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The baby market Type of document: News Topic: Normative and institutional framework Geographic descriptors: Kenya Language: English Source: www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_is.php?articleid=1143952188 Date of publication: 08 May 2006 Long Abstract: The baby market Has adoption changed since its liberalisation? Dauti Kahura looks at what changes in law, five years ago, have meant for orphaned children in Kenya Five years after the Children’s Act was made into law in 2001, there has been a proliferation of unprecedented adoption services not witnessed in the country before. The Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK), the oldest adoption organisation in the country, had been providing adoption services for the last 50 years, till 2001, when adoption services were liberalised by Cap 256 of the Act. The executive director of CWSK, Ms Irene Mureithi says the Act enabled many more organisations to handle adoption and they are seeking licences for the service. "Since then adoption has become a buzzword in non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) dealing with children," adds Mureithi. "Before the Children’s Act, CWSK was the only adoption society. Now we have 3,000 others trying to get registered." In Nairobi alone, there are more than 2,000 adoption homes. Because of the decentralisation of adoption services, a kind of commercialisation of adoption services has spurned unwittingly, she says. "Today, most of the children being adopted off are presumed ‘abandoned’, even though they actually maybe just lost children", says Mureithi. Inevitably, children’s homes have sprung all over the country that today only specialise in only "abandoned" children. "Unfortunately", states Ms Mureithi, "there are no efforts made to trace the parents of the so-called abandoned children." Thus even abducted children are termed abandoned, "and because of the way the law is framed, it tends to give tacit approval of children who could have been abandoned, abducted or even kidnapped" for easy adoption. Although CWSK does not have statistics to show how the adoptions trends have been taking shape since the enactment of the Children’s Act, the organisation believes that more than ever before children’s homes now go ahead to place children for adoption without following the proper procedure. They do so without the required documents such as a police letter showing that the police have been unable to trace the parents of the child in case of abandoned/lost children," says Ms Mureithi. The Director surmises that some Kenyan parents have also been tricked to give up their children for adoption to foreigners either living locally or abroad through material inducement. The Director argues that her international experience for example is that some unscrupulous foreign pharmaceutical companies allegedly send people to other countries to go and adopt children who are used as guinea pigs for testing drugs. "These conduits find their way to developing countries and sponsor Children’s homes so that it becomes easier to access these children," states Mureithi. She also observes that in the world of international paedophiles roaming countries with porous borders, such people could end up getting into contact with children in the numerous children’s homes. Mureithi’s argument has been that, no home should be allowed to let its sponsors adopt its children. "There have been cases where people running children’s homes adopt some of the very children in the same homes and leave the country with those children in questionable circumstances," she says. It is a fact today that human beings are trafficked for purposes of organ harvest, sexual exploitation, labour, and for using as guinea pigs in the race for HIV vaccine and other diseases. "We must guard our children from falling into the wrong hands who would end misusing them," says Ms Mureithi. Adoption is the process of placing a child in need of a family with a family in need of a child. It is both a legal and social process that provides a child with new legal parents. It also involves both the applicants and the children to be adopted. It severs the bond between a child and its natural parents and establishes a new permanent one with the adoptive parents. Adoption provides a lasting solution to a child without a family and is a better alternative to institutional care. The adoption arrangements should be guided by the best interest of the child and with respect to his or her fundamental rights. "People that qualify to adopt must be 25 years and over and are at least 21 years older than the child to be adopted, or are relatives of the child or are either the mother or father of the child," says CWSK Programme Officer Alphaxard Chabari. A court cannot make an adoption order in favour of the following persons (unless it is satisfied that the order merits special favour): a sole male applicant in respect of a female child; a sole female applicant in respect of a male child; an applicant or joint applicants who have attained the age of 65 years; and a sole foreign applicant. Yet there are those who do not qualify absolutely. They include: an applicant who is of unsound mind as per the definition of the Mental Health Act; an applicant who has been charged or convicted by a court of law, for any of the offences under the Penal Code, the Children’s Act and any other offences involving bodily injury; or a homosexual. Children who may be adopted include, any child who is resident in Kenya whether the child is a Kenyan citizen or was or was not born in Kenya provided that the child remains in the continuous care and control of the applicant within the country for three consecutive months preceding the filing of the application in court. Both the applicants have to be evaluated by an adoption society. Children who are adopted could have been abandoned or offered for adoption. Children are offered when the mother/parents who desire to have unborn babies adopted place them with CWSK for adoption. This process involves: 1. Interviewing the parent to get further information about their background. 2. An explanation to the mother of what the adoption process entails. 3. A counselling programme is tailored with the aim of exploring all the possibilities of the mother keeping the child. 4. After delivery, and if the mother still wishes to continue with offering the child for adoption, she is allowed six weeks to go and think about the whole issue and it is only after the six weeks that she is supposed to finally sign consent that the child can be adopted by another family. 5. If the mother happens to change her mind, she is encouraged to make arrangements for the care of the baby and then collect the baby. She signs a consent, which is then used as evidence in court that she wilfully surrendered the baby. A registrar of the high court, magistrate or advocate witnesses this consent. 