The Pierhagen family has supported SOS Children's Villages since 1980. When their adopted son, Tico Pierhagen, first returned to his native Colombia in 2008, he had many questions. His family encouraged him to search for answers. In Colombia, Tico met his biological family and visited an SOS Children's Village. This made such an impression on him and his Dutch family that they set up a Named Fund : the Doris Tuapante Children's Fund.  

Tico Pierhagen visited Colombia in 2008 and met his biological family there. ''Before that time, I often felt empty and out of place. The visit to Colombia changed that. You are a more complete person when you know where you come from.'' His family understands this completely: "The principle of letting a child grow up in the country where he was born really appeals to us", says his Dutch mother Andel Pierhagen. That is also the reason why the Pierhagen family supports SOS Children's Villages. If the possibilities are there, the preference is always to let a child grow up in the country where he was born with his own family. That is what the family strengthening programs within SOS Children's Villages stand for. "With these programs you really get to the core. We feel at home with the formula of SOS Children's Villages: the family, the family, that is the basis", explains Mrs. Pierhagen.

'I am a more complete person now that I know where I come from'

Tico Pierhagen

Doris Tuapante Children's Fund

Andel and Wandert Pierhagen, Tico's parents, have been supporting SOS Children's Villages since 1980. After Tico met his Colombian family in 2008 and visited an SOS children's village, his Dutch parents and sister followed him to Colombia in 2009. The family wanted to become more involved with SOS Children's Villages because of this trip. It was clear to them: family is the basis, but this is not self-evident for every child. In order to make an extra contribution, they set up a Named Fund. "With a Named Fund, the involvement is very high. You support specific projects and remain connected for several years." 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/14/chiles-stolen-children-a-new-effort-offers-hope-to-pinochet-era-international-adoptees?CMP=share_btn_url&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2Izo0QvWDBCv-HZZLXxlfnsXtmUkS7_xj1ixA06jbrBDPsdRY3sKkY5k4_aem_fzoWAOCPHJpMTD5isVrhig

Thousands of children were adopted abroad during the Pinochet dictatorship – many in murky circumstances

Mirjam Hunze grew up in the quiet Dutch town of Lunteren, but always felt too loud, too different, too curious in her strict Protestant household. She was 10 years old when she found out she had been adopted from Chile, sparking a lifelong quest to find her biological family. Hunze’s Chilean birth certificate and passport listed her Dutch adoptive name, with the fields for her biological parents and place of birth conspicuously crossed out.

UNICEF pilots innovative approaches aimed at breaking the cycle of child poverty and social exclusion

Poverty and social exclusion can have a profound impact on the lives of children, preventing them from accessing basic services such as healthcare, education, nutritious food, quality housing and childcare. For the poorest families, including those who do not have access to social protection, the situation is dire. Children suffer poverty differently from adults and they are more likely to experience lifelong consequences from it.  Malnutrition can last a lifetime, having long-term consequences on children’s physical, social and emotional development. And losses in learning at a young age can result in children falling behind in school, finding it difficult to ever catch up. Without access to health care, children could miss out on vaccines that could be life-saving in later years and the treatment necessary to grow up healthy and thrive.

The Child Guarantee aims to ensure that vulnerable children have access to these quality services. UNICEF, in partnership with the European Commission, is working with national and sub-national authorities and select civil society organisations, children and young people to design and implement services and interventions that reduce the effects of poverty and social exclusion on children in need of support and protection. This includes the most vulnerable children, such as Roma children, children in institutional care, children with disabilities and refugee and migrant children. 

Mia Dambach

PhD candidate / self funded

Name

M. Dambach

Young women and men who have been adopted from abroad are increasingly demanding information about their origins, proving abuses and taking legal action. This has now led to a ban on adoptions in the Netherlands.

By: Sabine Bitter, Elsbeth Gugger , Moderation: Monika Schärer , Editor: Sabine Bitter, Production: Michael Sennhauser

29.03.2021, 21:28

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SEOUL, March 27 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean adoption agency said Thursday that it had seen no signs of any problem with the American couple who adopted the four Korean children found dead this week, calling the deaths of the entire family "unimaginable."

"We are shocked and dismayed. I can't find words to describe it," Hong Mee-kyung, a director of overseas adoption at Holt Children's Services Inc. in Seoul, said. "Considering the personalities and the attitudes they have shown, it's unimaginable."

