A journey that begins with a question
Many of the children adopted from Ethiopia in the 2000s and early 2010s are now teenagers and young adults — and they are starting to ask where they come from. Where was I born? Who were my first family? What does my birthplace look like?
For their adoptive parents, the question is just as real, and often harder: how do you help your child find their roots without knowing where to begin?
That is the journey Monpays Tours has built its new Return to Origin programme around. It is not a sightseeing tour with an adoption theme added on. It is a private, tailor-made journey for Ethiopian adoptees travelling with their adoptive parents — and sometimes their siblings, partners or own children — in which the adoptee's personal story leads, and the sightseeing follows.
Why now
Between 2003 and 2016, more than 32,000 children were adopted from Ethiopia to just eight countries — the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, France, Denmark, Switzerland and Belgium. France was one of the main adoption countries: Ethiopia was France's number one country of origin for adoption in 2007. Those children are now old enough to make the journey themselves.
But Ethiopia banned international adoption in 2018, and there is no institutional tracing system and no official support for searching. Families who want to find a birthplace or a birth family have to arrange it themselves — from another continent, in a language they may not speak.
In October 2025, Ethiopia's Ministry of Tourism launched "Journey to Root", a programme to welcome adoptees back and help them reconnect with their heritage. The door is open. What families still need is someone on the ground who knows how to walk through it — gently, and at their pace.
How the journey works
Every family's story is different: a different birthplace, a different search status, a different emotional pace. So there is no fixed group departure and no fixed itinerary. Each journey is built privately, around one family, in four steps:
1. A confidential pre-trip consultation. A first discreet conversation — by video call — to understand your story, your hopes and your boundaries. Nothing is shared with anyone else.
2. A custom route, built around your birth region. Together we shape a journey around where you come from and what you wish to see. A typical journey lasts around ten to twelve days: Addis Ababa first, then south to Hawassa and Yirgalem — the heart of the heritage route, where many adoptees are from — with the personalised birthplace days placed in the middle, not at the end, so the family has time together afterwards to absorb what happened. Lalibela's rock-hewn churches are an optional final chapter.
3. A private driver, French-speaking guide and translator. The same small team accompanies you throughout — in French, English, Amharic and regional languages — so conversations with local communities are smooth and unhurried.
4. Cultural connection and quiet reflection. Encounters, discoveries and quiet moments. Not every day needs a programme. Some days are for breathing.
The search: honest from the start
The search for a birth family happens before the trip, not during it — it takes weeks or months, and families should start it three to six months before travelling. The search is led by Philippe Gemechu, Monpays Tours' own tour operator since 2023: French of Ethiopian origin, adopted in France himself, he knows both cultures — and he knows how to find birth families.
And we say this plainly, because it matters: a reunion is never guaranteed. No one can promise to find a birth family, and no page of ours ever will. The birth family must agree to meet, and the adoptee must want to meet. Either side can say no at any point, including on the day itself.
If no family is found, the trip still has its full value. The birthplace, the orphanage, the culture, the shared experience of travelling together — the journey is built so it is complete with or without a reunion.
Our commitments
- Empathy, respect and confidentiality. Every exchange is handled with the utmost discretion, without judgement, in respect of your story.
- The adoptee leads. They decide what to see, who to meet, and when to stop. Parents support; they do not decide for them.
- No photos without permission. No photos of a birth family, an orphanage or children without explicit consent — and no reunion is ever used in marketing without written consent.
- No unannounced visits. Every meeting is arranged in advance, with time and place agreed by everyone.
- Gentle, family-paced days. Flexible days designed for adoptive families — no constraints, no imposed schedules.
Monpays Tours has been based in Addis Ababa since 2006 — twenty years of local roots, and a team that knows Ethiopia's regions, languages and communities from the inside.
Starting the conversation
If you are thinking about this journey — for yourself, or for your child — the first step is a confidential conversation. Tell us what you hope to find again, and we will reply to you personally, within 24 hours.
Begin your confidential inquiry
Return to Origin is a private, tailor-made journey. There are no fixed departures and no fixed price — each journey is quoted per family after the first consultation.
