PLATTSBURGH — Maria D. Holderman received a perfect score shortly after her December birth in 1967 Dragasani, Romania.

This seemingly routine assessment of an infant made all the difference in her life, even in her very living.

In her new Adelaide Books release, “Children of the Decree: A Journalist’s Battle to Save Romanian Orphans and Herself,” the Keeseville resident’s memoir time travels between her selves in her country of origin and the U.S.A. that offered her refuge from dangerous times in Romania.

From 1997 to 2001, Holderman was the “Diane Sawyer of Romania” (pen name Dana Achim.)

Before leaving her native country for the United States on a one-way ticket, she was a bestselling author and an investigative reporter for the National Daily in Bucharest.

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA – A former Derby Line resident, now living in Keeseville, New York, returned to the United States over the weekend after spending two weeks in Romania. Maria D. Holderman traveled there to work in a refugee center to assist Ukraine immigrants who fled from their country as Russian forces continue to attack their homeland.

Holderman is no stranger to that part of the world. She was born in Dragasani, Romania, in December 1967. A week after the war with Ukraine started, Holderman decided to return to Romania. She traveled at her own expense, spending $1,300 because she couldn’t just do nothing after seeing the news. Through the Facebook page, “Romanians for Progressive Values," she connected with other volunteers, most of them Romanians living worldwide.

Waddinxveen - She is 40 years old, writing a book and giving lectures; Mariel Fox. She lives in Gouda, but the first 18 years of her life she lived in Waddinxveen. First with adoptive parents, later in a foster family. She has sometimes asked herself the question: do I want to live or do I choose death? Her conclusion is now: 'Life is worth living, make something of it.' That is her message for Foster Care Week (November 2-9).

She was four months old when she came from India to her adoptive parents in the Netherlands. Vos calls her adoptive parents gifted. “I was beaten, mentally molested and at the age of eight I already knew how much my adoption had cost.”

Were adoptive parents not screened in those days? "Surely. But the rules that apply now are very different. I also know that the church guaranteed my adoptive parents.”

One day, Vos was eight, she was sick and vomited. According to Vos, her adoptive mother was not happy with her and kept repeating that she was not getting value for money and now she also made the sheets dirty. Vos was locked in the barn where she was eventually freed by the police.

She was asked the question: do you want to go to the office or do you want to stay at home? “I chose the latter and promised to always be a sweet child. I did everything to please my adoptive parents.”

In total, 89 complaints have been made to gardaí to date.

The third episode of Redacted Lives, a new podcast series about mother and baby homes, was released by The Journal this week. The six-part documentary series explores the experiences of people who passed through the system.

Children born into these institutions were usually adopted or sent to industrial schools – often without their mother’s consent.

Many women have tried to find their children over the years, but to no avail. Adopted people have also struggled to find their parents, or information about their early life.

Redacted Lives gives these people the chance to tell the real story of mother and baby homes, and explores how the State continues to deny survivors access to information, proper redress and ownership of their true identities.

An estimated 29.6 million stranded, orphaned and abandoned children live in India, out of which just up to 4,000 get adopted annually.

While thousands of prospective parents are waiting to adopt in India, there is still a stigma associated with adoption that deters many from that route.

A social movement needs to develop to get adoption considered ahead of other alternatives, such as surrogacy or IVF.

There are many life stages that change the direction of our lives. Becoming a parent is one such turning point. Parenthood changes the way we live and the way we think. When our daughter came into our lives, via adoption at four months old, it changed all of our lives for the better.

When we decided to adopt, we registered with the Central Adoption Resource Authority-Nodal Agency for Adoption in India (CARA), which is a legal requirement. After two and a half years of waiting, we were matched with a baby girl and after completing the legal paperwork we welcomed her into our family.

Only recently, a proposal for paid paternity leave was approved in the referendum of 27 September 2020 and the resulting law came into force on 1 January 2021. Since then, fathers can take two weeks of paid paternity leave within six months of the birth of their child.

The growing need for care and nursing, the new types of family structures as well as the steadily increasing employment rate among women have also led to a reform in the area of balancing gainful employment and child or family care. Since 1 January 2021 and 1 July 2021, the law has provided an entitlement to paid care leave of up to three days for the necessary care of relatives and up to 14 weeks for the care of children with serious health problems.

The extension of leave for mothers and fathers and the resulting improvement in the compatibility of family and gainful employment have so far not extended to the area of adoption. Although the issue of an adoption allowance had already been the subject of several parliamentary debates, parents who adopted a child had until now had no legal entitlement to leave when the child joined the family.

This will change from 1 January 2023 as both adoptive mothers and fathers will have a statutory right to two weeks’ paid adoption leave.

Gainfully employed persons who adopt a child less than four years old are entitled to the adoption allowance. Adoption leave is a necessary supplement to adoption allowance. In other words, only those who meet the requirements for an adoption allowance are also entitled to adoption leave.

