What you need to know:

• Justice John Eudes Keitirima of the Family Division in Makindye said the official fees for filing an adoption case in the court is Shs6,000 but many people engage lawyers to help them in the entire process.

Child rights activists and adoptive parents have asked the government to put up an adoption centre for children.

The revelation was made yesterday during an adoption awareness conference in Kampala under the theme “Bringing hope to a generation through adoption’’.
Adoption refers to the action of legally taking another person’s child and bringing him or her up as one’s own.

AONLY A FEW MINUTES AFTER I enter the door, Louise Stenstrup shows me into the bright children's room in the apartment in the middle of Copenhagen. Or, it is probably more accurate to say the room that might become a children's room. It resonates a little when we talk, because right now there is only a light blue chest of drawers and on top of it a framed picture of a four-year-old boy with a nice smile and a gray sweatshirt.

" He is the one I am matched with," she says.

Louise knows from a thick case file that the boy in the picture loves watermelon and doesn't like scary movies, and that he is caring towards small children. And that he lives in an orphanage in South Africa, where he was born out of wedlock to a woman who gave him up at birth. Louise also knows that the biological mother later confirmed at the court in South Africa that she does not want him.

Since August 30, 2023, 43-year-old Louise Stenstrup has known that she and the four-year-old boy had been matched, as it is called, and that she was to be his mother. He was supposed to be her son. She has seen videos of him and feels a strong bond with him already. “ It was overwhelming to see him for the first time. I think you can compare it to when you see the scan image for the first time. And here you could really form an impression of who he is. Is he happy? Now I have tried both things, both seeing a scan image and then this. After all, it's a completely different idea when you don't just see a fetus, but a very small human being.”

Since August last year, she has been waiting for the South African authorities to issue a release certificate for her son, a so-called section 17c, so that she can travel to South Africa and meet him and, after a month there, take him to Denmark. Now she has no idea if that will ever happen. " It is extremely difficult that you suddenly do not know whether the ideas you have had will become real. It is the same fear that you have as a pregnant woman, that you will lose the child, which I think most people who have been through it can nod in recognition of.”

According to her passport she is 51 years old. The question is whether that is correct. So little is known about the background of Kim ten Hagen, who was adopted from South Korea in 1975. A 'media offensive' must change that.

MARGAO:

The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) has called for urgent and decisive action against the troubling rise in illegal adoption and human trafficking in Goa. The commission's plea is directed towards law enforcement agencies, government officials, and the public to unite in combating these illicit activities.

GSCPCR has further urged that there be an immediate formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly investigate these cases, bring perpetrators to justice, and prevent future exploitation.

To back their demand, GSCPCR pointed out that in recent years, they have identified multiple cases that reveal a disturbing pattern of illegal adoptions and potential connections to human trafficking networks.

The Supreme Court (on March 15), while hearing a PIL to simplify adoption procedures, observed that the States are prima facie in breach of the previous directions to expedite the adoption process. In view of this, the Court gave the States one last opportunity to comply with the directions, failing which the Court may resort to coercive proceedings. The bench, led by Chief Justice of...

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Local governments will be required to be involved in the care and evaluation processes when a child goes through the adoption process in their locality, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday, in response to the death of a 1-year-old boy allegedly due to abuse by his foster caregiver.

Local governments need to play a greater role in the foster care system, the ministry said during a meeting with the Taipei and New Taipei city governments and the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) -- which were all involved in the recent case.

Current rules around the adoption process differ among local governments and the law lacks a clear explanation of who is responsible for each element, explained Chang Mei-mei (張美美), deputy director of the ministry's Social and Family Affairs Administration.

Therefore, before any amendments are made to the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, local governments need to be consulted, Chang said.

Chang said the ministry will also ensure that all children under the age of 3 going through the adoption process are assigned a holistic physician -- doctors who provide catered individual medical care and health management -- regardless of parental consent.

A woman from Dublin, born into a mother and baby home in Northern Ireland, has said she feels "abandoned again" because she is excluded from a new compensation scheme.

Sinead Buckley was born in 1972 to an unmarried woman from the Republic of Ireland.

At that time her mother, Eileen, was living in Marianvale in Newry.

A midwife in Dublin, Eileen came north because of the fear and stigma associated with being a single mother.

Marianvale was one of a network of institutions across the island of Ireland which housed unmarried women and their babies at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was viewed as scandalous.

OfOfAnders-Peter Mathiasen

A Danish doctor-married couple discovered six years ago how official medical statements were being falsified when the humanitarian organization Terre des Hommes was mediating adopted children from Romania to Denmark.

The couple then reported the case to the Danish authorities. Nevertheless, several years passed before the Ministry of Justice, under current Minister of Justice Frank Jensen, intervened and stopped Terre des Hommes.