6. The mother is encouraged to come and visit the social worker if she requires further counselling and can also be referred for further help. "Over 40 per cent of parents wishing to give away children for adoption actually reconsider their stance," notes the Programme Officer. In cases of abandoned children, the Programme officer says they should be reported to the police soonest possible." After 14 days, they are then referred to an institution which arranges for a care and protection order," says Chabari. The infant remains in the care of the institution for six months. If the police confirm in writing that the infant has remained unclaimed and its parents cannot be traced and the children’s department also confirms the same and recommend adoption. "CWSK then begins arrangements for fostering or adoption." People adopt children for various reasons the major one being the fact that they are unable to sire their own children. CWSK alone handles about 300-500 cases of adoption every year. "About 80 per cent of the people who want to adopt children from CWSK say they cannot have their own children," says Mureithi. "In the Africa culture, impotency and infertility were not celebrated virtues they are still not," notes Chabari. "That’s why, many of the people who adopt babies of between six weeks and 18 months will not openly discuss why they are adopting. Not being able to have your children is still considered to be a cultural taboo." The other set of people who adopt children are old (wealthy) couples whose children have gone their own way and have a need to fill their lonely void in their house. "This type of adopters will adopt any children as long as he or she is under 18 years." Another group of people who adopt children are Good Samaritans, who often time are the well-to-do senior citizens "whose consciousness tell them they must give back to society". International/inter country and interracial adoption was illegal in Kenya until the coming to force of the new Children’s Act (Cap 256) in 2001. (There was a major scandal involving children being adopted by couples in Germany shortly before this.) According to CWSK, the government should supervise all charitable organisations dealing with children. "The government’s role should be in ensuring standards by training and supervising the adoption officers from the NGOs," says Chabari. The children’s society argues that the country has seen a surge of inter-country adoptions in the last three to five years years. "Can the government for instance, account for the number of children who have been adopted by foreigners since the enactment of the Children’s Act?" pose CWSK officials. They point out that the Kenyan law leaves it to the discretion of the judge to order for follow up reports of the progress of the child from the destination country. For all the cases handled in the last three years, for example, less than five cases have been ordered to submit follow up reports back to Kenya on the progress of the child. The society reckons that for the last five years or so, Kenya has been sending children to other countries for adoption without regulations. The adoption regulations just came up in September last year. The Chief Justice’s rules are not out yet. "Still, these regulations are very important as they are supposed to cover the gaps that can be used in child trafficking," she says. The advantage of clear laws, rules and regulation make trafficking impossible and inter-country adoption possible to people who are really interested in helping out a child. Since inter-country adoption was allowed in this country in 2001, lawyers have been laughing all the way to the bank. This is according to a Nairobi lawyer, who deals in the adoption services. "Some charge as much as Sh300,000 to process one case. Some literally act as middlemen who bring adoptive parents from outside the country, introduce them to the children, represent them in court and process birth certificates for the children", said the lawyer who could not give his name for fear of a backlash from his colleagues and children’s homes that have turned adoption into a lucrative business. "Some have even started children’s homes or are in the management boards of homes that they facilitate adoptions from," she says. CWSK official concur with the lawyer and even point out that this state of affairs is known in the governmental circles. A recent report on adoption by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children (UNCRC), points out that instead of formal adoptions, informal foster care often takes place around the extended family system in Kenya, where relatives take care of cousins, nephews, nieces among others, for varying periods of time. The UN Committee expressed its concern that informal adoptions are more accepted and practiced than formal, and recommended the Kenyan government to strengthen the administrative procedures for formal domestic adoptions in order to prevent misuse of informal and private adoptions. Considering the increasing number of children without sufficient family support, the Committee also encouraged Kenya to establish an effective foster care programme and to ratify the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption. Kenya has yet to ratify the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions. Although the Hague Convention legitimises inter-country adoption as a means of providing a permanent family to a child "for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her state of origin," considerable debate about the role of inter-country adoption remains. Opponents of inter-country adoption argue that the practice exploits impoverished nations; robs children of the opportunity to be raised in their community of origin and identity; takes away resources that could be used to improve the lives of a larger number of children; and contributes to the problem of abduction, coercion and trafficking of children. Alternatively, supporters of inter-country adoption counter that the practice benefits children by removing them from the detrimental effects of growing up in institutional settings or on the streets by providing permanent families, helps children who might otherwise be marginalised in their societies as a result of illegitimacy or racial or ethnic difference; and provides them with families in a context where there is little evidence that the elimination or restriction of inter-country adoptions would remove the problems of poverty that contribute to the abandonment of children. The Hague Convention was created to address a large number of abuses that had come to light in the 1980s, by establishing a legal framework for the arrangement and formalisation of inter-country adoptions The Hague Convention deviates from the UN Declaration and CRC in that it sets out in the preamble a "hierarchy of options" believed to safeguard the long-term "best interests" of the child. These include preference for family solutions (return to birth family, foster care, adoption) rather than institutional placement, permanent solutions (return to birth family, adoption) rather than provisional ones (institutional placement, foster care), and national solutions (return to birth family, national adoption) rather than international ones. However, the Hague Convention only applies to countries that have ratified it and thereby are parties to it. As of 2004, only 46 countries had ratified the Hague Convention.