A combined reading of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2015 as amended by the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 (JJ Act), Juvenile Justice Model Rules 2016 as amended by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Amendment Rules 2022 (JJ Model Rules) and Adoption Regulations 2022 (AR 2022) reveals critical lacunae making the relevant provisions hard to understand and difficult to implement.

Adoptable children hereby refer to orphan, abandoned and surrendered children who have been declared legally free for adoption (LFA) by the Child Welfare Committee as per section 38 of the JJ Act. Orphan, abandoned and surrendered (OAS) children are defined in Sections 2(42), 2(1) and 2(60) of the JJ Act, respectively.

It has been sufficiently established and well recognized in the law that adoption should be the priority for rehabilitation of adoptable children, especially those below 6 years of age. The relevant provisions under Section 44(9) of the JJ Act, Rule 23(3) and Rule 44(1)(i) of the JJ Model Rules, make it clear that placing a child in adoption is the preferred recourse for OAS children, and if that is not possible, foster care is the next suitable alternative for them.

This article highlights inconsistencies and gaps in the foster care related provisions from the perspective of adoptable children, with regards to the following:

A) Absence of a provision for foster care for adoptable children with special needs who do not get a family through adoption

It might seem lucky that Cristian Johnston met his wife while on a trip to Peru, although that’s not quite the beginning or the end of the story.

This fairytale of sorts begins with Cristian growing up in an orphanage in Peru and then being adopted by Kathy Houlihan and her husband, Daniel Johnston, a couple from Corfu. It was when Cristian, 26, went back to visit that same orphanage that he first reconnected with the house mother who cared for him as a baby.

And then he met her daughter, Rosita. They fell in love and got married, and now have a son, Iker. The story unfolds into a full circle, as Cristian decided to give back to his roots by helping out financially and through hands-on labor.

Consider it luck or fate or happenstance, he has immense gratitude for what he’s been given by his adopted parents and his life ever since.

“It’s a night and day difference. It’s quite a privilege to see my life — I had two very different possibilities,” Cristian said during an interview with The Batavian. “It’s very eye-opening from where I stand.”

HYDERABAD: For Oruganti Hari Prasad and Vempati Baswanti, a childless couple from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh who are into their 50s, the wait was worth as they had to go through a lengthy process to legally adopt a child.After staying here for over a week, during which they interacted with the girl who they wanted to adopt through a Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) and had a meeting with a medical officer, regional joint director, Shishu Vihar in-charge officer and others officials, they went home with 17-year-old Ruchika in October, 2021.

Like Hari Prasad and Vempati Baswanti, many childless couples were able to legally adopt children thanks to the efforts of Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) department, which is currently celebrating November, the International Adoption Awareness Month by organising programmes and interactive sessions to promote legal adoption process.

As per the data provided by WDCW department, a total of 1,430 kids were adopted since June 2014. Between April and October this year, a total of 127 children were adopted from Telangana, out of which 111 were in-country adoptions and 16 inter-country adoptions.

On Friday, the WDCW Department conducted a programme -- dance-drama to promote legal adoption as well as an interactive session with aspiring parents and the children. According to experts, a medically fit couple or individual below the age of 55 years who are financially stable and have no criminal records can adopt a child legally through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a statutory body of the central ministry of WDCW. Even though the process is little lengthy and requires the parents to wait

for a period of three to four years, it is important to adopt the children the right way, they said.

Mysuru: In a fresh development Mysuru-based NGO Odanadi has alleged that the Sri Jagadguru Murugharajendra (SJM) Mutt authorities offered Rs 3 crore to it to hush up the two POCSO cases filed against erstwhile pontiff Shivamurthy Sharana.

The allegation gained significance as the four minor victims who filed POCSO case against seer in Mysuru after authorities and police in Chitradurga refused to book case against seer. The Odanadi gave shelter to victims and assisted to file first FIR against seer under POCSO in Nazarbad police station on August 27 .

The Odanadi also provided assistance to file second FIR against Shivamurthy Sharana on October 13 at Nazarbad police. Later both cases were transferred to Chitradurga rural police station. The police submitted 694-page chargesheet against the prime accused Shivamurthy Sharana , hostel warden Rashmi and mutt manager Paramashivaiah in first FIR .The investigation in to second POCSO case is underway. The NGO Odanadi which has been striving for welfare of victims and child trafficking was also booked by Chitradurga police 15 days back for hatching conspiracy against SJM mutt which was refuted by Odanadi directors. The Odanadi director K V Stanley told this reporter that it is nothing but a desperate effort by mutt to hush up the case. He said the mutt authorities first attempted to hush up cases by luring victims family members.

The role of CWC and District child protection unit (DCPU) is also suspicious as both did not unearth illegal adoption centre run by mutt since decades. He said the State Child Rights Commission ordered for an enquiry against DCPU and CWC for trying to shield mutt.

In a fresh development the mutt through a politician offered Rs 3 crore to Odanadi to give up the cases. He said Odanadi supported thousands of victims since four decades and would never give up the agitation against offenders.