The case started for the married couple Peter Chr. Rasmussen and Agnes Winther, Århus, when they received a severely disabled girl in 1995. The child was two and a half years old and came from the notorious Romanian orphanage Babadag in the city of Tulcea.

Prayed especially for a healthy child
- We were getting old and had therefore stipulated that we did not want a disabled child, says Peter Chr. Rasmussen, who is now 56.

- At that time we had heard a little about the fact that many disabled children were coming up from Romania. That's why we specifically asked about it when we were at Als and spoke to Anne Botfeldt, the person responsible for Terre des Hommes' adoption department.

Anne Botfeldt promised the parents that they had nothing to be afraid of:

- No, there was no danger and no problems. On the contrary, we had been very lucky, because the orphanage Babadag was the best in all of Romania.

Before the adoption went through, medical reports were issued on the child. They determined that the little girl was healthy, of normal development and could both talk and walk.

So retarded girl in Kastrup
Peter Chr. Rasmussen and Agnes Winther were not down to pick up their daughter themselves. She was brought to Denmark by a young Danish man who was a volunteer for Terres des Hommes in Romania.

Already at Kastrup Airport, the couple could see that their child was ill.

- We are both doctors, and knew straight away that it was crazy. The girl was retarded and could do nothing. But of course we accepted her.

Immediately afterwards, the couple complained to the Directorate of Civil Rights under the Ministry of Justice.

- We told them what had happened and asked who actually controls the organizations that mediate the children.

Was threatened with Interpol
The couple's complaint did not cause the Directorate of Civil Justice to sound the alarm, but triggered a lengthy exchange of letters between the Directorate and Terre des Hommes.

But the complaint caused Terre des Homme's then chairman of the board, Jessie Rosenmeier, to write and scold the couple several times:

- We called her 'the lady in the hat'. She threatened to report us to nothing less than Interpol because we wouldn't report every six months and tell how the child was doing.

- Our answer was that when Terre des Hommes could falsify medical documents, they could also write such a report themselves, says Peter Chr. Rasmussen.

Traffic continued
Even though the authorities were now involved in the case, Terre des Hommes, Anne Botfeldt and Jessie Rosenmeier continued to send sick adopted children to Denmark. And the traffic continued with false medical certificates that officially made the children healthy.

The Civil Rights Directorate and the judicial authorities' reaction did not come until three years later.

Namely, a late summer day in 1998, when Peter Chr. Rasmussen and Agnes Winther talked about their experiences in a DR broadcast made by the now deceased TV documentarian Steen Baadsgaard.

A few days after the case was raised on television, the Ministry of Justice decided to conduct a retrospective study of around 200 Romanian adoption cases. Especially by Terre des Hommes and the organization's contact person in Romania.

But Terre des Hommes itself was allowed to continue its activities.

Right up until January 1999, when the organization was once again exposed as having sent a disabled child to an unsuspecting family.

Is eight years old and wears diapers
- The cases were hushed up, says Peter Chr. Rasmussen.

- What the motives have been remains uncertain. But there is a part that must have been sitting inside with some knowledge.

- Today we know that at least one in eight 'healthy' children who came to Denmark with Terre des Hommes had severe injuries and will be dependent on institutions for the rest of their lives.

- We ourselves love our own daughter, who is now eight years old, very much. She is loving, talks like a waterfall, and we have many happy moments together. But she is developed as a three-year-old, wears diapers and will never be able to fend for herself.

- And it has given us both a completely different life than we had imagined.

Friends Annick (37), An Sheela (42) and Sheela (41) lead different lives, but have one thing in common: all three were adopted from India. and they know what you struggle with when you don't know exactly where you come from. “Adoption is not always a fairy tale.”

Recognition and recognition

“Recognition and acknowledgment. I find that with An Sheela and Sheela and all those other adopted children from our Facebook community. For example, if I say, "I don't know exactly who I am," they know exactly what I mean by that. It is something that unites us. What problems do you face if you don't know who your biological parents are? How does it feel when the start of your life is unclear and what you know about it may be based on lies? What do you struggle with? These are things that we discuss when we see each other during meeting days.” Annick is speaking. In 2008, she was only fifteen when she wanted to meet other adopted children. Together with her mother, she founded the Facebook group Adoption Link, for children adopted from India and their parents. Initially a friendly group that exchanged messages and saw each other occasionally, years later it became a more serious community. On which members post messages and photos, but which also organizes and undertakes all sorts of things.
The club received more and more members from the Netherlands and Belgium. At a certain point, Annick was no longer able to manage everything on her own. In 2017 she asked An Sheela to help, and a year later Sheela too. The three of them are trying to take the Facebook group to an even higher level. Together they organize meeting days and information evenings about DNA tests, for example. The three also fight against illegal adoption in their home country Belgium. Even though their adoption stories are completely different, the trio feels connected to each other and to the members of their community.
Annick: “In the fourteen years that I have been working on this, the adopted children have grown up. Many have started families or have now made a roots trip to India. Sometimes they find what they are looking for, but often it is impossible. India is a very large country and the government discourages adopted children from searching for their biological parents. It is simply not done. The moral is: let the past be.”

