Romania has agreed to extend the ban on international adoptions until 15 November following criticism from the EU that the system is still tainted by corruption. Romania has been told that it should reform its child welfare system before it can join the EU.

The Romanian government also came under pressure from the United States where thousands of families are waiting to adopt Romanian children. The US want Romania to liberalise international child adoptions. According to the French daily Le Monde, an internal memorandum written by the US Mission to the EU in Brussels directly connects the issue of child adoptions to Romania’s integration into NATO.

According to Le Monde, the Commission’s Directorate General for Enlargement responds to the US non-paper stating that “American experts are not well suited to Romania’s needs in this area”. “The United States are the only country in the world, apart from Somalia, which has not signed the UN Convention on Children’s Rights and the Hague Convention. The US has not developed the administrative capacity to apply this convention,” according to the Commission’s response.

The Romanian government is now preparing a reform of laws that will encourage domestic adoptions and place children in foster families or private child-care centres. Four draft laws, creating a new legal environment for child protection, are to be adopted.

POSITIONS

Editorial Reviews

Review

An intelligent and insightful book that examines the special problems of the post-institutionalized child. Dr. Federici's personal and professional experience with this population adds a dynamic dimension to this work which reaches well beyond a dry medical text. -- Lois Hannon and Thais Tepper, Co-Directors, Parent Network for Post-Institutionalized Child

For most adoptive parents, the addition of a new child to the family is one of life's high points. Sadly, this joy is not a universal experience. Children who have suffered extreme deprivation and/or abuse within institutional care settings often arrive with a spectrum of problems that overwhelms most parents. As a drowning person reaches for a lifeline, parents of severely disturbed post-institutionalized children should reach for this book. Guided by his extensive professional and personal experience with these "hopeless" children, Dr. Federici helps parents navigate through the complexities of medical and behavioral services for children with complex problems to help their child reach his or her full potential. -- Dana E. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Division of Neonatology, Co-Director, International Adoption Clinic, The University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic

I feel privileged to call Dr. Ronald Federici my friend. I have traveled with Ron to Romanian orphanages on two occasions this past year and his work is remarkable. His drive to save the lives of the "the forgotten" is inspirational. After reading his book I am convinced that families and adoption professionals all over the country will get the passion that flies off of every page. Ron's efforts to save children who ordinarily would have been abandoned is truly unique. His depth and breadth of experience with older adopted institutionalized children has served to help thousands of families over the last 10 years. No one knows the effects of institutionalization on the neuropsychological development of children like Dr. Federici. His guidelines for evaluating and managing newly adopted institutionalized children are invaluable to adoptive parents and adoption professionals. We thank you Ron! -- Dr. Jane Ellen Aronson, Director, International Adoption Medical Consultation Services, Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Health Sciences Center-Stony Brook, Winthrop-University Hospital

The pontoon does not often go to the water

PATRICK ANDRÉ DE HILLERIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021, 1:02 AM

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The pontoon does not often go to the water

Raluca Turcan found time, in her busy schedule, to participate on September 22, 2021 in the fast cutting of the inaugural ribbon of a pontoon / itinerant center for treating children with disabilities in the Danube Delta. The pontoon in question was arranged by the SERA Foundation, with money from the sponsor Penny (Rewe Group), about 120,000 euros, and from European funds. The pontoon was also included in the documents of the European-funded project "Always in the family - a project to reduce institutionalization, the risk of separation and to ensure local recovery services for children in Tulcea County", a project with a total value of 5,954,979.39 lei.

The timeline of the case that took 28 years to bring justice to the victim was recently shared by Uttar Pradesh police.

Gang-raped at the age of 12, a woman’s remarkable journey to justice come to fruition recently. The timeline of the case that took 28 years to bring justice for the victim was recently shared by Uttar Pradesh police.

The young girl was raped by two individuals in 1994 at the age of 12. She had been living with her sister and brother-in-law in Shajahanpur when the accused barged into her home and gang-raped her.

The rape led to her becoming pregnant and she gave birth to a child at the age of 13. She was forced to part ways with her child in 1996 who was taken in by a couple in another district. The family migrated to Rampur.

The victim tried to restart her life and married another man. However, he divorced her after 10 years when he became aware of the gang-rape that she had been subjected to.

In Denmark, the state is taking more and more strict action in what it sees as the interests of the child. Those who are not deemed fit to be parents are even told during pregnancy that their children will be forcibly adopted.

To avoid losing their children, many Danish parents are fleeing to nearby countries, especially to the German border city of Flensburg. There, we meet Hanne - a mother of four children, three of whom have already been taken into care by Danish authorities - and Kenneth, who is trying to make a new life in Flensburg with his eight-year-old son. A report by Gunnar Köhne.

