Adoptee stolen at birth sues Chile over thousands of dictatorship-era thefts

Jimmy Lippert Thyden González alleges country engaged in plan to steal babies from perceived enemies in 70s and 80s

Associated Press in Santiago

Mon 1 Jul 2024 20.07 BST

Born and sold: The dark truth behind Nepal’s child adoption

Raised in the Netherlands, Shanti Chalise was always curious about her skin colour, which differed from her family. Her parents and brother had white skin, but she had brown. Sometimes, she felt bad about it.

But after some years, another child with a similar skin colour as Chalise joined the family. Only then did she learn about Nepal.

“He was two years older than me. He used to tell me repeatedly – Shanti, we came from Nepal,” Chalise recalls. “He frequently wished to see his photos taken in Nepal.”

Chinese boy adopted by Dutch couple finds biological parents after 12-year-long search In 1994, Gouming got lost when his parents were travelling from their home in China's Jiangsu province to his mother's hometown in Sichuan province. DH Web Desk La...

A PhD graduate in linguistics, Gouming Martens of the Chinese descent has found his birth parents after a 12-year-long quest. ADVERTISEMENT According to a report by South China Morning Post, Gouming was adopted by a couple from Netherlands when he was four-years-old after he got lost while travelling with this biological parents. In 1994, Gouming got lost when his parents were travelling from their home in China's Jiangsu province to his mother's hometown in Sichuan province. He was sent to to an orphanage and was adopted in 1996 by a Dutch couple - Jozef and Maria Martens. According to SCMP, the orphanage had named him Gou Yongming and after adoption, the Martens called him Gouming so that he could remember where he came from as they ...

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/chinese-boy-adopted-by-dutch-couple-finds-biological-parents-after-12-year-long-search-3087620


 

There is a misconception among people that children will be given for adoption through various hospitals in the State, say the Commission representatives

Andhra Pradesh State Child Rights Protection Commission (APSCRPC) has called upon all stakeholders to encourage only legal adoptions.

An awareness programme for gynaecologists, paediatricians, nursing, paramedical and other staff of King George Hospital (KGH) was organised jointly by APSCRPC and the KGH at the Ethics Gallery of the hospital on Tuesday.

Chairperson Kesali Appa Rao and Member Gondu Sitaram, CWC Chairperson MLR Radha, KGH Superintendent P. Sivananda, District ICDS Project Officer Jayadevi, Hospital Assistant Director Ch. Srinivas Kumar and CSRMO Dhavala Bhaskara Rao participated in the programme.

The ICDS PO gave a PowerPoint presentation on ‘official adoptions’.

Louise and Paul's daughter was left at a hospital when she was just one day old

Louise Timmins, 49, adopted daughter Marika in Nepal in 2011 - almost six years after starting the process. She tells us about the long journey, and how life has changed since her daughter's arrival.

Drinking my coffee, I listened to my colleague Rachel describing children’s homes filled with orphaned babies in Nepal. It upset me to think of children in need of love, particularly as I wanted nothing more than to hold a baby in my arms.

It was early 2005 and I’d met Rachel through my role as Fundraising Manager for The Leprosy Mission in Peterborough, as she and her husband ran the charity’s specialist hospital in Anandaban, Nepal.

Now they were visiting the UK as part of their work, and I’d confided in Rachel about how my husband Paul and I had endured six heartbreaking years of fertility issues and devastating early miscarriages due to me having polycystic ovary syndrome.

Police investigations into the kidnapping unearthed a larger gang operating a baby sale racket. They have arrested seven people, who allegedly sold nine babies.

Bengaluru: A cancelled infant sale deal was behind the kidnapping of an 11-month-old boy that the Tumakuru police cracked down last week, police investigations have revealed. 

Police investigations into the kidnapping unearthed a larger gang operating a baby sale racket. They have arrested seven people, who allegedly sold nine babies.  The Gubbi police identified the ringleaders of the operation as Mahesh UD and Mehboob Sharif

The two met through their medical contacts.  Mubarak, a tamarind merchant from Bellur Cross in Nagamangala, approached Sharif through a common friend, expressing a desire to buy a baby boy. 

“Mubarak has three daughters, but desperately wanted a son. Though he took care of his family, he felt there was a necessity for a boy. So, he approached Sharif,” a police officer close to the investigation told DH.  

