International adoption sparks creative fundraising efforts

TUSCUMBIA — When Timmy and Maggie Bea Ray decided to adopt a child from a foreign country, they knew it would involve travel, learning about a new culture and, above all, money.

They began the lengthy process in 2013. In late 2015, the adoption of Maddux, a young boy from Ethiopia, was finally completed. Maddux is now 6 years old and thriving in his new home.

Timmy Ray is a worship minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. A couple of modest means, the Rays had to be creative in raising money to help defray the costs involved in the adoption.

They are also in the process of adopting a second child, this time from the South American nation of Colombia. 

Timmy Ray, along with his brother, Ben, who make up the Ray Brothers, were recently joined by several of their local musician friends for a fundraiser that featured the band performing the music of rock legend Billy Joel. 

"We knew going into it we wouldn't be able to do this alone," Timmy Ray said of the adoption.  "You can get to five figures pretty quick."

There were other fundraisers, too, such as bake sales, skate nights, yard sales, T-shirt sales, barbecue dinners and other events to defray the administrative and travel costs that can run $10,000 to $40,000.

"There's been some amazing people who have come alongside us, not only supporting us, but helping us fundraise," Timmy Ray said. "You think of all the skills you have. I've played music for a long time."

Millie Wiginton, of Muscle Shoals, has twin Ethiopian girls she and her husband adopted when they were 2 years old. Meryn and Saryn are now 7 and in school in Muscle Shoals. 

The adoption process took about 1 1/2 years to complete.

Wiginton said the hardest part of the process was sitting in front of an Ethiopian judge and have him grant custody, only to have to leave and wait for the U.S. government to complete its part of the lengthy process. 

"They have to make sure everything is on the up and up, and nobody has been coerced and nobody has been given any money," Wiginton said.

Timmy Ray also said the U.S. portion of the process took longer to complete. 

Once the process was completed, the Wigintons received a phone call. They had about a week's notice to travel to Ethiopia to pick up the twins.

With all the administrative fees and travel to Ethiopia, the adoption cost $45,000. She said it was more costly because it involved two children.

Buddy Hooper, president of the Alabama Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, said an international adoption can cost $20,000 to $40,000. 

"It is very expensive," Hooper said. "Through the Department of Human Resources, there's virtually no expense. We've got children here needing forever homes. We have over 300 children waiting to be adopted."

Hooper pointed out that May is National Foster Care Month. He said the children waiting to be adopted in Alabama through DHR are ages 9 and up.

"You're not going to be able to adopt a newborn through DHR," he said.

Hooper said it's hard to put a time frame to complete the adoption process, but typically it can last six to 12 months

"If the child is free for adoption, it can happen in 90 days," Hooper said.

While it's not the only reason, Hooper said the biggest reason so many children are in foster care is parents using drugs.

DHR will work to help the parents straighten up to the point where they can raise their children. Many times the children return to their parents, or they go live with a relative.

"If that can't happen, they can be adopted through DHR," Hooper said.

He said DHR provides training for parents to be dually licensed as foster parents or adoptive parents. He said there aren't enough adoptive or foster parents in the state to fill the needs.

Wiginton, who has a 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, said the Lord led them to adopt Meryn and Saryn.

"We believe every child has a right to loving parents and to be placed in a family," said Wiginton, who is involved with local foster families and has a ministry at Highland Park Baptist Church. She also works with the Colbert County Department of Human Resources.

Wiginton couldn't explain why they picked Africa.

"For whatever reason, we absolutely knew we had to adopt from Africa. After a lot of prayer, we knew what we were supposed to do," she said.

Maggie Bea Ray said she had a deep passion to adopt a child since she was young. Prayer was also a part of the decision process of the Rays. Since they're a Christian family, they have a duty to care for the vulnerable in society.

The Rays adopted Maddux through Children's House International, a fully licensed non-profit international adoption agency based in Washington state.

Timmy Ray said he and his wife were accepted into the agency's Ethiopia program in 2013.

The couple had to complete online courses, and were fingerprinted by several different agencies during the adoption process, including the FBI, Department of Human Resources, local police and Homeland Security.

"We spent 28 days in Ethiopia finalizing his adoption," Timmy Ray said. "It was a very long process to get him."

Some of the couple's costs were defrayed by a ministry in Ethiopia, which provided them a place to stay with a fully furnished kitchen. They had all their meals there, and had a driver to help them get around.

"Flights to Ethiopia are expensive," Ray said. "The fees go all over the place."

There are fees to social workers, paying for the operation of the adoption service providers and their staff, lawyers and court fees. Read more here

Ethiopia’s huge honey production potential in search of modern techniques

The beehives of Ethiopia, Africa’s top honey producer, make about a quarter of the continent’s honey, but travellers who come to sample the liquid gold often find there isn’t enough to go around .

In a country where 85% of all jobs are in agriculture, industry experts say the beekeeping – or apiculture – sector is still a long way from harvesting its full potential, hampered by outdated, low-yield techniques, periodic droughts and uncompetitive prices.

