On Wednesday 18 June, Minister Norma Foley officially launched a project to develop a best-practice framework and a roadmap for the reform of domestic adoption in Ireland. The project is being led by the Adoption Policy Unit of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality in partnership with the Child Protection Section of UNICEF Europe & Central Asia and the European Commission Reform and Investment Task Force and is funded by the European Union through the Technical Support Instrument (TSI).

This project will develop an evidence-based, best practice framework and roadmap to make sure that the child’s best interests are the paramount consideration at all stages of the adoption process. Learnings from other European Union and non-EU countries and engagement with stakeholders locally will help inform the project and provide a chance to reflect on how the lessons learned can best be applied in Ireland. The ultimate goal is to achieve better outcomes for everyone involved, most importantly, the child.

The TSI project is one part of a wider European initiative in which Ireland is joining with Croatia, the Czech Republic and Portugal to strengthen child protection systems and uphold children’s rights across the region.

The launch event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including professionals in child protection and adoption services, academics and people with lived experience, ensuring that a wide range of voices will help shape this work. Representatives from the other countries who are part of this initiative, and staff at the EU Commission, also attended the event online. In addition to the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley, the meeting was addressed by UNICEF’s Senior Child Protection Regional Advisor for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO), Aaron Greenberg UNICEF ECARO’s Ina Verzivolli and Martin Punaks Head of Sector (Labour market, social services and inclusion) with the European Commission’s Reform and Investment Task Force, Florin Popa and Principal Officer Seosamh Mac Carthaigh of the Department’s Adoption Policy Unit. The keynote address, “Domestic adoption and international human rights standards and principles”, was given by the Lead Consultant on the project, Mia Dambach. Judit Rozsa, Director of the Commission’s Reform and Investment Task Force provided a pre-recorded message.

Launching the project, Minister Foley said:

To say that Pauline was surprised is an understatement, rather stunned when she heard Mayor Stemerdink say her name. The Voorschoten native is the initiator and co-founder of Villa Voorschot, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on Saturday afternoon. A great opportunity for a medal and Pauline was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.

“But I didn’t do it alone,” Pauline quickly exclaimed. “My husband Marcus, family, friends, they all helped.” That was true, but Pauline got things rolling. The supporters of the application for a medal called her ‘tireless, involved and dedicated’.

The adventure started 15 years ago. Pauline was looking for a place for her multiply handicapped son with autism. “He was a young adult and wanted to leave home just like everyone else, but living alone was of course not an option.” So Pauline thought she would build it herself. She got to work with a large group of parents. She negotiated with the municipality, found a housing corporation that could take over the land from the municipality, brought in ASVZ to supervise the residents, looked for and found sponsors and on 20 June 2015 Villa Voorschot opened its doors, a small-scale residential and work location for 16 young adults where living, working, supervision, care and social entrepreneurship came together.

Pauline was chair of the board from the start, after seven years she became an advisor. Since July 2022, Pauline has been chair of the Care Committee at Stichting Voorschot. She was involved in setting up the committee and introduced the committee to healthcare institution ASVZ, the supervisors and parents of the residents and those involved outside the foundation. Last year, the board was commissioned to put together a project group 'Complete Package Home'.

In this setup, living and working, Villa Voorschoten was quite unique in the Netherlands. Even then Prime Minister Mark Rutte came by to hear more about the project. Pauline also used her knowledge and experience in the board of Stichting Hethuis in Leidschendam. A living and working place for 18 young adults with multiple disabilities was opened there in 2021. Pauline also founded Stichting Dienstverlening Ouderinitiatieven (SDOI). Parental initiatives are small-scale residential facilities (such as Villa Voorschot and Hethuis), set up by parents for their disabled children. She was and is also active as a mediator in conflicts within parental initiatives, and she is a member of the complaints committee of the SDOI.

The Better Care Network (BCN) is an interagency initiative that facilitates global information exchange and collaboration among the growing number of organizations, governments, community groups, and individuals working to strengthen children’s care. BCN’s core purpose is to inform and influence global action for children without adequate family care and, as a dynamic interdisciplinary global network of organizations and individuals, share learning from the global to the local level to generate momentum and drive systemic change.

Today BCN is recognized as the preeminent global information hub and convener to influence action for children without adequate family care. The BCN website (bettercarenetwork.org) is the largest global collection of key research, tools, events and other documentation on issues related to strengthening family care and alternative care, designed to support academics, policymakers and practitioners alike. BCN convenes the Transforming Children’s Care collaborative (TCC), established as the primary convening mechanism to facilitate sector wide and cross sectoral collaboration to advance children’s care. 

Role purpose:

The BCN Senior Advisor, Evidence and Learning, plays a lead role in supporting BCN’s work to identify, capture, and share learning and evidence on children’s care and care reform globally. The Senior Advisor works with members of the network and the Transform Children’s Care collaborative (TCC) to support data collection, learning, and collaboration on system level change, to facilitate shared learning through BCN’s knowledge platforms, and to ensure that BCN’s work is supported by a strong organizational learning strategy and monitoring framework that underpin its approaches and impact.

