Asking YOU...to SIGN the Petition

Hello friends and family ~ This is unfortunately not a blog post that I wanted to be writing about so soon. We found out over the weekend that there have been rampant rumors about 'changes' coming to the Ethiopia program. What 'changes' they were - we didn't know and we didn't know how they would affect us - and we didn't want to be sharing incorrect information.

Today we received an email from our adoption agency with some of the possible changes coming. We are asking for PRAYERS and HELP from our family. If you watched the video in our previous post - it sums up some of our hearts pain. We have a CHILD that we CAN NOT get to! It brings me to tears right now feeling so helpless so we are reaching out to you. Please continue reading below...

The Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has announced a proposal to decrease the number of adoptions they will process and approve—even by as much as 90%. They are planning to accomplish this decrease by limiting the number of approved cases to only 5 per working day (they were currently doing around 50 cases per day). This change is currently set to begin on March 10, 2011.

Please know that no one fully understands this proposal yet. Our staff, led by Almaz in Ethiopia, are still sorting out what this could mean for each of the children and families that we work with. These children are their passion and they are working on the front lines in this advocacy. Also, this is not limited to AGCI. This will impact every agency and the families that each serve. This means that all agencies are working together in their advocacy making a very strong force that is working on the behalf of children and families. Currently, all agency staff are waiting for the Director of MOWA to return to Ethiopia. Once she returns they will have a chance to sit down and talk over the implications of this proposal.

To attempt to counteract this proposal, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) has put a “Call to Action” in place. This sort of international advocacy is what JCICS does, and they do it well.  It is so important that we are all united in this effort!

Thank you again for all that you are doing at this time. You are all valued and important in this process of promoting and preserving the best interest of children in Ethiopia and around the world.

JCICS Call to Action March 8, 2011 Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children What You Can Do: 1) Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will post any new changes as we are informed of them. We have a lot of anxieties and fears right now... Cory and Ashley