Organizations: Children Welfare Society Kenya

Countries: Kenya

April 25th EU Hearing Notes on Adoption (Linda Robak: RP 9 month sick leave)

Note from Linda: I was recently told by a European journalist that Post has taken a 9 month sick leave. I find it interesting that she was able to leave her "sick bed" and testify

April 25th EU Hearing Notes on Adoption

Summary of Hearing on Romanian Inter-country Adoptions and Orphan Crisis

April 25, 2006 Brussels, Belgium EU Headquarters

Hearing sponsored by:
Dr. Charles Tannock MEP United Kingdom
Frederique Ries MEP Belgium
Claire Gibault MEP France
Jean-Marie Cavada MEP France

MEP's present:
Baroness Emma Nicholson MEP UK (and 3 assistants)
Hiltrud Breyer MEP Germany (and her assistant)
Anna Gomes MEP Portugal
Cristina Gutierrez MEP Spain
Alejandro Cercas MEP Spain (and his assistant)
Allesandro Battilocchio MEP Italy15 various MEPs and their assistants who were not identified

Romanian Senators/ EU observers present:
Senator Radu Tirle
Senator Silvia Ciomei

Dr. Tannock opened the hearing with a brief overview of the pending adoption issues and the concern by EU Parliamentarians that these adoptions were being denied without clear and rational justification and that the reports coming out of Romania as to the welfare of abandoned children was not as positive as it was being portrayed by some individuals. He then acknowledged Baroness Emma Nicholson and gave her a chance to express her views on the subject. She immediately expressed concern over the invitation to the event to all MEPs because it used a photograph of a child who was denied inter-country adoption as "advertising for the meeting", that it was illegal to do so, that permission was needed from the guardian of the child, and that the child was in the process of being domestically adopted.

In rebuttal, Linda Robak, NGO director of For The Children SOS, stated that the Baroness has used the images of Romanian abandoned children to promote her own fundraising campaigns and in the press, that we did have permission from the guardian, and that both the guardian and the pending parents were sitting in the room and the child was not in the process of being domestically adopted. She then called on Nannette Gonzalez, a Bucharest NGO who placed the child in foster care to speak.

Nannette Gonzalez rebuffed the comments of Mrs. Nicholson by telling her that the child, to her recent knowledge, was not being domestically adopted and that she was severely handicapped (spinal bifida and club feet which have entailed several surgeries and ongoing physical therapy with more surgeries to come) and stated that there are still thousands of babies being abandoned and growing up in state hospitals. Ms. Gonzalez shared the difficulties of trying to help abandoned handicapped babies find a place to live in private foster care that her foundation offers. She shared how the little girl in the picture is only in temporary foster care because no Romanian family will take her in with the serious medical problems that she has. An American family, Scott and Kathy Rosenow, who filed to adopt her were denied.

In summary, the Baroness took the microphone 5 times (Tannock was counting).

The Baroness continued to restate her opinion that inter-country adoptions were not a viable means of helping Romanian children in crisis and that the Romanian system was a model of child protection. (Later she told several NGO directors that any form of adoption was not as good of a plan as institutionalization in foster care and group homes for children!) The Baroness also expressed the opinion that the institutions and high ranking officials that have spoken in favor of the inter-country adoptions being resumed in Romania (i.e. the Helsinki Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the current EU rapporteur for Romania and the Congress of the United States of America) were "irrelevant."

For some unknown reason, the Baroness also felt the need to share that she "is a Christian" and that the Bible says "to not look at the speck of dust in the others eye before one looks at the rock in ones own eye."

The misquotation of Matthew 7:3-5 brought laughter from some of the audience and looks of confusion from others. She also stated that Americans should look to their own country to adopt because they have 650,000 children in government care. (Note: Just for the record, the figures are 600,000 children in government care and 120,000 of those children are available for adoption.)

Romanian Senator, Radu Tirle, was then called on to speak. (Linda Robak, Bruce Thomas, Lily Romine, Thierry LeBon, and Fernando Manzano had dinner with him the previous evening and had requested he testify at the hearing) He spoke passionately about the desperate situation in his country concerning child welfare and described a hospital he is building in Aradea to care for abandoned children and destitute families. He urged the EU parliament to be wary of Romanian politicians who were corrupt and merely talkers. He clearly expressed his desire that the current 1100 pipeline cases be resolved fairly and that Romania be urged to re-look at each individual case in the superior interest of each child. He expressed concern that high level Romanian authorities are concerned that bad publicity from this issue and that finalizing these adoptions would affect their chances for ascension into the EU by January 1, 2007. He also stated this was affecting their rush to resolve these cases hastily. Dr. Tannock reassured the Senator that accession was not at stake here but the superior interests of the children and their human rights issues that needed to be addressed.

Ms. Rolie Post from the Netherlands, who is a desk officer for the Director General of the Enlargement Commission, then spoke. She began by dramatically requesting that she not be filmed or photographed by the journalists present. Then she touted that Romania's child welfare system - per her own 45 trips to Romania - had taken care of the former problems and that there were no longer any daunting issues in child welfare in Romania today. She then commented that the children present at the hearing should be in school. Thereafter, she tried to use her influence to lobby the MEPs present to see her point of view. In a conversation with MEP Ries afterwards she denounced the professionals and eye witnesses from Romania as "do-gooders" and tried to convince the parliamentarians present that she was the only "real expert" on this subject present at the hearing. (Note from Linda: I was recently told by a European journalist that Post has taken a 9 month sick leave. I find it interesting that she was able to leave her "sick bed" and testify.)

Bruce Thomas, a permanent resident of Romania with 12 years of professional experience in child welfare on the field in Romania reported to the contrary. Mr. Thomas is the director of an NGO that spends over one million Euros annually in support from the United Kingdom, Holland, Romania, and the USA to abandoned children in Targu Mures, Romania. He stated that the crisis has only escalated since the moratorium on inter-country adoptions has taken effect. He cited representative cases of abandoned and orphaned children who had been recently raped, molested, beaten, sodomized, and abused in many other ways and the indifference of local authorities to act to resolve these horrific abuses. He also shared legitimate and documented cases of abandoned children who were being forced to return to abusive birth homes by child protection authorities who would prefer to clear children off of their long rolls than to offer practical and safe child welfare services. Evidence presented also showed the difficulties presented to Romanian nationals pursuing adoption. In conclusion, Thomas kindly requested that the MEPs of the European Union to assist the still suffering abandoned children of Romania by creating a working group that could come to Romania and investigate the human rights violations to mostly Roma children in both old and new state child welfare institutions. The goal would be to challenge Romania to European Union standards in reality and not merely on paper.
He also spoke out in favor of inter-country adoption and the finalization of the pending cases.

