Sneha and her brother were adopted by Spanish couple in 2010 from an orphanage in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, after their biological mother abandoned them.

A Spanish woman is in India in search of her biological mother who had allegedly abandoned her along with her brother 20 year ago. However, the 21-year old woman only has a day left until she returns to Spain for her educational commitments.
Sneha Enrique Vidal, left, a 21-year-old girl from Spain who was adopted as a child from Odisha by a Spanish couple and has now returned to Bhubaneswar to find her biological parents. (PTI)

Sneha and her brother Somu were adopted by Spanish couple Gema Vidal and Juan Josh in 2010 from an orphanage in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, their home state, according to news agency PTI.

The siblings were sheltered at the orphanage after their mother, Banalata Das, abandoned them in 2005.

Adoptees return to Nepal to find a society that no longer recognises them, legally or socially

Between the 1980s and 2000s, over 5,000 Nepali children were adopted abroad, primarily to the United States, France, and Spain. While international adoption was intended to provide vulnerable children with better opportunities, child trafficking and irregular practices prompted Nepal to suspend adoptions in 2007, and overhaul its policies.

By 2010, stricter regulations aligned with the Hague Adoption Convention drastically reduced adoption numbers. Today, many of these children, now adults, are returning to Nepal in search of their roots, only to encounter a society that no longer recognises them, legally or socially.

Behind the statistics lie the deeply personal and emotional journey of adoptees returning to reconnect with their past, seek family, and rediscover a sense of belonging. These stories reflect a broader struggle for identity and the complexities of bridging two worlds.

True to its principles, the Red Cross does not represent any political, religious, or ideological beliefs. Nor does it make recommendations on issues subject to referendums. It primarily shares its expertise with the Red Cross Parliamentary Group through the "Standpunkte" information bulletin.

Fall session 2025

Editorial

The overriding principle of the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) is humanity. Wherever the interests of particularly vulnerable people are at stake, the SRC advocates for their concerns. Against this backdrop, the SRC comments on the following topics and on matters up for discussion during the fall session.

Strengthening Switzerland’s global role as a “humanitarian hub”

Sweden's international
adoption activities
− lessons learned and the way forward

Volume 1

Sweden's international
adoption activities
− lessons learned and the way forward

Volume 2

Switzerland is under scrutiny for fraudulently rehoming thousands of babies. The failures go back further than previously understood

When Paul Harwood, a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency, relocated to Paris from Vietnam, he was keen to expand his family. It was 1961, the Berlin Wall was about to go up and Europe was embroiled in a Cold War crisis, keeping Harwood and his fellow agents on their toes. But besides his undercover work at the U.S. Embassy, Harwood was on a more personal mission: He and his wife, Mary Ellen, were trying to adopt a baby girl. 

They ended up using an agency run by a Swiss welfare worker named Alice Honegger. Harwood welcomed her assistant to his apartment on the top floor of an older house in central Paris. A staircase led up to a room ready for a child, reachable via a gallery and complete with its own bathroom. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Harwood are extremely likable people, kind, very calm, and I don’t see them as typical Americans at all,” reads the report she wrote for Honegger in St. Gallen, a canton in the country’s northeast near the blue-green waters of Lake Constance. “They are both of medium height, with brown eyes and brown hair.” The Harwoods wanted a girl to complement the little boy they had previously adopted in the United States. 

On Aug. 2, 1962, the couple received a letter from Honegger’s agency with the news they had spent years agonizingly waiting for: a “very handsome” little girl of Italian nationality who was a perfect match for them, with the same color of hair and eyes. She added that the child’s expatriation papers were still missing but assured the new parents she would urge the birth mother and the Italian authorities to send what was necessary. 

An 'unusually unpleasant and disgusting view of humanity', assesses expert.

"Nice little girl - not noticeably dark".

"This last one is ok because she is light".

That is the message in letters from the adoption agency AC Børnehjælp in the 1980s about children from Lebanon.

As per reports, resident of Gandhi Nagar area, Rahul’s wife died leaving a four-year-old daughter Riya behind.

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police arrested a couple and rescued an abducted four-year-old girl after tracing their location in Byavara.

The child was abducted by the couple on Thursday and primary questioning from them suggested that they had abducted the child to adopt her, police officials said. As per reports, resident of Gandhi Nagar area, Rahul’s wife died leaving a four-year-old daughter Riya behind.

The child was taken care of by her grandparents who often used to leave her with their neighbours Pawan Verma and his wife Champa who were childless.

On Thursday, the child’s grandparents approached police and claimed that Riya was missing. They raised suspicion on Pawan and his wife for abducting the child as they often used to take her with them. Police called Pawan on his mobile phone but he claimed that he was in Indore with his wife.

About Us

Beginnings

Mrs. Saroj Sood got interested in adoptions after hearing about her own family adoption. This type of family arrangement disturbed her and she thought that why deprive him/her of his/her very own family when there are so many children in the orphanages waiting for a family? Mrs. Sood managed to convince a very close family friend who was the next one who wanted to adopt his brother and sister-in-law’s child who was yet to be born. She counselled them and succeeded in persuading them not to deprive a child of his/her very own family. They adopted a three-year-old girl from one of the ashrams in Lucknow. Another friend’s sister was based in Lucknow and helped them in completing the legal formalities. That was the informal beginning in the year 1963.

Then a friend and her husband wished to adopt an Indian child and in 1966 the wish turned into reality in New Delhi. Thus, this was the first Inter Country adoption. She continued to freelance along with the Missionaries of Charity and worked with helping families adopt children. In 1972, Mrs. Sood met the late Smt. Ashoka Gupta who encouraged to start an organization for this specialized work.

Thus, seven like-minded people registered “The Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption” on the 16th of December 1975. Our Founding members were Mrs. Ashoka Gupta – President, Dr. (Mrs) Chinam Gopinath – Vice President, Mrs. Saroj Sood – Secretary, Mr. Raveen Arora – Treasurer, Mr. Indu Bhushan De – Legal Adviser, Mrs. Dhun D. Adenwalla – Member, Mrs. Perin S. Aibara – Member.

CWC members took custody of the child after an inquiry and handed her to a children’s home.

CHENNAI: Holding that mere submission of an application seeking adoption would not confer rights to take custody of an abandoned baby, a division bench comprising justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman of the Madras High Court recently refused to order handing over custody of a baby who was found on a train and taken in by a couple. The baby is currently at a home for children.

The matter pertains to a habeas corpus petition filed by 47-year-old K Savithiri of Erode seeking custody of the baby girl whom she and her husband Ravi (54), claimed to have recovered from a running train on the way to Erode from Tirunelveli on February 20, 2023.

As the couple was childless, they grabbed the opportunity and had been taking care of the baby until the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) knocked their doors on August 19 for an inquiry following a complaint received by the Chief Minister’s Cell about a child racket.

CWC members took custody of the child after an inquiry and handed her to a children’s home.

Actor, singer and theatre maker Joy Wielkens has a father wound: she grew up without her father and only met him years later. That turned out differently than she had hoped. 

“In 2011 I made a performance about my father:  Papa was a rollin'… nobody. It was my third solo after  Negra in 2009 about the search for my black identity. They were all autobiographical performances, but the last one went a step further. It was about my fatherless youth, but there was also a kind of hope in it: that my father might be in the audience one day and come to me afterwards.”

No regrets

“That never happened, but I did find him and meet him a year later, in 2012. The first time I saw him, under the supervision of a social worker, was a disappointment. I don’t regret meeting my father, but it didn’t go as I had hoped and it certainly wasn’t the perfect picture. I thought he was a horrible man. He only talked about himself and the highlights of his life.”