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Actress Angelina Jolie adopts an orphan in Ethiopia, official says
AP
Friday, July 08, 2005
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is adopting an orphaned Ethiopian baby girl, an official said Wednesday.
The twice-divorced Jolie visited the Horn of Africa nation last week to file her adoption request. She was accompanied by her three-year-old son, whom she adopted in Cambodia, and actor Brad Pitt, her Mr & Mrs Smith co-star.
"The paperwork has gone through. Miss Angelina's request was accepted last week. Everything has been completed, so the family can take the baby whenever they want," Hadosh Halefom, head of the state-run Adoption Agency, told The Associated Press.
The child "is less than a year old," Hadosh said, refusing to elaborate. The actress filed her request through a private adoption agency.
"If people's paperwork is in order, it can take only two days to finalise everything," Hadosh said.
In an interview posted Tuesday in the online-edition of People magazine, Jolie said the girl would be named Zahara Marley Jolie.
The actress met the 10 conditions for adopting a child from Ethiopia, Hadosh said.
"The two most important are economic capabilities and check with the police," Hadosh said. "Although she is a film star, she still has to meet the same requirements as everybody else."
The country of 70 million has more than five million orphans, their parents lost to famine, disease, war and AIDS - a catastrophe which the government has said is "tearing apart the social fabric" of the east African nation.
Caring for the orphans costs US$115 million a month in a country whose annual health budget is only US$140 million .
So Ethiopia has gone out of its way to make adoption easier, and the numbers reached a record in 2003 with 1,400 children taken abroad, more than double the number in the previous year. The number of adoption agencies in Addis Ababa, the capital, has doubled in the past year to 30.
Ethiopia has enacted strict laws to thwart dubious adoption agents and to ensure that the orphan really exists, the paperwork is not fraudulent and no AIDS-infected children are being passed off as healthy.
Agencies charge fees of around US$20,000 per child, about half what is charged in other countries offering babies for adoption.
Actress Angelina Jolie adopts an orphan in Ethiopia, official says
AP
Friday, July 08, 2005
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is adopting an orphaned Ethiopian baby girl, an official said Wednesday.
The twice-divorced Jolie visited the Horn of Africa nation last week to file her adoption request. She was accompanied by her three-year-old son, whom she adopted in Cambodia, and actor Brad Pitt, her Mr & Mrs Smith co-star.
"The paperwork has gone through. Miss Angelina's request was accepted last week. Everything has been completed, so the family can take the baby whenever they want," Hadosh Halefom, head of the state-run Adoption Agency, told The Associated Press.
The child "is less than a year old," Hadosh said, refusing to elaborate. The actress filed her request through a private adoption agency.
"If people's paperwork is in order, it can take only two days to finalise everything," Hadosh said.
In an interview posted Tuesday in the online-edition of People magazine, Jolie said the girl would be named Zahara Marley Jolie.
The actress met the 10 conditions for adopting a child from Ethiopia, Hadosh said.
"The two most important are economic capabilities and check with the police," Hadosh said. "Although she is a film star, she still has to meet the same requirements as everybody else."
The country of 70 million has more than five million orphans, their parents lost to famine, disease, war and AIDS - a catastrophe which the government has said is "tearing apart the social fabric" of the east African nation.
Caring for the orphans costs US$115 million a month in a country whose annual health budget is only US$140 million .
So Ethiopia has gone out of its way to make adoption easier, and the numbers reached a record in 2003 with 1,400 children taken abroad, more than double the number in the previous year. The number of adoption agencies in Addis Ababa, the capital, has doubled in the past year to 30.
Ethiopia has enacted strict laws to thwart dubious adoption agents and to ensure that the orphan really exists, the paperwork is not fraudulent and no AIDS-infected children are being passed off as healthy.
Agencies charge fees of around US$20,000 per child, about half what is charged in other countries offering babies for adoption.
Actress Angelina Jolie adopts an orphan in Ethiopia, official says
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