Global Voices » Chad: French NGO Adoption Scandal

Zoe's arc, “your love is choking me!”

Le blog du Prési! ^[1], written by a French-Cameroonian blogger, comments on a recent scandal involving a French NGO that tried to rescue 103 children from the Chadian-Sudanese border ^[2]–supposedly Darfurian refugees–from “certain death” by adopting them to France.

Six members of the charity L’Arche de Zoé ^[3] (Zoe's Arc) were arrested in Chad and charged with “abducting minors for the purpose of changing their civil status,” i.e. giving them new parents. The punishment is five to 20 years of forced labor.

Zoe's Arc has denied wrongdoing, saying that the children were orphans from Sudan. But according to reports, UN officials and French diplomats said that many of the children had parents and were Chadian, not Sudanese. Neither country allows international adoption.

To make matters worse, Chad's president Idriss Déby has been speculating that the charity, which was charging a 2,400 euro adoption fee, planned to sell these children to pedophiles or harvest their organs ^[4].

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is not pleased. This incident has raised tensions in the two country's relations just before the planned deployment of a French-led EU peacekeeping force in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic.

Le blog du Prési! comments ^[5]: on the Zoe affair, celebrity adoption, and a love that chokes, whatever its good intentions:

…pour sauver quelques malheureux petits africains de la mort, l'Arche de Zoé (AdZ) a flotté dans les airs, roulé dans le désert pour leur venir au secours, au Tchad. Objectif, ramener un 103 d'enfants et surtout les remettre à destination à des familles en attente. Coût de l'opération, 2400 euros par famille d'adoption en France.

…Zoe's arc soared through the air and rolled over desert to the rescue a few poor African children from death. Objective: to bring 103 children to their destination [in France] where families were waiting. Cost of the operation: 2,400 euros per adoptive family.

Tout était si bien reglé, jusqu'à ce vol retour, mais voilà, les autorités Tchadiennes s'en mêlent, en découvrant le pot-aux-roses et le debut des poursuites pour “enlèvement de mineurs tendant à compromettre leur état civil et escroquerie”. Et bien sur l'indignation des membres de l'ADZ, eux qui voulaient sauver le monde, sauver ces enfants de la mort. Et on apprend que ce n'étaient pas des orphelins, que ce n'étaient pas des ressortissants du Darfour, supercherie sur toute la ligne.

Everything was in order, down to the return trip, but then the Chadian authorities got involved, the plot was uncovered, and so began [ADZ's] prosecution for “fraud and the abduction of minors with intent to compromise their civil status.” Of course the ADZ members were indignant, they who wanted to ave the world, save these infants from death. And then we learn that they were not orphans, that they were not Darfurians, deception from start to finish.

What's the difference between a humanitarian abduction and a for-cash adoption?

Il y a quelques mois, c'était Madonna qui à grand renfort de dollars adoptait -pour ne pas utiliser un autre verbe- des petits Nigerians. J'ai beau cherché, mais je n'arrive pas à trouver de différence entre un enlèvement humanitaire et une adoption bradée. Et donc j'attends, des gens et médias, la même indignation qu'il y a quelques mois. Et ce serait au tour de la très médiatique Paris Hilton d'en faire autant avec des petits rwandais. Que ca se fasse, je suis pour! Au moins comme ca, l'état de délabrement sera vraiment bien établi et on pourra dire “on fait le bordel et on le fait bien!”.

A few months ago it was Madonna who put up the big dollars and adopted–not to use another verb–some Nigerian children Despite all my searching, I cannot find a difference between a humanitarian kidnapping and a for-cash adoption. And so I wait for the same indignation from people and the media that there was a few months ago. And soon it will be paparazzi darling Paris Hilton's turn to do the same with little Rwandans. If that happens, I'm all for it! At least that way the state of collapse would be well established and we could say “we're makeing a mess and we do it well!”.

Deux méthodes, le même resultat, peut-être pas les mêmes buts, mais que d'interrogation! Les familles d'origines ont-elles vraiment besoin de cet humanisme forcé? Et meme cet eldorado promis à ces enfants, est-il si important au point de justifier le mérpris de toutes les structures familiales, d'origine et de destination?

Two methods, the same result, maybe not the same goals, but ! Do the original families really need this imposed humanitarianism? And even this El Dorado promised to these children, is it so important that it justifies the undermining of all the family structures, at the origin and the destination?

Et si une fois arrivé en France, ca se passait mal en terme de procédure d'adoption, ou pire de vie de famille, on aurait peut-être vu déversés dans la rue 103 tchadiens, comme 101 dalmatiens, livrés à la merci de l'Intérieur.

And if upon arriving in France, if things go wrong with the adoption process, or worse yet, the families themselves, we might see 103 Chadians dumped in the streets, like 101 dalmatians, courtesy of the [Ministry of the Interior].

Zoé, ton arche avec, ton amour m'étouffe!

Zoe, with your arc, your love is choking me!