A former Romanian orphan, Sarah Romine, who was abandoned at birth and is now 16 years old and adopted into an American family, testified of her serious developmental issues and permanent brain damage because of being abandoned and residing in a state orphanage for the first two years of her life. She stated that she was able to overcome those issues because she was allowed to be raised in a loving home instead of in state care in Romania. She urged the MEPs to listen to her voice as the voice of the tens of thousands of abandoned children still residing in substandard state care in Romania today. She concluded her testimony by saying had she not been adopted she would now be dead. (Sarah participated in an interferon study after being diagnosed with Hepatitis C and was cured)

MEP Claire Gibault then spoke and urged the Romanian Secretary of State over the committee for Adoptions, Teodora Bertzi, to respond as to why she sent out a memo urging local Child Protection Department authorities to ban communication between pending adoptive parents and their prospective children and their Romanian caregivers.

MEP Jean-Marie Cavada then read a statement in French that he later reiterated at the press conference that called on the Romanian government to allow the pending adoptions to be finalized and shared his experience as a child during World War II when he was forced to live with 5 different families and the pain of not having a permanent family or home. (Note: a translation of his and Gibault's written statements is forthcoming)

Fernando Manzano, the President of a Spanish association representing Spanish pending parents named ACABAR, then spoke and strongly defended the legality of the actions taken by Spanish families and in their filing for adoptions. He also refuted the comparison that Rolie Post made between the Romanian child welfare system and the rest of the European countries. Ms. Post reported that in Spain there are 9000 children abandoned every year. However, in reality, Spanish families adopt 5000 children every year and that in Spain, for any individual children who are adoptable, there are thousands of families who want to adopt and have to wait in some cases up to five years to do it.

MEP Frederique Ries addressed the need for the pending cases to be reviewed again and finalized where appropriate. (I'm still awaiting a copy of her statement and will post it when it's received). She then called on pending parents from France, Alain and Christine Roques. The Roques detailed (in French) their battle to adopt their children, Catalin and Marin, and presented photographs of the many visits they have made to see her in Romania over the years and official documents from both the French and Romanian government which led them to believe they were a "legally accepted dossier".

Anna Gomes (MEP-Portugal) and Cristina Gutierrez (MEP-Spain) also spoke. MEP Gomes proposed to go to Romania on a fact finding mission with MEPs to see the true situation. She stated that she had been alerted by some of her constituents in Portugal about some of these serious issues. MEP Gutierrez lauded the Baroness for her work to stop child trafficking in Romania but expressed concern over the serious evidence of abuse and the failure of the new child welfare legislation being presented in the hearing.

Scott and Kathy Rosenow, an American family from Ohio who are the pending parents of the child who whose photo was used in the MEP invitation, and whom have 10 adopted children, most with special medical needs, testified that they are still hoping that the now four year old Augustina can come home with them one day. They have also started an NGO that works internationally to help find families for severely handicapped and medically challenged children and they shared their experiences in the difficulty of placing these children in adoptive homes, in particular in Romania.

Due to only one of the 5 Italian/Swiss families being fluent in English, and the Italian MEP assistant who was going to translate having to leave, they handed out copies of their testimony in English and an Italian adoptive father, Marco Cappellari, spoke on their behalf and detailed their collective battle to adopt the children they wait for and love. The Italian families also gave Linda Robak copies of their dossiers, photos, documents, and letters to present to MEPs in her meetings the following day.

Jean-Pierre Clement and Nadine Piroud (separate families, not a couple) of France came with their two children, both adopted from Romania. They were upset about being characterized by the Romanian government and some media outlets as "child traffickers and of selling adopted children's organs." Clement stated that the facts are that they are taking great care of the two special needs children they adopted. They also said that they and other French families have all been involved in developing and helping NGO's in Romania to continue to offer aid to the children still in state care and that the state of Romania cannot and does not provide. He shared the difficulties that they have gone through willingly to take care of their two children's severe medical issues and disorders due to the abandonment and neglect from the institutions in which they were housed in their formative years. Gabriel, his 10 year old son, asked if he could speak at the end. After sitting through two and half hours of discussion and testimony in a language he did not understand, he said in perfect French, "I am happy to have a daddy, a mummy, an aunt, some cousins, and I would like that all the children in Romania who are supposed to be adopted to be allowed to go out."

Romanian NGO director, attorney, and social worker, Corina Cava, testified to the abuse she has witnessed of children brutalized by birthparents and forced to "reintegrate" with them to their further detriment. She also testified to the consistent number of infants still being abandoned in state hospitals. Her testimony validated the recent UN report stating that the abandonment rate in Romania has not changed in the past thirty years and 9000 children are still being abandoned annually. She shared that there is a very antagonistic relationship with local child protection authorities and NGO's who are hands on working to help those children at risk, mostly Roma, and stand up for their human rights that are being violated. MEP Brewer from Germany then spoke up and said that she would be behind this campaign to get these pipeline cases honestly addressed and finalized, that we have her full support, and that she would like to see an investigation into the abuse and corruption allegations. (Note from Linda: After the hearing she told me she was very angry with the way Nicholson had acted at the hearing - "as if she is a superior being and controls Parliament" and the way that Nicholson addressed her at the hearing. As Breyer has served as a Parliamentarian for 16 years, one of the longest, she was furious to be treated by Nicholson with such disrespect.)

