that can be done to improve certain areas of care. Malnutrition is a health concern as is upper respiratory illnesses.

By US standards, children are typically small for their age and can have mild to severe developmental delays. In many cases, the children may be small for their age due to poor nutrition, and the developmental delays may be due to the lack of appropriate stimulation and interaction. With proper nutrition, growth can be stimulated to some degree and with appropriate evaluation and intervention, developmental delays can be overcome in many cases. Typically, Ethiopian children tend to be very social and interact well with other people. However, this does not necessarily mean that attachments are secure and that they have not suffered from abuse or neglect prior to their placement in the orphanage.

Dillon Southwest is able to work with families throughout the United States for the placement of a child from Ethiopia.

Our networking agency maintains an in-country office and staff. The Agency works with small non-governmental organizations (NGOs) licensed by the Ethiopian government. Working directly with the NGOs, the Agency becomes familiar with all of the child's needs and we are able to help support the NGOs for the care of the child during the adoption process and give assistance to that organization for the advancement of their mission and services.

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Requirements

Guidelines for parents adopting Ethiopian children are established by the Ethiopian government. The government of Ethiopia, in its review of adoption law, is considering some changes to these guidelines. The Agency will update these guidelines as necessary.

The requirements are that those wishing to adopt:

  • Are married couples and single women; some restrictions apply to single parents.

  • Are couples married for at least one year, but Ethiopia would prefer to place children with couples who have been married for at least five years. This is not yet a strict requirement but is an area under review.

  • Have, preferably, no more than 43 years of age difference between the child and the parent. There is no upper age limit for prospective adoptive parents; however, common sense guidelines apply.

  • Are not limited by the number of children currently residing in the home.

  • Dillon Southwest and our networking agency reserves the right to review and discuss eligibility requirements concerning the age of the Prospective Adoptive Parent(s) and the number of children that may currently reside in the home; and ultimately decide if the adoption plan as posed is in the best interest of the child to be adopted as well as the prospective adoptive parents.

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Timeline and Adoption Process Overview

Our goal is to complete the adoption from Ethiopia within twelve months from the time that the family's completed dossier is sent to Ethiopia until the arrival of the child. An approximate timeline for the processing is:

  1. Pre-application: It may take up to three weeks for the pre-application form to be reviewed.

  2. Application: It may take up to three to four weeks for an application to be reviewed.

  3. Home Study and Arizona Certification Process: Once the application is accepted, and a signed contract has been received from the family, the home study is started. The time involved in the home study process varies, but the study is normally completed within 90 days. For families who reside outside of Arizona, a local agency will complete the home study under the guidance of Dillon Southwest.

  4. Families in Arizona are required to attend an adoption education program covering adoption in general, international adoption in particular, and facets of adopting children from other cultures. Families residing out-of-state, will receive this training through their home study agency.

  5. Either prior to beginning your home study or while completing your home study, you must file your I-600A with USCIS.

  6. When a family has had a home study approved by the Adoption Committee, and, in Arizona, has been certified by the Juvenile Court, the home study can be sent to USCIS for approval.

  7. Once you receive your approval from USCIS, you should be able to complete your dossier. It is best if your dossier preparation is happening simultaneously with your home study process.

  8. Once your dossier is complete it must go through several different steps. First, it is sent to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC for authentication. Next, the dossier is sent to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where it is translated and submitted for further authentications.

  9. After your dossier has been received by Illien, you will be eligible to be considered as a potential family for a child in need.

When a child is available, the initial information may be minimal as the staff works to secure medical, social and laboratory testing results on the child or children. This information is not gathered until a child has a potential family. The Prospective Adoptive Parent(s) can expect to receive a complete Child Profile Report within one to two weeks after receiving the initial information. The time frame greatly depends on whether or not the child referred has met the three-month waiting period for availability.

Prospective Adoptive Parent(s) have two weeks in which to review all of the supplied information before they must either decline the referral or submit the signed and notarized Child Profile Report which then signifies the acceptance of the child or children.

Once the referral has been formally accepted, the processing time to complete the adoption is usually four to six months. This is time frame is based on past cases and can change at any time. No one can predict unforeseen delays in any case. The time frame for this process from when the dossier is transferred to Illien's Ethiopian office until the time of final adoption is approximately seven to nine months. Generally, the adoption process in Ethiopia has been very predictable and follows clear, well-defined steps.

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Additional Documents

Additional documents will be required for both the Dillon Southwest application and the Ethiopian dossier. If you do not already have the following documents, you should begin to collect them.

  1. One certified copy of American birth certificates for both husband and wife. If not an American-born citizen, proof of naturalization, i.e., date, certificate number and where issued, must be included. Copies of naturalization papers must be clearly marked COPY. An original certified copy must be presented to DSW for authentication purposes and will be returned upon verification.

  2. One certified copy of the couple's marriage certificate.

  3. One certified copy of the divorce decree if either is divorced.

    We will accept an application with uncertified copies of documents. However, certified copies are required for the dossier.

  4. One copy of an American birth certificate(s) for any child(ren) of yours. We will accept an application with uncertified copies of documents.

  5. Evidence supporting education level attained as stated on your application--copy of diploma, transcript, etc.

  6. There will be numerous forms that will be supplied to you with your Dillon Southwest application as well as instructions for letters that must be written.

  7. If there has been a previous adoption, include a copy of finalization papers unless the placement was made by DSW.

  8. If either husband or wife has relinquished a child, we require a statement regarding the reasons for this decision.

  9. If children of either applicant are not living in the applicant family's home, we require information regarding child support and the quality of the past and present relationship with these children. If the children reside nearby, it will be necessary for us to meet them. If they reside out of state, it will be necessary for us to talk to them by telephone.

Once a decision to proceed with our program is made, it is very important that the family apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for pre-approval of the family to admit a child into the US. For information on filing the I-600A form, click here.

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Travel

Recently, the Ethiopian government instituted a new rule that requires Prospective Adoptive Parents to make two trips to Ethiopia to complete the adoption. Some exceptions to this rule may be made. The experience of traveling to your child's country of origin and seeing the people and culture firsthand is invaluable for you and for your child. The trip also allows you to start the bonding process with your child and offers you the time to speak with the child's caregivers. This trip will also give you the opportunity to learn more about your child's current environment and the culture from which he or she comes from. If you decide to travel, the stay in Ethiopia to obtain your child's visa is approximately one week.

After the first trip is made to Ethiopia, if Escort services are needed, it may be possible to make these arrangements through Illien.

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Fees and Expenses

Click on the link below to download the list of fees and expenses for the Ethiopian Adoption Program.  Every effort is made to avoid changes in the fee structure while a family is in process; however, the agency may find it necessary to pass on cost increases from time to time.

Ethiopian Program fees.

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How to Begin

  • DSW invites you to call the agency at (480) 945-2221 to ask questions and discuss the program in detail.

  • Our agency schedules orientation meetings and group education workshops every 6 to 8 weeks.  Please call the agency if you would like to be invited to an orientation meeting.

  • You may also ask specific questions or request additional information by filling out our information request form.

  • Visit our How Do I Begin page.

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Phone: (480) 945-2221 © 2007 Dillon Southwest
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