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Seven Years on, Jalpaiguri Child Trafficking Victims Await Justice

While the CID claims it is still investigating matters, affected families hold on to hope and several of the accused – said to have political connections – are out on bail.


Jalpaiguri: It has been over eight years since Kajal Basfor last saw her son, Ganesh. In 2016, Ganesh ran away after facing his mother’s scolding and a beating. As per the Child Helpline record, he was found at New Jalpaiguri Station in North Bengal, following which the police took him to a temporary shelter.

 

Kajal came to Jalpaiguri hoping for a reunion, but was instead locked up at a shelter home called Ashraya. Her three-year-old daughter Dipali was forcefully taken away to another shelter home, Bimala Shishu Griha. While Kajal was released after a few days, Dipali was held captive at the home.

Seeking help, Kajal and her husband approached the Jalpaiguri Child Welfare Centre and the district collector. The Child Welfare Centre clarified that two members of the Child Welfare Committee, seeing Kajal’s emotional state, deemed her unfit to raise a child, leading to their separation.

Swedish adoptee meets Chinese parents after 7-year search

A Chinese-born Swedish woman finally reunited with her biological parents in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on March 2 after an arduous seven-year search for them, local media Dushikuaibao reported.

Ye Xiaofeng, 23, was abandoned at the Hangzhou Children's Welfare Institute on July 27, 2001, three days after her birth.

She was adopted by a couple from Umea, Sweden, in 2003.

In 2017, the 16-year-old Ye traveled alone to Hangzhou in search of her biological parents.

With the help of a TV program and local police, she returned to the Hangzhou Child Welfare Institute and found the nursery governess and several witnesses from that time, but not her parents.

Das Geheimnis lüften - To disclose the secret

 

Sunitha’s earliest photo at the Orphanage

I was born in a rural area of southern India at the beginning of 1979. I passed through a Catholic orphanage before reaching my adoptive home in Belgium, April 1981.

My adoptive parents already had two biological sons, aged 6 and 8. I grew up with the knowledge that my adoptive parents wanted a daughter. I learned later in life that they felt responsible for the death of their first son, who passed away from leukaemia. They wanted to provide a safe haven for a disadvantaged child. India came as a second choice because it was too complicated to adopt a Belgian child.

They had prepared two names for me. The feminine of the son they lost – Patricia and Angelique – like angel. Eventually, they kept my Indian name saying they liked it and it fitted well in Belgium.

Woman challenges adoption body's decision regarding children born through surrogacy

The Adoption Authority of Ireland has refused to declare her eligible to adopt her de facto children as they were born through a surrogacy arrangement involving her husband and another woman who donated the eggs


Ireland’s adoption authority has refused to declare a woman is eligible and suitable to adopt her de facto children as they were born through a surrogacy arrangement, the High Court has heard.

The woman’s husband is the biological and legal father of the twins, while another woman donated the eggs. A Ukrainian woman carried and gave birth to them.

The woman, who has always lived with and acted as the children’s mother, was appointed their guardian and joint custodian four years ago but is “not their parent as a matter of Irish law,” she says.

She was years previously diagnosed with cervical cancer, which required chemotherapy and a hysterectomy. In a sworn statement, she said this was a “devastating blow to us and destroyed our hopes at that time of starting a family together”.

DIANE KUNZ

Of Counsel to Rumbold & Seidelman, LLP Diane is a lawyer and historian. She practiced law with the firms of White & Case and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and now serves of counsel to the firm of Rumbold & Seidelman, LLP. Her field of specialization at Yale and Columbia Universities was economic and diplomatic history—she is the author of several books about international diplomacy, law and economics. Ms. Kunz is the mother of eight children, four of whom were adopted from China.

Diane now focuses her legal practice on international adoption law. She advises families who chose to form their families through international adoption. She also has long experience working with U.S. agencies that govern international adoption such as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department. Diane has also worked extensively with families interested in waiting children (special needs) adoption.

Diane also serves as Executive Director of The Center for Adoption Policy (CAP) a New York based 501(c)3 organization. CAPS mission is to provide research, analysis, advice and education to practitioners and the public about current legislation and practices governing domestic and intercountry adoption. CAP is an independent entity, not affiliated with any agency or other entity. The Newscap column, written by Diane, which appears four days a week on adoptionpolicy.org has become a “must read” for members of the adoption community.

Chilean authorities to help families after unethical adoptions

Now Chilean authorities are to help the families who were separated as a result of international adoptions in the 70s and 80s and who today want to be reunited.

It was announced by the Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero Vega, during a conference in Santiago this weekend.

Since 2018, there has been a criminal investigation in Chile about the suspected irregularities that occurred in connection with the country's adoptions.

Prospective adoptive parents charged with first-degree murder of child in Burlington

Two women have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 12-year-old boy in Burlington and for allegedly assaulting and confining a younger brother, both of whom they were in the process of adopting.

In a news release Friday, Halton police said the charges were laid following a “lengthy investigation” into the death of the boy, who has been described as Indigenous, more than a year ago.

Const. Ryan Anderson said that on Dec. 21, 2022, at around 7:26 p.m., police and other emergency services were called to a home in the New Street and Guelph Line area for a child without vital signs.

Police said they found a 12-year-old boy dead inside the home.

Police would not answer questions about cause of death, or when the death was deemed a homicide, because the case is before the courts.

I thought I was prepared to adopt a child — but the one thing I didn’t know was the most important

Before bringing home daughter Autumn as a newborn in October 2014, adoptive mom Jessica had no clue about black hair care. 

She’s not alone: The rise of transracial parenting, meaning a child of one racial or ethnic group is placed with adoptive parents of a different racial makeup, has exposed an unfortunate knowledge gap that experts say can be emotionally detrimental to the children.

Jessica and her husband had read all the books on adoption, gone through intense home-study visits and sat for countless pre-parenting interviews. 

But, still, the brunette of northern European descent was totally unhip to the do’s and don’ts of nurturing the tremendous thickness of the tot’s tuft. 

“By the time she turned age 1, I knew I needed help,” Jessica, 53, a sales executive from northern New Jersey, told The Post.

US-based couple adopts abandoned baby girl in Jharkhand

Hazaribag (Jharkhand), Mar 1 (PTI) A US-based couple has adopted an eight-month-old girl who was found abandoned in a dustbin in Jharkhand's Hazaribag town in June 2023, a senior district official said on Friday.
    On June 16 last year, some youths found the newborn crying and informed the district administration and Korra police station.
    Deputy Development Commissioner of Hazaribag, Prerena Dikshit, along with officer-in-charge of Korra police station Uttam Kumar Tiwari, recovered the child and transferred her to the newborn ward of Sheikh Bikhari Medical College and Hospital, Hazaribag.
    Dikshit, who also served as the administrator of Sheikh Bihari Medical College and Hospital, directed the hospital superintendent and other doctors to provide care for the baby.
    Upon full recovery, she was handed over to the Child Welfare Department of Hazaribag, said Dikshit.
    Once the child was fully recovered, the Child Welfare Department informed higher authorities, including the Central Adoption Resource Authority, which issued an adoption notice through its portal.
    Subsequently, the authorities of the Child Welfare Committee began searching for the biological parents of the abandoned child, but did not succeed. As per the rules, anyone can adopt the child after 60 days from the issuance of the notice.
    An American couple has now agreed to adopt the child, who is currently eight months old.
    Following the rehabilitation of the child by the American couple on Thursday, Dikshit expressed satisfaction and thanked the couple for adopting the kid. COR BS MNB