Safe in dad's arms again
By Karyn Maughan
Falsely accused of being an abusive and mentally unstable drug addict, Jose
Williams nearly lost his baby daughter to an adoption to which he was fiercely
opposed.
But the 26-year-old refused to give up on his first-born child and, after the claims
made against him by his baby's mother and the Abba Adoption agency were shown
to be baseless, he won his nearly nine-month-long battle to obtain custody of the
little girl on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, he and his daughter played "aeroplanes" together in the garden of
the family home. He grinned with delight, and she chuckled as he swung her around.
Earlier in the day, in an apparent about-turn, Abba - which had earlier wrongly
branded Williams as an aggressive man who abused his baby's mother and had
argued that his daughter should be put up for adoption - recommended to the
Pretoria Children's Court that he be given custody.
The Children's Court agreed and awarded Williams custody for a two-year period,
during which he will apply for permanent custody of his daughter in the Pretoria High
Court.
Williams, who is preparing to lodge a complaint of unethical and unprofessional
conduct against Abba with the SA Council for Social Service Professions, now
wants to ensure that no parent ever has to "go through what I did".
Speaking to The Star at the Kensington, Joburg, home that he shares with his
mother and sisters, Williams sat with his eight-and-a-half-month-old daughter
nestled in his lap. The little girl regularly fixed her gaze on her father - who shares
her birthday with her - and beamed.
In the month since her father was allowed to remove her from the state baby home
where she spent the first seven months of her life, the little girl has gained 2kg.
"It scares me so much that I could have lost her," Williams said.
"If I hadn't been able to raise money for a lawyer and had the loving and supportive
family that I do, I don't know what would have happened. My daughter could be
living with a family on the other side of the world. I thank God that she is here with
me."
Williams' ordeal began two months before his daughter was born, when the child's
mother approached Abba and asked them to arrange for the adoption.
According to the baby's mother, this was because the agency had helped her when
she fell pregnant at 17, and she wanted them to arrange that the same couple who
adopted her previous baby be given Williams' child.
But Williams was adamant that he would never give up his daughter - and it was
then that his troubles began.
Williams is now hoping that his planned complaint to the council will shed light on his
daughter's foiled adoption and expose the allegedly unlawful conduct that nearly saw it succeed.
His complaints against Abba include the following:
Under the new Children's Act, an unmarried father can acquire full parental
responsibilities and rights if he consents to be identified as the child's father or has
contributed to the child's upbringing or maintenance. All of these conditions apply to
Williams.
While Abba manager Katinka Pieterse earlier insisted to The Star that the
adoption of Williams' daughter was immediately halted when he indicated that he
opposed it, Williams insists that Abba social worker Leoni Greyling informed him
there was "nothing I could do" to stop the process.
Records from Steve Biko (formerly Pretoria) Academic Hospital reveal that
Greyling used a "Form 4" document to take Williams' daughter and place her in a
place of safety affiliated with Abba after her birth. In the document, Greyling
claimed she would obtain Williams' consent for the removal. She never did.
Williams and his mother, Heloise Sequeira, learnt of his daughter's birth a week
after it happened, when Greyling sent them an SMS. They later drove to the
Pretoria Children's Court, where Sequeira said she discovered the April 16 court roll
and found a reference to her granddaughter's hearing as an inter-country adoption.
Pieterse insists that the hearing was a "child in need of care" case.
On the day of a crucial June 17 hearing into his daughter's future, Williams
claims he received a phone call from Greyling in which she told him that he was not
required to attend because it was "final" that the child would be adopted. She later
wrote in a report that Williams had failed to show up at the meeting.
In another report, Greyling stated without any proof that it was "clear that the
biological father did abuse the biological mother before and during her pregnancy".
Williams' lawyer has obtained proof that Pieterse responded to international
queries about The Star's article on Williams' plight by claiming that Williams was a
drug addict. Drug test results obtained by Williams - and seen by The Star - show
that he does not use drugs. Pieterse said she does not recall sending the e-mail.
Backed by SMS evidence, Williams also claims he was denied the right to visit
his daughter over a two-month period.
In response to e-mail queries from The Star, Pieterse denied any wrongdoing on
Abba's part, insisting that all issues related to Williams' daughter had been dealt
with in a legally correct way.

