LILONGWE, Malawi (AP) — Madonna’s efforts to adopt two youngsters from Malawi have put her in the media spotlight. But she isn’t alone: a growing number of Americans are bringing home children from Africa as countries like China and Russia cut back on adoptions by foreigners.

Actress Angelina Jolie with her adopted Ethiopian child

The increase — particularly in Ethiopia — comes as the AIDS epidemic ravaging the continent leaves more orphans in impoverished countries without relatives to care for them.

Americans adopted 1,725 Ethiopian children in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2008, about 70 percent of all U.S. adoptions from Africa, according to the State Department. The year before, 1,255 Ethiopian children were adopted by Americans.

While experts don’t attribute Africa’s growing popularity among adoptive parents to a celebrity factor, they do say high-profile adoptions by the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie have raised awareness of the availability of orphans on the continent.

“One of the good things about the Madonna adoption or Angelina Jolie, those adoptions brought the need to the attention of Europeans or Americans,” said Thomas DiFilipo, president of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services. “And it brought the possibility (of adopting in Africa) to people’s attention.”

Wes Stout, 41, who with his wife Kristin, 37, has adopted two children from Ethiopia agrees.

“I give some of the popularity of Ethiopia to her celebrity influence,” he said of Jolie, whose daughter, Zahara, was adopted from the north African country in 2005, the same year the Stouts adopted their daughter, 3-year-old Kylia.

At that time, the Stouts’ wait was less than a year. When they brought their son, 9-month-old Solomon, home six weeks ago, it was after an adoption process that took two years.

“The popularity soared,” said Stout of Redwood, California.

And, “while in the end the need is great, for most people who adopt, they are not just adopting to save a life,” he said. “They are adopting to start a family and that’s an important point.”

Rich foreigners have been adopting children from poorer nations for decades. Mia Farrow, now the mother of 14, began adopting children from Asia in 1973, with an orphan from the Vietnam War. In addition to her daughter Zahara, Jolie adopted her sons Maddox and Pax from Cambodia and Vietnam.

But critics have slammed Madonna’s efforts to adopt a second child from Malawi this week, accusing her of acting like a rich “bully” and using her money and status to fast-track the adoption process. On Tuesday, Madonna insisted she was following standard procedures.

Many adoption agencies and child rights activists also argue it is preferable for children to be taken care of by relatives or their communities, with foreign adoptions allowed only as a last resort.

Others say that isn’t always realistic. “Ideally more local adoptions would be best, but people aren’t coming forward and if life is better out there then they should take it,” said Zoe Cohen, a private adoption consultant in South Africa.

And while adoptions from Africa have risen, the continent still accounts for only about 14 percent of overseas adoptions by Americans. According to the State Department, 2,399 visas were issued to African children adopted by Americans last year, out of 17,438 adoptions from abroad.

Adoptions overseas have plummeted overall in the U.S., dropping 12 percent last year to the lowest level since 1999. That’s due to developments in China, Russia, Guatemala and other longtime sources of orphans that have reduced the number of foreign adoptions.

China accounted for the biggest decline, dropping out of the top spot last year. It was replaced by Guatemala, which almost certainly will lose that status in 2009 because of a freeze on new adoptions imposed because of fraud allegations.

Elsewhere in the West, adoptions from Africa have grown, notably in France, where the continent accounted for nearly a third of the 3,271 overseas adoptions last year. By comparison, only a handful of African children were adopted in Britain in 2007, the last year statistics were available. Most youngsters came from Ethiopia and Nigeria — seven from Ethiopia and six from Nigeria.

Orphans usually are taken in by their extended families in Africa, but AIDS and other diseases have taken a toll on those who might have traditionally provided support. In villages across the continent, frail elderly grandmothers do their best to care for children, but many end up in orphanages or on the streets.

The United Nations estimates 18 million African children will have lost a parent to AIDS by 2010.

Simon Chisale, the Malawian official handling Madonna’s adoptions, said outsiders are being considered as adoptive parents because traditional family structures have broken down.

“Times have changed,” he said. “It used to be simpler but now it is more difficult. People have the heart (to look after their extended families) but the means are not there.”