This position requires maintaining a strategic understanding of key global, regional, and country-level factors that support or impede the appropriate care and protection of children who are at risk of losing family care or are outside of family care, as well as identifying potential points of intervention. It also requires contributing to continuous learning and collaboration to support the generation and application of evidence to improve care systems, and to strengthen BCN’s capacity to deliver on its role as the global hub of knowledge and convenor for the care sector. As part of this role, the Senior Advisor takes a leading role on specific projects and representational and liaison activities, including inter-agency working groups, advisory panels and joint initiatives.

This fundraising challenge to individuals, governments, and philanthropies will provide essential nutrition programmes and urgently needed supplies for the most vulnerable children and women

PARIS/NEW YORK, 27 March 2025 – Today, global nutrition leaders met in Paris at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit to discuss how to improve access to life-saving child and maternal nutrition.

To significantly address the urgent needs of the most at-risk women and children, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the UK government and other private and public partners, established the CNF in 2023 with a goal of raising US$2 billion by 2030.

Currently, the World Bank estimates that an additional US$13 billion per year over the next 10 years (2025-2034) is needed to scale up nutrition interventions to address undernutrition globally.

The CNF is an ambitious UNICEF-led financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of evidence-based, high-impact actions to tackle critical nutrition challenges, including wasting, stunting and anemia in children and women in high-need countries. By addressing both prevention and treatment, the CNF bridges critical gaps in nutrition services, ultimately saving lives and building resilience in vulnerable communities. The CNF aims to reach 320 million children and women annually with life-changing nutrition programmes.

According to South Tripura Deputy Collector and Magistrate Sukanta Dey, the baby girl's parents didn't follow the legal procedure for adoption.

A 23-day-old baby girl was on Wednesday rescued from a couple to whom she was allegedly handed over by her parents at Hrishyamukh in South Tripura district five days ago, officials said.

Shambhu Malakar, a resident of Haripur in Hrishyamukh, gave the baby to Gourango Shil, when she was 18 days old allegedly because of poverty.

After receiving information about the incident, a team comprising Deputy Collector and Magistrate Sukanta Dey, the block development officer, and Child Line members went to Gourango Shil’s home and rescued the baby.

“We visited Gourango Shil’s residence and found the baby. When asked about the baby, they claimed that they got the baby from Shambhu Malakar but denied giving money in exchange. We also visited Shambhu Malakar’s house and he claimed they have three children and that is why they gave the baby up for adoption,” Sukanta Dey said.

Children adopted from China may have been the subject of human trafficking, the state adoption investigation has concluded.

Questions have been raised about what Ulf Kristersson knew about the alarms.

According to a board member, discussions were underway about what the money to China was actually used for.

– There was irritation that the fee was not transparent.

Quick version

Now your two hours begin.” The countdown started when Keira Alexandra Kronvold had just given birth in the early hours of 7 November 2024. Keira, 38, was originally granted just one hour with her daughter, Zammi, before her baby was to be removed from her and taken to foster parents – but the midwife begged authorities to give them more time. Before Zammi’s arrival, the midwife asked if Keira had any wishes. “I said, ‘I want hand and footprints. I want to grab her, I don’t want you to catch her when she is born. I want to catch her myself.’”

During labour – which lasted just an hour and a half – Keira kept checking whether her 20-year-old daughter, Zoe, who had never seen a birth before, was OK; and she was determined not to scream, to avoid waking up the other mothers and babies on the ward. But when Zammi arrived, everything else – the months of stress, worry and pressure – gave way to pure joy. “I just laid back,” she says, arms cradled and slowly reclining on her sofa, as she re-enacts the moment at home in the town of Thisted, northern Denmark, “because I had to keep her warm. She was so beautiful. That emotional feeling is indescribable. Right there: unconditional love, pure happiness, all that joy.” She wished Zammi a happy birthday and told her how much she loved her. She cried tears of joy, counted Zammi’s tiny fingers.

And then the mood shifted. “It feels like you come into the darkness,” says Keira, her body frozen. “Now I have to count the minutes. That pure joy was gone. And that moment I felt I could show my emotions.” She started to breastfeed Zammi. Even letting go for the midwife to do her checks was torturous.

After 16 years of negotiations, India and the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries in March signed a free-trade agreement (FTA), which may be instrumental in India receiving $100 billion as foreign direct investment (FDI) in 15 years with one million jobs. There is a Karnataka connection to this landmark deal. Dr Niklaus-Samuel Gugger, best known as Nik Gugger, is an Indian-born Swiss politician who is said to have played an instrumental role in the agreement being signed. Gugger currently serves as a member of the National Council (Switzerland).

