In Hawaii, like much of the world during the COVID-19 Pandemic, people hoping to grow or start a family are finding themselves stunted.

For the longest time, solutions were found overseas, but people wanting to adopt are now waiting longer and looking locally for answers.

Each year, CEO Kristine Altwies says her adoption agency Hawaii International Child (now called A Family Tree) finds homes for about 75 children from countries like China, the Philippines and Japan. But during the pandemic, that number has fallen to 20.

"There's the issue of the orphans not being able to leave the orphanage to come home. There's the issue of American citizens not being able to travel abroad to pick up the children. And then there's the issue of the US immigration authority not issuing the travel visas for the orphans to come here to their families," Altwies said.

Some of the big challenges says Altwies are clients having to wait at least another year to be together, if not longer.

My dear Family in India and America--I was thinking of my favorite Prakash Chitha (Uncle) on his Memorial Day—

I always loved his visits to my home as a little girl. Our house would suddenly become loud and jovial with his presence. He never came empty-handed—Always some type of gift for all the kids in the house. May have been as simple as a small 1-rupee treat.

He was an ambitious entrepreneur, a kind soul with a great sense of humor. I hope he looks down on us from heaven and remembers the wonderful memories he has created in each of us---I miss him very much!

On the eleventh anniversary of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, another disaster looms. But this one is preventable

Georgette Mulheir is a global expert in children’s rights and was the chief executive of Lumos. She coordinates the Defend Haiti’s Democracy coalition of international human rights defenders

Democracy is precious, but fragile.

Last Wednesday, at the same time the United Nations Security Council met to discuss peace and security in fragile contexts, protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. A stark reminder that even the most established of democracies can be threatened by the erosion of checks and balances.

On the eleventh anniversary of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed 200,000 people in Haiti, there is little global awareness that the country is facing a deep political crisis with profound implications for human rights.

All people who have reported to the Application Point for Domestic Distance and Adoption in the period between September 2019 and 31 July 2020 will receive a message from Fiom or the Verwey-Jonker Institute this week. In it, the Ministry of Justice and Security informs them about the state of affairs with regard to the Verwey-Jonker Institute's research into domestic distance and adoption between 1956 and 1984. Unfortunately, this research is delayed because errors were made in the design of the Application Point.

Errors at the reporting point

A report was made of every call that was received at the Application Point. Not all requirements of the privacy legislation have been met during the processing and storage of the reports. The people who told their story should have been asked for written permission to use and keep the interview record. Also, all applicants should have been given the opportunity to check and correct their report. At the time, this only happened if the applicant asked for it during or after the interview. As far as is currently known, mistakes have been made in a number of interview reports. Due to all the shortcomings, the responsible ministry has reported a data breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

Excuses

All the people who have shared their story have taken a bold and difficult step that deserves a lot of appreciation. Thanks to the decision of all those referrers to share their story, we know what happened in the past and we can learn lessons from it. Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker said publicly in the Lower House that the errors should not have happened at the Application Point. He has expressed regret to all who registered at the reporting point.

On Monday, the Czech Constitutional Court ruled that denial of parental rights in the case of cross-border adoption is not against the constitution. As a result, the judges of rainbow families effectively deny the parents' rights and violate EU law and the policies of the European Commission.

The regional court in Prague petitioned for the repeal of a provision denying parents' right to cross-border rainbow families in connection with a pending appeal against the judgment of the district court in Nymburk, 40 km northeast of Prague The Petition of the Gay The couple had been rejected, a citizen of the Czech Republic and his partner from Trinidad and Tobago. Their two American citizenship children were adopted by a court decision in New Jersey.

According to the Czech District Court, a requirement for recognition according to Section 63 (1) of the Act on Private International Law was not met at all, as adoption would not be permitted under the substantive provisions of Czech law: the Czech legal system allows the joint adoption of a child but not through “only” partnered partners. Same-sex couples in the Czech Republic have been able to enter into a registered partnership since mid-2006; they cannot marry with equal rights.

The petitioner agreed with this conclusion, but considered the condition in question to be unconstitutional as the court did not recognize the "factual and legal reality", did not protect family life within the meaning of Article 10 (2) of the Basic Charter and did not act in the best interests of the child.

??????????????????If you are a parent in one member state of the EU, you should be a parent in all member states of the EU.

Miss Belgium finalist Kedist Deltour traded misery in Ethiopia for life full of opportunities: “I have achieved everything in this country. Now I want to represent it ”

“I have a new life”, her father said when he dropped Kedist Deltour in an Ethiopian orphanage. Right after her mother died of cancer. She was barely nine, and lost. Today, the gorgeous East Flemish woman is 23, has a permanent job as a hairdresser and has a chance to win the Miss Belgium 2021 crown. “All because a warm Belgian family wanted to adopt me. I have achieved everything in this country, now I want to represent it. ”

They were kidnapped, tortured and illegally adopted: During the dictatorship, the Argentine military committed crimes against hundreds of children and babies of critics of the regime. Many grandmothers are still looking for their grandchildren - with success.