Silvia Ciomei, also a Romanian senator, then expressed that her government was very concerned with accession into the EU and that they had followed all of the mandates that they had received via former liaison Baroness Emma Nicholson. (Later, Senator Ciomei chided Romanian NGO Corina Caba privately in Romanian. She asked her why she was trying to "make trouble" for the Romanian government and wanted to know why Caba did not want Romania into the EU. Ms. Caba responded that she did want Romania in the EU, but she wanted the seriousness of these abuse and neglect issues to be addressed because no one at the local level in Romania was willing to act on these serious human rights abuses.) The hearing lasted for over 3 three hours and 2 who were scheduled to formally speak - NGO Noemi De Weerd and Linda Robak - had no time to do so , other than Robak's comments to Baroness Nicholson, as there was another hearing scheduled for the room.

The press conference immediately followed. There were journalists present from Romania, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other international outlets. Dr. Charles Tannock MEP, Frederique Ries MEP, Claire Gibault MEP, Jean-Marie Cavada MEP, and Linda Robak all spoke. Tannock made it very clear to the press that Romania's ascension was not at stake or the issue. They focused on the 1100 pipeline cases and asked for these cases to be reviewed with the best interest of each child in mind. They let it be known that no other EU country has such a strict inter-country adoption law and asked the Romanian government to consider making their law more flexible. They also let it be known that the EU had been misrepresented by the former rapporteur, Mrs. Emma Nicholson, who used her influence to lobby the Romanian government towards these extreme laws banning international adoptions. They stated uniformly that the position of the EU was not in favor of a ban of inter-country adoptions as is evidenced in the availability of adoption in 24 of the 25 current member states. MEP Cavada shared his personal story again of being placed in several foster homes during World War II and the devastating effect that it had on him as a young man. His desire was to save children from the effects of temporary care and to help them at all costs to find a permanent place to call home in a family. In conclusion, MEP Tannock stated that very high ranking Romanian government officials recently paid him a visit. They urged him to let this issue lie and promised to resolve it after Romania's ascension into the EU on January 1, 2007. Dr. Tannock, in very clear and direct terms, told them that this was not an option. He said that he would not allow at-risk children to be allowed to continue in their suffering for almost another year so that politics and economics could take a front seat.

The press conference concluded with reporters interviewing individual MEPs and parents.

Organizations: EP Hearing SOS Romania - April 2006, Medical Service/Invalidity (paranoia/chizophrenic)

Persons: Charles Tannock MEP, Linda Robak

Not a hero ... just a dad

Matthew Morgan-Jones is a father with a difference. The 34-year-old has single-handedly adopted two toddlers from war-torn Sierra Leone and has also set up a UAE charity to help an orphanage there. He tells Lorraine Chandler why these days he's more interested in potties than Porsches.

By Lorraine Chandler, Staff Writer
Published: 00:00 May 4, 2006

Two years ago, Matthew Morgan-Jones was a young single guy in Dubai, enjoying a fun lifestyle and the perks of his training career in The Body Shop and later in Home Centre. Now he is a father of two children he adopted from Sierra Leone (and is in the process of adopting a third).

He has also just set up a charity to help the All As One Children's Centre in Sierra Leone, a country that only recently emerged from a bloody civil war that spanned more than a decade.

There's no denying his two children - Dauda, 3, and Magda, 2 - have been spared a tough existence in what the UN has called the world's poorest country. Yet Morgan-Jones, from England, is at pains to point out he didn't adopt them out of altruism, but because he wanted to have children.

"It's a win-win situation for all of us," he says, keen to avoid being pigeon-holed as a do-gooder.
Even as a young man, his paternal instincts were very strong. However, he was devastated in his mid-twenties when he learned that he would never be able to father children biologically.

"It was then that I realised how much I really wanted a family. I started to think about adoption because I knew there were so many children who needed a family, and the equation seemed to add up," he says. "I always thought I'd get married first but that didn't seem to happen."

After completing a BA in administration management at the University of Humberside in 1994, he started working for The Body Shop in London in the business development and training department. After a two-year stint in Australia, he moved to Dubai in 2001 as the company's retail zone manager for Middle East and Africa.

He helped set up the Body Shop franchise in South Africa, where the company sponsored two Aids orphanages. Morgan-Jones was responsible for liaising with the orphanages and it was then that he decided he would like to adopt children from Africa.

He began seeking more information on how to go about it and, sometime in November 2003, came across an article in a magazine that had details about the Dubai Adoption Support Group. He realised he could start the adoption ball rolling from Dubai.

Morgan-Jones did not waste time and soon started undergoing the rigorous clearance process to become an adoptive dad. As a single male, it wasn't easy since most countries had very strict adoption regulations.

While psychologists and the police were vetting him, he did his research on adoption and learned that adopting a child from Sierra Leone might be a good option.

He heard about All As One, a children's centre run by American Deanna Wallace in the country's capital, Freetown. The centre, which has a staff of 30, houses around 70 children. It also runs education, health and community programmes.

The number of orphaned children in Sierra Leone is staggering. There are an estimated 3,000 children waiting to be adopted in the capital alone. The problem is compounded by the fact that adoption procedures in the country are extremely stringent.

