In the last few years many countries have voiced their concerns over inter-country adoption prevalent in most South Asian countries including India. Many countries including China, Russia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, South Korea etc., have banned adoption after instances of abuse of the adopted children were reported. In recent years many adoptee adults have started talking openly about the emotional trauma they undergo due to the sudden change of physical, linguistic and social environment at a young age due to adoption. There is a surge in the number of adoptees who go the birth of their countries in search of their biological parents. A few have succeeded in reuniting with their original parents whereas for a majority the search has proved to be a futile exercise.

One such adoptee who has been frantically trying to find her roots in India is Carol Peters ‘Carol D'Souza’ (Original name Carol Fonseca), a citizen of Belgium. Carol, who is now 53, has made four trips to India in her quest to locate her biological parents and to connect with the country of her birth. Her first trip was in 1998 and the fourth one was in 2018 and it has been like ‘so near yet too far’ in her pursuit of finding her biological parents. In 2009, she had visited India with her husband and two daughters to locate her biological parents and also to acquaint her family with the country of birth.

Despite her success in getting some vital clues in the last 20 years Carol is still far away from her mission. However, she isn’t giving up yet, this is my strength. Carol who is polio affected and suffers from many other ailments wants to come to India again despite her failing health to with the fond hope that she will succeed in her mission. “It was a painful experience for me in my new home in a new environment where I felt totally alienated. I wanted to know who my biological mother is and wanted to connect to connect with my roots and my culture. I wanted to find out why I was given away to the orphanage,” says Carol during the long telephonic conversation I had with her. After listening to her tale, I could realise that she went through a harrowing experience as an adoptee.

Uprooted and Alienated

Carol’s adoption story and her subsequent efforts to find her parents and get back to her roots make an interesting reading. She was born in Mumbai on December 2, 1967. Within four days of her birth she was admitted into St Joseph’s Home & Nursery, an orphanage located in Byculla (Agripada), Mumbai. She had poliomyelitis when she was 2.5-years-old. On October 7, 1974 when she was 7 years, she was adopted by Marcel Peters of Belgium. However, it wasn’t a happy ending to her story. She was unable to cope with the sudden change of the physical, linguistic and social milieu at such a young age. She says she felt out of place in her foster family. This traumatic experience was the trigger that resolved her to know more about her past and the circumstances that orphaned her.

Last week we were informed that one of the birth parents we tested had died. While most of the birth families we have met are between 30 and 60 years old, as time moves on the number of birth parents passing away will only increase. It is time that the adoption community collectively begins to take searching seriously, and take steps to maximize the efficiency of our collective efforts. Today, the searching has been by-and-large a collection of single efforts to locate specific birth families, with each adoptee and their family expending valuable time and efforts for their own search, with little attention being paid to the needs and success of the community as a whole. This must change. This essay is written with the desire to reframe the search efforts of everyone searching in China. The goal is for all of us to work so that the maximum number of birth families can be reunited with the largest number of adoptees, including our own.

The following essay was originally given in the 2015 Heritage Camp of adoptees and their parents in Colorado. It is hoped that the steps presented here will help any family in their search.

____________________________

The idea of searching for our child's birth family is fraught with all kinds of emotional and financial currents. What will happen if we are successful? How much will it cost? Should I conduct a search before my child expresses an interest in searching? While most of the answers will depend on variables unique to each situation, some basic foundational principles nevertheless apply to all searches. I have composed a list of ten commandments that everyone should consider before beginning a search. These commandments are largely chronological, in that the early commandments address concerns at the beginning of a search, and later commandments address issues that arise in a search itself. While targeting the adoptive parents as the primary audience, adoptees are also an important component and can easily place themselves into the intended readers.

Put Aside Your Own Fears

As per the petition, one Narayan Dash of Ganjam district had kidnapped an eight-year-old girl from her village while she was witnessing a festival on the occasion of Kartika Purnima in 2015.

BHUBANESWAR: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has summoned the Home Secretary and SP of Crime Branch-CID, Cuttack seeking their personal appearance with detailed report in connection with rising human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children in Odisha.

Acting on a petition and subsequent submissions filed by rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, the apex human rights panel has served conditional summons directing the two officers to appear before the Commission on March 17.

As per the petition, one Narayan Dash of Ganjam district had kidnapped an eight-year-old girl from her village while she was witnessing a festival on the occasion of Kartika Purnima in 2015. Narayan took the girl to Burupada and allegedly exploited her sexually. Next day, he engaged her for begging at different places after selling her ear-ring for `2000 to buy a cell phone.

“A former model was spotted while engaging minors from a Bhubaneswar-based slum in begging and extorting money from them. It is failure of the State government in dealing with children being used for begging, sexual abuse and drugs trade,” the petition stated.

Search result - view documentECLI: NL: RBAMS: 2020: 6419

Authority

Court of Amsterdam

Date of judgment

10-12-2020

Antonin Maindron, who came to France at the age of three and a half, thought his biological parents were dead. He will meet them in Ethiopia, his country of origin. Testimony.

In his dining room, seated on a chair, he firmly holds his Christmas present. A photo album retracing his childhood given to him by his mother Nelly. These memories of youth will soon travel to Africa in the house where the young man was born in the mid-90s.