U.S. police found the children and their adoptive mother, Sheryl Sueppel, 42, dead Monday morning (U.S. time) at their home in Iowa. Police believe their father, Steven Sueppel, 42, killed his wife and the children before taking his own life. His car was found destroyed in a single-vehicle crash, in which the driver died, according to local reports. The driver could not be immediately identified because of the fire, they said.

Local reports linked the murder-suicide to Sueppel's financial woes. He was charged last month with embezzling nearly US$560,000 from his former employer, Hills Bank and Trust, and with money laundering.

The children's birth mothers will not be notified unless they ask. They were all young, single mothers at the time of the children's births, the agency said.

It was very important to note how South Koreans are reacting to the murders of Korean adoptees Ethan, Seth, Mira and Eleanor Sueppel because it really has become an international issue. But a few things should be clarified about my article in the April 1 paper, “Sueppel deaths add to Korean adoption debate.” Everything I wrote was factual (of course!), but a Marion woman called me today to chew my ear on the inaccuracy of the story’s second headline, which I didn’t write. She was also not pleased that I had to leave some facts out of the story due to space restrictions.

This woman and her husband adopted some children from South Korea a few decades ago, so she is familiar with the issues surrounding adoption that the country has struggled with since the mid-1950s, when international adoptions first started. The exportation of their children is a very sensitive issue for the people, she said, one of which they are not proud, adding “Boy, if this article makes it over to Korea they’re going to be hopping mad.”

With that second headline on the story, that could be true. It says, “Despite tragedy, Korean official says push is on for more adoptions,” but that isn’t accurate. Susan Soon-Keum Cox is NOT a Korean official — she is the vice president of public policy and external affairs for Holt International Children’s Services, based in Oregon (in fact, she was adopted from Korea as a baby by an American family). And there is a push for more adoptions to be done domestically in South Korea, but NOT internationally as the headline would lead you to believe.

I can’t do much about the headline, however, since it was written by an editor after I turned my story in. I will, however, go into more detail about the “missing facts.”

I knew from speaking to Ms. Cox that last year marked the first year domestic adoptions in South Korea outpaced international adoptions. Early this morning, I received a reply to my e-mail to Kim Stoker, representative of Adoptee Solidarity Korea, a South Korean group working to unite all Korean adoptees and push for more domestic adoption. Her response sheds some more light on the situation.

Panaji: A total of 330 parents in Goa are on the wait-list for adoption as on date, women and child development minister Vishwajit Rane told the assembly in reply to a question by Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas.

Over the past five years, 77 children — from 2-month-olds to 15-year-olds — have been adopted from Goa by parents from Goa and other states.

Nineteen out of the 77 children were given in adoption to parents in Goa and the rest to parents in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Telangana, Rajasthan, New Delhi and even US through inter-country adoption.

During this same period, 55 older children, mostly teenagers, were taken under foster care by foster parents. Over the past five years, however, 12 older children given under foster care were returned and five children given for adoption were returned.

The reasons given for returning foster children ranged from the child and foster parents not being able to adjust with each other, the foster parent not willing to continue to take care of the child, the child not able to adjust and not ready to stay with foster parents, the child not being able to bond with the foster mother and behavioural and discipline issues of the child.

In the case of the five adopted children who were returned over the past five years, the reasons ranged from the adoptive parents not able to adjust, the parents backing out feeling incompetent, problematic child behaviour, child emotionally attached to old friends and no bonding between child and adoptive mother.

Older foster children are mostly those who have lived in child care institutions their whole life and often find it difficult to adjust to a family set up, a stakeholder said.

Paula Beer was just 17 when she fell pregnant.

Afraid to tell her parents, she hid her pregnancy and travelled from her hometown of Bridgend to Essex to stay with her aunt.

At seven months pregnant, she decided to give her baby up for adoption.

After giving birth in February 1967, Paula spent just three days with her little boy before he was taken away.

Paula had been working in a grocery shop when she found out she was pregnant.

John Portmann (61) believes he is first to use modern technology to prove that he is entitled to an Irish passport

An academic in the United States who discovered his 100 per cent Irish ancestry following a DNA test has been awarded Irish citizenship.

John Portmann (61), who was adopted and unaware of his heritage, was granted an Irish passport after proving that his biological father Thomas Fitzgerald was from Dublin and his biological mother Térese Delahanty’s family was originally from Co Kilkenny.

Prof Portmann believes that he is the first person to gain Irish citizenship solely on the outcome of a DNA test.

Prof Portmann is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and the author of several books. He was born on June 6th, 1963 in Phoenix, Arizona into the care of the Sisters of Mercy nuns in the city.