Javier Matías Darroux Mijalchuk was long suspected of being the child of those who had disappeared - on his adoption papers it was noted that he was found as a baby in 1977 near the ESMA naval school in Buenos Aires , the largest torture center of the Argentine military dictatorship.

DISPLAY

When he turned to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo organization, a DNA test in 2019 confirmed his true origin: at the age of 40, he met his relatives for the first time, who had reported the child as missing and had provided genetic samples themselves. Darroux Mijalchuk's biological parents were kidnapped by the military and probably murdered.

Around 30,000 students, activists and other regime critics were kidnapped and murdered during the military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983. They were tortured, then partly drugged and handcuffed, thrown from airplanes into the Río de la Plata or into the sea, others shot and buried in mass graves. The military also abducted children and raised babies born in torture centers or given them to families loyal to the regime.

Christine Ockrent marâtre, Bernard Kouchner distant : Camille Kouchner acide

ILS N'ONT PAS ÉTÉ PRÉSENTS

Solène Gressier | mardi 5 janvier 2021 à 22h58 - Mis à jour le mardi 5 janvier 2021 à 23h43

Christine Ockrent marâtre, Bernard Kouchner distant : Camille Kouchner acide

Camille Kouchner a accusé le politologue Olivier Duhamel, son beau-père, d’inceste sur son frère jumeau dans son ouvrage La Familia Grande, qui paraîtra ce jeudi 7 janvier. La juriste aurait également brossé le portrait peu flatteur de son père et de sa belle-mère, Bernard Kouchner et Christine Ockrent.

“Do I belong here in the Netherlands? And what would it have been like if I had stayed in South Korea? ” Soorien Zeldenrust from Zwolle has these questions in her stomach. When she was three months old, she was adopted from the Asian country. “A lot of people around me said, 'You should be grateful, you are kind of saved.' Many people see adoption as a kind of fairytale, but I just didn't have that. ” Now, as an adoption coach, Soorien helps people with the same experience as her.

She has no memories of South Korea when she came to the Netherlands. Logical, because Soorien was only three months old when she arrived at Schiphol. Her adoptive parents picked her up. “The only thing that knows is that my body does have memories. I don't have an image, but I do have a feeling ”, she says.

Love sickness

Soorien, now 34 years old, does not feel completely understood. Despite having a good time with her adoptive parents, she feels pain and sadness. “I sometimes compare it to a serious heartbreak or when you lose someone. The advantage of that is that you know the one, but I don't know the one I lost. It hurts me a lot. You experience that pain in your body. I cannot trace who I miss or where exactly the feeling comes from. ”

Soorien thinks the feeling is mainly caused by her adoption at a young age. “It has also been proven that children have a great need for safety from their parents, especially during the first few months and years. I never had that safety at a young age. I was taken away from my mother after about ten days. As a result, my body went into a certain survival mode, ”she says. When she was three months old, she arrived in the Netherlands.

KOCHI: In addition to the challenges posed by the pandemic, the state is struggling to alleviate the concerns of the prospective parents in the backdrop of rigid rules set by the Centre. Biju Prabhakar, chairman of the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA), told TNIE that the pan-India platform for adoption — CARINGS (Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System), introduced by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) — doesn’t give much choice to parents to adopt kids from the same state.

“We wrote to the ministry multiple times about this. A Keralite cannot adopt a child belonging to Manipur because of the physical difference. Likewise, a North Indian may not prefer to adopt a child from South India. Hence, they should give the applicants first preference to adopt a child belonging to their respective states,” said Biju.

He added that rigid rules would make people want to bypass the procedure, increasing malpractices. “For a child, every day is valuable. There are several cases when the parents are no more and the surviving parent is not interested in keeping the child. Such children are not treated legally free for adoption. The result being that the child is denied care and shelter,” said Biju.He added that the stigma surrounding adoption is yet another issue. “In other countries, people feel proud about adopting children and the society appreciates them. But here, prospective parents are usually not very comfortable.”

The Centre had also made a move to enable district collectors, instead of family courts, to take the call on children. “Institutional care is the last resort. In Kerala, some institutions do it for commercial gain. We had shut down multiple institutions because of such malpractices. They are raising funds from other countries, which is unethical. This is why deinstitutionalisation is being pushed. We are exploring foster care and adoption and trying to keep the children at their own homes by giving necessary funding to custodians,” he added.

in a nutshell