A recent adoption study from Brigham Young University called adoption a "small, but powerful" solution to the growing number of orphans in Africa. Jini Robi, an associate professor of social work at BYU, recently wrote an article for the journal "Social Work" in which she reported that over 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both parents due to civil wars, poverty, and the AIDS epidemic.

"'The growing number of orphans has created a need for Americans to examine and consider intercountry adoption', Roby suggests. In 2005, American families adopted 440 orphans from Ethiopia, compared to 7,906 from China."

Though international adoption is certainly not going to completely solve the crisis facing African orphans, it can be an effective aspect of a multi-faceted solution.