(c) UNICEF
WASHINGTON—In 2009 Anna Kalmbacher and her husband Gabriel adopted two boys from Uganda after spending time there doing missionary work.
“You can’t go into it blindly or else you’re going to be taken advantage of, or the child is going to be taken advantage of,” Kalmbacher said of the Ugandan adoption process.
As Kalmbacher and her husband waited for their sons, a corrupt orphanage charged them a mandatory donation fee weekly for the boys, then aged two and two-and-a-half.
“That is a big red flag when looking at adoption referrals,” she said.
She got her boys before the recent Ugandan adoption boom, which began in 2011, with 207 adoptions taking place compared to just 62 in 2010.
Because Russia closed its doors to U.S. adoption and China’s process now has wait times of up to six years, African countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are stepping up as the main sources for U.S. parents.
Although sometimes the fastest to deliver, those countries do not always have the safest, most ethical systems from which to adopt.
Kalmbacher, now president of child advocacy adoption nonprofit A Child’s Voice, has seen firsthand the problems in Uganda since the boom.
“We personally know of too many situations where orphanages have actually been exposed as trafficking children for adoption, for instance getting $1,000 a child,” Kalmbacher said.
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action Report estimates that at least 1.2 million people in Uganda need humanitarian relief because of droughts, flooding, and displacement. In addition, nearly 2.5 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
The weak infrastructure in the African country could not handle the quick rise of adoption and the influx of money and corruption.
Often, the quest for money involves adoption facilitators recruiting children, a process known as “trolling the slums.”
“You have these facilitators approaching very vulnerable families who don’t have a lot of options and don’t even know about adoption maybe,” Kalmbacher said.
Many parents in third world countries simply don’t understand the Western concept of adoption and believe the arrangement is temporary. Chuck Johnson, president of the National Council for Adoption, said parents often think orphanages are like boarding schools.
“Parents intend on coming to get their children back someday,” Johnson said.
Other times, parents just see a wealthy facilitator or hear America mentioned and are willing to let their kids go.
“It’s…the idea that America will fix all of your problems or that a child going to America will automatically be rich,” Kalmbacher said.
And it may seem that American prospective parents are rich, as adoption agencies charge $25,000 to $35,000 per child for the process in Uganda.
The Boom and Bust Cycle
The situation in Uganda is not unique. Ethiopia, the third most popular country for U.S. parents to adopt from in 2012, has had the same allegations of corruption.
Kathryn Joyce, journalist and author of The Child Catchers, spent time in Ethiopia examining those allegations.
“A lot of adoption reform advocates will come in after the boom and bust happens and the storybook corruption starts to come out,” Joyce said.
Many parents of Ethiopian children turned to searchers, independent researchers who can be hired to verify a child’s background. The searchers work from documents provided by an adoption agency to either find cases of fraud or provide cultural information to families.
In some cases, the results were disturbing.
“Sometimes parents are not dead who were said to be dead,” Joyce said.
Again the root of the problem was money.
“It’s not as though any one person in Ethiopia is getting a $30,000 or $35,000 adoption fee, but that money does filter down to people in the country and it does prompt the sort of unethical or corrupt dealings that some parents have found,” Joyce said.
The Role Adoptive Parents Play
Unfortunately, adoptive parents are also part of the reason behind corruption in countries like Uganda and Ethiopia.
Karen Moline, a board member of Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform, said many ignore ethical questions in their desperation for a child.
“If you think you’re saving a soul then you can more likely overlook what is bringing that soul to you,” Moline said.
Many parents are also often looking for a specific kind of child. Typically, they want to adopt a baby girl, a preference that may encourage recruitment of children.
“It’s possible to have an ethical adoption from Uganda if you’re doing your due diligence, if you’re working with the right people and you’re willing to adopt children that are truly in need of adoption rather than trying to find a child that meets your desired child profile,” Kalmbacher said.
Research is another way to make sure you’re not receiving a trafficked child. It’s important to look into fees and make sure there are no gag orders, and you should also make sure you can hire a third party investigator to verify your kid’s story.
“When you’re paying someone money for a service, you would expect the right to be able to independently vet that story,” Kalmbacher said.
Anna Kalmbacher’s Family
A year after adopting her two boys, Kalmbacher and her husband heard about a little girl who was deathly ill and up for adoption. The little girl and a biological son born later joined the family who now live in Michigan.
Kalmbacher said her kids have inspired her to do more for the children of Uganda.
“I can’t even imagine not having them in our life and us in their life, and at the same time I don’t feel like just adopting our children is all that I’m called to do.”