Morgan-Jones had expressed interest in adopting two children under the age of 5 - a very brave move, indeed, and fortunately for him, his request to adopt was approved by All As One in May 2004. But that was only the first step in a long journey.

He received referral papers for Dauda, then aged 18 months, and shortly after, for Magda, then barely a couple of months old. But in July 2004 he received disturbing news - the chief justice of Sierra Leone had suspended international adoptions.

Morgan-Jones had already gone shopping for baby clothes and started decorating the kids' room. "I'd done all the things they told me not to do until I had the children," he says, ruefully.

He had to wait for close to six months before Sierra Leone, in January 2005, reopened international adoptions. Never one to give up, he continued pursuing his case and after four excruciating months, his case was heard.

By July, Morgan-Jones had miraculously gained custody of both children and was able to fly back to Dubai. Now he is in the process of adopting a third child, David, who was Dauda's best friend at the orphanage.

All the months he spent in Sierra Leone gave Morgan-Jones a new perspective about children and adoption. He felt compelled to do something for the children there.

Shortly after returning to Dubai, he heard from Wallace that the centre was in dire financial straits and might have to close within months if it didn't receive more funds.

He sprang into action, organising a charity dinner in December that raised $15,000 (Dh55,170) and enabled the orphanage to fund itself for another two months.

In the meantime, he contacted the Dubai Aid and Humanitarian City to consider steps for setting up an organisation in the UAE to support the centre. He was fortunate yet again.

The charity, also called All As One, was recently approved and Morgan-Jones, the UAE director and chief volunteer (as he quips) is full of enthusiasm about spreading the message around the country, after yet another successful charity dinner in March.

He tells me that he's looking for volunteers from different fields, including journalism - he says this in a very pointed way - and I ask myself if this tremendously passionate man will end up persuading me to be more than just a volunteer of his charity organisation.

I
I've always had a strong picture in my head of myself struggling off a London train with three small children. I'd seen it so many times when I was working in London, and I used to wonder, "Why do they do this?" so now I'll be getting my own back. It's funny because even then I could see the children as African.

I have so much admiration for my parents because of the way they brought us up while being so active in the community. My background really instilled in me a desire to be a parent myself.

I'm very goal-oriented so when I decided I wanted to adopt, I didn't want to wait around to meet the right partner (and then begin the process).

I wanted to have children, not save the orphans. People make you out to be a hero for what you've done, but as far as I'm concerned it was a win-win situation. I'm thankful to my children because I've learned and grown a lot more than if I had never adopted them.

I love it when people say how beautiful my children are and wish me luck. I hate some of the questions and insensitive things that people say.

If Magda is crying when we're out, women will come up to us and try to comfort her - as if I'm not able to do that. They'll often ask, "Where's the mother?" or ask something like; "Who could have abandoned such a pretty boy?" I don't like it when people ask about their personal history because I think that belongs to my children alone.

I was really changed by my experiences in Sierra Leone. I had seen poverty before but the emotion of becoming a parent while seeing all this misery left a burning impression on me. I felt very strongly for parents living with difficult choices and I came back to Dubai wanting to do something for the country.

I think it's great to set up the charity here in Dubai. Sierra Leone is perhaps the world's poorest country while Dubai is one of the richest countries in the world. All the recent natural disasters have meant that people are giving less to small charities and people are also worried about where their money
is going.

Deanna (Wallace) is taking a minimum wage while her staff are all getting paid fairly.

Me
Me and my parents:
My dad, Bill, was a lorry driver. He died of lung cancer when I was 21. My mum, June, was a very traditional housewife, although she did work part time as a social worker and later as a counsellor for the Marie Curie Foundation (for cancer).

She later married Les, who I have a very good relationship with. I always felt very grounded growing up. It was a very loving background and I was also close to my cousins.

We lived in (Croydon) a working class area (of London) and my mum saw the need for starting a relatively less expensive activity club for children and teenagers. It started with 20 kids as St Augustus Holiday Club when I was about 6 and grew to an NGO with about 200 children.

She managed to do that while looking after me and two older sisters. Sometimes she even took us with her to meetings because she'd have nowhere else to put us. As a result, we very rarely had a holiday, but we didn't mind.

In that atmosphere, I learned that working in the community was something one should do. My mum and dad taught me that if you're going to be a parent, then you'd better put your whole heart into it. I have so much admiration for them.

When I told them about adopting, they were surprised. They'd heard me talking about it, but now it was real. I included them in the whole process and they were so supportive. My mum came with me to Dauda's court hearing because we'd been told it would strengthen my case.

We are having a family blessing service back home (in England) to welcome Dauda and Magda into our family. It's a wonderful way to say, "We're here as a family, and we need your love, support and guidance."

Me and Sierra Leone:
A lot of African countries require that adoptive parents live six months in the country before adopting, but that doesn't apply in Sierra Leone. However, the adoption process is quite arbitrary as it depends on the judge who's appointed to your case.

When the country suspended international adoptions, I asked Deanna Wallace, 'What can I do?'. My friends and family supported me by sending about 250 e-mails and 50 faxes to the press, the American Embassy and the British Embassy (in Freetown) to pressure Sierra Leone to open up again. A test case in December 2004 restarted adoption.

In May, I took two weeks off work to go to Sierra Leone, but I ended up staying for nearly two months. My boss at Home Centre was very good about it. I had decided not to give up until I had my day in court. I was really shocked by the harsh conditions there.

I've been to Bangladesh and India, where there are extremes, but this reminded me of Soweto ... there weren't any better-off suburbs. Everything was bullet-ridden and run down. People were living in complete poverty and each day was a struggle. There was no proper sewage system and no electricity.

