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Edelman Names New Leadership for Brussels Office

Asia Pacific, EMEA, North America

Paul Holmes 06 Sep 2004

BRUSSELS—Edelman has named Laura Currie and Teemu Lehtinen as managing directors of Edelman Brussels. Currie takes over as Managing director, public relations, and Teemu Lehtinen as managing director, public affairs. Both are promoted from their previous roles as directors. They succeed Charlotte Lester, who is leaving Brussels to return to India.

In addition, public affairs veteran Michael Burrell, Edelman’s vice chairman, Europe, takes on the additional role of vhairman, Edelman, Brussels.

Portrait de François de Combret

Décalage bancaire > Lire en format pdf Il était une fois un amoureux des idées devenu banquier d'affaires. Il était une fois un haut fonctionnaire devenu l'homme de l'ombre de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Il était une fois un associé-gérant de la banque Lazard devenu philanthrope. Fidèle mais lucide, rationnel et imaginatif, ce non-conformiste cultive ses différences.

Chaque semaine, Le nouvel Economiste révèle un tempérament à «L’Hôtel», rue des Beaux-Arts. Paris VIe. Portrait d’un discret serviteur de l’Etat mué en subtil banquier d’affaires.

Par Gaël Tchakaloff

Ukraine

Families for Children Program Implementing Partner: Holt International Children's Services Funding Period: September 2004 - December 2009 Amount: $3,229,790 Purpose: Develop sustainable and replicable family care models of services for children who otherwise would be institutionalized or on the street. Accomplishments Established model programs on family preservation in the pilot sites. Trained ninety-two regional trainers on foster care in collaboration with the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, Families for Children Program Developed and tested practical guidelines on foster care (Families for Children Program Child Welfare Task Force). The guidelines were reviewed and approved by the ministry to be used country wide. Conducted two adoption surveys. Survey findings were used to improve the adoption process and develop a national strategy to build a strong and transparent adoption system. Established foster care services for HIV positive children. Supported seventy-eight grant projects, which reported the following: 9,155 people, including decision makers, service providers, parents and children participated in training activities. 16,067 media appearances (publications, TV/radio programs) addressed the issue of vulnerable children and families. 188 products (booklets, posters, films) were developed. 207 community events were conducted. 23 community groups were established. 1,200 children and 727 families received psychosocial support. services. 342 cases of child abandonment were prevented

As with many countries of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine’s rapid social, economic, and political changes have brought a serious crisis in the number of children living outside family care. Orphanages are full, and increasing numbers of children are forced to live on the streets. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports Affairs, as many as 100,000 children are living without the care and protection of a family.

RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE
Police Dismantle Child Trafficking Syndicate
By Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Aug 31, 2004 (IPS) - The Sierra Leonean police have busted what they refer to as the biggest child trafficking syndicate in the West African nation since the end of the civil conflict three years ago.

‘’We have arrested and charged three persons thought to be the brains behind the syndicate. And we are doing all in our power to have the Sierra Leonean kids trafficked to be brought back home,’’ says police commissioner for crime services Richard Moigbeh.

Some 29 children were recently trafficked to the United States allegedly under the auspices of ‘Help A Needy Child International (HANCI), which operates an orphanage and a home for destitute children in Sierra Leone’s northern town of Makeni.

The scheme went like this: two of the prime suspects currently in police custody Henry Abu and John Gbla would allegedly identify and approach destitute parents and propose to them the adoption of their children by foster parents.

The unsuspecting parents who could barely afford food for the family let alone send their children to school fall in for the bait and gladly give away their children.

Moigbeh says the children are first placed in an orphanage and then ‘’taken to a neighbouring country like Guinea or Ghana, in batches before finally being flown to the United States.’’

Their parents, he adds, are hardly informed about the true picture of what then happens to their children. A U.S.-based agency, the Maine Adoption Placement Service (MAPS) had allegedly been colluding with HANCI to facilitate the trafficking, he claims.

But HANCI operations manager Kelfa Mallay has denied the child trafficking allegations. His charity activities, he says, do not even include adoption of children. ‘’We did have a working relationship with the U.S. agency MAPS but we’d separated a couple of years ago,’’ Mallay told journalists.

