March | 2008 | A Birth Project

An update on the Chadian children from last October in that Zoe’s Ark debaucle.

“Kidnapped Chadian kids reunited with their families”

ADRE, Chad (CNN) — Nearly 100 children at the center of an international scandal that left them stranded at an orphanage in remote eastern Chad returned home after nearly five months Friday, and were being reunited with their families.

Some of the children who were nearly abducted by a French charity, pictured in Abeche in November 2007.

It was a six-hour bus ride from Abeche, in eastern Chad, to Adre, on the border with Sudan, where mothers and fathers gathered at the post office waiting for their children.

During the ride, the bus broke down when its radiator burst.

Those accompanying the children were concerned about rebels causing trouble along the way, but that concern turned out to be unfounded.

The 97 children were taken from their homes in October by a then-obscure French charity, L’Arche de Zoe (Zoe’s Ark), which claimed they were orphans from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.

Read the Rest here.

(in my best beavis n butthead voice…”CNN said kidnapped.. heheheheh”)

Check this brief article in the SF Chronicle examining the confusion between adoption and abduction.

How child traffickers are exploiting the poor and unsuspecting

Adoption reforms too late to reunite Kenyan mom, son

Katharine Houreld, Associated Press

(03-02) 04:00 PST Mombasa, Kenya —

The offer of a foreign education for her beloved youngest son seemed like a dream come true for Elizabeth Rioba. But the Kenyan mother says a family member tricked her into signing adoption papers, and now it’s been five years since she’s seen her boy.

The Polish couple that adopted 4-year-old Abednego and renamed him Mikolaj says the procedure was fully legal, took six months and involved Polish diplomats who spoke with the birth parents. Rioba acknowledges she signed papers, but says she did not understand them.

Child protection experts say such tragic misunderstandings are common in a part of the world where adoption is a foreign concept. Criminals can exploit the gap between wealthy Westerners who genuinely want to help and poor Africans who want to do the best they can for their children.