Source: Center for the Study of Learning and Performance

CSLP Manager Zeina Ismail-Allouche was recently in Lebanon for two invited presentations under the title From our forgotten history: Children from Lebanon and the issue of illegal adoption .

The sessions took place under the auspices of the Lebanese Association for History and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and the aim was to help raise awareness and engage a variety of stakeholders in discussions around the case of the forcibly adopted children during the 1975 – 1990 war period.

In recent years, the DNA project in Haiti was on hold because we couldn't travel. Since the spring of 2024, we have a pilot project and are working with Michel Joseph from Voie D’Espoir (VE) and Dirk Vermeyen in Haiti. 

Both gentlemen have helped us in the past with searches for families: Dirk as a solo specialist family finder, and Michel (journalist) who set up the Voie D’Espoir foundation due to the many requests he receives to trace the families of adoptees. 

We are combining our efforts for even more matches, which is the goal of Plan Kiskeya. VE is carrying out our DNA project in this pilot. In Port-au-Prince and Jeremi, an office has been opened where families can register. The project is being announced via radio spots, and families are being called to make an appointment for registration. 

In addition to the above two offices, there is also an office in Cap-Haitien, coordinated by Dirk Vermeyen. We have been working with Dirk for some time. From the Netherlands, we have direct insight into the incoming registrations. 

These new registrations are then processed on the Plan Kiskeya website. The pilot runs until the end of August. So far, the process is going well, registrations are coming in, and we are in close contact with Dirk and Michel. 

Precariousness pushes thousands of Haitians to entrust their children to reception centers, or to have them adopted. Most of these children leave the country, without their parents having any possibility of tracing them or having news of them.

Many parents do not know how international adoption works. "The 'madan sara' are sometimes victims," ​​says journalist Michel Joseph. "Having no one to look after their child, they [sometimes] entrust them to a nursery so they can go about their business activities. When they return after eight or fifteen days, they are told that the child has already been adopted and that he or she has travelled."

In other situations, biological parents are victims of false promises. "Sometimes [nurseries, orphanages or foreign missions] promise them a small house or money, under the pretext of sponsorship, in exchange for the child."

SANGAREDDY : The chutney prepared for students at Sultanpur JNTU College in Andole constituency on Monday night turned into a nightmare when a rat was discovered in it. Recently, students of JNTU College have protested the unsanitary and unhygienic conditions of the hostel food.

Upon noticing the live rat in the chutney, students recorded a video and shared it on social media, prompting District Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha to express his outrage. He warned against jeopardising students’ lives and instructed District Additional Collector Madhuri and Andole RDOs to conduct a thorough investigation and submit a report.

As directed, the officials visited the college on Tuesday. Additional Collector Madhuri met with the principal, staff and students, inspecting the dining room and kitchen. Minister Rajanarsimha instructed authorities to prevent such incidents in all hostels and ordered food safety officials to inspect boarding hostels, canteens, schools and colleges statewide.

Emphasising compliance with food safety norms, the minister mandated immediate cancellation of licences for non-compliant entities and urged constant inspections by Food Safety Officers across the state. Meanwhile, Additional District Collector Madhavi’s inquiry report revealed neglect in utensil cleaning at the college, which she reprimanded the staff for.

The minister directed the authority to keep vigilance on the manufacture of food items.

Activists and disabled parents have called for clarity and guidelines on adoption by persons with disabilities. “Every disabled couple has faced a problem at some stage of the adoption process,” said Bhagyam A., a polio-affected disabled mother who has undergone the process twice.

The call for guidelines and clarity has come in the wake of a couple in Thoothukudi having initially been denied a baby on July 5, and subsequently deemed eligible for adoption following a fitness test. S. Velmayil, 34, has a locomotor disability that affects both lower limbs (90% disability), and his wife Baby, 36, has a locomotor disability affecting her right hand and right leg (80% disability). Mr. Velmayil works at a fuel station, and Ms. Baby is an organiser at a noon meal centre.

The couple had registered for adoption in 2020, and renewed it in 2024. A baby was reserved for them in June. “Nobody said during the registration that we would be ineligible to adopt [an infant],” Ms. Baby said, adding that they had to run from pillar to post to get a medical certificate for adoption.

However, an adoption committee in Dindigul reportedly denied them the baby, as it felt that the couple would be unable to take care of the child, especially in the first two years, owing to their disability. After the incident was reported, a fitness test was conducted for the couple at the Thoothukudi Government Hospital. The result, released on Tuesday, deemed the couple eligible to adopt a baby. “There would have been no need for the test had the committee done its work with due diligence in the first place,” said Ms. Baby. The couple is now going through the entire adoption process again, and would next be meeting with the District Child Protection Officer as part of the process.

