African Cradle is a non-profit organization serving adoptive families and adopted children and young adults. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, we embrace adoptive parents, families, and especially children who have suffered the trauma of severed family connections. Our goal is to help support families in providing robust, healthy home environments for adopted children. To this end, we offer a strong, inclusive community, education, counseling, and cultural enrichment. While we are pleased to serve all adoptive families, we have a special focus on families raising children of color.

African Cradle, Inc. began as a non-profit adoption facilitator providing adoptive homes to orphaned and abandoned children from Ethiopia. African Cradle's Director, Amber Stme, MSW, an Ethiopian adoptee herself, is widely recognized as the pioneer of modern Ethiopian adoption.

Committed to helping the destitute children of Ethiopia, Ms. Stime opened an orphanage in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, in 1994. At this Children's Center Amber and her staff provided medical attention, good nutrition and love to hundreds of children waiting for adoptive families. The care these children received from the dedicating, loving staff literally made the difference between life and death for many of them. In January of 2000 African Cradle became a licensed inter-country adoption agency, able to provide home study and post placement services to families adopting internationally from all over the world.

African Cradle works on behalf of children of African decent. They have established permanency for not only Ethiopian children but for children from Tanzania, Eritrea, Burundi, Haiti and America. African Cradle staff members have traveled to Ethiopia, The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Kenya, Seychelle, and The Dominican Republic. Every country has its own procedures regarding international adoption and the staff works closely with each government to ensure that adoptions are handled properly and with the highest regard for the laws and cultures of each individual country.

African Cradle is committed to finding permanent homes for orphaned and abandoned children. African Cradle is also committed to working with Africans in the U.S. who wish to adopt or sponsor children from their home countries. African Cradle believes that every effort should be made to assist children to remain in their county of birth whenever possible. To that end, African Cradle is setting up sponsorship programs to assist and support these children. Lastly, African Cradle is committed to keeping adoptees connected to their heritage. This includes sponsoring cultural events, heritage camps and arranging homeland visits. African Cradle diligently advocates on behalf of all children, whether they are infants, older children, have special needs, or are a sibling group.

In every situation, African Cradle's staff approaches the work they do with honor, discretion and respect for the children, the families and the countries in which they work. While African Cradle's main focus is to serve children of African descent, African Cradle is committed to improving the lives of all orphaned and abandoned children. It is not only a work of faith, but also a labor of love.

Meet our Director

Amber Stime, MSW, the Executive Director and Founder of African Cradle, is an Ethiopian adoptee who lost both of her hands in a land mine accident as a toddler and was placed in an orphanage to receive medical care. At the age of eight, she was adopted by an American couple and grew up in Minnesota. After receiving her Masters Degree in social work, Amber worked in the adoption field for six years before returning to Ethiopia to start a center for orphaned children.

Working tirelessly for the past twenty-two years, Amber is a recognized leader in transracial, multi-cultural adoption and has received numerous awards for her outstanding dedication to children and families. Amber has participated in and been the keynote speaker for many adoption conferences and transracial families workshops. Amber's warmth, patience and commitment to post-adoption services have earned her broad respect.