Terminally ill

“I was four and a half years old when I came here from India. I had a fantastic childhood, I was able to study and was given all kinds of opportunities to develop myself. But I also wondered where I came from, who my parents were. My mother's name was known, I knew nothing about my father. About five years ago I had my DNA registered with an international DNA bank. I was lucky enough to find a brother and an uncle that way. Through them I found out that my father was still alive. I was pregnant with my son at the time, he is now almost four years old.
My father turned out to be terminally ill, he suffered from a muscle disease. If I wanted to see him again, I had to hurry. I traveled to India and visited him. He had a baby picture of me in his wallet, all crumpled up, but still. That little detail touched me: for me it was a sign that I belonged to him. I also recognized something of myself in him. My father was emotional, he felt guilty about how things turned out in the past. He couldn't take care of me. On the other hand, he was also down to earth: things go the way they go and you can't change the past. He didn't want to talk about my biological mother.
Meeting my father was nice. Searching for someone for thirty years and seeing him just before his death is a gift. He was able to answer many of my questions, although the reunion also raised new questions. Is the muscular disease he suffered from hereditary? What was the relationship like between him and my mother? The latter in particular is a matter of guesswork. But I can't complain. I realize very well that I know more than most of us. An Sheela and Sheela, for example, both have no concrete connection with their biological parents.”

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) More girls are abandoned or surrendered in the country, leading to the rise in their adoptions as against male ones, and there is no such trend of them being preferred, child rights activists said.
     According to the recent affidavit filed by the director of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) in the Supreme Court, a total of 15,536 children and youth of both genders up to the age of 18 years were adopted in 11 states between 2021 and 2023 under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
     The parents adopted 9,474 girls in comparison to 6,012 boys during this period, indicating a rise in the number of adoptions for girls.
     The CARA is a statutory body of the Union ministry of women and child development and works as the nodal agency for the adoption of children in the country. It is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
     There is no such trend but more girls are abandoned so that is why availability is high for adoption, the experts told PTI.
     Availability of more girl children results in their more adoption, said Bharti Ali, co-founder and the executive director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights.
     “This (rise) may be because there are more girls available, more daughters are dumped,” she said.
     Child rights activist Enakshi Ganguly concurred with Ali’s views and said, “That's because more girls are abandoned or surrendered and, hence, more (are) available for adoption.”
     The CARA, in its affidavit, gave details of the children falling under five categories -- orphan, abandoned, surrendered, unfit parents and non-visitation -- who are available for adoptions in the country, according to the data provided by certain states.
     A total number of 20,673 children (under the age group of 7-11 years and 12-18 years) have been identified so far in the states and Union Territories (UTs) during an identification drive comprising the five categories, it said.
     Ten states and UTs -- Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Manipur -- have not provided the data on total adoptions taken place during the period.
     In Punjab, a total of 7,496 adoptions were registered under the HAMA. Out of them, 4,966 were girls and 2,530 were boys.
     In Telangana, the couples preferred male children for adoption under the HAMA.
     The top court, on March 15, voiced displeasure over the failure to set up Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) meant to streamline the adoption process of abandoned and surrendered children in 370 districts across the country. It warned the states and UTs of "coercive steps" for non-compliance of its directions.
     It lamented that out of 760 districts in the country, 370 do not have functional SAAs, a necessary legal requirement under the Juvenile Justice Act.
     The SAAs prepare the home study report of the prospective adoptive parents and after finding them eligible, refers a child declared legally free for adoption to them along with the child study report and the medical report of the child.
     The bench also asked the states and the UTs to provide the latest data by April 7 to the Union ministry of women and child development on setting up of SAAs and the number of adoptions, saying that it wanted to know whether the court orders have made any difference on the ground or not.
     Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said the states should be asked to provide the data to the Union ministry for effective implementation of the court orders meant to smoothen the adoption procedure.
     “All states and Union Territories are peremptorily directed to ensure that within every district falling within their jurisdiction, SAAs as required by the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, shall be set up by 31 January 2024,” the bench had directed on November 20 last year.
     The top court had earlier said the child adoption process in India is "very tedious" and that there is an urgent need for the procedure to be streamlined.
     The apex court was hearing a PIL by "The Temple of Healing" which sought simplification of the legal process for child adoption in India, saying only 4,000 adoptions take place annually in the country.