Mrs Maritha Agulanna, a native of Ahiara in the Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, is the foster mother of a 20-year-old lady, Juliet, who recently discovered, by sheer providence, her biological parents, Prof Michael and Mrs Gloria Okwudili, in Enugu State. She tells RAPHAEL EDE how she took custody of the lady days after her birth and denies the allegation of child theft and human trafficking

How are you related to the 20-year-old lady who lived with you from birth, but claimed to have found her biological parents in your neighbourhood?

I adopted the girl when she was a week old from the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Imo State branch, on June 21, 2002. The girl was born on June 14, 2002.

Do you have an adoption certificate or document to show that the girl was properly adopted as required by law?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. The Nigerian Red Cross Society, Imo State branch, issued a document titled, ‘To Whom It May Concern Fostering/Adoption of a Baby Girl from This Home’, dated June 21, 2002. It was signed by the State Secretary, Chief H. C. Mela. The document read, ‘This is to confirm that Mr Lawrence Ukachi Agulanna and Mrs Maritha Chidinma Agulanna from Nnarambia in Ahiara, Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, fostered a week-old baby girl from this home. The said baby was born on June 14, 2002. The adoptive parents have been advised to report to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Owerri, Imo State, for the necessary documentation of the child and to the court for legal processes and adoption orders of the child. I wish to request that the applicants be given the necessary assistance that they may require’.

BAREILLY: The Delhi high court (HC) has issued an “impleading notice” to the Uttar Pradesh government for “not adhering to an earlier judgment given by the court” regarding the adoption of a “miracle baby” (the court addressed her only as ‘S’) and “delaying the process by harassing the staff of the orphanage in Bareilly where she is housed”, reports Kanwardeep Singh.

The court order, issued on December 23 and made available on Saturday, came a few days after TOI reported that some right-wing activists had lodged an FIR against the orphanage and the Malta-based couple who had adopted the baby, charging them with “wrongful conversion”.

The HC further directed the UP government “not to harass the orphanage staff and stop the proceedings under the unlawful conversion law in the FIR”. It also directed the UP administration “not to create hurdles in the baby’s adoption process or her journey to Malta with her adoptive parents”.

The baby was found abandoned in an earthen pot, having survived a cold night, in Bareilly during the winter of 2019.

She was subsequently referred to as a “miracle baby”.

Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Dec 25: Since the last 22 years, Dinesh Shetty and Vijayalakshmi Shetty from Urwa are bringing up two girl children who lost their parents during their young age.

Dinesh Shetty owns a granite factory in Moodabidiri where several employees from different parts of the state work. A Bagalkote couple who was working in Dinesh Shetty granite factory lost their lives due to Malaria.

The Bagalkote couple has five children - three daughters and two sons. Among the five children, two daughters Jyothi and Tanuja are taken care by Dinesh Shetty and Vijayalakshmi for the past 22 years after the demise of their parents. While one daughter and one son got married another son is in Bagalkote.

Joint meeting to discuss the progress on deinstitutionalisation

03-06-2016 Eurochild News -

The European Commission and the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care met on 1 June in Brussels

A joint meeting of the European Commission (EC) and the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG)- of which Eurochild is a member- was held on 1 June in Brussels. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress on deinstitutionalisation in several Member States through the exchange of positions between representatives of state institutions, civil society and the European Commission.

The situation in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic was discussed. Eurochild took part in the meeting and its members from Bulgaria represented the views of civil society – the National Network for Children was represented by Vania Kaneva, Policy and Advocacy Adviser at For Our Children Foundation. Vania presented a joint position of the NNC and the coalition "Childhood 2025" on the progress on deinstitutionalisation of children in the country. The position describes the key successes that were achieved during the first stage of the process (2010-15) and the key challenges that emerged during this period, along with recommendations to address them.

Lumos Foundation (Lumos)

Registration on EU Transparency Register

849607914394-57 (First registered: 10 Sep 2014)

Website

http://www.wearelumos.org/

Een paar weken geleden zat ik begin van de avond thuis op de bank, lekker lazy een beetje door mijn nieuwsoverzicht van Facebook te scrollen.

De meeste statusupdates van vrienden gingen, zoals gewoonlijk over vakanties, etentjes, sportprestaties of nieuwe liefdes.