Honey traditionally plays a big role in Ethiopian life – where its delicious white, red and yellow varieties are used in cooking, for medicinal purposes and as a key ingredient in the local mead known as tej.

The problem is that the majority of farmers use outdated styles of beehives that are stored in trees or clay jars.

And these do not produce as much honey as modern wooden boxes, says Juergen Greiling, a senior adviser at the Ethiopian Apiculture Board, an umbrella group for the honey industry.

Equipped with the right modern techniques, honey production has the potential to pull thousands of poor farmers out of poverty, experts say.

Can Ethiopia Make A Beeline To Successful Honey Export Business https://t.co/QmSo5b31CX

— PigmineNews (@PigmineNews) May 15, 2017

Alem Abraha is one such farmer.

He was previously living from hand to mouth as a subsistence farmer, but took up beekeeping full-time about ten years ago.

“My life has been completely changed,” he says, as bees circle his head in the village of Zaena, situated in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray.

It is on Tigray’s high-altitude mountain slopes that the yellow Adey Abeba flower grows, a key component in making the unique white honey that is one of Ethiopa’s most prized exports.

“If you train farmers to have modern training like I’m doing here, that would transform production,” Alem says.

Tesfamariam Assefa, a coordinator at the Tigray regional agriculture bureau, said the government aimed to boost the region’s honey exports from 50% to 80% of output by teaching farmers better beekeeping techniques.

Can Ethiopia make a beeline to successful honey export business? https://t.co/0KZ5EHzCzr pic.twitter.com/2KopOBQ2FY

— Worldnews Uptodate (@WorldnewsNew) May 14, 2017

EU waking up

The outside world is waking up to the qualities of Ethiopian honey, too.

In 2008, the European Union officially gave the green light to imports of Ethiopian honey.

However, nearly a decade later, the country is still only exporting at most 800 tonnes of the 50,000 tonnes it produces annually.

Alem Abraha says he travels regularly to Italy to show off his wares and honey merchants in Tigray say they are noticing more and more interest from buyers from Ethiopia and beyond.

“Tigray’s honey has a lot of customers all over Ethiopia,” said Haile Gebru, who sells honey from a shopping mall in Tigray’s capital of Mekele.

Join us in celebrating #FairTradeDay! Our Fair Trade Certified Honey is sourced from Ethiopia. https://t.co/9UA2VeSFmU pic.twitter.com/t48b36OhjG

— Buzz + Bloom Honey (@buzznbloom) May 13, 2017

“But production is low.”

The low yields of Ethiopian beehives, along with periodic droughts that can disrupt supplies of water to colonies and shrivel trees that insects need for pollen, have caused honey shortages.

These shortfalls drive up prices to as much as 450 birr (€18) per kilogramme, effectively pricing honey exports to Asia and Europe out of the market.

“I’m not able to sell as much as I can because the price is not competitive, especially here from Tigray,” said Daniel Gebremeskel, managing director of Comel, a honey processing and export company based in Mekele.

“We are not making as much as we expect. We are working at low capacity because of supply problems,” Gebremskel said.

There is also a grey market for Ethiopian honey, with people smuggling it across the border to Sudan or in their luggage in Mekele’s airport to avoid paying export taxes, said Greiling of the Ethiopian Apiculture Board.

The regional government, alarmed at the lost export tax revenues, is seeking to curb the undercover trade by introducing limits on the amount of honey that can be taken in checked baggage.

Despite the challenges facing Ethiopia’s apiculture sector, Gebremeskel is undeterred and is currently remodelling his processing facility and seeking to woo buyers abroad, some of whom frequently mistake the white honey for cream.

“We’re getting more demand than before,” Gebremeskel says. Read more here

Okpekpe 5th road race for re-industrializing Africa

Marathoners competes in the previous edition of the 10 kilometer Okpekpe International Road Race

The 2017 (5th edition) of the Okpekpe international 10km road race held last Saturday May 13, 2017, in Okpekpe, town, Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Special commendation to the organizers of the annual international sports event in particular, my dear friend, Mr. Mike Itermagbor, the private initiator of Okpekpe public/private partnership competition brand. 

Yours comradely has been privileged to be part of this singular (West) African race since inception in 2012. Thanks to my association and comradeship with the grand patron, two-term NLC president, two-term governor, 5th term front runner of the race, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. 

Everybody hailed Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who built the hitherto neglected 25 kilometers long road during his first term as Governor of Edo State. The road was commissioned by APC Presidential Candidate Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Special commendation must go to his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki for taking the race to a higher level.  Okpekpe international 10km road race is a practical dividend of sustainable development and good governance. 

Oshiomhole’s words last Saturday: “I’m happy that the program has outlived my own tenure of office and that is the way it should be. It has direct impact on the social economic and commercial life, not only on this part of the country but for the people of Edo State. The inflow of internationals due to the race will provide the necessary exposure for Okpekpe and Edo state to develop even further”.  

Today, Okpekpe international 10km road race organized by Pamodzi Sports Marketing is the only road race in Nigeria that is recognized by both the (International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS). 

