Denmark's only mediator of international adoptions stops its work following sanctions from the Danish Appeals Board.

It has been decided at an extraordinary board meeting in DIA, after it has been hit by a number of sanctions from the Danish Appeals Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly.

DIA states this in a press release on Tuesday.

The agency and the ministry supervise the adoption agency.

- It was a difficult decision for the board of DIA to make. But we see no other way out, says Anne Friis, who is deputy chairman of the bureau's board, in the announcement.

The Minister of Social Affairs and Housing has agreed to suspend the adoption mediating organization DIA's work in mediating international adoptions with all countries.

In May, the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing revoked the adoption mediating organization Danish International Adoption's (DIA) permission to cooperate with Madagascar. In December 2023, the Danish Appeals Board suspended DIA's cooperation with South Africa. On 12 January 2024, the Danish Appeals Board notified DIA that it will recommend to the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing that the cooperation with South Africa be definitively stopped. On the basis of a briefing from the Danish Appeals Board, the ministry has recommended to the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing that mediation work with all countries be suspended, which the Minister has  accepted. The decision has been notified to DIA.

Against this background, DIA's board has initiated a controlled winding down of its work as a mediator of international adoptions.  

It is the most serious crisis in the area of ​​adoption in the past 10 years. It happens on the same day that Norway has decided to close international adoption. Although the background is different, the development bears witness to an area which over a number of years has proved difficult to handle with a view to the security of the background for the adoptions.

Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil says:

Non-profit Both Ends Believing uses low code technology to develop digital records and methods to help vulnerable children and families connect.

Each new iteration of technology development creates renewed hope to be a vehicle for good and empower those in need. But it’s not the technology type that enables such work but its application. Dallas-based charity Both Ends Believing (BEB) is just such an example. Through the right intentions and business technology leadership, BEB has placed 7,565 orphans with families since it began in 2010.

BEB’s aim is to transform care for vulnerable children in regions with high orphan populations such as Africa and Latin America. The charity was founded by Craig Juntunen, a former quarterback in the Canadian Football League who turned tech entrepreneur after personally experiencing the challenges of adoption. BEB isn’t a traditional charity; it’s also a digital organization using technology to deal with the complexities and inefficiencies of adoption.

Today, the charity works in nations such as Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, as well as the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Paraguay. “We’re in 13 countries with 13 production environments,” says president Mark Schwartz. “Part of the problem is children in institutional care around the world have no records, or, if they do, they’re paper-based and located where the child is.” Research for a book and movie by Juntunen found that the average adoption time for children in these regions is 33 months, leading to costs of around $28,000. “We learned we had to digitize the records,” he adds. “Our partners in federal governments need to understand the educational and medical history before they can begin trying to get them to a family.”

Last week, I shared about a childcare agency here in Negros Occidental who facilitated an adoption. A friend messaged me about the adoption process here in the Philippines and it made me realize that it will also be nice to write about this.

I had the chance the chance to interview Ms. Bahiyyih Ruth G. Robinson, also called Ms. Bai, the Social Welfare and Development (SWAD) Negros Occidental Team Leader, who has experience in adoption processes and other childcare protection programs in the Province of Negros Occidental.

She introduced me to the new adoption law, approved and signed by then President Rodrigo Duterte on January 6, 2022 and took effect on January 28, 2022.

Republic Act No. 11642, also known as the Domestic Administration Adoption and Alternative Child Act, authored by Senators Risa Hontiveros, Pia Cayetano and Grace Poe, will allow domestic adoption proceedings simpler and less costly. The law seeks to streamline alternative childcare services. This law continues to protect the best interests of the Filipino child and the process will be lessened from six years to approximately six months to three years.

The law declares that every child shall remain in the care and custody of his or her parents and should be provided with love, care, understanding and security towards the full and harmonious development of the child’s personality. When it is proven to be insufficient and no one can take the child from the extended family, adoption by unrelated person can be considered. (Complete information is available at Official Gazette of the Philippines website).