Malawi, with a population of 12 million, is among the poorest countries in the world, with rampant disease and hunger, aggravated by periodic droughts and crop failure. The U.N. says 1 million Malawian children have lost one or both parents, about half of them to AIDS.

In the face of such problems, experts say few African countries are going to turn down help from well-meaning rich foreigners. Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity, for example, is building well-equipped schools.

DiFilipo, whose agency works to help shape adoption policy, warns that adoptions by foreigners can have unintended consequences. For instance, wealthy foreigners often make donations to the orphanages where they find their children, leading orphanages to look for foreign placements because they need donations.

But, DiFilipo said, the solution is not to stop foreign adoptions but to strengthen laws and education. He cited Malawi as an example.

Malawian regulations now require prospective parents to be resident in the country for 18 to 24 months, during which time welfare officials assess their suitability — a rule that was bent when Madonna was allowed to take her adopted son, David, to London in 2006 before his adoption was finalized.

A draft children’s law, expected to be enacted later this year, seeks to address shortcomings in the current legislation, including setting limits on how many children an individual can adopt from Malawi and the interval between each adoption.

A clear legal framework making adoption relatively easy is one of the reasons cited for the adoption boom in Ethiopia, where there are 800,000 AIDS orphans. Ethiopia also allows unmarried women to adopt children.

Chisale said there has been a slight increase in interest in adopting children from Malawi, mainly among the many international aid workers there.

He could not provide numbers and was reluctant to attribute this to attention drawn by Madonna’s case, but couldn’t deny the enormous influence the star has had. “Madonna has put Malawi on the map,” he said.

(Associated Press writers Carley Petesch in New York, Donna Bryson and Stuart Moir in Johannesburg, Jill Lawless in London, Katharine Houreld and Anita Powell in Nairobi, Kenya, and Scott Sayare in Paris contributed to this report.)

By Melissa Allison | Seattle Times

Zelalem Yilma, right, pours coffee during Sunday’s Ethiopian coffee ceremony at The Burke Museum. Yilma and others hosting the event described the Ethiopian coffee ritual as a way for their people to socialize, gossip, discuss news and politics and share culture. [Photo: ERIKA SCHULTZ | THE SEATTLE TIMES]

SEATTLE, USA — The opposite of instant coffee is not a nice, slow French press. It is a centuries-old coffee ritual from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee.

Stepping inside on Seattle’s most gorgeous day so far this year, a few dozen visitors to the Burke Museum participated in the ceremony Sunday. They chatted and sipped Ethiopian coffee roasted before their eyes by three native Ethiopians who enjoy sharing the ritual with fellow Seattleites.

Zelalem Yilma began by roasting green coffee beans over a burner while Yobi Guma gave visitors a snack of roasted barley with peanuts. Grass was spread on the ground to encourage abundance or fertility, and incense burned to drive away bad spirits, or as a religious symbol for Christians.

As the coffee began to crackle and smell good, Yilma added cardamom, cinnamon and cloves to the roast while Menkeli Kanaa talked with visitors who sat in a semicircle facing the women.

Women traditionally lead Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, and these particular women — who have full-time jobs at a university, a school district and a hedge fund — have led them for people at Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee and fundraising auctions.

The slow, socially oriented ritual is a daily part of life in Ethiopia, where families and friends spend the time gossiping, learning and solving problems.

It is such an integral part of Ethiopian life that common turns of phrase are based on it. To say “I don’t have someone to have coffee with” in Ethiopia means you do not have a friend, Kanaa said. “And your mom will say, don’t let your name get noticed at coffee time” as a caution to watch your reputation.

The ritual moves slowly, as people warm to each other and join in the conversation. “Once you get in the spirit of it, you don’t want to leave,” Kanaa said.

On Sunday, the women answered questions and talked about the meaning of coffee rituals in their lives, their sometimes tragic family histories, and the difficulty that the farmer who grew the beans they were drinking has had exporting his coffee because of a new auction system in Ethiopia.

Yilma roasted the coffee to medium brown, which she said gives the best flavor. “In stores they have dark, dark coffee. I don’t like that. I like it when it’s brown.”