Embassies push for transparency in adoptions

KIRAN CHAPAGAIN

KATHMANDU, Dec 7: Embassies of 12 countries entertaining inter-country adoptions from Nepal have jointly asked the government to ensure transparency and meet international standards while processing inter-country adoption cases.

The embassies passed their concerns in the form of a note verbale (a diplomatic memorandum) to the government via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 24 after they found that the "inter-country adoptions from Nepal were not meeting international standards and practices determined by the Hague Convention". The convention says that adoption should take place in the best interest of the children.

"The group offers its support and urges the Government of Nepal to strengthen the beneficial cooperation with the Hague Conference [Hague Convention], e.g. to ensure that internationally recognized standards and practices," reads the note verbale possessed by myrepublica.com from its sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

December 2008

Nieuwsbrief Ethiopië

Met de Jaarwisseling voor de deur willen wij u, via deze Nieuwsbrief , op de hoogte brengen van de stand van zaken in het Ethiopië contact.

2008 is een bewogen jaar geweest, zeker voor u, als wachtende ouders. Oplopende wachttijden voor aanvragen van kinderen vanaf 2 jaar, minder adoptieaankomsten, verhoging van de adoptiekosten en aangekondigde bezuinigingen en sanering van personeel bij Wereldkinderen.

Stand van zaken

Intercountry Adoption Reform Based on the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: An Update on Guatemala in 2008

Print This Post EMail This Post November 29th, 2008

Karen Smith Rotabi, Richmond, Virginia (USA) and Kelley Bunkers, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)

Until recently, Guatemala was on a per capita basis the largest source of US-adopted children in the world. At its peak, it was estimated that as many as 17 young Guatemalan children, many of them infants, departed Guatemala daily as an intercountry adoptees. The phenomenon was so common that the departure airline flights were called the “baby flight” by adoption agencies and families (Rotabi, 2007a). This dynamic underscores the fact that 98% of all adoptions were carried out internationally rather than domestic adoption placements with Guatemalan families (Latin American Institute for Education and Communication [ILPEC], 2000; UN, 2000). Dating back to the year 2000, reportedly 27,805 Guatemalan children were adopted by United States citizens (United States Department of State [USDOS], n.d.). US data are particularly relevant because a number of other industrialized nations, including Canada, enforced a moratorium on Guatemala as a sending nation due to adoption irregularities, and as a result, the vast majority of children were sent to the US during this time period (Rotabi, Morris & Weil, in press).

This Millenium adoption surge took place in the face of allegations and evidence of serious human rights abuses, including warnings from the US government and direct language such as “child trafficking” (United States Government Accountability Office [US GAO], 2005). While it is not certain just how many cases were fraudulent, illegal birth mother payments are believed to have become routine practice in recent years and this form of child sales was only one unscrupulous tactic of child traffickers.

Jelle en Dianne, 28 november 2008
 Kenia , Nairobi
Een dag vol emoties
Yes! Yes! Vanaf vandaag is Isis Taman officieel onze dochter!

Gisteren zagen we op internet dat we op de rol staan voor de zitting van vandaag! Wauw. We hoopten hier op maar omdat het erg snel is hielden we er uiteraard rekening mee dat het ook volgende week had kunnen zijn.

Om 7.30 uur staan we weer strak in pak klaar om naar de rechtbank te gaan. We zijn best wel gespannen. Gaat het lukken vandaag? We nemen plaats in de gang en het lange wachten begint. Hugo en Chantal zijn er ook met Baraka. De lijst met zaken is niet lang vandaag. Onze zaak staat als 6e op de lijst. Hugo en Chantal zijn net voor ons. Dat ziet er veelbelovend uit. Waarschijnlijk zal de rechter dit wel weg kunnen werken. Maar je weet maar nooit. Om 10.00 uur zijn Hugo en Chantal al aan de beurt. En om 10.45 uur komen zij breed lachend de kamer uit: het is nu officieel Baraka Vrijdag. Zo en nu wij, denken we. Maar nee. De rechter loopt zijn kamer uit en verdwijnt. Koffiepauze? We weten het niet. Hij blijft lang weg. Hij heeft toch niet bedacht om al aan zijn weekend te beginnen........ Het blijft toch Kenia.

