Adoption STAR, the largest adoption agency in WNY, fired employees organizing a union. The fallout has impacted some families trying to adopt.

The complicated process of adopting a child was upended last year after Western New York’s largest adoption agency lost a third of its staff, an exodus triggered by what one labor attorney called the worst case of union busting she has seen.

Adoption STAR, founded in 2000 in Amherst, fired four staff members last April who were attempting to organize a union. The firings resulted in an exodus of the agency’s staff — 13 out of approximately three dozen employees. The departures included the agency’s executive director — who left a month after the firings — and an associate director.

The firings hollowed out some departments, including the one that handles adoptions of older children in foster care.

The departures rocked the agency, former employees said, causing some clients — including expectant parents and families looking to adopt — to feel left in the dark, cut off from communication with case workers and social workers.

Guatemala has been home to great writers whose works have left an immemorial mark on Literature.

From poetry to novels, these women have demonstrated their talent and commitment in the history of writing, according to Editorial Piedrasanta.

The writers selected by the editorial are part of the " Women's Day " campaign , which aims to commemorate Guatemalan women writers and their great contribution to literature.

These are just some of the most outstanding Guatemalan writers selected by Editorial Piedrasanta:

Mariela SR Coline Fanon

Dozens of national and European NGOs have sent an open letter to the European Commission, saying that Romanian legislation only "formally" reflects European directives regarding the protection of children who have been victims of sexual crimes. The NGOs are demanding that the infringement procedure be activated.

The letter from the 35 NGOs is addressed to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Vice President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Suica, the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, and the Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dali.

The Center for Advocacy and Human Rights, which is among the signatories, says that the situation of children who are victims of sexual crimes "has not significantly improved after the adoption of EU legislation, despite constant international pressure." It argues that national legislation "formally reflects European directives, but is largely unenforceable," and "is formulated in unclear terms, which allows for the perpetuation of practices that lead to the re-victimization of children," according to Digi24.

The letter calls on the Commission to analyze the compliance of Romanian legislation with the EU Directive on victims' rights and the Directive on combating human trafficking and to initiate a dialogue with Romanian authorities to improve the country’s adoption of these directives.

The NGOs also signal the following situations that "impede children victims of sexual crimes' access to justice and indicate inadequate transposition" of European directives: the victim child is questioned in the presence of the defendant; the child’s interview is not video recorded; the child has to participate in repeated interviews; the child is questioned without access to legal representation; the child's identity is not adequately protected throughout the process; the duration of criminal procedures in cases involving a victim child is unreasonable; the victim children's legal aid lawyers change during the criminal proceedings; forced early marriages are not investigated and sanctioned as a form of exploitation.

BAREILLY: The Supreme Court has upheld Delhi high court's decision to give the custody of 'miracle baby' (the court addressed her only as 'S') to her new parents based in Malta, who had adopted her through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

The judgment, delivered on Friday, which finally paved the way for Baby 'S' to be with her parents after months of legal rigmarole, said: "They (adoptive parents) were aware that child 'S' had a medical condition (epilepsy) and were still willing to adopt her. We do not find any reason to interfere with the impugned (HC) judgment."

In 2019, the baby was found abandoned in an earthen pot and got the moniker "miracle baby" since she survived despite all odds.

Later, in December 2022, right-wing activists filed an FIR against the orphanage in Bareilly and the adoptive parents, charging them with "wrongful conversion" alleging that the orphanage had changed the baby's faith and got an Aadhaar with a "new Christian name." As reported by TOI, the HC directed the UP government "not to harass the orphanage staff and create hurdles in the baby's adoption process or her journey to Malta with her adoptive parents".

The nephew of former MLA Pappu Bhartaul aka Rajesh Mishra, Amit, then approached the SC seeking "cancellation of her adoption" alleging "discrepancies in the process".

Digging up painful memories in order to qualify for an 'insulting' payment

It was meant to be the redress scheme that would help to heal some of the wounds endured by those forced into mother and baby homes, but instead it has caused a furious backlash from survivors.

Last year, Children's Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced the biggest compensation package in the history of the State, amounting to an estimated €800m, would roll out this year.

As many as 68,000 people went through the religious-run mother and baby homes, suffering the worst cruelty imaginable — women’s babies were forcibly taken from them and adopted. Many remain separated to this day.