He puts the book down and starts. He has the impression of "reciting" his story, of appearing detached in the eyes of his interlocutors. The fire is inside. He hesitates and recovers: "It's a crazy thing, it's unimaginable. »Adopted in France at the age of three and a half, Antonin Maindron will be reunited with his biological parents , whom he believed to be dead, in Ethiopia in a few days.

From La Gaubretière , a town nestled in the Vendée bocage where he has lived for 22 years, he delivers a poignant testimony . A rare word that he also wants full of hope for uprooted children.

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APPEAL: DID YOU KNOW MY BIOLOGICAL FATHER?

After 17 years, donor child Steph Raeymaekers finally finds her - unfortunately - deceased biological father. She launches a call: have you ever known him?

Antwerp, January 2, 2021 - After a search of 17 years, Steph Raeymaekers (41), chairman of Donorkinderen vzw and board member of the Donor Detectives, has finally managed to find out her real origins. She did this by working out the family trees of her closest DNA Matches that she had on the MyHeritage database . An additional DNA test with close relatives confirmed what she had suspected for a year.

“My biological father is called Marc Folens. His name and identity belong to me. Everyone has only 1 biological father: he is mine. It gives relief to finally be able to name and name him. ” said an emotional Steph.

“I searched and fought for so long, struggling through the maze that I didn't build myself. Today I can say with a certainty of 99.98% I am his biological daughter. My origin is no longer a question, it has become an answer. ”

The work, made in black and white and with a realistic aesthetic, is based on a real life story. The protagonist is Georgina, an Ayacucho woman who arrives in Lima about to give birth to later suffer the abduction of her baby as soon as she is born. The young woman seeks help from the authorities but ignored, decides to report in the press and gains the support of a journalist who undertakes the task of investigating the case.

Song Without a Name had its world premiere at the prestigious Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival , where it achieved unanimous critical support. Since then it has been released in France, where it remained on the bill for eight weeks; and then in Spain, Switzerland, Italy and the United States.

With this premiere, Netflix is ??betting on the profitability of Peruvian cinema , which has previously had major international successes also from the hand of female filmmakers, such as Madeinusa and La teta humana, both by Claudia Llosa, for example.

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Official Joint Announcement: Expanded Hague Adoption Convention Processing with the United States following the Conclusion of the Special Adoption Program (SAP) in Vietnam

The Department of State is pleased to announce that effective December 31, 2020, Vietnam will expand the categories of children that are eligible for intercountry adoption with the United States under the Hague Adoption Convention. This follows Vietnam lifting the limitations of the Special Adoption Program, which previously allowed processing only for children with special needs, over five years old, and/or in biological sibling groups.

The United States and Vietnam held discussions from June to September 2020 on intercountry adoptions with an emphasis on our mutual commitment to cooperate on child protection issues. We acknowledge Vietnam’s legal improvements, particularly under Decree 24/2019/ND-CP, to better align with the Hague Adoption Convention. Vietnam’s commitment to ongoing adoption reform is demonstrated by the progress made to build necessary safeguards and infrastructure, and meet its obligations under the Convention. Such significant improvements have contributed to a determination to process intercountry adoption cases for all eligible children under the Convention and follow the respective laws of the two countries.

Vietnam has not expressed plans to change the current limitation on the number of U.S. adoption service providers (ASPs) authorized to operate in Vietnam. These decisions are entirely within the jurisdiction of the Vietnamese government and these limitations exist for all partner countries participating in intercountry adoptions.

Vietnam and the United States will continue to process cases previously started under the Special Adoption Program to completion for children already determined eligible for intercountry adoption with interested U.S. prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) and/or for which U.S. PAPs have already completed dossiers. For cases other than those mentioned above, processing shall be in accordance with current Vietnamese law and in conformity with the Convention. There will not be changes to how cases are processed by the United States; U.S. PAPs will continue to use the Form I-800 for the Hague Adoption Convention process.

By Johannes Lindgren

When I first got the message from the adoption agency that my birth father did not want to meet me, I thought that I must have scared him.

He probably thought I was coming back to ask him for money, or perhaps blame him for leaving me. Therefore, I made sure to communicate that I did not want anything from him, I did well on my own, and I was not planning to confront him in any way. I simply wanted to meet a person that I was biologically related to; see what he looked like, if there were any similarities between the two of us, and also ask him if he knew anything about my birth mother. Perhaps he had a photo of her.

The answer came back quickly from the agency; he was not scared of me ? he was scared that his family would find out about me. The fact that he once had a son had been kept a secret from his wife ? and from his daughters.

The sudden disappointment from my birth father's rejection was in an instant swept away by this new revelation. I had two (half) sisters! This new piece of information gave me a lot of joy, but it also put me in a moral dilemma. Should I contact my sisters? Would they be pleased to, at an adult age, gain a brother!? I would not know unless I contacted them. But if my birth father wanted to keep me as his secret, was it wrong to reveal myself against his will? Who has the moral right in this case? A man who wishes his son to remain a secret or the son who wishes to know his origins?

Adoption is a wonderful way to grow a family and give a child in need a home. But the process can be prohibitively expensive. In fact, the average cost of a private agency adoption in the U.S. is $43,000, according to a report from Adoptive Families Magazine. That's because there are numerous expenses that go into the process:

Attorney fees

Court fees

Home studies

Travel expenses