Program Update: Africa

An interview with Debbie Mansfield, Program Manager

In December 2008, Wide Horizons For Children (WHFC) Program Manager Debbie Mansfield traveled to a select group of African nations to meet with country representatives and visit with children in orphanages and transition homes as part of WHFC's mission to expand its child-welfare services in Africa.

WHFC's mission has always focused on the needs of the child, and nowhere is the need more starkly demonstrated than in many of the African nations. Disease, civil war, genocide, famine, and abject poverty have ravaged generations of families. As a result, WHFC set a goal to work in Africa, and opened a program in Ethiopia in 2003. "When we started in Ethiopia," Debbie explains, "we wondered whether it would even be possible to work in Africa. Would the government be receptive? Would we have families open to raising African children? Now that we've worked for six years in Ethiopia we have a great model to expand to other nations in Africa."

In 2007, Dr. Tsegaye Berhe, WHFC's founding partner and representative in Ethiopia, began exploring countries in Africa with stabilized political systems and laws that allow for international adoption as well as permanency programs. Over the past year, Dr. Tsegaye laid the groundwork with child welfare colleagues in Africa to identify new programs in other African nations. Debbie Mansfield's recent trip took her to Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya where she met with representatives, all known to Dr. Tsegaye through his child welfare work, to evaluate the feasibility of WHFC working with each nation. While in Rwanda, Debbie also met with representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She described it as "an amazing trip - the needs are so readily apparent."

In Rwanda and Burundi, Debbie visited orphanages with more than 100 children in their care, "row upon row of cribs, child after child, 40 children to a room," ranging from infancy to 3 or 4 years old. Many were significantly malnourished. As Debbie explained:

"It was clear that the homes were trying to do everything they could, but they were understaffed, under-resourced and unable to handle the magnitude of the child welfare crisis."

She learned from the caregivers, who spoke to Debbie in English, that virtually all of the children in their custody had been abandoned or found on the streets. Based on this information, many would be available for international adoption. Yet in Rwanda and Burundi adoption programs - international or domestic - are scarce, so currently there are very few opportunities for these children. "Caregivers were begging us to send families," she emphasized, "and in my experience that's almost never the case."

Debbie then paused before revealing:

"There was one baby... she was the single most malnourished child I had ever seen. Her arms and legs were the size of twigs. Her stomach was so distended and her ribs were poking through. The skin was so taut on her face that her skull was visible underneath. The caregiver turned to me and said, 'She looks good now. We found her two months ago.' They were surprised she survived."

Again, Debbie took a moment, clearly reliving the visit, before continuing:

"In the eight years that I've worked in adoption... if I could have taken her with me right then and there... then I would have. I stood at that crib and I cried."

And choking back tears even as Debbie retold this, "She wrapped her whole hand around my pinky, and held onto it... it was unbearably sad. The need to meet even the most basic goal of survival is incredible."

When Debbie Mansfield met with officials from these African nations, she presented the full spectrum of WHFC's international child welfare services. Intercountry adoption is only one component of the support and relief the agency provides to children and families. Child sponsorship, family empowerment and community development programs are other services that WHFC offers with the goal of keeping birth families together and preventing orphans. Debbie was quick to remind that working with governments around international adoption is always challenging:

"No country wants to have to send its children abroad. There are always many questions: What does it mean? How does it work? What happens to the children? We share their belief that intercountry adoption be a last resort option only for children who have no hope of growing up in a permanent family in their birth country."

WHFC has been successful in developing new partnerships with some of these African nations. The agency is officially registered now in Rwanda as a child welfare organization able to develop charitable programs, and WHFC is poised to pilot adoption programs in both Rwanda and Burundi in the next couple of months. (Burundi is Hague-accredited, and though Rwanda currently is not, there is a bill in parliament now to implement the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption.)

WHFC is still exploring options in both Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, though there are some specific concerns. As Debbie reported, in Kenya the expected stay in-country is lengthy - six months or more - and may preclude many families from considering the program as a viable option. In the DRC right now there is considerable political unrest and therefore safety concerns for traveling staff and families. WHFC will monitor these situations and keep possibilities open should marked improvements develop within these countries.

What does this mean for families who are interested in adopting a child from one of these nations? It will be several months before the Rwanda and Burundi programs see an official launch, Debbie emphasizes. The first stage is piloting the programs with a limited number of families who have already applied to the agency and are currently "paperwork-ready" - a completed homestudy and USCIS approval. WHFC is actively preparing the necessary adoption guidelines and materials, including program fees and dossier instructions. Debbie elaborates, "As we follow the experiences of these pilot families, we will have a better understanding of how these programs work, and when to officially open them to all families for consideration."

Debbie adds, "We are still identifying who might be eligible to adopt from these countries. It seems somewhat open, but some governments have questions about single parents. From their perspective, children are often in orphanages because they had a single parent who could no longer adequately care for them so it can be difficult for them to understand that a qualified single parent in our country can successfully raise a child and meet all of his or her needs." For families at the start of their adoption journey but interested in these programs on the horizon, the next step should be to register with and/or apply to WHFC to begin the process. WHFC selects families for pilot programs from those who are already in process with their paperwork prepared.

Over the next months we expect to have more information available about the program and process in Rwanda and Burundi. Given the needs of the children in these countries, we are committed to providing services that will help improve the lives of orphaned children, and bring permanency to them. In our opinion, it is every child's birthright to have a loving and secure family.