Maar gelukkig komt hij terug en mogen we om 11.15 uur naar binnen. De rechter neemt de papieren door, stelt wat vragen aan onze advocaat en vraagt om advies bij de persoon van de kinderbescherming, het LAN en onze Guardian. Isis loopt een beetje rond, om het bureau van de rechter heen, maar dat is geen enkel probleem. Ze is wel moe en valt op een gegeven moment bij Jelle in slaap. Na een klein half uur zegt de rechter ineens 'all rise' en moeten we naar buiten. Alles is oké! De rechter gaat nu de uitspraak op papier zetten en wil dat in alle stilte alleen doen. Dus weer wachten. Ons gevoel over de zaak is goed maar we blijven heel gespannen. Dan mogen we terug naar binnen. De rechter gaat er even goed voor zitten en doet zijn uitspraak. De adoptie wordt aan ons toegekend. De rechter stelt ons nog wat persoonlijke vragen en sluit dan af met: “Take good care of my child”. “Yes, we will.” En dan is het voorbij. We gaan naar buiten en we zijn nu officieel de ouders van Isis Taman. Een heerlijk gevoel. Ontlading en blijdschap bij ons allen.

Hugo en Chantal zijn ondertussen al naar Java koffiehuis gegaan om koffie met gebak te bestellen. Wij gaan daar snel heen zodat we dit super nieuws samen kunnen vieren. Ook onze beide guardians en de onze advocaat zijn er bij. We hebben net wat besteld om het moment dat een man Hugo op zijn schouder tikt. De man stelt zich voor als iemand van de CID (Criminal Investigations Department) en of we even mee willen komen voor een paar vragen. Wat gebeurd hier? De man zegt dat er niets aan de hand is. Alleen wat vragen over kinderhandel. Huh? We schrikken ons helemaal lam. Vervolgens begint onze advocaat als een gek te bellen en probeert via de bazen opheldering te krijgen. Ondertussen verschijnt er buiten een legertruck met daarin acht mannen. Of we even mee gaan naar het politiebureau. We rekenen snel af en staan in no time tussen alle mannen in op straat. We vragen de advocaat wat er aan de hand is maar hij zegt in de auto's te stappen en geen vragen te stellen. Gelukkig niet in de truck maar in 2 personen auto's. Onderweg wordt duidelijk dat we aangehouden worden op verdenking van kinderhandel. De mannen zijn erg intimiderend en bestoken onze guardian met vragen als: bij welke organisatie zitten jullie? Waar komen deze kinderen vandaan? etc. Heb je net een uurtje geleden een uitspraak van de rechter gekregen dat je ouder bent van een Keniaans kind word je ineens beticht van kinderhandel. Het is allemaal heel beangstigend en de mannen zijn erg intimiderend.

Reisverslag

Kenia

webmaster, 28 november 2008

Kenia Nairobi

Baraka Paul Vrijdag! Een dag vol contasten...

Illegaler Babyhandel

Schweizer Behörden schauen weg!

Von Thomas Ley | 10:14 | 28.11.2008

LUGANO – Babyhändler wie Nadia B. (35) haben einen Komplizen in ihrem dreckigen Geschäft: den gleichgültigen Staat.

Wer ein Kind aus dem Ausland adoptieren will, hat die Wahl: Den legalen, politisch korrekten Weg – und bisweilen jahrelangen Frust (Box unten).Oder den einfacheren, kürzeren – den illegalen Weg. Der aber ein dreckiges Geschäft unterstützt. Das Geschäft von zwielichtigen Figuren wie Nadia B.* (35) aus Lugano.

Not sure it is the same person

Arisi Marco Emilio

Direttore della U.O. di Ostetricia

e Ginecologia, Ospedale Regionale

“S. Chiara”, Trento

Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 11:36

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