At a time when most Irish people chose to ignore the thousands of girls and women locked up in Magdalene Laundries, one Galway family went to extraordinary lengths to break 15 young women free from one such ‘prison’.

It was a feat that could have come straight from a heist movie involving an insider, a getaway van and a heroic family in the west of Ireland in the early 1960s.

A new two-part RTÉ series, Ireland’s Dirty Laundry, details the desperate escape attempts by young girls incarcerated in the laundries, which often ended up heartbreakingly in failure, with gardaí returning them to the religious orders.

Along with new identities, the documentary reveals that female inmates, some just young girls, were assigned a number prefixed by the letter PEN, which stood for penitent, meaning someone who is repenting.

Labelled the “Maggies”, the women were sent to the laundries where they worked for nothing, some for their entire life, simply for being unmarried mothers or regarded as morally wayward or for transgressions such as going to the cinema twice in a week.

HANCOCK COUNTY, In. (WXIX) - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is personal for a Tri-State family in the final stages of adopting two orphans from Ukraine.

The Hansome family is already one strong with a Ukrainian-born son, 15-year-old Andrey whom they adopted in 2020. Now Joe and NaTosha Hansome are trying to adopt brother orphans Misha, 16, and Andrii, 17.

The brothers were best friends with Andrey in Ukraine before Andrey moved stateside.

But now the adoption process is in limbo.

“If you can just imagine what it’s like to have your kids in another country when a war is going on. It’s really difficult, and then not knowing if they will ever get to be with us again,” said NaTosha.

HB22-1153

Affirm Parentage Adoption In Assisted Reproduction

Concerning affirming parentage by adoption for a person who did not give birth when the child is conceived as a result of assisted reproduction.

SESSION: 2022 Regular Session

SUBJECT: Children & Domestic Matters

Minor Allegedly Forced To Convert Religion In Child Care Institution, Mother Challenges Provisions Of JJ Act, Seeks ?5Cr Compensation, Delhi HC Issues Notice

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice on a petition challenging various provisions

of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Juvenile

Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016, pertaining to power,

functions and composition of Child Welfare Committees.The plea has been filed by the

In this weekly column, people talk about something they 'never want to' experience again, never want to do or never want to do again. This week: Sam van den Haak (40) was born in Sri Lanka and adopted as a toddler by a Dutch couple. She later found out that her adoption had been fraudulently committed. For example, the date of birth on her passport appears to be incorrect, something she is often confronted with.

"In my adoption file there is not a single signature for approval. Not from my biological mother, and not from the Dutch or Sri Lankan government. I often wondered to what extent there was permission to take me with me. And yet I was picked up my adoptive parents in Colombo and took them to their home in Hoorn.

According to my passport I was three years old then, but in fact I was six months younger. I only remember fragments of that time. I remember having to learn to eat with cutlery. In Sri Lanka I was used to making a ball of the food with my hand and then eating it. The Netherlands must have been a big culture shock for me."

"My adoption was never a secret at home. That makes sense, because of course I had a different skin color than my parents and three brothers. It was a complex family, because two of my brothers were disabled and needed a lot of care. A lot of attention was paid to my background I didn't know anything about Sri Lanka, it wasn't talked about much and we never went there as a family again.

It wasn't warm or cozy at home, and I didn't feel like I belonged in the family. I was different, even at school. Because although we lived in a big house and there was a lot of money, I wore old clothes of my brothers. I was bullied for that, I was met by other children and beaten up. I was not safe anywhere: not at school, but also not at home. That's because I was abused by my adoptive father from a young age. As a child I sought safety by crawling into bed with my parents. As soon as my adoptive mother got out of bed, my adoptive father sat on me. The secret of that abuse weighed more heavily on me then than my adoption. I was trying to survive."

HIAWATHA, Iowa (WOI) - A Hiawatha family’s plan to adopt a 15-year-old from Ukraine has been put on hold after Russia attacked the country.

Jenna and Scott Breckenridge adopted three sons from Ukraine, who arrived just months ago, and they’re in the process of adopting a 15-year-old boy named Artem.

They were in the middle of the adoption process when Russia’s invasion began.

Artem had been living in an orphanage in Ukraine. He and the other kids at the orphanage have moved to a bomb shelter.

“At 5 a.m., he saw and heard rockets. Said the windows were shaking and there was a big flash. He said in Berdyansk, the airport was bombed,” Jenna said. “So that’s the city he’s in right now.”

The state has entered into a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the six people.

In 1951, 22 Greenlandic children were temporarily sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment. The intention was to give them a Danish background and language as well as a better life. But as the experiment progressed, it also came to be about the children being able to return to Greenland to form a vanguard for the development in Greenland.

In December 2020, the Prime Minister gave an official apology for the failures the children were exposed to.

In December 2021, the six people sued the state because they believed that the move, among other things, was a violation of their right to private and family life.

Now the six people will each be paid a compensation of DKK 250,000 after the state has reached a settlement in the case.

https://sm.dk/nyheder/nyhedsarkiv/2022/feb/godtgoerelse-paa-vej-til-seks-nulevende-groenlaendere-som-blev-sendt-til-danmark-i-1951

The state has entered into a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the six people.

In 1951, 22 Greenlandic children were temporarily sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment. The intention was to give them a Danish background and language as well as a better life. But as the experiment progressed, it also came to be about the children being able to return to Greenland to form a vanguard for the development in Greenland.

In December 2020, the Prime Minister gave an official apology for the failures the children were exposed to.

A state parliamentary inquiry will consider whether a government donor conception register should be established to give Queenslanders conceived through donated sperm, eggs or embryos access to information about their donors.

Key points:

Attorney-General says a register could help donor-conceived people better understand their origins and manage their health

Queensland advocate argues for a retrospective scheme

IVF doctor says the more complex and bureaucratic the system is, the more there could be growth in underground unregulated sperm donations

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - An Alabama organization called Bridges of Faith is racing against war to help children in Ukraine. Volunteers are on the ground, working through chaos and mounting tension to give a group of orphans a better life.

Dr. Tom Benz, president of the Bridges of Faith exchange program based in Chilton County, has been involved in Ukraine for the past 25 years. He knows all too well that orphans are often left behind in dire times and said his team is committed to rescuing as many kids as possible.

Bridges of Faith has its roots in the late 1990s when Benz first began going to eastern Europe. He was a regional director for the International Bible Society and placed in a Ukrainian orphanage.

“The children have never let go of my heart,” Benz said. “In two years I had spun off from the bible society and formed the roots of what is now Bridges of Faith. I’ve spent chunks of my life in Ukraine with kids, working to bring them here. For me, I feel like it’s an outworking of my faith.”

In 2007, Bridges of Faith acquired a 140-acre retreat center in Chilton County for Ukrainian orphans. About 500 orphans have come to Alabama through the program and nearly 200 have been adopted.