Sharif informed Mahesh of Mubarak’s request. Mahesh knew a woman who lived on the streets and was too poor to raise a baby. He contacted the woman, offering her family money in exchange for her baby. Initially, a deal was struck, but the family backed out after the baby’s birth, causing the plan to collapse.  

Eleven months later, Mubarak, still desperate for a son, approached Mahesh and Sharif once again. The duo planned to steal the same baby, knowing the family was homeless. Mahesh roped in Ramakrishna and Hanumantharaju, both tattoo artists, to carry out the kidnapping.  

FunX 

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Stel je voor dat je geadopteerd bent en besluit om je biologische familie op te sporen. Na veel werk lukt het je om je moeder te ontmoeten, maar later blijkt dat dit een fout was en de vrouw niet echt familie van je is. Het overkwam Rodrigo, die uiteindelijk de waarheid boven tafel kreeg. “Mijn intuïtie zei dat er iets niet klopte.”

funx.nl

A child of four or five sits colouring at a low table. Memory can be tricky: the image is dim and rather unstable. But I know that the child is me, and that she’s been caught showing off by her grandmother, who is looking after her. (Where are the parents? I don’t know.)

‘I’m going to show my mummy and daddy,’ says the little girl, about her picture.

‘They’re not your mummy and daddy,’ says the old woman on the sofa, witchily. ‘You have a real mummy and daddy somewhere else.’

The child I remember doesn’t show her face; she keeps on colouring. But words have magic powers. Real… somewhere else. This single sentence sucks the reality out of everything around her: the red carpet, the blue Formica tabletop, the buttoned upholstery of the sofa on which her grandmother sits watching her.

You could call it a life sentence, for this is the moment in which I learn that I am adopted.

The trial of Julienne Mpemba continued this Friday with the civil parties before the criminal court of Namur. Parents and children who are devastated and still waiting for answers to their questions.

Stolen lives, broken families, changed destinies, voices that tremble and eyes that moisten, emotion is felt on the benches of the civil parties. This Friday, June 28, the trial of Julienne Mpemba continued before the criminal court of Namur. " I want to give my little girl back her story," says the mother of Lucie (not her real name), one of the adopted children. "She only knows the readable part of her story." Sitting next to her, the parents of Théa (not her real name) also echo the same sentiment: " Our daughter is between two identities. Our goal is for her to be able to rebuild herself, to know who she is, where she comes from." For the mother, anger is also taking over. " I am here today because I don't want any mother, any other family to go through this. I also remember the contempt of the Belgian and Congolese institutions that helped Julienne Mpemba. We knocked on every door and none of them ever opened. I would have liked to look her in the face, tell her that children are not interchangeable, that she has no respect for these children."

Since the beginning of the investigation, Julienne Mpemba has taken refuge in Congo and is still running the orphanage. "Today, it's too much. We've been in the process for 8 years just to get a judicial truth since we can't count on a minimum of frankness from her," adds Théa's father.

"Are we really going to send these children back to Congo?"

But the challenge of the trial for these torn and powerless families will be to know whether or not Julienne Mpemba will be found guilty or not. Apart from the civil claims, some lawyers are asking sometimes to recognize her guilt, sometimes to exonerate her. Because if the woman from Namur is indeed guilty, then adoption is no longer worth anything. And what future for these children who have built themselves in Belgium? " Are we going to send them back home? Where crime and violence reign? Are we going to send them back to poverty?" , intervenes the counsel for one of the families. They are uprooted, they no longer know the language. Their life, their school and their friends are here, in Belgium." And another lawyer who is a civil party adds: " I am asking that all the charges be established. For her, the children are merchandise."

Lotte Debrauwer

There Complaints have been filed against the adoption service Het Kleine Mirakel, including due to negligence in medical examinations.

'What Het Kleine Mirakel had on paper about our daughter's health was completely different from what was ultimately diagnosed in our country. I would have liked to have known that in advance.' Sarah* and her husband Klaas* adopted a girl from Portugal last year. Because the file at Het Kleine Mirakel – medical documents that were present in Portugal – were missing, they filed a complaint at the beginning of this year.

Rare ratio

Sarah and Klaas are not the only ones. Nine families expressed their dissatisfaction with Het Kleine Mirakel, one of the three existing services for adoption abroad, with a complaint or report in the past year. The complaints concern the poor communication of the service, but also about incompleteness in the files of the children and the exertion of pressure on prospective adoptive parents. De Standaard already reported in October 2023 about the complaint of a couple who experienced emotional pressure to adopt a child from Hungary.