She then ground the coffee and brewed it in a jebena, a traditional metal brewing pot. The rich, sweet brew was served in small glass cups without handles, and guests could add their own sugar or salt. In some parts of Ethiopia, coffee drinkers add butter or honey. They also snack on popcorn and a recipe using the red cherry fruit that holds the coffee seeds.

Sunday’s first group of visitors got through two rounds of coffee, the second intentionally weaker than the first, before it was time to let another group participate. In a complete ceremony, a third round would involve even weaker coffee and a blessing.

Gwyn Hinton, who had participated in Ethiopian coffee rituals before, said they always lead to engrossing stories and conversations until suddenly three hours have passed.

“Americans are like, I’ve got to go. And they’re like, so what? It’s been three hours. Let’s sit here another hour,” she said.

The owner of Seattle Coffee Crawl, Vicki Schuman, arrived late after a morning of leading a walking tour of downtown Seattle coffee shops.

“I wanted to see how they did it, and now that I’ve seen it, I want to go to Ethiopia,” she said.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture will host another Ethiopian coffee ceremony Sunday, June 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

(Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or [email protected])

SANA’A, YEMEN (Saba) – Yemeni police in Hudeidah province has captured 9 Ethiopian people for entering Yemen illegally, Media Center of Interior Ministry has reported.

In the meantime, police also captured 17 Ethiopians when they were heading for Hudeidah province.

Police said that they have seized at al-Safiah district two French people aged between 28-30 who don’t have permits to stay in the Yemen, adding that they were referred to the prosecution.

Meanwhile, around 18 Somali refugees, including 4 women, reached Thubab coast in Taiz province and handed them over to the Yemeni Red Crescent to send them later to the main camp at Kharaz in Lahj province.

BAHIR DAR, ETHIOPIA – In Ethiopia, Easter is one of the most important religious festivals of the whole year, signified by the 53 days of fasting that precedes Easter Day itself. During this time, members of the Coptic Christian Church in Ethiopia refrain from eating meat and dairy products and some also fast from alcohol. So coffee is taken black, toast is eaten dry and main meals are made up of grains, pulses and vegetables. Fortunately, the national dish, injera, which is made from teff, a millet-like substance, can easily be eaten with vegetable sauces.

The Sunday before Easter is of course, Palm Sunday, or Hosanna, the day in which Jesus traditionally is said to have ridden into Jerusalem over a carpet of palm leaves thrown by the people. As in other Catholic churches, palm leaves are given out to the congregation and in Ethiopia some of the more devout Christians fashion these leaves into a crown, which they wear until Easter Sunday, as a symbolic crown of thorns.

On Good Friday, which is a public holiday in Ethiopia, the churches are packed with people, many standing outside listening to the amplified voice of the priest. A few go to church on Thursday, the night of the ‘Last Supper’ and remain there until Sunday, maintaining a vigil over a symbolic tomb of Christ. On Easter eve, the Saturday before Easter Sunday, church services begin at 7.00 p.m. in the evening and continue until three or four in the morning. Then the worshipers go home and break the fast, either starting their feast or, after sleeping for a few hours, beginning their feast on the following day.

In the SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia, Easter morning is an exciting time, as sheep or chickens are slaughtered and prepared for the injera feast that will take place that day. After the animal has been skinned and cut up the mothers and aunties cook it slowly over a fire. Once it is cooked each family eats meat, sauces and injera from a communal plate, as is tradition, using hands rather than cutlery. (Because Ethiopians eat with their hands, they are very hygiene conscious and wash their hands before, during and after a meal.) The meat from the slaughtered animal is often enough to ensure that the family continue eating it throughout the week – a well deserved feast after a very long fast.

– SOS Children Village

By Jeff Hartsell | The Post and Courier

NORTH CAROLINA – Tilahun Regassa appeared to thoroughly enjoy his Cooper River Bridge Run on Saturday morning. Regassa, a 20-year-old from Ethiopia, runs with an odd gait — his right foot turns in awkwardly on each stride — and likes to look around as he races. Regassa took in the Lowcountry sights under a cloudless blue sky, kept a close eye on his competitors, and gradually wore down his fellow elite runners to claim the men’s overall title in the 32nd annual Cooper River Bridge Run.