He said Abu, one of the suspects on trial was initially a staff of HANCI but broke off later and together with his co-accused Gbla, set up their own charity and acted as desk officer for MAPS.

There has been no reaction from MAPS about the allegations.

But the police say, while prosecution of the three suspects is underway, efforts are being made to have the children in the United States repatriated home and reunited with their families.

Moigbeh told IPS: ‘’We have been in constant touch with MAPS in the U.S. and they’ve acknowledged receiving the 29 children. Our job now is to see how we could secure the children and have them returned to their families here (in Sierra Leone).’’

He describes the child trafficking scam as a criminal offence and has dispatched police officers to trace the biological parents of the other children at the Cherith orphanage in Makeni to reunite them with their parents.

‘’In the meantime, we are going to place those children at the orphanage (in Makeni) under the protection of the ministry of gender and children’s affairs,’’ Moigbeh adds. The exact number of children at the Cherith orphanage has not been disclosed but police describe its operations as suspect.

Reactions to the child trafficking scam have been mixed. While many acknowledge the criminality of the syndicate, the difficult economic circumstances are equally advanced for such a social vice.

Margaret Kabia, a mother of six who lost her husband during Sierra Leone’s war, says: ‘’If they are legitimately adopting my kid, I would offer even two. I am an unemployed single parent struggling to bring up six children. This is simply too much for me’’.

Osman Jalloh, a businessman in the capital Freetown, considers child trafficking as an offence. ‘’It (child trafficking) is unjustifiable in all its forms. I can understand the economic problems in the country but that should not warrant anyone to prey on poor parents and criminally traffic their children without their consent,’’ he says.

Bassie Conteh, a push-cart driver in Freetowm, says: ‘’For me, there’s nothing wrong with it. At the end of the day, I know my kid would be in America and help me back home.’’

Sierra Leone is a signatory to the convention on the right of the child. Having experienced first hand the abuse of children during the country's civil war such as forceful conscription, rape and enslavement, the authorities are apparently acting tough on child right abuses.

Poverty, deprivation and the break-up of traditional family ties have made children even more vulnerable to various forms of abuses. An official at the ministry of social welfare told IPS last week that more stringent measures would be adopted to protect the rights of children.

‘’We would closely monitor orphanages and other child-care NGOs in order to ascertain their activities. Such a scam is unacceptable and must be put to halt once and for all,’’ the official said.

Human and child trafficking is fast becoming a problem in the West African sub-region. Two weeks ago, a derelict vessel was seized by Spanish police with the help of Guinean and Sierra Leonean security forces on high seas attempting to traffic some 500 would-be illegal immigrants. Many were thought to be young people.

The police say their investigations into the latest scam in Sierra Leone are continuing. (END)

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25283

Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

In search of mother with an aching heart

By K. Venkateshwarlu

Children from children homes in Czech Rep, Romania and Ukraine

With the adoption of three-year-old orphan Viktoria from Russia, Gerhard Schröder sparked an emotional debate. The usefulness of international adoptions is controversial among experts, the process is extremely complicated for ordinary citizens, and the risks are high.

The welfare of Russian orphans has long been a concern for President Vladimir Putin. So much so, in fact, that one of his first official acts was to address it: In March 2000, Putin issued a decree regulating the adoption of Russian children abroad. This decisive action from Moscow curbed the ruthless child trafficking that was flourishing in Russian orphanages at the time. Since then, only about 80 agencies licensed by the Ministry of Education have been officially permitted to place children.

But Putin has no doubt that his friend Gerhard Schröder, 60, would be a good adoptive father. He was informed from the Kremlin "from the very beginning" of the Schröders' plans to adopt a child from his country. After all, everything is fine with Schröder and his wife Doris, 41, seconded Galina Trostanezkaja, the deputy director responsible for the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The chancellor couple "chose" the three-year-old orphan Viktoria, the three of them took an instant liking to each other, and a St. Petersburg city court then settled everything else.

When the new addition to the family was announced at the beginning of last week, most newspapers applauded for days, SPD leader Franz Müntefering and Defense Minister Peter Struck congratulated him, and Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber paid tribute to him with "great respect."

