More on MOWA (and who they are)

As I mentioned a few posts ago, there’s been some issues going on with MOWA (Ministry of Woman’s Affairs) and their desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write. There’s been a number of articles floating around the adoption community; some saying that Ethiopia is cutting adoptions by 90%!! I don’t necessarily trust some of these sources, as I believe some are written for the shock value. Anyway, another family from our Yahoo Group emailed their Family Coordinator and I thought I’d pass along her question and the answer they received (to help give you a better understanding on things)….

We wanted to fully understand what exactly it is that MOWA truly does. We have known who they are of course, but haven't had a full grasp on their role. We hope this helps some others get a grasp on what kind of role they really play in this whole process as well. We are continuing in prayer! Our God is bigger!! We asked Caitlyn our question, our FC, and this is what she shared with us:

Here is our question (just to give you an idea of where she is coming from in her answer): It is my understanding that MOWA basically approves us (the family) for adoption. Not that they actually do any research on potential orphans. If this is indeed the case, isn't it possible that we are past the point of MOWA approval as we have been DTE for over 6 months now?

Here is her answer: "Thank you for your question. MOWA is the central authority on all children's issues. On paper, they are the approving party for both dossier and children's documents (whether a child should get a passport, birth certificate, adoption, visa, etc). Thus, they are the authority on anything relating to a child in Ethiopia.

Regarding MOWA and the recommendation letters: These letters are not sent to court until the actual day of a family's court case. However, these letters are a necessity for a family to pass court. If MOWA does decide to significantly decrease the amount of recommendation letters signed and sent per day, this means more families will not be passing court on the first attempt (which could slow down the overall process). Currently, about 60% of families pass court on the first date.

To answer your question, this letter is not sent until the day of court and "not sending" the letter does not necessarily mean your family is rejected. It may mean your family's case needs to be re-submitted to court until they do submit one. Before this change, MOWA neglected to send recommendation letters for families often, which resulted in families not passing court multiple times.

We are unsure how long this decrease will be in place, in addition to how significant of an impact it will have (depending on the amount of cases they actually decrease per day). We do know that the judges and the Ethiopian courts are major advocates for adoption and are presently pushing MOWA to continue to process many cases per day.

Right now families will still travel for court dates, but may not pass if MOWA does not send a recommendation letter. The family would then give their consent to adopt the child at court, and our Power of Attorney would go to court for the family on the subsequent dates.

This all being said, we are unaware of timelines at this point. We will need to watch and see the effect over coming weeks/months in order to see if it will impinge on timelines. At present, meetings are taking place between MOWA and the Ethiopian courts. Once we have confirmed information, we will relay this to families."

I love knowing we have an agency who seeks God for peace and direction!