Up to 9,000 children died in institutions all across the country in appalling conditions.

Adopted Malaysian Girl Is Looking For Her Biological Mother

An adopted girl in Malaysia is seeking her biological mother as she has been deemed a non-citizen due to issues with her citizenship application.

Amanda Lim Kai Xin, 17, holds three birth certificates but has no identity card.

She has struggled to obtain her citizenship as the government does not have information about her biological parents.

Because of this, she pays international student fees and faces several other hurdles as a non-citizen of Malaysia.

At the age of 25, Lenna van den Haak tries to understand what her biological mother has just said to her. She was circumcised as a baby. Her mother points to a tree in front of her house: that's where it happened. Suddenly everything falls into place: the pain when cycling and during sex, the intense reaction to being touched 'down there'. When she discovers the truth, her world collapses.

"There is a life before and after Zandvoort," Lenna (now 42) begins her story. We drink coffee at her home. Her son Benjamin is sitting on the couch with headphones on. The seagulls fly in front of the windows, the beach is around the corner. In Zandvoort she has rebuilt her life. Here she has reinvented herself.

'Three women could be my mother'

First we go back to 2002. Lenna wants to look for her biological mother and travels for three months through Indonesia, the country where she was born. Her Dutch adoptive parents accompany her for the first two weeks. The journey begins in a monastery in Jakarta. It is run by a Dutch woman, Sister Lemmers. She helped Dutch adoptive parents during their process in Indonesia.

Lenna is lucky, an uncle of one of the sisters in the convent is visiting, who works in Lenna's native region. He will make some inquiries. He reported back within three days. "Three women said they could be my mother, but one woman's story matched the details that only we knew. We even looked alike."

With provisions already made possible under the amended law, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security is aiming to commence the process of other countries being able to adopt children here by June this year.

“We are hopeful that international adoption will commence by mid-year and we are working feverishly towards that date,” Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud told the News Room in a recent interview.

In August 2021, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Adoption of Children Act to align Guyana’s law for international adoption with the Hague Convention.

This convention aims to ensure that inter-country adoption takes place in the best interest of the child and with respect to the child’s fundamental rights. In accordance with this convention, Guyana’s revision allows for greater international cooperation to protect children from challenges such as abduction and trafficking.

The new section of the Act, 35 (F), provides for automatic recognition of adoptions certified by another central authority.

Antwerp, Saturday March 4, 2023 : “At the beginning of February, Minister Crevits announced that the Ancestry Center will receive an additional 100,000 euros in subsidies annually.” starts Steph Raeymaekers, chairman of Donorkinderen vzw. “There is nothing wrong with allocating additional resources, but we do not understand why this happened without any audit of their operation or delivery of effective results.”

The Flemish Descent Center was founded in 2020 to respond to parentage questions from various groups: adoptees, donor children, metis, distance parents, etc. The operating framework is rather limited, as it  must not violate other legislation.

​

For example, donor children may only find their donor father or mother through the center by voluntarily registering their DNA in the database of the Center for Genetics in Leuven. Only if there is a first-degree match that confirms the parent-child relationship can they come into contact with each other.

This restriction was included very specifically in the decree because other existing legislation prioritises the anonymity of donors. In this way, the aim is to avoid finding information via a detour or without mutual consent. 

Donorkinderen vzw established that employees affiliated with the Ancestry Center trace donor parents through international DNA databases and the development of family trees. The Descent Center thus violates the founding and operating decree.

I. GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION

(...)

B. Measures taken to harmonize law and policy with the provisions of the Convention

(...)

11. In the context of the improved legal framework for the protection of children, appropriate strategies have been developed on the basis of the following principles, which are to be found in the text of the Convention: assistance for families with one or more children to care for; every child has the right to a permanent family; every effort must be made to ensure that children placed in institutional care are reintegrated into their own family; when the natural or adoptive parents are incapable of caring for the child, the latter shall be considered to be in need of placement, temporarily or permanently, in a substitute family; every special measure for the protection of the minor must take into account the general principle according to which "the needs of the child come first" and must take the wishes of the child into consideration; the development of minors who are the subject of a protective measure must be monitored and that measure must be changed if the needs and interests of the child so require; preventive steps must be taken to ensure that the minor is not exploited, neglected or abused; everything must be done to enable all the rights accorded to the child by the law to be exercised, solely in his interests.