In 1970, a widow, Anasuya, gave birth to a boy at the CSI Basel Mission Hospital in Udupi. Unable to keep the child, she gave him up to Dr Marianne Pflugfelder, and trusted the missionary hospital to find the best place for him. While several orphan kids live an underprivileged life, Gugger was rescued by a Swiss couple Fritz and Elizabeth, who adopted and named him Niklaus-Samuel Gugger.
 

The commerce and industry ministry has said that the agreement will increase Indian industry’s access to the EU market where the country is looking to sign another FTA, while adding that the EFTA is offering 92.2% of its tariff lines, which cover 99.6% of India’s exports. The agreement also covers tariff concession on processed agricultural products (PAP) from India.

India is offering 82.7% of its tariff lines, which covers 95.3% of EFTA exports, nearly 80% of which is in gold.

Swiss watches and chocolates will enjoy the elimination of duty after seven years and concessions are also expected to help India import machinery at cheaper rates. India has provided concessions on 105 of 156 sub-sectors, including areas like accounting, business, and health within services. On the other hand, EFTA countries have provided concessions in over 110 sub-sectors including accounting, auditing, and legal. India exports services worth over $5 billion to EFTA regions.

Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Nik noted that Switzerland and India have always had a cordial relationship, with both the countries having celebrated 75 years of friendship. He referred to Switzerland and India signing the ‘Treaty of Friendship and Establishment’ on August 14, 1948.

This was the first-of-its-kind, and one of the very first bilateral agreements concluded by the newly independent India. He further expressed his joy over being able to contribute back to the country he was born in by playing a significant role in the recent FTA being signed. Explaining that the negotiations once again began close to one and half years ago, Nik said that as challenges arose, they were overcome by diplomacy and hearing all the stakeholders involved.

Deeming his life no less than a Bollywood story Nik delved into his personal life. Growing up in Switzerland, Gugger worked as a gardener, drove trucks and went to school, earning a degree in mechanical engineering.

Further he went on to study social work, management and innovation along with political communication as well as emergency psychology.

He has been provided with an honorary doctor’s title by the Kalinga Institute Orissa for his work on social science and has set up several educational programs in India.

He is also the owner of a famous Ayurvedic ginger drink in Switzerland – Zingi. He is the Founding President of Swiss Indian Parliamentary Group. Nik was the first to create a group in the Swiss Parliament to strengthen friendship with India. Now, the group has over 62 Swiss Members of Parliament as its active members.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION

As discussed over the phone on Friday, I am sending you some documents relating to Ms. Roelie Post's "secondment" to ACT.

In my opinion, it is incompatible with civil servant status for a civil servant to be seconded by her employer to work for an NGO.

It is even more questionable that this civil servant, with the knowledge of her entire hierarchy, founds an NGO and pays for the registration with her own money.

Furthermore, in my opinion, there is a conflict of interest if Ms. Post has previously worked on child protection / children's rights within the DG Enlargement.

Interpol search for Romanian children adopted abroad

29 September 2006 Oana Craciun, Cristina Hurdubaia | 0 comments | 948 views 
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Romanian investigators have asked for Interpol's help to track down children sent for adoption abroad instead of others.
Children adopted only on paper in the 1990s by several foreign families and their possible substitutes are being sought not only by Romanian prosecutors and police officers, but also through Interpol. Prosecutors from the Criminal Investigation and Forensic Section of the General Prosecutor's Office, together with officers from the Criminal Investigations Department of the General Inspectorate of Police (IGP), are investigating the situation of the 11 children who are known to have remained in Romania, never reached their foreign families, but who were replaced by others.
Representatives of the Prosecutor's Office informed us that the prosecutors have requested the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI) to communicate the border points through which 11 children destined for international adoptions are said to have left the country.
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At the same time, the identification data of the people who accompanied them and the declared destination upon leaving the country were also requested. Interpol's mission is to verify whether the adopted minors are currently with the families who adopted them on paper and not in Romania, as is actually suspected. To date, the accredited foundations and associations that carried out the adoption mediation activities for the 11 children have not been identified, the prosecutors of the General Prosecutor's Office also said.

First there were 40

The scandal of children exchanged before the border broke out last year, in October. Then, Theodora Bertzi, secretary of state at the Romanian Adoption Office (ORA), received information from all over the country that 40 children who should have arrived in the 90s with families in France, Italy or the USA actually remained in Romania, some even with their natural families. After further investigations by the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in January 2006, the ORA received confirmation that in 11 of the cases, the children had been replaced with others and substitutes had crossed the border in the names of those who were to be officially adopted. Bertzi stated that, in order to take the children out of the country, the passports of those who had never left were used and that the minors who arrived in their place may be "stolen or missing children". Theodora Bertzi claims that the transfer across the border could have been done quite easily, considering that "up to the age of 14, a child does not have a photo on any official document, and the adopted children were babies."
The authorities say that they have never encountered such a situation before and that is why they have asked the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out exactly who is to blame.