The Post Adoption Reunion Experiences and Challenges of Emaye Adoptee’s Family Organization
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Date
2025-12-01
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Post Adoption Reunion is the reconnection between adoptees and their birth families or relatives after years of separation due to the result of Adoption. This is critical for both parties to emotionally reconcile and identity questions to be resolved. This study assessed the experience and challenges of post adoption reunion at Emaye Adoptee‟s family Reunion organization. The Organization was established on May 2021, and it deals with requests of adoptees who are seeking to reunite with their birth families. It has had successes in reuniting more than eighty adoptees with their birth families that includes providing the necessary legal and psychological support while maintaining the privacy and consent of the adoptees and their birth families. Even though the organization utilizes available means of collecting as much data and information for a timely reunion between adoptees and birth families, the research has identified considerable structural, organizational, social, psychological and emotional challenges in the process of reunification. The research utilized a qualitative research method, which involved six participants selected using purposive sampling technique to explore and understand the adoptees experiences and challenges in the post adoption reunion. The research utilized both primary and secondary data relevant to the study. As for the primary data, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with adoptees who have had successful reunions with their birth families, and with those who are still awaiting to be reunited with their birth families. The key informants were especially significant for an in-depth analysis of non-numerical data to realize the works of the Organization, its success and challenges. For both forms of primary data collection, digital meetings were made possible. Key findings reveal that false documentation of the adoptees, lack of recorded files, lack of critical investigation about the adoptees document and digital misinformation have been critical challenges to conduct post adoption reunions. By bridging the theories, the study emphasizes on the role of post adoption reunion within the perspective of Emaye Organization in providing holistic services and basic access to information for the adoptees who were raised in foreign countries. The significance of this research is to bring relevant contribution to an under-researched area of social policy and family studies.
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Post Adoption Adoptee Reunion Challenge Experience