Gerda Cole, 98, knew little about her only child apart from the name she gave her at birth. She wasn’t even sure if “Sonya” stuck.

In 1942, when she was just 18, Cole was brokenhearted as she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption to a German couple living in England. Cole had recently escaped Austria and the Nazis, and was living as a Jewish refugee in England.

“I felt it was only fair to her,” said Cole, explaining that she was in a miserable marriage that was falling apart and couldn’t afford to care for a child on her own. Cole is an only child, and though her mother managed to survive World War II, her father was killed by the Nazis.

As a teenage refugee, Cole had no money, no job, and was still adjusting to a new country. She didn’t think she had the means to give her daughter the life she deserved.

“It was hard,” Cole said from her retirement home in Toronto, where she has lived since 1990. “If I had been in a better position, I would have tried.”

TOKYO -- The word is spreading in Japan that becoming a foster parent is an option for members of sexual minorities including LGBT people who wish to raise children. The Mainichi Shimbun spoke with a lesbian couple who are considering fostering children.

Foster parents take children in who cannot live with their biological parents and need social care due to abuse, poverty, or other circumstances. The main requirements to become foster parents are that they complete foster parent training, and must not be in financial distress. There is no requirement to be legally married, and same-sex couples are not excluded.

Mari and Ayako (both pseudonyms), a female couple in their 50s living together in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, met in their late 30s and have been together for about 15 years. Mari, who is older than Ayako, loves children, but considering her age and other factors she did not think she would ever have any. Ayako, on the other hand, had a strong desire to have children.

Same-sex marriage is not legal in Japan, but Mari and Ayako decided they wanted to spend their lives together as partners, and a few years ago had a wedding ceremony with close family. They learned about the foster parent system in late 2020, when they happened to come across some information in a local government magazine.

They realized that they might be able to have a child after all. They immediately contacted the local government's child consultation center. They went in to hear about the system, and told the staff there that they were a couple. They did not feel being a same-sex couple was any hinderance at the foster parenting course they took at a local children's home.

Location: Brussels – Belgium

Working conditions: 80% (desired starting day: as soon as possible)

About Defence for Children International:

Defence for Children International is a leading child rights focused and membership-based grassroots movement. Created during the International Year of the Child (1979), DCI coordinated the NGO’s input for the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. As a worldwide Movement, our aim is to ensure an ongoing, practical, systematic and concerted action towards the effective implementation of the human rights codified in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) by means of effective, multi-level coordination and active membership within key networks and fora. DCI membership includes 37 grass-roots organisations (National Sections and Associated Members) in five different continents, involving over 300 trained and specialized local staff and volunteers, who contribute daily to defend and protect the human rights of children. In all that we do, we aspire to orient our work so that it is transparent, accountable, socially-transformative and sustainable.

DCI-World Service Foundation: a strategic institutional tool in Brussels

A COURT ruling has held up the adoptions of ten Dorset children – although all will, or have now, been concluded successfully.

The case involved neighbouring Somerset Council and the way full medical reports on children being adopted are considered.

Executive director for Dorset’s children’s social services, Theresa Leavy, has told councillors that because of the legal finding there had been a ‘pause’ in ten Dorset cases but while their placement process had been interrupted, all had concluded successfully. She said that throughout the process the potential adopters had been kept fully informed about the court finding and how their cases were being progressed.

She was speaking about the Aspire adoption agency, which runs adoption services for both Dorset Council and neighbouring Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Ms Leavy said the service had performed incredibly well during the past two, Covid, years managing to maintain a steady flow of adoptions despite the difficulties presented by the restrictions which had led to a slight fall in overall numbers.

I remember so vividly waiting at JFK Airport for my 6 year old twin daughters to arrive from Ethiopia via London. I was excited and a bit nervous, and seeing them walk into the waiting area was indescribably wonderful. Now, two years later, I work for a group of licensed, non-profit international adoption agencies. I am struck by how many of the same qualities are needed for parenting and for dealing with international adoption: patience, flexibility, a sense of humor, and the ability to just hang in there.

CHANGE IS CONSTANT

The history of international adoption in the United States is relatively brief, having begun in earnest after the Korean War with the arrival of Korean and Amer-Asian orphans placed with American families. Since then, many thousands of children have been adopted from South America, Central America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe: over 11,000 children came home to the United States last year alone.

The major countries of origin (ranked by number of children adopted in the U.S.) last year were China, Russia, Korea, Romania, Guatemala, and India. Interestingly, just 10 years ago, the major countries of origin were Korea, Philippines, India, Colombia, and Chile. Adoptions from China and Russia began in earnest only within the last few years, but the numbers of children adopted internationally from those two countries have been substantial. Changing economic, social, and political factors often influence a country's decision to place children internationally. Countries may "close" to adoption, with little notice; others may open, and dramatically change the landscape of intercountry adoption.

