A TikTok user named Kalkidan is opening up about the dark side of international adoption in Ethiopia.
On July 27, Kalkidan, a native of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, took to TikTok to share her harrowing illegal adoption story. The young beauty claimed that she was “trafficked to the United States in 2008” and that her abductors “falsified” her adoption paperwork.
“On paper, I was six, but in real life, I was 7,” Kalkidan told her followers in a viral video that has garnered over 650,000 views.
“I was told my whole life that my parents were dead — and that’s why I was put up for adoption. But I was old enough to remember, and I knew that what I was being told was a lie and that my parents were alive.”
Kalkidan searched for her mother and father for ten years, hoping to reunite with her long-lost relatives. After an intense search, the Ethiopian TikTok influencer found her mother in 2017. She flew back to Addis Ababa to reunite with her family in 2022.
Kalkidan knew deep down in her heart that her parents may have been misled into putting her up for adoption — and her suspicion was correct. Upon reuniting with her family, the influencer, who identifies as an international adoption abolitionist, discovered that she was never supposed to be separated from her family.
In a follow-up video posted Oct. 23, Kalkidan shared an emotional video that captured her tearfully reuniting with her mother. In the caption, the young influencer revealed that her mother was “illiterate” and under intense financial hardship at the time of her illegal adoption. She temporarily placed her and her sister in a “respite center” orphanage until she could “get back on her feet.”
Kalkidan’s mother would visit her and her sister daily. One day, the matriarch was informed that Kalkidan would be sent to the United States to enroll in an educational program. According to the young influencer’s video, the orphanage allegedly promised that she would return to Ethiopia, but she never did.
“I went through years of isolation, abuse, trauma and depression from losing my momma,” the TikTok user penned. “I questioned my existence.”
In 2017, Kalkidan discovered that her mother had been searching for her over the years. She was reunited with her mom after she received an email of a “missing person ad” that contained a picture of her face. Now, Kalkidan spends her time advocating against the injustices of child trafficking.
“I don’t think enough people realize how many kids were kidnapped and brought to the US under false pretenses that they were “orphans” or had no family like myself,” the Addis Ababa native penned in the caption of her July post.
Africa has become a hotbed for orphanage trafficking over the last decade.
According to the Michigan State International Law Review (MSILR), orphanages typically traffic young children to gain funding and monetary support, but some victims can end up in harrowing situations. MSILR notes that child trafficking victims often end up being sold for labor and sex trafficking. Some are forced to participate in the black market.
“Around 80 percent of the more than eight million children in orphanages are not orphans and have at least one living parent,” the organization adds. Corruption and lax regulations make it possible for child trafficking cases to occur.
A 2017 CNN investigative report found that children in Uganda were being taken from their homes and placed into orphanages under the assumption that they would receive “better schooling,” but they were deceived. Under the alleged trafficking scheme, orphans were sold for $15,000 each to American families, many unaware that they were illegally adopting the young orphans.
Keren Riley, a representative of Reunite, a human trafficking justice organization, told CNN that orphanages often prey on vulnerable moms who need financial help and childcare. To carry out their vicious scheme, they will use police, lawyers, or teachers to facilitate the dirty job.
Riley helped a 7-year-old Ugandan girl named Mata reunite with her mother in 2017. According to an affidavit obtained by CNN, Mata’s mother claims that she was tricked into giving up her daughter for adoption after she told the Ugandan family court about the grief she experienced following her husband’s fatal car crash in 2014. She placed Mata in an orphanage after she heard that her daughter could receive a good education overseas and was promised that Mata would return after she completed her studies.
“I had not realized that I had gone through a process to take away my parental rights completely,” the distraught mom penned in a testimony on Sept. 8, 2016. “I had all along thought and understood that the child was going to be educated and returned to me.”
The grieving mother later discovered that the verbiage in her original referral letter was twisted to paint her as a “helpless” mother who couldn’t “provide basic needs” for her daughter.
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