This year’s edition assumed special importance. Beyond  the race for prize, 2017 edition provides for participation for other noble causes namely; orphanage, women empowerment, cancer and the cause championed  by yours sincerely - re-industrialisation of African Continent. A lot of dignitaries graced the event and also participated in the race to create awareness for cancer, run for orphanage or to re-industrialize the country. Governor Godwin Obaseki’s wife Betsy and Oshiomhole’s wife, Iara promoted noble causes of women empowerment and orphanage respectively. As the Vice President of IndustriALL Global Union, I led the over two hundred workers - members of some of the Nigerian affiliate unions of IndustriALL global union who with captioned T-shirts and banners  participated in the race for re-industrializing Africa. 

IndustriALL Global Union with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the manufacturing and mining, energy sectors for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world. Africa is a wealthy continent, blessed with an abundance of raw materials. Yet Africans don’t profit from this, because value is added further up the supply chain, after we keep on misguidedly export the raw materials. Nigeria is a classic case; crude oil is exported, while refined petroleum products are imported, in the process millions of jobs are exported in a country with 50 per cent unemployment. South Africa and Ghana have abundant gold, platinum and diamond. They export them in raw forms while importing jewelries. Nigeria exports cotton and imports assorted smuggled fabrics. Africa unacceptably lacks comprehensive industrial policy. Its time Africa added value to its abundant raw materials through comprehensive beneficiation/value addition programmes that would create millions of sustainable decent jobs. 

Africans need to industrialize their economies to create quality, sustainable jobs, and lift people out of poverty. For industrialization to succeed, we need infrastructure: effective transport and communication networks, reliable electricity supplies, anti-smuggling policy and a transparent regulatory framework. Africans must produce what they consume, consume what they produce.  This requires intervention and coordination by the African governments at all levels and also by regional and continental bodies. It also provided an opportunity to acknowledge and commend the Federal government’s diversification policy. Recently Federal government declared Mondays and Wednesdays every week, as Made-in-Nigeria Dress Days across the country “as part of measures to uplift the nation’s culture and promote Made-in-Nigeria textile products”. Patronage of local fabrics and indeed all locally produced goods should be every day’s commitment for 180 million buyers. Africans must wear what they produce and produce what they wear. 

Inspired and energized by IndustriALL’s goal of ensuring Sustainable Industrial Development, African affiliates have taken industrial policy issues to government and employers on the urgent need for beneficiation and value addition in Africa. The race is part of the efforts to build a momentum around 2017 Africa Industrialization Day on November 20 through mass demonstrations and policy engagement with the Ministries of Trade and Investment in Africa. Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung was for once a star guest at this year’s edition with his added voice to IndustriALL’s Campaign. Witness him: “I concur with the movement of industrialization and diversification of the Nigerian economy. Without industrialization, there is no way we can move forward. With this I associate with the campaign of workers and as one of you ...I also want to lend my voice that we must industrialize Nigeria. Forward ever, Backward never.”

It is now an open knowledge that Ethiopian duo of Luel Gebrasilasis and Azmera Gebru, emerged winners in the male and female categories. The fastest Nigerian female athlete in the race, Deborah Pam, finished in 38 minutes, 15 seconds and was followed by Elizabeth Nuhu from Nasarawa State in 38 minutes, 41 seconds, while Rose Ajusho came third in 38 minutes, 55 seconds. Read more here

Ethiopia: Who for WHO? A Top Leader of a Terrorist Organization, That’s Who!

Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopia's minister of foreign affairs and former minister of health, is seen at a news conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 24, 2016

By Alemayheu G. Mariam

Author’s Note: In this commentary, I make the case against Tedros Adhanom, a top leader of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front, a terrorist organization, who is a finalist for the director-general position at the World Health Organization.

This commentary demonstrates beyond a shadow of doubt that Adhanom does not have the experience, competence, skill sets, intellectual capacity, schooling, professionalism or judgment to become the leader of WHO.

The commentary further demonstrates that Adhanom is a PC (political correctness) candidate, and if selected, an appointment. WHO wants to put a black face on its logo to show how empathetic and sensitive it is to the plight of the billions of Africans and others suffering from health problems. The decision to hire Adhanom shall haunt WHO for decades to come.

I ask all who read this commentary to disseminate it using the links below,  along with any other relevant ones,  throughout the World Health Organization so that all personnel in that organization will be aware what kind of leader that is being foisted on them. Read more here

China, UN to enhance cooperation in peacekeeping

Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun (R) meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is here to attend the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation, in Beijing, capital of China, May 13, 2017. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

China will enhance cooperation with the United Nations on peacekeeping, according to Chinese State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun.[Special coverage]

China will also deepen cooperation with the UN in areas including anti-terrorism and drugs control so as to contribute more to world peace and development, Guo said while meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Beijing Saturday.

The UN Secretariat puts great emphasis on cooperation with China, and is grateful to China for supporting the UN peacekeeping missions, said Guterres, who is in Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Read more here