For the first time, in Sibiu County , on the National Adoption Day, on Wednesday, June 2, the Campaign to promote adoption is launched. Sibiu residents are expected on Tuesday, at 13.30, in Tineretului Park to send to the sky the greatest desire of any child, to have a family, by launching helium balloons for every adoptable child in Sibiu County, hoping that soon the dream their will be fulfilled.

"'Saved through adoption' is the message of the campaign which shows that, YES, adoption is for the child but it also saves everyone around it, gives the child the opportunity to enjoy childhood, gives meaning to adoptive parents and gives communities the opportunity to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable of their members. We want to emphasize, thus, the positive impact of adoption on all factors involved in the process: parents, siblings, grandparents, family, school, community ", say the representatives of DGASPC Sibiu.

This campaign aims to make information about adoption accessible to the public, no longer a taboo subject, to dispel myths or preconceived ideas about this subject, emphasizing that all that matters is to raise a happy child, to enjoy the love that you receive it and you can offer it. In it, stories of adoption, love and altruism of wonderful people who gave hope and a family to children who wanted it most will be presented.

"It is a campaign in which we invite the whole community to contribute because everyone can do something. So far, we have been joined by public authorities with responsibilities in the field of child protection, artists, actors, journalists, priests, NGOs, etc. so that together we can find a family for each child ", explains the deputy director of DGASPC Sibiu, Olimpia Indrie?.

The campaign is organized by DGASPC Sibiu together with the Romania Without Orphans Alliance with the support of the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions.

The father is not only the one who gives life, but the one who offers unconditional care and love; "And by adoption you can become a father"

Weak hands caressing you every morning, evening and at any time of the day, sweet eyes looking at you with love and a warm voice whispering to you: mommy, daddy, I love you - that's what a parent needs to feel really happy. Not even all the money raised around the world is worth as much as the smile and love of our children.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the blessing of having children, a drama that many couples experience and which for this reason often separates. But parents are not the only ones who give life, but who are involved non-stop in the education, raising the little ones and offering them unconditional love.

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Those who have children do not know the bitter taste and the pain that hides in the depths of the hearts of those who want a soul running around the house, but it is not possible. And then, after dozens of trials, tears and despair, adoption comes into their lives as a light of hope. However, not everyone has the courage and strength to decide at this stage, which involves many steps.

Two public interest litigations (PIL) have been moved in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking protection and various reliefs to over 1,450 children orphaned after their parents succumbed to the Covid-19 infection and setting up of special Covid wards in Covid care centres with specially trained medical staff to attend to visually-impaired patients and special vaccination facilities for them

The first PIL filed by Gayatri Patwardhan, a social worker from Pune through advocates Asim Sarode and Ajinkya Udane has claimed that while the state has announced various reliefs and gave assurances of taking care of children orphaned due to Covid, there was no guarantee of the authorities keeping their word, hence the PIL sought various directions for the benefit of such children.

The petition has sought to increase the grant of ?1,100 per month for children up to the age of 18 years under the Child Care Scheme and Foster Care Policy to ?5,000 per month. The petition also seeks free education for orphaned children and to start and implement Education Sponsorship Programme (ESP) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) guidelines.

The PIL also seeks directions to authorities to properly identify and prepare documents pertaining to caste certificate, birth certificate, property documents and identification records of orphaned children.

The second PIL filed by Swagat Thorat, editor of a Braille Magazine, has raised concerns over the lack of healthcare facilities for visually impaired people and seeks reliefs including special Covid-19 wards, ‘barrier-free’ hospitals with specially trained medical staff to attend them and special vaccination facilities for them. The PIL also seeks direction to the state Disability Commissioner to provide data of visually impaired people who succumbed to Covid-19 infection, so that their families can be compensated through various government schemes.

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Highlights

Holistic Review of Alternative Care Provision in an area of Thailand with a high number of migrant children: The border District of Sangklaburi, Kanchanaburi province by Mahidol University Professors and One Sky Foundation. The review was conducted in different form of Institution cares: Private Residential Care, (Charity) Boarding Schools, and temple as well as (informal) Kinship Care. Finding and recommendations were presented to the Provincial Social Development and Human Security Office and Department of Children and Youth to further develop an Alternative Care road map and plan of action.

Author(s)

Department of Children and Youth, One Sky Foundation, UNICEF Thailand, Kanchanaburi Office of Social Development and Human Security

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"I always thought my parents abandoned me," says Meilan Stuy, who was born in China's Henan Province but raised by adoptive parents half a world away in the US state of Utah. She says her US parents showered her with love, but the older she got, the more she wanted to know where she really came from. As the story of her background emerged, so too did the cruel circumstances that led many Chinese couples to give up their children.

