Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra has died. She passed away on March 17, 2009. Haregewoin was and will continue to be an example and an inspiration for people to love and care, without reservation, for children in need. Her ability and determination to care for the neediest when no one else would and her determination to make the situation better for them brought much needed attention to the problems that face the orphans in Ethiopia. People of all ages flocked to Haregewoin because she did not let AIDS, the threat of social ostracism for caring for children and befriending adults with AIDS, or financial hardship (in a country that has been enduring longer and deeper economic troubles than what most of us can imagine), keep her from sharing everything she had with the children that arrived at her door. These sites will give you more information about Haregewoin and help answer any questions you might have about the issue of adoption from Ethiopia. Mark and I also recommend the book There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene. Her book is extremely well researched and has an endless list of sources and information at the end. A Google search will also provide you with hours of reading on the complexity and seriousness of the issues that I discuss below.
http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com/blog?op=view&id=64
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/2009/03/ethiopian-humanitarian-haregewoin-teferra-dies/
Please realize that adoption is NOT viewed, and rightly so, as a solution for the orphans in Ethiopia. These beautiful children are loved and wanted but they become orphans due to one or both parents dying and the often impossible task of earning an income due to a combination of drought and a bad economy and/or stigmatism from someone in the family having AIDS. The number of orphans that will be adopted does not touch the problem it simply saves those children. That is the concern of the Ethiopian government and that concern, saving as many children as possible, is weighed against the loss to the child of their family, home, country, culture, language, and heritage. It is a huge loss for the child and the country. The beautiful children from Ethiopia that you see adopted into families are a treasure to those families and their communities. However I am hopeful that more people will become more informed and therefore better able to promote healing and recovery in Ethiopia and that will provide a greater and more secure future for the children in Ethiopia.
Greater access to the medicines that have made AIDS a chronic disease in the Western World is needed. For too long, and at the expense of a generation of people in third world countries like Ethiopia, pharmaceutical companies would not make the needed medicines easily available and affordable. It is complicated but right now it is my understanding that only the first round of AIDS medicines has been made affordable and available. The second and desperately needed round of medicines that an Aids patient need is still being kept out of reach (greed) and therefore the numbers of people dying from AIDS in third world countries continues to be outrageous. It is also my understanding that AIDS became AIDS and was then spread primarily with the reuse of plastic needles during the early immunization phase in Africa (1950's on) because not enough (needles were made inexpensive and mass produced in US but not distributed widely enough) were made available to meet the demand for the miracle immunization drugs that were proven to save lives in record numbers.
Haregewoin Teferra your life will be honored by all of us who have been touched by your efforts. We will be the ones to carry on for you. It is our turn now.
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