International adoption. Eight couples sought to reopen adoptions with Cambodia

A pilot phase with Ai.Bi. - Amici dei Bambini and seven other Italian institutions authorized to operate in the Asian country

After the announcements, this time it really starts again! The Kingdom of Cambodia reopens to international adoptions with Italy. Following the recent visit of the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the CAI - International Adoption Commission, Dr. Gianni Bardini and a previous mission that saw the participation of Vice-President Laura Laera, are in fact taking up, with a pilot phase, the activity with the central Cambodian authority.

The news was given by CAI itself. "The particularities of the new procedure - explains the CAI with a note - are defined in Resolution 64/2019 / SG of May 29, 2019, with which the CAI acknowledging the findings of the meetings with the Cambodian counterpart authorities, established that, in this first phase, the eight authorized bodies that have received the crediting from the Cambodian Authority will be allowed to initially route only one couple at a time. The procedure will be carefully monitored and based on the results achieved, the Commission will be able to positively assess the request by the entity for authorization to further routes ”.

"Finally - the CAI has always specified - in spite of the impossibility of defining waiting times and outcome of the procedure, the Commission has asked the institutions to adequately inform adoptive couples, placing the obligation to have the spouses sign an explicit declaration in which they are accepted the terms and uncertainties of the pilot phase ".

It is a story about international adoptions, which in the 90s were made in impressive numbers and which also left their mark on Romania's image. At the time of the accession negotiations, from the beginning of the 2000s, Romania had to amend its legislation and close the endless series of sending orphaned children or children without opportunities across the borders. One of the most difficult conditions to fulfill was the stopping of international adoptions, and the rapporteur for Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson, then invoked the "rule of law" that must be respected also regarding adoptions. Romania changed its vision, but the era of the 90s also left 404 international adoption files in the dark, which disappeared. Entirely.

On February 20, 1997, the leadership of the Bucharest Court, led by Judge Viorel Roș, notified the Police about the disappearance from the court archive of 248 civil files concerning international adoptions.

The then Minister of Justice ordered an extensive check at the Bucharest Court and the judicial inspectors of the higher court, the Bucharest Court of Appeal, found that 404 civil adoption files had disappeared: 173 from the period 1990-1993 and 231 files from the period 1994-1995 . Along with the files, several minutes of meetings from 1994-1995, meeting folders and record books disappeared.

"I asked for a check to be made and a report on the situation created. The report was made and after that I think a criminal complaint was also made. Unfortunately, as far as I can remember, the criminal investigation did not lead to any results, that is, it did not discover the perpetrators", Valeriu Stoica, former Minister of Justice, told us.

Holt International Children's Services Invites Qualified Candidates to Apply for the Newly Appointed Role to Lead, Launch and Grow Its Adult Adoptee Community and Supporting Initiatives

Eugene, Oregon, July 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holt International Children's Services, the nation's leading international adoption placement agency and not-for-profit child welfare organization, announced its intention to hire its first director of adult adoptee community outreach, beginning with a nationwide search starting today. Holt International first pioneered international adoption in 1956 and today remains the global leader with a long-standing commitment to holistically support adoptees for life – because adoption is a lifelong journey.

The director of adult adoptee community outreach will oversee the planning and implementation of outreach strategies to better understand and support the diversity and voices of within the adult adoptee community. This person will launch, grow and manage a thriving and interconnected community of adult adoptees spanning multiple locations, different lived experiences and many generations. The director will be responsible for building trusted networks and relationships, and informing how Holt can best support, magnify and celebrate a healthy and diverse adult adoptee community.

“The needs of adoptees evolve as they grow older and mature. We have a responsibility to understand this evolution in order to take appropriate action to serve and support them,” said Steve Kalb, LMSW, Holt International’s director of post-adoption services, and a Korean adoptee. “This new hire will allow us opportunities to connect with and support adult adoptees across the country. By engaging with established communities and elevating the voices of those who feel isolated, we can walk beside adoptees as they teach us the best ways to address their changing needs.”