International adoption is widespread in the US, with China the most common country of origin of the children involved. More than 80,000 adoptees in the US were born in China, where the regulations governing adoption used to be comparatively lax.

"I decided to adopt a child from China because I learned about the terrible situation of an orphanage in Shanghai through a documentary. I simply wanted to provide a home for a child that I thought needed one," says Meilan's adoptive father, Brian Stuy.

Brian and his wife Longlan, who is Chinese by birth, have three adopted daughters from an orphanage in China. The daughters have often inquired about their biological parents, but all the couple knew was what the orphanage had told them: that the girls had been abandoned.

Elusive truth

An environment in which family members support one another and express their feelings can reduce the effects of social deprivation on cognitive ability and development among adopted children, suggests a small study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

In contrast, rule-driven households where family members are in conflict may increase an adopted child's chances for cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties. The study was conducted by Margaret F Keil, PhD, and colleagues in the Section on Endocrinology and Genetics at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). It appears in Pediatric Research.

Researchers enrolled children who had spent at least eight months in Eastern European orphanages before their adoption by American families. The children ranged from 14 to 40 months of age and were evaluated with physical, psychological and developmental tests twice during the following two years. Families also responded to questionnaires on the children's development and on various aspects of their home lives. The study included 10 adopted children and 19 similar children born to American families.

Overall, the adopted children had significant deficits in growth, cognitive ability and development in comparison to the American-born children. However, differences were smaller among children from families scoring higher in cohesion, where family members provided help and support for each other, and expressiveness- families whose members are encouraged to express their feelings. Children had greater deficits if their families scored higher in conflict- an open expression of anger and aggression- and in control-- a family life run according to set rules and procedures.

The authors concluded that family cohesion and expressiveness could moderate the effects of pre-adoption adversity, while family conflict and adherence to rules could increase the risk for behavioural problems. The authors added that larger studies are needed to verify their findings.

This article is the first in a series about Koreans adopted abroad. Apparently, many Koreans never expected that the children it had sent away via adoption would return as adults with questions demanding to be answered. However, thousands of adoptees visit Korea each year. Once they rediscover this country, it becomes a turning point in their lives. We should embrace the dialogue with adoptees to discover the path to recovering our collective humanity. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

If you are from South Korea and have had the opportunity to live and work in either the U.S. or in a Western European country, you may have come across a situation where someone says to you, "Oh, I have a friend whose brother/sister was adopted from Korea", or alternatively, "Do you know that our boss/friend has adopted a child from Korea?" Or you may have approached a person whom you thought was a native Korean, but after starting a conversation, discovered that this person has a very western family name and has said to you, "Oh, I am adopted.

In English-language literature, there are many books written on the subject of adoption, encompassing such diverse topics as: individual memoirs by adoptees or adoptive parents, investigative reports on unlawful and unethical adoption practices, birth family search stories, and so on. Many of the authors of such books are of Korean ethnicity.

In Western countries, there are many stories that connect Korea to the narrative of transnational adoption. Why? Because Korea is the country that has sent the largest number of children out of the country for adoption. The length of the period in which Korea has been involved in transnational adoption is more than 68 years and the total number of adoptees is estimated to be over 200,000. It is a singular record in the world history of adoption.

Luca Trapanese is a single gay man living in conservative southern Italy. Not the most ideal circumstances to adopt a child. Yet he has been the father of Alba, a girl who has Down syndrome, for almost four years. A video of the two together recently went viral.

“When I first saw Alba, I knew she was my daughter and I was her father.” After more than three years, Luca (44) can still be moved by it. “I knew we belonged together.”

ALBA

Alba was just thirty days old when Luca first held her in her arms. She was left in the hospital by her mother. Alba's birth mother didn't think she could handle caring for a child with a disability. She chose to give up the girl. “A brave choice that is regulated by law,” says Luca on the phone. “I have nothing to say about that. She has the right to choose. Most importantly, she left Alba in a protected environment.”

Luca is a lot less positive about the sixteen families that did not want to adopt Alba. “There is still too much fear of children with disabilities. It's a taboo.” The fact that the Italian government often leaves parents of disabled children to their own devices does not help either.

Colombia has opened its doors to adoption by Maltese same-sex couples, giving them a second option to adopt internationally.

The civil unions law gives local same-sex couples the same rights as in marriage, including the right to adopt, with the first such adoption taking place in 2016.

Until now, same-sex couples could only adopt children from Portugal.

Meanwhile, Ghana has joined the list of countries open to Malta for adoptions by newly-weds, since it will not require prospective parents to be married for any length of time before adopting.

Prior to the addition of these two countries to the list, the Maltese were able to adopt from six countries: Portugal, Slovakia, Bulgaria, India, Vietnam and the Philippines.