Seven thousand British children were sent to Australia last century, told they were orphans or unwanted. It wasn’t true. Now facing old age, 1,400 are still searching for their families

It wasn’t until he was 71 that Michael Lachmann found out what a different life he might have had. He had always believed he was an orphan. But, already an old man, he discovered he was never an orphan. He had been loved and wanted. During the second world war his mother had left letters at a residential nursery saying she was only placing him in care while she was working and until “daddy gets home from Japan and we will be making a home for little Michael”. There was no childcare then, unless you were rich.

Instead of being collected by his mother at the war’s end, at the age of five he was shipped to Australia and placed in the Castledare Boys Home, run by the Christian Brothers, where numerous boys were starved, beaten and subjected to sexual abuse. He was told his mother was dead.

Between the 1910s and 1970, 7,000 children aged between three and 14 were transported to Australia as part of Britain’s child migrant program. Promised a better life and loving families waiting to adopt, most were instead delivered into institutions where large numbers suffered abuse. Often their names or birth dates were changed, erasing their links to their families of origin. Very few were adopted or fostered.

One thousand and four hundred of those children are still looking for their birth families. Searching for any family who remain. Now old men and women, time is running out for these children to piece together who they are – while they still can.

We are always looking for people who want to help Better Care Network Netherlands further. Do you want to stand up for children who have to deal with alternative care abroad? Do you have a heart for children, combined with a passion for development cooperation? The urge to be of significance and to take Better Care Network Netherlands further? Then the position of secretary at Better Care Network Netherlands might be something for you.

Description

Better Care Network Nederland (BCNN) is not a foundation, but a network of organizations and individuals who are actively involved with children without parental care in low- and middle-income countries. Through cooperation, BCNN wants to improve the help to children abroad without good parental care. The network is supported by a coordinator. Decision-making takes place in the steering group consisting of representatives of all member organisations. The secretary supports the coordinator in taking care of the organization of the network and participates in meetings of the steering group and working groups.

Most important tasks

- You are responsible for general incoming mail (physical and digital) via the secretariat and proper handling thereof.

A Polish woman who believes she could be Madeleine McCann has submitted samples for forensic testing to determine if she is the missing Brit.

Julia Faustyna, who also goes by Julia Wendell, has been claiming on Instagram and TikTok that she may be the child – who disappeared from a family holiday in Portugal in 2007 – due to similarities in their age and appearance.

She has amassed tens of thousands of followers on both platforms as a result, posting under the handle @iammadeleinemccann.

The 21-year-old has submitted samples for three different forensic examinations that will outline her DNA sequence, along with a 23andMe-style genetic test to establish her ancestry, private investigator Dr. Fia Johansson told RadarOnline.com.

“If the results come back that she’s British or from that area then we are going to continue our investigation into Madeleine McCann and communicate with the detectives in Portugal,” said Dr. Johansson, who relocated Wendell from Poland to a safe house in the United States after a series of death threats.

One of the questions that was asked with a significant frequency after we got to know the message of categorical support, for DNA and for Laura Kovesi, that President Klaus Iohannis gave on Thursday evening, was that if not somehow, through a similar declarations of accession, doesn't Mr. President flagrantly violate the provisions of the Constitution and, in this way, risks causing legitimate concerns, in particular, to our partners in the European Union? And here it is that not even two days have passed since, at the Palace in Dealul Cotrocenilor, Mr. President of all Romanians made these very controversial statements that we have received a categorical signal of concern, indeed another one expressed in very categorical terms :,,

There will be, for sure, also this time, some whiners who will reply that such statements are not new and that, in roughly the same terms, we have received numerous other warnings. Agreed, only this time the warning was issued by the chairman of the Bundestag European Affairs Committee himself, Gunther Krichbaum, who is publicly asking the European Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker, not only not to suspend the MCV for Romania, but to proceed to the initiation of the procedure provided for by Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which also provides for the loss of the right to vote in the EU Council, if it is found that that state has not respected the law and democratic norms. Or, after as Herr Gunther Krichbaum whispers, in a tone that does not admit of reply, like this and only like this, things must be seen!

Agree, and this time, you'll tell me that it's nothing new, because the MEP Cristian Preda, a well-known and fervent companion of the anti-Romanian ideals of the pro-European Monica Macova, had this exact idea. Which, also on the grounds/pretext of attacks on the independence of the judiciary, made the same proposal. Allow me, however, to add that it is not the first time that Herr Gunther Krichbaum shows his deep concern about the fate of the righteous DNA and of handcuff democracy. He did it a year ago, as in 2015, after publicly admitting that Romania meets the technical criteria to be admitted to the Schengen Area, his lordship raised the objection that "there are border guards (Romanians, of course not ) who accept benefits''. Where do we keep talking about corruption, right?

But wait a minute, as the saying goes, that's not all! For example, from information that circulates on media channels and which, so far, no one has contested, Herr Gerhard Krichbaum has certain connections with the Romanian lands and with everything special. Thus, as we learn from a material published in the July 8, 2015 edition of the "Jurnalului Na?ional", the wife of the fervent supporter of the multilateral cause-medal winner Laura Kovesi, was called Oana Harvalia before marriage, and the civil marriage took place at Sibiu, on November 5, 2010. Where, guess what, who was the mayor of the municipality?...

