After 27 years of separation, Ms. Nguyen Trung Hiep tearfully reunited with her newborn twin daughters, who had been entrusted to a French couple to raise. She said, "I just hope you don't hate me."

Two days after meeting her biological daughter who came from France to Vietnam to find her, Mrs. Nguyen Trung Hiep (55 years old, residing in Xuyen Moc commune, Xuyen Moc district, Ba Ria province - Vung Tau) happily recounted the unexpected reunion after 27 years of separation and the difficult circumstances of the family during these years.

Speaking to VietNamNet reporter , Ms. Hiep said she was born and raised in Xuyen Moc commune, Xuyen Moc district. In 1997, after going through a "marriage," she married Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (residing in Hoa Hiep commune, Xuyen Moc district) and later gave birth to twin girls, Nguyen Thi Kim Hong and Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, in October 1998.

She said that at that time, her family was in a very difficult situation. She and her husband had to work for others, but they still had no money to eat. At that time, learning that many foreign couples were coming to Vietnam to adopt children, they intended to give one of the two Hong sisters up for adoption in the hope that their child would have a better life.

More than 2,000 orphaned children are currently awaiting adoption across India, with West Bengal having the highest number among the states, according to data shared by the Women and Child Development Ministry. Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, presented the statistics recently, revealing that a total of 2,321 children are in the adoption pool nationwide.

Thakur noted that most Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) prefer to adopt younger children, particularly those below six years of age and in normal health, through the designated CARINGS portal. “If there is availability of a lesser number of such children in the adoption pool, the waiting period for PAPs may be higher,” she stated in a written response.

Among the states, West Bengal has the highest number of children awaiting adoption at 309, followed by Maharashtra with 261, Odisha with 225, Bihar with 205, and Telangana with 197.

The minister also provided insights into child nutrition and welfare. She stated that as per the projected population, India had approximately 13.75 crore children up to the age of five in 2021. However, only 7.49 crore children in this age group were enrolled in Anganwadis and registered on the Poshan Tracker as of February 2025.

Further, out of the 7.25 crore children measured for growth parameters like height and weight, alarming figures were recorded. About 39.09 per cent were found to be stunted, 16.60 per cent were underweight, and 5.35 per cent were wasted, indicating severe malnutrition concerns among young children in the country.

in Adoptees Educate, Adoption Agencies, Adoption Education for Professionals, Australia, Critical Thinking in Adoption, Lived experience leadership, New Zealand, Post Adoption Support, Search and Reunion in Adoption, Transracial Adoption

On 20 Nov 2024, I presented online to a forum on Post Adoption attended by the Hague Central Authorities responsible for intercountry adoption as signatory countries. This forum is held yearly and shared between the Hague countries. The 2024 forum was hosted by the governments of Australia and New Zealand. One part of my presentation was to talk about the importance of engaging lived experience in the design and ownership of post adoption support services.

An excellent example of living the motto of “nothing about us without us”, is that in Australia, we intercountry adoptees have been very proactive in engaging with our federal government and in response, the Department of Social Services (DSS) have actively engaged our community to be consulted in the design of our post adoption services (PAS).

We’ve learnt how to do this better and better over time. For the first 5 year contract in which PAS was provided, the Australian government engaged an independent organisation to run our Community Stakeholder workshop consultations. The independent organisation also ran 1:1 consultations and small group discussions. For the Community Stakeholder workshops, as adoptees, we attended in person in each city of Australia where a white person facilitator stood up, with no lived experience and asked us questions about the post adoption support and what we thought of it.

Our feedback for these sessions told of the frustration we experienced as adoptees, to be engaged by a facilitator who had no idea of our experiences or the services. It slowed down the discussions because the facilitator had little idea of what we were talking about and it was like we had to educate the facilitator as we went. 

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, has joined House and Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to work directly with the Chinese government to resolve the bureaucratic impasse preventing American families from completing adoptions that had been approved before China shut down its intercountry adoption program.

The letter stated, “We write to you on behalf of hundreds of children and American families who have been devastated by the People’s Republic of China’s decision to halt its intercountry adoption program. We request that you act in the best interest of these children and engage the Chinese government to finalize these pending adoption cases.”

In the letter, the lawmakers stressed the urgency of the situation.