Studies suggest that adoptees benefit from support services into adulthood. The director of adult adoptee community outreach will provide support and opportunities for adult adoptees by directing and managing heritage tours and regional activities and events, offering additional resources for mental and physical well-being support, and giving adult adoptees the opportunity to share their own experiences with younger adoptees. This person will also facilitate the organization’s adult adoptee advisory board, which will provide insight, feedback and recommendations from adult adoptees on how the organization can elevate its adoption services for children and their families.

Head of JK Rowling's children's charity steps down amid allegations of 'bullying and intimidation' by ex-employees

Georgette Mulheir has now left her role as Lumos's £160,000-a-year CEO

She was described as 'a bully' and part of 'egomaniacal senior management'

Rowling set up the charity after she read a newspaper article about children in orphanages in the Czech Republic being put in caged beds

By ALEX WARD FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Just 40 special needs children across the country were adopted from April 2018 to March 2019,

reveal government figures, highlighting societal bias and the reluctance of adoptive parents to take

on the responsibility of dealing with the challenges of disabilities minor and severe.

The 40 children accounted for 1.12 per cent of the 3,374 children adopted in 2018-19, according to

an RTI reply by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of the Women and Child

Borny gaat op zoek naar zijn Roemeense familie | Spoorloos16 Jul 2019

Yanien was abducted as a child and adopted: "I am signed for life"

Yanien (49), mother of three daughters and married to Johan (49) was abducted from her native Indonesia as a 9-year-old girl and sold for adoption to a Dutch family. "I will never be able to accept what has been done to me."

Yanien: “My first memories are from when I was six or seven years old. I lived with my four brothers and our parents in a small, elongated house in a neighborhood where poor and rich lived together. My father was a civil servant. We didn't have a lot of money, but we got along well. We didn't know any better. But then my father died in a motorcycle accident. I can still see his body lying under a white sheet on the floor of our house. We were not allowed to cry from our faith, so that his spirit can find its way to heaven. My mother held me, I didn't understand. "

Crisis time

“A crisis time arrived. My mother had a hard time losing my father. She couldn't possibly take care of five children and work at the same time, so that's why I was taken to my grandparents with one brother. My oldest brother was with my aunt and the second oldest brother stayed with my mother with my younger brother. I had lost my safe haven. Later I lived with my uncle and aunt for a while and I went to school there. I missed my mother and brothers terribly. When I was about nine years old, I came home to look after my two younger brothers while my mother was working. I didn't go to school anymore because there was no more money, but I was already happy that we were together again. ”

Abandoned children from Romania

With the fall of the communist regime in the 1990s, Romania opened up to international adoptions in a chaotic, unchecked context. Then, in the 2000s, to be able to join the European Union, the country introduced new, far more restrictive rules to stop abuses. As a result, thousands of children are still abandoned, but can no longer be adopted.

Reporter:

Fanny Lépine

Country:

As the European Union has expanded eastward, hundreds of thousands of children have been turned into orphans in all but name. They grow up without their parents, who have no choice but to work in rich, Western European countries for a lack of job options back home.

Nicoleta's mother is happy to see her daughter. "How did math go?" she asks. "Good," her daughter responds. "I'm going to tutoring again later. The teacher said he'll pick me up. Have you cooked anything?" "No, but I'm about to make something to eat," the mother says.

Nicoleta stares at the screen of her smartphone. The two of them are separated by 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles). They're talking over WhatsApp. Ileana Tanase, 37, is calling from London. The 14-year-old Nicoleta is sitting on her bed in her room in Scarisoara, a small town in the county of Bacau in eastern Romania.

They talk for a few minutes about school, food, work and the weather. In the next room, Nicoleta's younger brother Andrei is playing a game on his phone. The 11-year-old doesn't like to talk on the phone; he's a bit introverted. "Kisses," Nicoleta's mother says. "Give Andrei and grandma and grandpa a kiss for me." "I will. Bye, mommy;" the daughter days. Then they both hang up.

Daily conversations over WhatsApp, rarely longer than a few minutes. That's been Ileana Tanase's relationship with both of her children for the past three years. A relationship held together by shaky videos and hastily typed messages punctuated with emojis. It's the digital simulation of a normal life.