This story begins with two good families.
A couple of days ago, a news title caught my eye on social media.
It told the story of a little girl from Uganda, named Namata (Mata, as she was sometimes called) who was taken at the tender age of five from her loving mother and sold to adopted by an American couple, back in 2015. Jessica and Adam Davis already had a large family, back in Ohio. They were the happy (biological) parents of four children, two boys and two girls, when they decided they wanted to do something good for someone in need.
They remembered reading Uganda was one of the highest need countries, with almost 3 million orphans.
So, it seemed like a good idea to adopt an orphaned child, from a very poor country. So, they contacted European Adoption Consultants, who soon found them a little girl. Very soon, in fact, almost as if they had just been waiting for someone willing to provide the money...
The Davises were told that little Namata's father had died and that her mother was mean and neglectful with her daughter, exactly the sort of unlucky child they wanted to give a home to.
They went through stacks of paperwork and immense costs to get that kid. They even flew to Uganda, where they found the little girl in a local orphanage, in a dark room, with bars on the walls. So far, the story told by the EAC panned out. They lived for six weeks in Uganda, together with the little girl, as a sort of testing period. They introduced her to their children and everything was going swimmingly.
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But then, after the couple had formally adopted little Namata and taken her home, a different story began emerging. The Davises noticed huge discrepancies between what Mata told them about her life at home, in Uganda, and what the adoption agency's story. The girl kept telling them that her real mother was a wonderful mom, who loved her and took good care of her. The Davises' dream of helping an unloved, abused child was falling apart, as it became apparent that this particular child was neither.
They arranged a conversation between Mata and her birth mother through Skype, which only compounded to their misery. The mother revealed that she hadn't known she was giving her baby away. She had been told that she was sending Mata abroad for a few years, to get a better education and that the Davis family would just be sponsoring her education.
No one mentioned adoption.
A villager-turned-trafficker made a pitch at a local church and managed to get seven children into the adoption circuit, including Mata, who was sent to a place called God's Mercy, about a four-hour drive away.
CNN
Mata's mother had been lied to and tricked into signing away her parental rights. Apparently, it's quite common practice in poor countries, where traffickers prey on marginalized, on single parents – widows and the like – and people who don't have means. They spin yarns to get these people to give away their children.
And these poor people are tricked into making a crucial mistake – trusting some stranger to want what's best for them and their children. But the thing is, you can't trust anyone, especially not a stranger, with the life of your child.
Give her to me, I'll make sure she gets an education.
Remember, good intentions don't just lie around...they're hard to find.
Mata was reunited with her birth mother and her family and apparently, still Skypes with the Davises.
An interesting detail, often left out of news stories about the Davises, is that the adoption was actually halted, back in 2015. Apparently, the US Embassy put a halt on all adoptions because of corruption in some adoption agencies. In December 2015, the Davises were devastated because their adoption of Mata might not happen, due to corruption investigations. In 2016, they were devastated 'cause the allegations turned out to be true.
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At about the same time, in 2016, another US family – Stacy and Shawn Wells – lived a similar nightmare. They, too, had adopted a little girl from Uganda, from the very same village as Mata. Her name was Violah and her tale bore a striking resemblance to that of Namata.
The Wellses filed the paperwork for an adoption and pretty soon, little Violah popped up. Her father had also died and her mother was neglectful, not feeding her children, dirty house etc.
But when the Wellses got little Violah home, in the US, she also began telling stories about her families, about leaving a home, where she had a mother and sister who loved her, about happiness and cooking together. You know, the basic stories of a happy family.
They went online and found the story of a Ugandan woman who claimed four of her children were taken away, against her will.
She was Violah's mother.
The Wellses, like the Davises, helped reunite the little girl with her mother, because they knew that what was going on was wrong. Criminal, even.
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You know, after reading so many horrible stories about abusive foster families and seeing how many evil people are out there, you begin to lose hope in humanity. Cases upon cases of people adopting childen and abusing them, torturing them and so on, it's really surprising to see a good family. To come across foster parents who actually just wanted to help and provide a home to a poor child (you know, the basic humane thing you'd expect anyone would do)...