RIBBON -The fifteenth edition of the Antwerp Pride will start on Wednesday. For Lintenaar Tim Küsters, who played in the final of Mr. Gay Belgium stands, promises to be busy days and is especially committed to the people from its community who want to have children.

“Wednesday I will be present at the opening party and during the Antwerp Pride parade on Saturday we will be on one of the cars with all the finalists to drive through the city. Finally, I'm going to the Pride Village on Sunday," says Tim.

With the different presences, Tim naturally wants to put his final place in the spotlight, but he wants to bring even more attention. “During Mr. Gay Belgium we can commit ourselves around a theme of our own choice. I do this for the LGBTQIA+ community with a desire to have children. My partner Tim has two children from a previous relationship. So basically my wish to have children has been fulfilled. I am lucky that Nick and Lissa accepted me very quickly. Despite me coming into their lives early in their teens, they handled this pretty well. Their father was before me with a woman.”

But Tim wants every same-sex couple to enjoy this childhood bliss. “In May 2006, the legislation on adoption for same-sex couples was approved in Belgium. We are 2022 and things are not going smoothly at all. For example, there are only nineteen countries where adoption is possible for these couples. There is no law at all about surrogacy. I hope to draw more attention to this theme so that it is discussed in the media and even in education, for example. It should be easier for future generations in our community to realize their wish to have children. Now it is a difficult search for the possibilities.”

”

A man is about to leave for China for the first time . In the hall of Zaventem airport he meets the eight other Belgians with whom he will spend the next two weeks. In total six families flew to Beijing at the end of July 1994.

After a day's layover, they leave again, this time to Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in the south of the country. From Changsha, the group traveled by bus to the countryside. Since his departure from Brussels, the man has filmed everything, including the endless fields and the kilometers of journeys through desolate landscapes.

After dropping off their belongings at the hotel and completing some administrative formalities at the notary, the families finally arrive at the Yueyang orphanage. The place has faded, the paint is peeling off the walls. From the bus, the man films the arrival in the courtyard of the building, as well as the waiting that follows. Youqine, then eight months old, is finally introduced to him and she crawls into his arms for the first time. The nannies from the orphanage then bring the other children. Six girls were adopted that day. Youqine's father was one of the first Belgians to adopt a child from China.

In 2017, nearly a quarter of a century later, time and memory erased many things, but the records of these adoptive families have remained completely intact. For Youqine, the period of rejection towards her country of origin has come to an end, and a time of questions seems to have come: "For years I had a conflicted relationship with China, I did not want to return at all. I was terrified of it, but when I 23, I instinctively felt I was ready, I think it's something mature, wanting to know where you are in your life."

Youqine Lefèvre had just graduated from the École Supérieure d'Arts Appliqués in Vevey, Switzerland. She studied photography there - after obtaining a bachelor's degree at the École de Recherche Graphique (ERG) in Brussels. It has also been a while since she " Far from home", a series about children placed in a home in the Swiss mountains and separated from their parents for various reasons. After her first major project, Youqine feels ready to embark on a new, more personal project. The images that her father made the basis of this project in 1994. It is the end of October 2017, and now it is her turn to leave for China for the first time.As she gets on the plane, Youqine realizes that with this future photo project she mainly looking for meaning.

G-Drive RP

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jrjMBE13ayQEtZuk_z74MJyLaWtntMlL/view?usp=sharing

A Georgia couple has been charged with using their two adopted children to record child pornography, police said.

Walton County Sheriff’s Office raided a home in Loganville July 27 on reports that a man there was downloading child porn.

After interviewing the suspect, who was not identified, police said they learned there was another suspect in the county who was “producing homemade child sexual abuse material with at least one child who lived in the home,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday.

Around 11:30 p.m. that same night, executed a search warrant in Oxford at the home of William Dale Zulock, 32, and Zachary Jacoby Zulock, 35.

Walton County’s Division of Family and Child Services joined deputies in responding to the home to help protect the two brothers who lived there.

The Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC) of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday enquired about the alleged child trafficking and surrogacy racket in Eluru district.

The JJC, which took suo moto notice of the alleged sale of an infant in Pedavegi mandal in Eluru district, asked officials about the details of the case.

Principal Secretaries of the concerned departments, Eluru Deputy Superintendent of Police G.V.V.S. Pydeswara Rao and Two Town CI D.V. Ramana appeared before the JJC.

The JJC, while expressing concern over the alleged sale of babies, directed the officers to take steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents.