A moratorium on adoptions to parents in other countries could be detrimental to the development of Morocco’s orphans.
Global Post
Lydia Cheng | March 18, 2013 13:14
Ibrahim is like a lot of two-year-olds. He eats a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, goes to play groups, and “is a lovely, bright child. God has given him the gift of gab,” said his mother, an American named Hadija (not her real name, since she wishes to protect Ibrahim’s identity.)
Two years ago, Hadija, 38, and her American husband, adopted Ibrahim from Morocco and brought him to Qatar.
Today, it would be impossible for them to adopt Ibrahim and raise him outside Morocco, because in September of last year, the Moroccan government imposed a moratorium on international adoptions out of fear that children raised outside the country will lose their religion and national heritage. Click here to read more…
Lydia Cheng is a student at the University of Tulsa. She spent several months in Morocco in late 2012 on an SIT Study Abroad program and produced this story in association with Round Earth Media, a non-profit that mentors the next generation of international journalists.
Saltana El Jazouli contributed reporting.
