International adoption is big business in Ethiopia and the country accounts for almost one in five international adoptions in the US, but how ethical is the process? BBC Africa's Hewete Haileselassie reports in this article which appeared in the latest issue of our Focus on Africa magazine. (BBC)
Twenty-five years after leaving Ethiopia, Matthews Teshome decided to come home from the United States. This time for good.
He had left much behind in April 2007 – most notably a successful career in IT. But his reason was simple. “There is work to be done,” he said at the time.
Soon after returning to the capital, Addis Ababa, he befriended a young boy he saw running errands and shining shoes around his hotel.
Zeberga, who was then 13, used the little money he made to clothe and feed himself, pay his uncle rent, put himself through night school and send money back to his mother in rural Ethiopia.
“As I was in the country to help out, if I couldn’t help this boy then I wasn’t doing much,” says Mr Matthews, who was determined that Zeberga should return to school full-time.
After promising to continue the monthly $3 (£2) remittance, he received permission from Zeberga’s uncle and his mother to support Zeberga.
Within months the young boy had moved in with Mr Matthews, who employed a lawyer to facilitate the adoption process not only of Zeberga but also of his younger sister who was working as a maid in the capital.
