NEWS

Feds deny student visa to Ugandan teen orphan

Shari Rudavsky
shari.rudavsky@indystar.com

From the very beginning, the plan was to have Gloria Akello return to her native Uganda. Jared Hill and his wife did not want to adopt the teen orphan permanently; instead they wanted to give her an American education and allow her to return to her homeland to help others with her skills.

So they sought an F-1 visa, also known as a student visa, to bring her to the United States to live with them in their north-side home.

The only problem? The federal government denied Gloria, now 14, a student visa, saying they feared she would come here and never leave.

“Our whole intention was of pursuing the F-1 visa and not adopting her, our vision the whole time is what they’re denying it for,” said Hill, a pilot for UPS. “Our hope was to educate a child and have them return.”

Now, Hill, assisted by a UPS co-worker, has launched a social media campaign, #letglorialearn, riffing off first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative.

The Hills first met Gloria while living in northern Uganda for half a year in 2014. Jared taught math at Restoration Gateway’s orphanage, which has about 140 children. As they neared the end of their stint, the Hills agreed they wanted to provide an American education for one of the orphans.

Both instantly agreed that Gloria would be that child. She wasn’t necessarily the best student in the orphanage but something stood out about her. Her dream is to become a midwife.

“God just put her in our heart as the one to bring,” Hill said.

Last August, the International School of Indiana admitted Gloria, Hill said. Plans called for her to live with the Hills and their three children, ages 11, 10, and 6. They would cover her tuition.

Everyone, including Restoration Gateway, of which Hill is now chair of the board of directors, endorsed the idea wholeheartedly.

“This is not something that was even on Restoration Gateway’s radar. This is something that the Hills felt they were called into,” said Brint Patrick, U.S. executive director of the organization. “There’s a lot of advantage for a child to come to the United States and study.”

Over the past eight months, the Hills became Gloria’s guardians so that the Uganda government would allow her to live with them. All that remained was the U.S. visa.

Laura Lane, a former diplomat in the Foreign Service and now president of global public affairs at UPS, met Hill last August when they both presented TED Talks at a UPS event. With her background in consular affairs, she made calls to attest to Hill’s character.

She was shocked when the consulate denied the visa on the grounds that Gloria has no reason to return to Uganda.

“This is not what America stands for. We believe in giving people opportunity…. What chance does she have without an education?” she said. “Now that I know about her situation, I can’t stay silent because it’s so wrong.”

But the situation is not necessarily that simple, say adoption experts.

Adam Pertman, president of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency, said he had no knowledge of the particulars of this situation.

In general, though, he said strict rules and regulations exist for international adoption, and the government may want to proceed cautiously.

“From the adoption model, you can understand that they want to be very careful,” said Pertman, also author of “Adoption Nation.” “Presumably what the State Department doesn’t want to do is set up a back channel by which kids are informally adopted…. One could see how that could open if not a floodgate, at least a gate.”

Earlier this year Uganda tightened its adoption rules amid stories of corruption. The most recent laws say that intercountry adoption “shall be considered as the last option.”

Uganda is not the roadblock for Gloria, though.

Nor is she the first orphan whose visa the United States has denied. Last fall, Restoration Gateway’s leaders wanted to bring a few children from the Uganda orphanage back to the United States with them on a visit. The youngsters did not receive their visas.

Without a visa, Gloria will likely have to return to village and eke out a life of poverty, Hill said.

“She’s a child without parents that has a chance of world-class education,” he said.

One path might be for the Hills, who are now Gloria’s legal guardians, to seek to adopt the girl.

Hill, however, said he and his have not even begun to explore that.

“We haven’t even gone down that road because that was never really our intention,” he said.

An Indianapolis family wants to bring Gloria Akello, who has lost both her parents, to Indianapolis to study but the federal government will not grant her a student visa.

Call IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.