“The sudden termination of China’s adoption program in August 2024 only exacerbated our concern for these children’s well-being. Many of these children have special health care needs, and some will soon age out of care systems without the support of a permanent family. … We urge you to elevate this engagement and press the Chinese government to finalize pending adoption cases so these children may finally be united with their adoptive families in the United States.”

A U.S. State Department notice last November suggested China may allow adoptions to resume for families in certain countries. The lawmakers are making it clear: the U.S. must be included in any such arrangement. American families must not be left behind, and the administration must press the Chinese government to allow these adoptions to move forward through diplomatic channels, without intervention, hundreds of children remain in limbo, despite their adoptions already being approved.

SEOUL, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, March 19, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Recent data and developments have prompted adoptees to call for closer examination of the funding and operations of South Korea’s National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC). This comes as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prepares to release findings and adoptee files are scheduled for transfer by July 2025, marking a significant period for South Korea’s adoption system.

Funding Details Emerge
Records published on March 1, 2025, indicate that the NCRC contributed 55% of the 2024 budget for G.O.A’L, a well-known adoptee-run NGO. G.O.A’L is also the sole adoptee-focused organization represented on the NCRC’s board, according to available documentation. This financial and governance connection has led some adoptees to raise questions about the NCRC’s structure.

Record Access Under Review
A January 14, 2025, MBC documentary, The Disappeared Adoption Records: The Country That Erased Me, detailed issues with a 2 billion KRW digitization project managed by the NCRC from 2013 to 2022. The NCRC responded on January 15, 2025, confirming internal reviews and audits initiated in 2024. Parliamentary data shows that between 2021 and 2024, only 16.4% of 6,087 adoption record requests were granted.

Notable Recent Cases
Several events have highlighted challenges with the NCRC’s processes:
On October 10, 2024, Norwegian adoptee Alice Andersen requested her biological family’s medical history due to health conditions but was denied access.
On October 7, 2024, Han Tae-soon filed a lawsuit against the government and Holt Children’s Services, claiming insufficient efforts to locate her family before her daughter’s 1976 adoption. Case: 2024-Ga-57382, Jihyang Law, Phone: +82(0)2.3476.6002.
A Danish adoptee’s lawsuit, filed August 4, 2024, seeks her late father’s identity under the Special Adoption Act, with the NCRC declining to provide the information. Case: 2024-Dan-39214, Jihyang Law, Phone: +82(0)2.3476.6002.

TRC Investigation Progresses
The TRC announced on March 5, 2025, that preliminary results from its review of 367 forced adoptions from the 1960s to 1980s will be shared by late March. Operating independently of the NCRC, the TRC’s mandate extends through May 2025, with adoptee files set to transfer by July 2025, a timeline noted by adoptee groups.

Government Outlines Changes
On May 10, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced plans to transition adoption oversight to government entities, including the NCRC, by July 19, 2025. Historical issues, such as incomplete or altered records, continue to be documented.

Adoptees Request Further Insight
Adoptee advocates have expressed interest in reviews of the NCRC’s funding sources, board makeup, and record management procedures before the July 2025 file transfer. With the TRC’s findings approaching, they see this as a key moment to explore longstanding aspects of South Korea’s adoption system.

JK Song
Punch Digital Marketing
namelessadoptee@proton.me

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olkata: A 52-year-old India-born US citizen is now in Kolkata, scouring B T Road and neighbourhoods along the Kolkata-Barrackpore route, trying to retrace her roots from the labyrinth of govt and adoption-home records and the cobwebs of a six-year-old girl's memory.

Tempori Thomas was five when she got lost from her old home and six when she found a new home around 13,000km away in Minnesota, US. "I got lost on a short-distance local train ride on December 14, 1977 while out picking firewood and charcoal for preparing dinner for my family," Thomas said.

She can recall Khardah police station, where she reached — with a stranger's help — after two days of straying. She stayed there for a day and was shifted to a home for widows, until she ended up at Presidency jail in Dec.

She stayed there until Sept 1978, before she was flown out to Minnesota with help of an orphanage and adoption NGO, International Mission of Hope in Kolkata.