A horrific post on a dating site has triggered a number of replies that suggest giving up children just to be with a lover is a lot more common than most people would imagine

A man's stark request to his match on a dating site has shocked singletons - but it turns out he isn't the only person to have made such a request. Posting on a dating site, a guy called Arron told his match Lauren that she was "looking good in her pics" before asking a quite shocking question.

He said: "Would you be willing to put your children up for adoption? I want to date someone without kids, so looking for someone who is willing to free themselves of their current kids xx." While it is unclear whether he was joking or not, it seems a number of people have actually done this, according to the comments below the post on Reddit. One poster said they knew of someone who had given up her own child to ensure there was peace in the home she was now sharing with her new partner.

A user of the site said: "‌My mother-in-law was friends with a lady who actually did this back in the 90s. Her son and his son would fight (they were little kids.) so she gave him up. My mother-in-law stopped being her friend when she did that. He is not OK. My husband said he was put into our local kids home/orphanage then died of a drug overdose while in high school. People who give up their kids for partners are f*****."

The news of a final stop to international adoptions has hit many hard.

A dream has been shattered for a family in Ågerup in Roskilde.

Lotte and Morten Skov Christensen have been waiting for five years to register as applicants for international adoption. 

But on Tuesday, the news came that DIA, the country's only mediator of international adoptions, has turned the key. This has happened following a series of sanctions from the Danish Appeals Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly.

- We are very affected by it right now. I started to cry when I read the news, says Lotte Skov Christensen and continues: 

DIA is initiating a controlled winding down of its work as a mediator of international adoptions. DIA's board decided this at an extraordinary board meeting based on an assessment of the current framework for finances and supervision as well as a number of new sanctions from the Danish Appeals Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The Danish Appeals Board supervises DIA and approves all adoptions to Denmark. It is now up to the agency to organize the further process in the area of ​​adoption - a process that is described in advance in a contingency plan.

As part of the plan, DIA can assist the Danish Appeals Agency during a transition period to ensure that existing knowledge about adoption and archives with information about the adoptee's identity are not lost.

"It is a difficult decision for the board of DIA to make. But we see no other way out. The area of ​​international adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours. We hope that the transition in the long term will create greater clarity about roles and responsibilities for the benefit of children who do not have the opportunity to grow up in their biological family or their home country, as well as clarity for, in the words of the Prime Minister in the New Year's speech, future mothers and fathers, families in all colors of the rainbow , which carries around a homeless love," says deputy chairman Anne Friis from DIA's board.

On Friday, the Danish Appeals Board informed DIA that the agency is recommending to the Minister of Social Affairs to stop mediation from DIA's largest mediation country, South Africa, after more than 20 years of cooperation. Yesterday, Monday, the Ministry of Social Affairs' department announced that DIA's five other country agreements will be suspended for a period. There are currently 36 applicants (couples/singles) on the waiting list in six countries.

Danish International Adoption (DIA), which as the only organization in Denmark mediates international adoptions, has decided on Tuesday to stop mediating adoptions from abroad to Denmark.

This means that in practice it is no longer possible to adopt from abroad.

The decision was made by DIA's board after the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly notified the organization that the last five countries from which DIA mediates adoptions will be suspended for a period of time.

Below you can learn more about how adoptions from abroad work:

* What is DIA?

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Shocking allegation against an NGO named St. Joseph’s Hospice have emerged, which include beating sick inmates and using their dead bodies for harvesting bones. Some reports have also alleged that it is also involved in harvesting organs of its inmates and selling it to other countries.

The hospice, which calls itself a ‘Home for Dying Destitute’, was founded by Father R. V. Thomas in 2011. The same Christian pastor is also running similar hospices in Dindigul and Paleshwaram. A hospice is a Christian equivalent of an Ashram where sick and destitute are supposed to be taken care of.

An article about an unauthorised vault being used to cremate the dead had appeared in The Hindu newspaper on 3rd February. However, this article had not included details of treatment meted out to inmates and allegations of bone harvesting by locals.

Now a Tamil channel named Thanthi TV has come up with a ground report, which has brought to light the allegations of locals against the the NGO.