Recalling her experience during her first adoption in 2021, Ms. Bhagyam said: “It wasn’t until 2019 that I found out about the stand of [Central Adoption Research Authority] CARA on adoption by disabled couple. The adoption agency was extremely supportive in my case. However, It was during the final hearing that I faced discrimination. The judge did not want to sign the papers as he wasn’t confident. But the agency stood their ground, and I was able to adopt a baby. A basic guideline on adoption is required...”

Despite an earlier agreement, taxi drivers who operate through Uber in Amsterdam have again refused drag queens. 

Johan Hol is one of the drag queens who was not allowed to get into a taxi. "When the Uber driver saw that I was in drag, he said he would not give me a ride because I was not human." 

It also happened to drag queen Sletlana, who points out that Uber's website is all rainbow-themed. "Your route is colored in rainbow colors. They say they offer safety for everyone. But it seems like pink-washing ."

 

"They say they provide safety for everyone. But it seems like pink-washing"

drag queen Sletlana

In 2019, a declaration of intent for a 'discrimination-free taxi market' was signed by Uber, all Amsterdam Authorized Taxi Organizations (TTOs) and the municipality, among others. But Richard Keldoulis, also known as drag queen Jennifer Hopelezz , does not think it has helped.

This whole-of-government, multisectoral “Thrive” Strategy, which is mandated by the Global Child Thrive Act, aims to build strong beginnings for children, help families thrive, and prevent violence against children.

The U.S. Congress directs USAID to elevate child development, care, and protection needs within its foreign assistance. A whole-of-government, multisectoral strategy is mandated by both The Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children In Developing Countries Act (PL 109-95) and the more recent Global Child Thrive Act.

Background

Strengthening the capacities of children, adolescents, and the families who care for them are some of the best investments a country can make to eliminate extreme poverty, boost economic growth, and promote a peaceful society. The U.S. Government Strategy for Children to Thrive 2024-2029 (Thrive Strategy) is a whole-of-government, multi-sectoral effort that aims to build strong beginnings for children, help families to thrive, and prevent violence against children. On July 11, 2024, USAID will host an event to publicly launch the updated Thrive Strategy to guide the interagency effort.

The Thrive Strategy builds on the previous strategy, Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity: A U.S. Government Strategy for International Assistance (APCCA Strategy), which ran from 2019–2023. While maintaining core elements of the previous action plan and strategy, the revised Thrive Strategy incorporates updated evidence related to children in adversity and their needs and considers the ongoing impact of global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, spotlighting the complex issues that children in adversity and their families are experiencing. 

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate allowed a federal agency to search the office of Sarim Burney Welfare Trust International in a case pertaining to “child trafficking by way of illegal adoption”.

Social worker Mr Burney appeared before the court via video link from the central prison.

During the hearing on Thursday, the investigating officer (IO) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bilal Ahmed, requested additional time to complete the probe in the ‘child trafficking case’.

He submitted two applications before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq, seeking the issuance of a search warrant and permission to record statements from trustees and a prosecution witness.

In his applications, the IO stated that the trust had not provided the remaining records.

Adoption & Samfund has sent the following to the Folketing Social Committee.The future remains uncertain and unhappy for international adoption in Denmark

Adoption & Society can state that, despite promises of a quick clarification, nothing has been done to correct the inadequate handling of international adoption in Denmark!

On 16 January this year, all international adoptions were urgently suspended by the direct intervention of the then Social Affairs Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil. The promises to the many waiting applicants for adoption were not fulfilled from this date. This also applies to the promises to secure a solution for the many adoptees in Denmark who would like to apply back and have information about their own case. Promises that were made over half a year ago!

In other words, nothing has happened since Danish International Adoption (DIA) announced in mid-January that it would carry out a controlled closure of the organisation.

Adoption & Samfund bears a great responsibility as an interest organization, as we have taken on the important task of fully supporting and helping both individuals and families who want to adopt or have adopted. It necessarily also reaches back in time, because as an organization we look both forward and backward in time.

Seoul, South KoreaCNN — 

South Korea has for decades been known as the world’s largest “baby exporter” – sending hundreds of thousands of children overseas after the country was ravaged by war and many mothers left destitute.

Many of those adopted children, now adults scattered across the globe and trying to trace their origins, have accused agencies of corruption and malpractice, including in some cases forcibly removing them from their mothers.

A report released earlier this week by a Korean government commission supports those claims and uncovers new evidence on the coercive methods used to force mothers to give up their children.