(About) 80 per cent of the people in Freetown had no jobs or income.

I stayed in a hotel while, waiting for my case to be heard. One day the woman who cleaned my room told me her husband had been tortured and killed in the war and she had two sons and a daughter.

The previous year her sons were ill. Both of them needed to undergo an operation but she could only afford to pay for one. She bought medication for the other but he died.

The story horrified me because I had never realised how lucky I was as a parent and how lucky my children now are. I knew I would never have to face that decision, and I was shocked that so many (parents) lived in a situation where they had to make choices like that.

Me and All As One:
I initially tried to set up a charity when I came back to Dubai but I was a bit overwhelmed ? (and had) my new family responsibilities.

However, when Deanna contacted me to tell me she might have to close down her centre in Sierra Leone, I sprang into action mode to organise our first charity dinner, with the support of a lot of friends.

I reconnected with Dubai Aid and Humanitarian City and managed to start registering the charity with the help of the CEO, Barbara Castek.

Now we're looking at fundraising, in addition to increasing awareness and education about Sierra Leone. Imagine that two out of five children in the provinces don't live beyond the age of 5. We're also going to be organising collection drives, in partnership with DHL, for clothes and food.

We're in talks with a bank to set up a sponsorship facility and are also organising balls and other events throughout the year. Our recent ball in March raised $30,000 (about Dh110,000). I'm also looking out for some office space.

I want to get a team of volunteers together and organise some of them to go into schools to educate children. Imagine if we could get every child to donate one piece of secondhand clothing.

In the future, I'd like to launch a fund to build a new orphanage. The current one was ransacked during the war, is bullet-ridden and looks a bit like a dungeon.

Me and my new venture:
I wanted to spend more time with my kids, so I left Home Centre this January to start my own company. Now I can work from 8am to 4pm, spend time with them and then work on the computer in the evening.

I have a master's in human resources (completed at the University of Westminister in 1996) and I had done a lot of work in training and development, particularly in retail.

So I decided to set-up my own training company, Retail People Consultancy (a specialist retail HR provider). We're starting with training but will also add recruiting and consultancy arms later.

Myself
Are you very conscious of the fact that your children are growing up in a different culture? How much effort do you make to preserve their cultural identity?
While I'd been researching adoption, I'd learned a lot about cross-cultural adoption and I was very concerned to make Dauda and Magda feel good about themselves, while also providing good role models (for them).

I used to go to a white Western doctor but now I go to a more multi-cultural clinic. Even when considering schools, I'd like them to go somewhere multicultural. Similarly, we have some African friends and I've made an effort to fill our house with African artefacts and books. I want to celebrate our cultural diversity.

At 3, Dauda is starting to notice things. At a recent gathering, he stood up on a table and said, "I'm lovely and black," and then he looked at me and said, "You're lovely and white."

How has adopting children changed you as a person?
I'm a lot less selfish. Before I only had myself to think about. Your children mirror what you do, so it made me conscious of how I act and my behaviour is a lot more positive nowadays because there are always little eyes and ears following me.

I want to be the best role model I can. I'm also less materialistic. I used to buy Prada but now I'm wearing a shirt and trousers from Max store. In London, I would think nothing of flying to New York for the weekend. But there comes a point where you change. Sierra Leone showed me how lucky I was and now I want to give something back.

You're a single parent now. Do you think it would be difficult to find a partner to settle down with?
It would have to be someone very special. I always wanted to adopt children and I think if I met the right woman, I'd like to adopt more children. For me right now, adopting David will complete my journey. Every time I look at Dauda I think of David still in the orphanage.

Many people may find your story inspirational. What would you say to them?
I don't want people to be impressed. We're sitting around and people are starving. If someone tells me he thinks I'm great, I say, "What are you doing about it?" Try to omit one item from your shopping list and instead consider sponsoring a child. Think about adopting a child into your family. Forget about the big picture and see what you can do to help.

For information on All As One, log on to www.allasone.org or contact Matthew Morgan-Jones on 050 645 9343 or e-mail matthew@allasone.org

Persons: Deanna Wallace Cox

Organizations: All As One

Countries: Sierra Leone

Suspended adoptions in Kosovo:

the CAI controversy

04 May 2006

The suspension based on misinformation dell'ambasciata officials and lack of knowledge of the situation in-country. The Commission in storm

The Association of Friends of Children launched the alarm: international adoptions with Kosovo were suspended. At home AiBi Melegnano has reached an "unexpected and surprising" Commission Communication on international adoptions which establishes the suspension. Amici dei Bambini work in the country for ten years, with co-operation aimed at children in difficult family. ? A law approved in 2003 by UNMIK, the UN authority to the Government of Kosovo, had set out a detailed and accurate international adoptions, just to address the problem of abandoned children in the country, "says the chairman of AiBi , Marco Griffini. "What is regrettable that the suspension was based on misinformation of the Italian Embassy officials and suspected risks to the safety of couples. I wonder then how are families going to adopt in Nepal, Ethiopia and Congo?. ? It 'clear that the war in Kosovo is over but not for children - continues - Amici dei Bambini not only had obtained from CAI and local authorities, having presented all the documents requested permission to adopt, but had been activated because the local authorities had requested an urgent intervention to a family with many children. So much so that the file had already sent some couples ready to take the children reported. This decision leaves us bewildered?. The emergency drop in Kosovo is bleak: Only in 2005 were more than 80 drop in the hospital. 2006 will herald a year black for international adoptions, after already registered fallen dramatically over the last months of 2005. ? The decision to suspend international adoptions - adds Griffini - due to a lack of knowledge on the part of our authorities adoptive procedures and the situation in Kosovo, calls to reflect on the true role of the Commission, given the numerous situations of stalemate adoptions, As with Morocco and China. The CAI in our opinion - concludes Griffini - must be able to solve and address the problems of international adoptions more political weight for this Friends of Children has repeatedly proposed the appointment of a Secretary to the International adoptions at the presidency ?.