Did you somehow rush to hang up, thinking I had exhausted the list of coincidences? You don't even know what you were missing, because the big surprises will only come now. Find out, therefore, that, before becoming the wife of the influential German parliamentarian, Miss Oana Harvalia was Monica Macova's personal advisor during the period when she held the mandate of Minister of Justice. As, a few years before, his lordship held the position of executive director of the "Parents and Children" Foundation. A foundation whose main object of work was the adoption of children from Romania by families from other countries. How and under what conditions these adoptions were carried out, we learn from the statements of Teodora Bretzi, at that time secretary of state at the Romanian Adoption Office (ORA), also quoted in the article from the "National Journal":,,In Romania, adoptions were done on a conveyor belt. Adopted children were treated as a commodity''.

I was about 9 years old when I made a startling discovery. I realized I liked women rather than men. Of course, I didn’t know terms like lesbian, gay etc. In fact terms like queer and homosexual also were probably not coined. How did I find out I was gay ? In every movie we watched, I would fall in love with and have a crush on the heroine rather than the hero. I felt protective & wanted to put my arms around her. For eg I drooled over Saira Banu rather than Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore rather than Rajesh Khanna. Julie Andrews in “Sound of Music” rather than Christopher Plummer, Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” rather than Gregory Peck. And the list was endless. It seemed the most natural thing – being that way.

Till I realized a few years later that it was considered immoral, bad etc. Of course, to me it was the most normal, natural feeling. And I was ready to fight with anyone who thought otherwise.

Like many women, I always had one dream – to have a child of my own. The only difference between me & other women being that they were married while I was a lesbian woman in a same sex union.

I always had a very strong maternal instinct and wanted a child to love & cherish. The problem was I knew I was never going to marry. And as I grew older and got into a live-in lesbian relationship, I thought well, why not adopt a child instead ? I thought it was a simple matter of applying to an Adoption Agency. Till reality hit.

My partner & I have been trying to adopt a child, unsuccessfully, for the last 10 years. The reason ? The current Adoption Laws in our country do not allow same sex couples to adopt a child, simply because they are not recognised as a “couple” or cannot legally marry according to the prevailing Marriage laws.

Mumbai Police arrested a man, Malikram, for kidnapping a two-year-old boy from Govandi. He reportedly

abducted the toddler after he and his wife were denied permission to adopt a child multiple times, citing

their financial condition and the fact that his wife is handicapped. Malikram has two daughters from his

first wife, however, he is not allowed to meet them.

Child Adoption is the legal process by which a child or minor is made a a part of a family he is not biologically connected to.

It should be noted that child adoption is different from Child fostering, which is the process of a child being placed under the care of a caregiver or guardian (known as a ” foster parent”) licensed to do so by the state .

This article will be looking at child adoption as it currently exists under Nigerian Law, with a focus on the topics of :-

– The legal framework governing child adoption in Nigeria.

– Who is qualified to be adopted in Nigeria.

I received from Dr. Maria E. Rotter, who represents Mr. Krichbaum, a clarification related to the work of his wife, Dr. Oana Harvalia. The message shows that "Oana Harvalia worked as a legal adviser to the Minister of Justice C?t?lin Predoiu, from May to November 2008. It is emphasized that "Dr. Oana Harvalia never worked for Mrs. Macovei". Jurnalul Na?ional assigned Oana Harvalia the position of Monica Macova's personal adviser, which is in the received message "a serious mistake".

We learn from the press (Le Monde 10/02/23) the delivery of a report written by two academics, Yves Denéchère and Fábio Macedo, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Historical study on illicit practices in the international adoption in France”.

According to the article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs covered for almost thirty years the facts denounced to the mission of international adoption (MAI) by the French consular services abroad relating that about fifteen organizations authorized to Adoption (AIO) have arranged fraudulent adoptions under our laws and international commitments, including the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, the Convention on the Rights of the child, and the protocol to that convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

It is about kidnappings, making false orphans, forced abandonment of newborns, affecting many countries, such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Madagascar…, with the key, the organization of a “real market” generating considerable sums.

While one might think that after the scandal of "L'Arche de Zoé" in 2007, revealing child abductions in Chad and Sudan had awakened consciences, while the abduction and forced adoptions of Ukrainian children by Russian families is currently being examined by the International Criminal Court (ICC), France cannot do without an introspection on illicit practices which would have been covered up by public authorities.

Also, DCI-France calls for the immediate constitution of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the facts denounced by the report of the academics and that this one hears the public officials like those of the associations implicated and, also, the associations defending the rights of the child who have long denounced the "market" of international adoption.

The Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto agreed to pay a US$15 million penalty to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the accusation that it had paid $10.5 million to a friend of former Guinean President Alpha Condé to retain globally important iron ore rights.

The settlement agreement with the U.S. stock exchange regulator said that in 2011, Rio hired a “close friend of a former senior Guinean government official” to help it keep hold of blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou mountain range, considered to hold some of the world’s largest iron ore reserves.

Blocks 1 and 2 had been canceled by a previous regime in 2008, and controversially granted to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources.

The SEC found that the consultant in the middle of the scandal paid $200,000 to buy T-shirts for Condé’s re-election campaign, soon after receiving his first payment from Rio Tinto.

While the settlement anonymises individuals connected to the bribery, leaked emails reveal that the unnamed “senior government official” is President Condé, and the anonymous “French investment banker” is François Polge de Combret, a friend of Condé from his student days in Paris.