Haregewoin Teferra: private international adoption agency

Haregewoin Teferra:
Grandmother and National Hero

By Jill Cook

In Ethiopia there are an estimated five million orphaned children, of these, half are those who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.  There are not nearly enough grandmothers, or other relatives in Ethiopia, well enough to care for five million children.  However, there is one grandmother who has made a difference in the lives of many.  Her name is Haregewoin Teferra.

After losing her husband Worku to a heart attack, and her daughter Ategeb, who was then married with a child, to AIDS four years later, Haregewoin wanted nothing more than to disappear.  She planned to live in a small hut in exile at the cemetery, but the church had other plans for her.  Haregewoin was asked to take in a teenage girl who had been orphaned and was living on the street, prostituting herself in order to eat.  Haregewoin agreed.  A few weeks later she was asked to take in a teenage boy, and then a younger child, followed by another and another.  Soon Haregewoin’s small two-room house was filled with more children than she knew what to do with.  Her friends told her she was crazy to be taking in these children that could possibly carry the dreaded slim disease.  The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in Addis Ababa, where Haregewoin has her residence, caused many of her friends to shun her.  Haregewoin paid no mind and continued to take the orphaned children into her home.

Accommodations for orphaned children are limited.  Orphanages are overcrowded, there is no funding for foster care, and the stigma of HIV/AIDS is almost as rampant as the disease itself.  Relatives of children whose parents have died of AIDS will often not take in the children for fear that they too will catch the virus.  Often the stigma attached to a child whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS leads to the child being turned over to the government or to the police.

Haregewoin, however, believed there was another option: adoption. Her foster home has become a private international adoption agency.

While it is maintained that it is in the best interests of the children of Ethiopia to be raised by an Ethiopian family in Ethiopia, the reality is for five million children this is not feasible.  The Ethiopian government is in agreement that these children have the right to be adopted and to experience the love and support of being raised in a family environment.  These children desire to be adopted into a family, who will love, nurture care for and support them.  While there are families in Ethiopia willing to adopt, the number of children waiting to be adopted dwarfs the number of Ethiopian families wishing to adopt.  While inter-country adoption is described as the last resort, it is often the best option for orphaned children for whom the benefits of being adopted internationally outweigh the detriments.