Hello, Issue 12/ June 2023 IACN QUARTERLY Catch up on the latest updates on webinars, trainings and conferences from our network Updates from the Field Learnings and experience shared by our fellow members Events and Announcements + Role of Master Trainers in Transforming Family-Based Alternative Care in India | Minu Kumari, DCPU, Purnea District, Bihar Voices from the Field Strengthening Communities, Preventing Family Separation | Anita Sinha, Child in Need Institute Railway Children India’s Early Gatekeeping Efforts | Lopamudra Mullick, Railway Children India Case Study: Aftercare Group Homes at Snehalaya | Joyce Connolly, Snehalaya Kinship Care to Ensure Safe Childhood in Gujarat- Meenal’s Story | Shilpa Vaishnav, Samvedna Trust, Hemalee Leuva and Muhammed Afsal.K.K, UNICEF, Gujarat Family-based Care Solutions through Foster Care | Dr. Shilpa Mehta, Devashish Mishra and Shivani Singhvi, Foster Care Society Bal Panchayat (Children's Parliament): The Journey of Child Participation in the Community-Level Prevention Project in Gujarat | Sonal Chauhan and Geeta Desai, Miracle Foundation India Ensuring Child Participation: Assessment Tool for Children in Residential Care | Gurneet K. Kalra, Udayan Care Faith for Children - Stories of Inspiration from Tamil Nadu | Changing the Way We Care Team, Catholic Relief Services Webinar: Gatekeeping as a Systematic Process: Preventing Child’s Separation |IACN andMiracle Foundation India Advancing Family Strengthening and Family-Based Alternative Care: Key Outcomes of the Deliberation Meeting with Stakeholders| Miracle Foundation India Graduation and Induction Event - Learning in Fellowship Together | Udayan Care 5th Biennial International Conference on Alternative Care for Children in Asia (BICON) | Udayan Care UNICEF/UN0377847 PHOTO CREDITS: RAILWAY CHILDREN INDIA Assessment of Strategies to Develop Resilience in Children in a Residential Child Care Model of India ‘Kinship Care in India- A Case Study Documentation Dear Colleagues, We are happy to bring to you the 12th issue of the IACN Quarterly. It covers a range of family-based care interventions focused on facilitating the participation of children and strengthening gatekeeping mechanisms in the rural and urban contexts. Another write-up highlights work with faith-based organisations in protecting children and improving outcomes for families in need. The case studies demonstrate the effective implementation of non-institutional forms of alternative care, such as kinship care, foster care and aftercare in rehabilitating children without parental ties. The issue also brings out the role of Master Trainers in transforming family-based alternative care in India. Please check the Events and Announcements section to read about the webinar organised by IACN and Miracle Foundation India on Gatekeeping as a Systematic Process and important upcoming events. We appreciate everyone who helped make this newsletter edition possible. If you wish to share resources or information for the IACN website or quarterly or would like to discuss any issues of mutual concern, please reach out to us at iacnsecretariat@iacn.in. We look forward to your continued support. Sincerly, IACN Secretariat

The 15th international EurAdopt conference on adoption will be held on April 17th and 18th 2024 in Cambridge, UK.

The conference is organised by the European association of accredited intercountry adoption organisations, EurAdopt, in cooperation with Coram IAC, the leading intercountry adoption agency in the UK. Our former CEO, Satwinder Sandhu, will moderate the event.

The theme will be The Generational Impact of Adoption and will explore adoption from the perspectives of the adoptees, adoptive parents, grandparents and birth siblings within adoptive families. Researchers and practitioners from Europe, North America and Asia will present new research and experiences from the perspective of the adoptee, adoptive parents, grandparents and family, as well as considering the current challenges faced by service users and by agencies.  This conference will be of interest to accredited bodies, adoption central authorities, adoption practitioners (both local and intercountry),  lawyers, academics and those whose lives are touched by adoption.

Speakers confirmed so far are:

Beth Neil, Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia, UK

Eight Croats have been prosecuted in Zambia on suspicion of smuggling toddlers. They were imprisoned, but were acquitted after two trials and have since returned home. The case resembles a soap opera. Some details in the case are so unlikely that the Croats - who say they are not aware of any wrongdoing - are left with many questions.

Get notified of important articles on General News .

Four Croatian couples flew to the Zambian town of Ndola, near the border with Congo, at the end of last year. They wanted to pick up four Congolese children they had adopted, between the ages of one and three. The Zambian authorities put a stop to this. They suspected human trafficking and arrested the four couples at Ndola airport in early December, when they were about to fly to Croatia with the children. The Croatian adoption papers were in order, but Congo has no longer allowed adoption by foreign parents since 2017.