Regassa, who won a 10K in Richmond, Va., just last weekend, toyed with the field Saturday, surging ahead and then falling back to the pack time and again before finally racing away from Kenyan veteran Mark Kiptoo to cover the 10 kilometers from Mount Pleasant to downtown Charleston in 28 minutes and 24 seconds.

Regassa is the first non-Keynan to win the Bridge Run since American Jeff Cannada of Carrboro, N.C., took the title in 1991, and he led an Ethiopian sweep of the top prizes. Countrywoman Amane Gobena, 26, took the women’s title in 32:25.

Cool temperatures and a brilliant morning sun greeted the 31,430 walkers and runners and 16 wheelchair athletes who completed Saturday’s Bridge Run. But runners reported a slight wind on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, a breeze that kept times from matching the best in Bridge Run history.

Regassa’s time of 28:24 tied for the 20th-fastest men’s time in the Bridge Run, while Gobena’s 32:25 ranked 13th in Bridge Run history, which dates back to 1978.

Local and state runners competed well, with 28-year-old Sopagna Eap of Johns Island finishing 15th overall among women to win the Marcus Newberry Award for top local finisher in 36:04. Mount Pleasant’s Brian Johnson claimed the men’s Marcus Newberry Award in 32:41. Noted local runner Tom Mather of Mount Pleasant won the men’s grand masters division in 36:03, just three years after suffering serious injuries when he was hit by a car while cycling.

Regassa, a rising star in road racing, ran 28:21 in raw and damp conditions last weekend in Richmond. He could have bettered that time Saturday, but instead chose to run a strategic race, testing his competitors by pulling away and then falling back to the pack several times.

“He used the tactics very well,” said Kiptoo, the 32-year-old Kenyan who finished second in 28:28. “There was no one to really push the pace consistently. He (Regassa) was trying to see who was strong.”

A lead group of six runners, including 2008 Bridge Run champ Robert Letting of Kenya, hung together off the bridge and down onto Meeting Street in Charleston. As the runners turned right onto John Street and then left on King, Regassa and Kiptoo separated from the pack. And by the time he turned off Wentworth and back up Meeting to the finish, Regassa was by himself.

He spoke no English, but his smile said it all.

“He ran a smart race,” Kiptoo said. “I felt like I had to do a lot of the work myself. And at the end, he just sprinted away.”

Regassa and Gobena each collected a winner’s check of $3,500. The total of 31,430 finishers was the second-highest in Bridge Run history, behind only the 33,678 who finished in 2006, the first time the race was run over the Ravenel Bridge.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The Commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), Mrs. Bience Gawanas and the European Union (EU) Commissioner for Health, Ms. Androulla Vassiliou, on Saturday 04 April 2009, paid a visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital (AAFH) in Ethiopia.

The visit of the two Commissioners to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital was aimed at raising awareness on the negative effect of early childbirth imposed on the girl child and related injuries. The visit was also an opportunity to suggest possible aid that could be obtained from the European Union to help reinforce the activities of the hospital.

Commissioner Vassiliou noted that the activity of the AAFH is impressive. She expressed the EU willingness to support the hospital’s efforts in strengthening its activities and achieving its goals.

Thus, she said the contribution would be done upon submission of a formal proposal clearly indicating the areas of immediate action.

Dr. Hamlin however informed the two Commissioners that four additional Fistula centers have been opened and are already operational. They are located in the cities of Mekele, Bahirdar, Yirgalem and Harar in Ethiopia. “We are hoping to build the fifth one in Metu soon” she added.

The AAFH is an organization that cares for women with childbirth and related injuries, which was established by Drs. Reginald and Catherin Hamlin in 1974, both Gynecologist-obstetricians to Ethiopia, formerly working at the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital from 1959 until the established date of the AAFH. The objective of this hospital is to provide services for those suffering from early childbirth illnesses and related injuries, rehabilitating them to the point where they can be integrated back in to their society in a dignifying manner, while helping them to take care on themselves.

SOURCE : African Union Commission (AUC)