Thomas, who reached Kolkata on Saturday with her friends Rebecca Peacock (49) and 47-year-old Manu Erickson (who have similar lost-and-adopted stories), spent Sunday touring the suburbs around Khardah PS from 10am to 3pm.

Now the minister wants to exempt a new group from work obligations.

Another group is set to be affected by the government's new law on work obligations in connection with cash benefits, which was otherwise intended to primarily affect non-Western immigrants.

The Ministry of Employment confirms to DR that surrogate children born abroad - just like adopted children - are covered by the new rules that come into effect on July 1 this year.

This means that if a Danish couple, for example, chooses to have a child through a surrogacy agreement from a country like the USA, the child will not have the same rights as its parents.

The Federal Council wants to ban adoptions from abroad. Now, opposition is mounting. However, opponents and supporters agree on one point.

Shortly :

• In January, the Federal Council announced a ban on adoptions from abroad.
• Now, resistance is brewing. EPP National Councilor Nik Gugger, himself adopted from India, has launched a petition against the ban. The FDP plans to submit a motion on April 11.
• Supporters of the ban take the view that even stricter controls could not prevent illegal adoptions.

Nik Gugger still remembers it clearly: As a six-year-old, he was walking through the village with his parents when suddenly someone called out: "Ah, look, there's Gugger's souvenir."

This experience doesn't stop there. "There were racist remarks from time to time, which made me feel powerless," says the EPP National Councilor, who was born in India in 1970, adopted by a Swiss couple, and grew up near Thun.

Dear journalists,

I’m Nameless Adoptee, a Korean adoptee advocating for the rights of adoptees worldwide. Today, I’m reaching out with an urgent plea: Matthieu Sung-tan, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee in France, is dying from a rare genetic disease, and South Korea’s National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) is blocking access to the records that could save him. His story, detailed in two Yonhap News articles published today, March 17, 2025, exposes a systemic crisis affecting thousands of adoptees. Your coverage can make a difference — Matthieu’s life depends on it.

Matthieu’s Heartbreaking Struggle

Matthieu Sung-tan Foucault (Korean name: Jang Sung-tan) was born on December 23, 1986, in Iksan, South Korea, and adopted to France at four months old in April 1987 through Holt Children’s Welfare Society. Raised in a loving middle-class French family, he became a skilled stonemason and carpenter, contributing to the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral. He loved playing the guitar and dreamed of a simple life with his wife, Lauriane Simon, and their children, Eloise (3) and Esteban (1).

But since spring 2024, Matthieu’s life has unraveled. He’s suspected of suffering from Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI), a rare genetic disease that prevents sleep, leading to hallucinations, memory loss, and a disconnection from reality. Yonhap News reports that he’s so exhausted he must close his eyes constantly, yet he cannot sleep — his condition is deteriorating rapidly. Without treatment, FFI patients typically survive only 18 months, with a range of 7 months to 6 years. Matthieu’s survival window is closing.

The country that receives internationally adopted children is the receiving country, and the country that sends them is the sending country. Sending has a stronger meaning of 'mechanically transmitting goods, electricity, radio waves, information, etc.' than 'sending people abroad.' Receiving simply means 'accepting money or goods.' The reason I looked into the meaning again is because of a sentence written by Lee Kyung-eun, the representative of human rights beyond borders, in <A country that abandons its citizens> (Geulhangari).

Lee Kyung-eun, the representative of Borderless Human Rights, says, “International adoption is a transaction that takes place in a market of illegality and injustice.” Reporter Kim Jong-mok

“I am not an object.” “I” am the 15-day-old baby “SK (the initials of his name).” In one chapter of the book, CEO Lee uses the form of a dream to represent SK. SK was almost illegally adopted from Korea to the United States in June 2012. In the process, he was in danger of being sent to a U.S. refugee child detention center. CEO Lee, who was the director of the Child Welfare Policy Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the time, took the lead in repatriation, even going to U.S. courts. It was not an easy task. High-ranking officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs treated SK as “someone involved in illegal activities.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “I don’t know anything about it” until a high-ranking U.S. official contacted him. CEO Lee also dealt with Americans, including employees at the U.S. Embassy in Korea. CEO Lee says, “I suffered so much that I had to trade a tooth.” The book is also an indictment against several public officials in powerful ministries, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.