At the beginning of February, the Zambian judge nevertheless acquitted the Croats. They then went again with the four children to Ndola airport to fly to Croatia.

Trans people are not allowed to adopt children

"It's really difficult to know where I belong."

Mimi Woods, from Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, was adopted from Thailand at the age of three.

Over the years she has struggled with issues around identity and belonging, but wanted others to know they were not alone.

The 22-year-old said adoption was a "taboo subject" which "needs to be talked about more".

Mimi and other young Welsh adopted people have created a bilingual podcast episode for the National Adoption Service for Wales about their experiences featuring nine adopted people between the ages of 13 and 26.

KEY POINTS

• JPMorgan Chase said it has reached a settlement regarding victims of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
• The bank’s litigation with the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Epstein matter remains, however. Its claims against former executive Jes Staley, who was friends with Epstein, are also active.
• Last week, lawyers for a Epstein victim, called Jane Doe 1 in documents, asked the court to reopen JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s deposition.

JPMorgan Chase is prepared to pay $290 million in a settlement with victims of the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC on Monday.

The settlement does not include an admission of liability by the bank, the person said.

DR. MICHAEL BOWIE

DIRECTOR (FLORIDA)

Executive Director Recruitment, Retention, and Multicultural Affairs

The Council has today agreed on its position for an update of the EU’s anti-trafficking law. Forced marriage and illegal adoption will explicitly feature as types of exploitation covered by the directive. EU countries must also make sure that people knowingly using services provided from victims of trafficking can face sanctions.

I am glad we agreed today to criminalise the intentional use of services provided by a victim of trafficking across the EU. It is an important step in the fight against human trafficking.

Gunnar Strömmer, Swedish minister for justice

Forced marriage and illegal adoption

The agreed text makes clear that member states are obliged to criminalise human trafficking for the purpose of forced marriage and illegal adoption. This will better equip member states’ law enforcement and judicial authorities to effectively combat trafficking in human beings for the purpose of these two forms of exploitation.

Rohtak will have an agency for child adoption soon. The process to set up the facility has started. Ch. Lakhi Ram Arya Jagannath Ashram, a shelter-home for children in Rohtak, has sent a proposal in this regard to the office of the District Child Protection Officer. Rohtak Deputy Commissioner Ajay Kumar visited the ashram and inspected the facilities being provided to the inmates on Thursday.

“There are seven child-adoption agencies in the state as of now. Rohtak district does not have any such facility, due to which the local residents desirous of adopting children were facing difficulties,” he stated.

https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-foreign-adoptions-investigation-e7b826ee4a54d3680fec8b64f07da951?fbclid=IwAR2e-BQdkTKqe17Ov0rq6nvGn3fBVly2Je6lUF-hsIOBKqYxr-zyt7mKn1U_aem_th_AY1n_8d2ctgxPuTTpDDGEvrhAmqHM0aYsEv-lvfRFffrsfMt2ftSHxcZVjHsde7dFy4&mibextid=S66gvF 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Thursday it will investigate 237 more cases of South Korean adoptees who suspect their family origins were manipulated to facilitate their adoptions in Europe and the United States.

The new cases in the commission’s expanded inquiry into South Korea’s foreign adoption boom involve adoptees in 11 nations including the United States, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden who were adopted from 1960 to 1990. More than 370 adoptees from Europe, North America and Australia filed applications last year demanding their cases be investigated.

Abstract

Approximately 3600 Korean children have been adopted to Australia, as of 2023. Existing studies have tended to approach transnational or intercountry adoption from child development, social welfare, or identity perspectives. Research on Korean adoption to Australia is relatively scarce. The current article approaches the population from a migration perspective, building on Richard Weil’s conceptualization of transnational adoption as “quiet migration.” Drawing on both Korean-language data from South Korean governments and Australian data, the authors analyse Korean adoption to Australia as a state-sanctioned transnational migratory mechanism that facilitated the orderly movement of children from so-called “deficient” families of predominantly single mothers in South Korea to adoptive families in Australia. Situating adoption practices within the socio-political contexts and larger migration trends of both countries, the authors identify multiple enabling factors for channelling the ‘quiet’ flow of Korean children for adoption and argue the very ‘quietness’ of the adoption system is a source of concern despite Australia’s relatively stringent regulations. A migration perspective and analysis of these enabling factors contributes to the conceptualization of adoption as a socio-political state-sanctioned phenomenon, rather than a solely private family affair.

Keywords:transnational adoption; intercountry adoption; Korea; Australia; quiet migration; orderly migration

1. Introduction