http://beta.vita.it/news/view/56326/

VITA. Sospese le adozioni in Kosovo: polemiche sulla Cai

04 maggio 2006

La sospensione motivata da disinformazione dei funzionari dell'ambasciata e da scarsa conoscenza della situazione-Paese. La Commissione nella bufera

L'Associazione Amici dei Bambini ha lanciato l'allarme: le adozioni internazionali con il Kosovo sono state sospese. Alla sede AiBi di Melegnano è infatti arrivata una "inattesa e sorprendente" comunicazione della Commissione per le adozioni internazionali che stabilisce la sospensione. Amici dei Bambini opera nel paese da una decina di anni, con interventi di cooperazione rivolti ai minori in difficoltà familiare. ?Una legge del 2003 approvata da Unmik, l'autorità dell'Onu preposta al governo del Kosovo, aveva regolato in modo dettagliato e preciso le adozioni internazionali, proprio per affrontare il problema dei bambini abbandonati nel Paese", spiega il presidente di AiBi, Marco Griffini. "Quello che rammarica è che la sospensione sia stata motivata da disinformazione dei funzionari dell'Ambasciata italiana e a presunti rischi per la sicurezza delle coppie. Mi domando allora come facciano le famiglie che vanno ad adottare in Nepal, Etiopia o Congo?. ?E' chiaro che la guerra in Kosovo è finita ma non per i bambini abbandonati - continua - Amici dei Bambini non solo aveva ottenuto dalla CAI e dalle autorità locali, dopo aver presentato tutte le documentazioni richieste, l'autorizzazione a adottare, ma si era subito attivata proprio perché le stesse autorità locali avevano richiesto un intervento urgente per dare una famiglia ai molti bambini abbandonati. Tanto che avevamo già inviato dossier di alcune coppie pronte a adottare i bambini segnalati. Questa decisione ci lascia sconcertati?. L'emergenza abbandono in Kosovo è preoccupante: solo nel 2005 sono stati più di 80 gli abbandoni in ospedale. Il 2006 si preannuncia un anno nero per le adozioni internazionali, dopo il vistoso calo registrato già negli ultimi mesi del 2005. ?La decisione di sospendere le adozioni internazionali - aggiunge Griffini - dovuta a una scarsa conoscenza da parte delle nostre autorità sulle procedure adottive e sulla situazione in Kosovo, invita a riflettere sul vero ruolo della Commissione, viste le numerose situazioni di stallo delle adozioni, come accade con il Marocco e la Cina. La CAI a nostro avviso - conclude Griffini - deve essere in grado di risolvere e affrontare i problemi legati alle adozioni internazionali con maggiore peso politico: per questo Amici dei Bambini ha proposto più volte la nomina di un Sottosegretario alle Adozioni internazionali presso la Presidenza del Consiglio?.

Organizations: Amici dei Bambini, Amici dei Bambini - Kosovo

Countries: Kosovo, Italy

Child Sex Abuse Victim Recounts Story to Whitfield's Subcommittee

May 3, 2006

U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, on Wednesday held the third in a series of investigative hearings examining the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet. Members received testimony from a child victim who spoke of her past sexual abuse as well as federal law enforcement officials who updated the Subcommittee on their efforts to uncover and prosecute pedophiles.

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee heard from another child sex abuse victim, 13 year-old Masha Allen. At age 5, Masha was adopted from a Russian orphanage by a single divorcee living in Pennsylvania, Matthew Mancuso. During the five years she lived with Mancuso, Masha told the Subcommittee the harrowing details of how he repeatedly raped and abused her, keeping her chained to a wall in his basement and feeding her little to no food. Masha recalled how Mancuso took volumes of pictures documenting her sexual abuse and traded those images among a network of anonymous pedophiles on the Internet.

Mancuso eventually was convicted on both federal and state charges stemming from his abuse of Masha, and is currently imprisoned at a federal correctional facility in Massachusetts. Despite the fact that law enforcement discovered these crimes and successfully prosecuted Mancuso, Masha told the Subcommittee that her nightmare continues today. Usually, when a kid is hurt and the abuser goes to prison, the abuse is over. But because Matthew put my pictures on the Internet, the abuse is still going on, said Masha.

Countries: Russia, United States of America

Letter Danish Central Authority to European Commission (subsidiarity)

see attachment

Organizations: The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and International Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, Subsidiarity, Nordic Adoption Council, Euradopt, European Commission

Countries: Denmark

Draft UN Guidelines FOR THE PROTECTION AND ALTERNATIVE CARE OF CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE

Organizations: International Social Service (ISS), Unicef New York, International Social Service (ISS) - Germany, (UN) Guidelines on Children without Parental Care

Sperm donor father traced on Internet

Sperm donor father traced on Internet.(ROUND UP: Law and Policy)(Brief article)

A 15-year-old boy was able to trace his sperm donor father using genetic information from a swab taken from the inside of his cheek. After making his own genetic code available on a genealogy website, he was contacted by two men with genetic similarities to his and a surname in common with each other. Within 10 days …

…

Countries: United States of America