$ 4,000, sale price of a little girl of 5 years, even her father collected

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Parvu child sold 42 million lei

Prosecutors of the Prosecutor's Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice are prosecuting the willing of George Parvu for trading adoption of his daughter against the amount of 42,000,000 lei, informed yesterday, in a press release, the Prosecution HCCJ.
George Parvu claimed in August 1998, the amount of $ 5,000 to be agreed with the adoption of his daughter. He received on December 22, 1998 amount to 42,000,000 lei (equivalent to 4,000 U.S. dollars) from Efstathiou Cypriot family and Androulla Crysanthos who wanted to adoption by a minor Mariana Madalina Parvu, for 11 years. The little girl is in foster care center for parents of St. Mary (George Parvu and Angelica Parvu) gave their three children in state care.
Madalina mother gave initially agreed on sonship face, but after hearing that her husband had received money to agree to adoption, adoptive family asked to buy a house. For the claim was not honored, it filed a criminal denounce. The complaint has been registered after the legal deadline of 30 days in which consent may be revoked, Angelica Parvu was not charged for the criminal act was not relevant.
George Parvu was given that wanted could not be found in any known address. During the investigation, he said that of the 42,000,000 lei to buy a cell phone (2,300,000 lei) a refrigerator (2,100,000 lei), a Dacia 1310 (25,500,000 lei) that the subsequently sold it to the sum of 17,000,000 lei, mobile phone and fridge they sold after it ran out of money. The rest of the money, Parvu bought clothes, shoes and food for him and his concubine.
But he will have to pay 42,000,000 lei the title of special confiscation. Although the court knew the circumstances surrounding the father's consent was obtained, has acquiesced in the adoption by Madalina Parvu Cypriot family considering only the interests of the child.
No other person involved in mediation adoption will not be prosecuted, specifies the Prosecution HCCJ.

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Parvu si-a vandut copilul cu 42 de milioane de lei
Procurori din Parchetul de pe langa Inalta Curte de Casatie si Justitie au dispus trimiterea in judecata a lui Gheorghe Parvu pentru tranzactionarea adoptiei fiicei sale contra sumei de 42.000.000 de lei, a informat ieri, printr-un comunicat, Parchetul de pe langa ICCJ.
Gheorghe Parvu a pretins, in luna august 1998, suma de 5.000 de dolari pentru a fi de acord cu adoptia fiicei sale. El a primit, la 22 decembrie 1998 suma de 42.000.000 de lei (echivalentul a 4.000 de dolari) de la familia cipriota Efstathiou si Androulla Crysanthos care dorea sa o infieze pe minora Madalina Mariana Parvu, de 11 ani. Fetita se afla in Centrul de plasament familial Sfanta Maria pentru ca parintii (Gheorghe Parvu si Angelica Parvu) si-au dat cei trei copii in ingrijirea statului.
Mama Madalinei si-a dat, initial, acordul in privinta infierii fetei, dar dupa ce a aflat ca sotul sau a primit bani pentru a fi de acord cu adoptia, a solicitat familiei adoptatoare sa-i cumpere o locuinta. Pentru ca pretentia sa nu a fost onorata, ea a formulat un denunt penal. Plangerea sa a fost inregistrata dupa expirarea termenului legal de 30 zile in care putea fi revocat consimtamantul, Angelica Parvu nu a fost acuzata pentru ca fapta sa nu are relevanta penala.
Gheorghe Parvu a fost dat in urmarire generala pentru ca nu a putut fi gasit la nici o adresa cunoscuta. In timpul anchetei, el a declarat ca din cele 42.000.000 lei a cumparat un telefon celular (2.300.000 de lei) un frigider ( 2.100.000 de lei), un autoturism Dacia 1310 (25.500.000 de lei) pe care a vandut-o ulterior cu suma de 17.000.000 lei; telefonul celular si frigiderul le-a vandut dupa ce a ramas fara bani. Cu restul de bani, Parvu a cumparat imbracaminte, incaltaminte si mancare pentru el si concubina lui.
El va trebui insa sa plateasca 42.000.000 lei cu titlul de confiscare speciala. Cu toate ca instanta de judecata a cunoscut imprejurarile in care a fost obtinut consimtamantul tatalui, a incuviintat adoptia Madalinei Parvu de catre familia cipriota tinand cont de interesul exclusiv al minorei.
Nici o alta persoana implicata in intermedierea adoptiei nu va fi urmarita penal, precizeaza Parchetul de pe langa ICCJ.