Ethiopia

Carolina Adoption Services in partnership with Wide Horizons For Children and is actively recruiting families living in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, wishing to adopt from this country.

Quick Reference

Children:

6 months of age and older

Parent Requirements:

Age: 24-55
marriage: 2 years or single women
Residence: Must live in NC, SC, or VA

Estimated Process Timeline:

From dossier to referral: 6-18 months
From referral to travel: 2-6 months
Travel: 5-7 days

The Children

Children reside at one of several caring transitional homes and orphanages. Both boys and girls are available and range in ages from six months and up. Children referred for adoption most often come from the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples region, the central region around Addis Ababa and the northern Tigray region. Given Ethiopia’s ethnic diversity, the facial features and skin tones of the children referred for adoption will vary. Over 3000 children are referred for international adoption each year.

Program & Process

The Carolina Adoption Service’s Ethiopia program is a network program with Wide Horizons for Children (WHFC) to offer you a seamless adoption process. You will be represented by the in-country coordinators who meet you at the airport, provide translation services, and drive you to your appointments while you are in Ethiopia. They work closely with various orphanages, the Ethiopian courts, and two government branches involved with adoptions, The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA).

Once your dossier is complete, the wait for a referral can be anywhere from 0-10 months, depending on the child’s age requested by the family. Waits for children under age two are often between 12 and 18 months. Waits for children over age four are often very short.

Along with the child referral, you will receive any social history that is available, as well as medical history and photographs. Once you have accepted the referral, you will send recent photographs of your family to your child. You will be notified of your travel dates 2-3 weeks before you are expected to travel.
Adoptions are full and final under the laws of Ethiopia prior to travel. Your stay will be at least one full week (five business days), seven days will allow sufficient time to complete the paperwork to finalize the child’s visa. During this stay you will be able to visit your child daily and WHFC is typically able to arrange a visit with some surviving birth relatives of your child.

The Country

Ethiopia, located on the horn of Africa, is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. A country almost twice the size of Texas, it has a rich heritage as the home of the Queen of Sheba. The country’s Rift Valley is known as the “cradle of civilization.” Fossils of the oldest human skeleton, “Lucy,” were found here in 1974.
Ethiopia is unique in Africa, in that it was never under colonial rule, other than an occupation by Italy during WWII. Ethiopia is split religiously, with Ethiopian Orthodox primarily in the north, and Muslim, primarily in the south. It shares borders with Kenya (to the south), Somalia (east), Djibouti (northeast), Eritrea (north) and Sudan (west).