Een dag zoals alle andere dus.

Ik was maar half met mijn gedachten bij de Facebookberichten en zat eigenlijk vooral te bedenken of ik een goede smoes kon bedenken om vanavond de Pilates-les over te slaan.

Zodat ik lekker thuis op de bank kon blijven zitten. Netflix in combinatie met Tony Chocolonely, sprak me een stuk meer aan dan mezelf afmatten in de sportschool.

Hello Everyone,

So last Friday we decided and made the final choice to choose Hungary as the country of adoption.

This means that we indicated during the intake interview that we would go for Hungary. Our documents are now being translated into Hungarian and then sent to Budapest. (capital Hungary)

This is an important choice within the adoption process, because you can only go for 1 country (at a time). If your entire file has been sent to the chosen country, it is very complicated to switch to another country due to all kinds of issues (bureaucracy and costs).

Our choice for Hungary has partly come about because we prefer to adopt 3 or 4 children at the same time and this is a (slightly) more complicated process (in the Netherlands) than adopting 1 child. If you want to adopt more than 1 child, the number of countries you can choose from becomes more limited. In addition, you must complete a separate procedure with the Child Protection Board. So we did this.

Yes, you read that right. Billy and I have become fathers to a beautiful little boy. I will tell you more in this article.

But wouldn't it take a long time?

Exactly – we thought so too. In fact, I totally saw it. After all the hustle and bustle of all the adoption paperwork, writing book 2, the huge renovation and our wedding , I had it in front of me: we're going to rest, sweeten the house and prepare the baby room, book launch in between and hand out a lot of FREE HUGS, and then – who knows – we will get some good news sometime in the autumn.

Well – the good news came. And it came FAST . The last documents had just been sent out when we woke up three days before our wedding with a bizarre email: URGENT – a birthmother selected you as parents for her baby boy .

She was already walking at 38 weeks and could give birth at any time. As you can imagine, we were very happy and yes – we had to take a breather.

World Children Foundation

The quality of the mediation process

an intercountry adoption permit holder

r

Participating in The Colour of Difference: Long Term Outcomes

This piece was written for the Benevolent Society: Post Adoption Resource Centre newsletter. Their centre provides post adoption support to adoptees in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

In the late 1990s, I was in my mid 20s and searching for support as an adoptee born overseas, outside of Australia. At that time, I didn’t even have the language to understand how adoption had affected me, I only knew that I had struggled and was reaching out to try and find support somewhere. I came across the Post Adoption Resource Centre (PARC) in my search but I had initially tried the AA type programs, thinking there must be an “Adoptees Anonymous” somewhere to join into. There wasn’t, so when I found PARC led by Sarah Armstrong, I went and joined in with one of their adoptee days where you meet face to face and talk. PARC took us through guided sessions. I found it really useful but the biggest thing I noticed was there was nothing discussing looking different to one’s family/community, nothing on searching and returning to an overseas country, and certainly nothing on racism or the issues I lived as a person of colour adopted into a white society. So I spoke to the PARC team afterwards and asked if there was anything available more specific to my experience. I didn’t even know the term “intercountry adoption” then. All I knew was that I enjoyed meeting the adoptees but they were all born in Australia except me. So I still felt different and quite alone. I enquired about whether there were other adoptees like me reaching out to PARC. They told me yes, occasionally. I said, “Well if you ever run something for us, I’d love to know about it and if you have those adoptees wanting to connect to someone like them, pleas share them my name and contacts.”

And so some time later, PARC did followup and contact me. They asked me if I wanted to be involved in their new book project where we as transracial adoptees could share our stories to help people better understand our lived experience. I said of course and I jumped at the opportunity. I remember trying to figure out what I’d write about, but once I started, it all flowed.

It was quite a lengthy process to get our book project published, finished, and launched. I think it was around 3 years from start to end? But during that process I ended up being honoured to meet the fellow adoptees who also shared in our book, The Colour of Difference. Participating in the book changed my life and PARC had been sharing my name/contacts to adoptees just like me, so over time, once the project finished, I made up my mind that I would volunteer and continue on from the connections we had made, to form a network to support each other.