Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Cultural Sensitivity While in Ethiopia

This was published in October of 2008 by the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS).

From jcics.org:
Every adoption is like a rollercoaster for the adoptive parents. There are always obstacles to overcome and hoops to jump through. But in every adoption there are also many highs. For most adoptive parents the biggest high is finally being able to travel, meet the child whose photo you fell in love with long ago, and holding them in your arms. It is the moment that every adoptive parent longs for and dreams of. Adoptive parents want to spend every moment with their new child, learning every little piece of their personality and spirit. Adoptive parents want to show their new child(ren) everything that the world has to offer them. This being said sometimes it is necessary for an adoptive family to be respectful of a country’s local culture and hold off these magical moments for a few days. Joint Council feels that this is the case in Ethiopia...

...The large number of adoptive families combined with the curiosity and suspicions of Ethiopian citizens and with cultural differences in parenting and child behavior, is unfortunately causing unintended yet very significant concerns among some Ethiopian citizens and the government.

Please click here to read the whole cultural sensitivity document.

2 comments:

Upstatemamma said...

I hate that document. I do not know what JCICS was thinking when they wrote it. In truth no one I came in contact with could figure out why we were not supposed to go out. Everyone told us we were losing a very important opportunity to experience and understand the culture that our daughter was born in. And they were right! Telling everyone to hide is ridiculous!

~Together 2 Get Fit~ said...

I don't think the link to read the full article is working...or I missed where to click. I would like to read it :o)

Thanks for this wonderful blog~you do an amazing job!!