I felt good after reading this, like yeah, there are still good people out there. There are.
Not many, though.
Out of the four children taken away from Violah's mother, two were reunited with her. Two were not and are still living with their adoptive US parents.
"Both families are aware of the truth. They appear to be continuing to live their lives and let the children believe what they've been told, which isn't true at all."
Of course, the European Adoption Consultants offices were raided, in February of last year by the FBI and the EAC were debarred for three years.
They were also sued by Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine, who seeks a reimbusement for clients and to prohibit Margaret Cole (EAC's founder) from working for a charitable organization in Ohio again.
But this comes only after Namata's story blew up in the media and after CNN did a huge piece about it, called 'Kids for sale'.
What is striking is that this only happened now. The EAC has been in existence for 26 years, in which not one, but many stories broke about corruption and cases of abuse, linked to this adoption agency. Don't you find it strange that it was only now, when a major news channel, like the CNN, took an active interest, “exposing” the agency as corrupt that the FBI decided to shut it down?
I know I do.
Back in 2008 (9 years before the EAC was investigated, remember), the Alexanders adopted a little Russian girl, through the EAC, for enormous sums of money, only to find out after the adoption was finalized that the girl suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, had sustained childhood trauma and had severe attachment disorders. All this information was kept from the adoptive family, by the EAC, despite the contracts they signed. It would've obviously been their duty to disclose all of this information to potential adoptive parents, before the adoption took place.
But they didn't.
Why?
Money.
It's always money that seems to motivate these people. Apparently, they were paid about $15,000 per child. Now, that's a nice sum, isn't it? According to their very own records, they made around 400-450 adoptions a year. So what's that? Oh right, $6,000,000 dollars. Not bad.
I found a fascinating blog entry here, that looked at their IRS documents and listed their gross income as around $8,000,000, from 2004 to 2006, the years leading up to the Alexanders adoption.
Margaret Cole's salary is roughly around $200,000 a year.
Now, I know these sums are old. You don't care about the EAC's income twelve years ago. But you should. Because this just shows a pattern. For years, these people profited from the pain and suffering of others – of the children, of the birth parents sometimes, and of the adoptive families.
Also in 2008 (bad year, I suppose), another story came out, but this one wasn't big enough to shut the EAC down either. This one was about a Russian baby, Dmitry Yakolev, adopted by an American family. He was 21 months old when he was left inside a baking SUV, by his adoptive father for many hours, during which the temperature soared to 55 C. The adoptive father was supposedly taking him to a day care center, when he decided to skip that and go straight to work. He left the boy strapped in the car for hours, until a passerby finally saw him and called the authorities.
Naturally, the baby boy died.
And naturally, the adoption was made through the EAC.
This horrible event did not prompt a reaction from the state. At least, not the American one.
Russia initially banned the EAC, along with two other American adoption agencies, from operating in their country.
This happened in July 2008. IN august, however, the Russians changed their mind and the following announcement appeared on the EAC website:
EAC is proud to announce that we have received confirmation from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation that our accreditation will remain in tact and valid. Our staff is honored to be allowed to assist you in completing your forever family.
This story ends with a bad family.
I've left the story I thought most shocking for last.
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In 2015, the Tufts adopted a little girl from Poland. They didn't live together long, only a year. That was until the Tufts were arrested for child abuse, after allegations that John Tuft, the girl's adoptive father had inserted a doll in the girl's private parts. The couple insisted that it was the child who had done this. However, a medical examination showed that the wounds caused were so bad that they must've required considerable force. The girl was left needing surgery.
You want to hear an interesting fact? The Tufts weren't the original adoptive parents of the Polish girl. She had come over, through the EAC, of course, for another couple, who at the last minute, changed their minds and decided they didn't want the girl anymore. So, the EAC saw to it that the girl was quickly placed with another family – the Tufts. This was very easy to do, since John Tuft's mother, Debra Parris, worked as EAC's African head. She is also the woman who notified the Davises that they could adopt Mata.
If you look back through the EAC's history, you find cases upon cases of neglect, abuse, lies and greed. It's really interesting that it took the FBI over 25 years to come down on them. Aren't these the people who are supposed to protect people?