For prospective adoptive parents, these changes can mean additional challenges for creation of their families. International adoption is always transcultural; it also is often transracial as well, and parents need to think through the long-term implications of these factors for their families. Adoption agency staff are trained and prepared to guide parents through their decision process, and are accustomed to dealing with the changes: it's not always so easy though!

Marieke Simons

Legal Adviser on Children's Rights and Juvenile Law

Lately there has been a lot of talk about out-of-home placements of children. Especially in the wake of the Allowance scandal. The Defense for Children's Children's Rights Helpdesk has seen for some time that – apart from the Allowance scandal – many things are not going well with regard to out-of-home placements. What's going well? What can be done better? And what does the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child say about this?

As a last (rescue) remedy

Every child has the right to grow up with his parents. This right is included in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. An out-of-home placement should therefore be seen as a last resort and must be necessary for the child's unthreatened development. A child may only be removed from home if there is no less invasive remedy. This is so because it makes a huge encroachment on the lives of parents and children. For example, help must first be made available in the home situation that is necessary to allow the child to grow up at home, in their own family. The parents have that right, but more importantly, the child has that right. Because growing up at home is often the best thing for a child.

Anastasia and Nikolai were evicted as children, now they want compensation

Ten years ago, Nikolai and Anastasia were evicted from their home. Now they are adults, and today they are trying to clear the way with their families in court for compensation from the Salvation Army and the Child Protection Board.

"No, no, no," Nikolai cried out at the age of 9, as a youth care worker carried him out of the house. Behind him came two women holding on to his twin sister. "I want mommy," Anastasia cried totally over her head. But she didn't stay there. Their voices blared across the street in Culemborg, cries went through the marrow and bone. And the out-of-home placement was carried out, under the watchful eye of officers.

Now the children of that time are adults and they are taking place in court in The Hague, to enforce compensation with their mother and older half-brother Ilja, for what happened to their family. If you want to see for yourself how it went with the out-of-home placement, you can search the internet for 'child robbery by youth care Gelderland '. Ilja had grabbed the IPad on March 23, 2012, in his desperate powerlessness. The images he made still play automatically in his head when he looks out of that window with his mother, from which he was filming at the time.

settlement

With abortion rights on the verge of collapse, some conservatives have acknowledged that pregnant people will need more support.

For some conservative politicians and anti-abortion advocates, that means increasing services – and one key solution is increasing adoption.

When Justice Samuel Alito wrote the leaked draft of his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, he cited the conservative argument that someone who places a newborn for adoption today will likely find the baby a good home because of high demand.

In a footnote, he cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from 2008 describing the domestic supply of infants available for adoption as “virtually nonexistent.”

That got the attention of writer and adoptee Aimee Christian. She wrote an essay for NBC News saying that adoption is no solution if Roe falls.

“Lion gives an insight into the lives of children who have been adopted and I hope will push more Western countries to recognize the need for and benefits of adoption. There are so many kids who never end up in a loving family and there are so many loving families who want a child.”

The incredible true story of Indian-born Australian Saroo Brierley and his unwavering determination to find his lost family and finally return to his first home is now realised in all its splendour on the big screen in Lion.

Five-year-old Saroo gets lost on a train travelling away from his home and family. Frightened and bewildered, he ends up thousands of miles away, in chaotic Kolkata.

Somehow he survives living on the streets, escaping all sorts of terrors and close calls in the process, before ending up in an orphanage that is itself not exactly a safe haven. Eventually Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple, and finds love and security as he grows up in Hobart. Not wanting to hurt his adoptive parents’ feelings, he suppresses his past, his emotional need for reunification, and his hope of ever finding his lost mother and brother.

But a chance meeting with some fellow Indians reawakens his buried yearning. With just a small store of memories, and the help of a new technology called Google Earth, Saroo embarks on one of the greatest needle-in-a-haystack quests of modern times.

Mysore/Mysuru: The case of a woman handing over her nine-month-old baby boy to a passenger waiting for a Mysuru-bound bus at Raichur Bus Stand and fleeing from the spot, has taken a twist. It is revealed that the man, who brought the baby from Raichur to Mysuru, is actually the woman’s lover identified as B. Raghu.

In a bid to project the baby as an ‘orphan’ as the baby was hampering their relationship, Raghu brought the baby to Mysuru and handed over the baby boy to Lashkar Police after cooking up a story.

The woman, who had handed over the baby to Raghu, is 21-year-old Renuka alias Mamata, wife of Yesuraj, a painter by profession and a resident of Gundi village in Yadgir. Raghu is a resident of Nuralakuppe village in H.D. Kote taluk of Mysuru.

It is learnt that Raghu and Renuka came to know each other through Instagram about one-and-a-half years ago and fell in love with each other. Meanwhile, Renuka, delivered a baby boy about eight months ago and in a bid to lead a separate life, Raghu and Renuka had decided to do away with the baby by projecting it as an orphan. This was revealed during Police interrogation.

According to their plan, Raghu went to Raichur on May 8 and was waiting at Raichur Bus Stand to board a bus to Mysuru during which a woman handed over the baby boy to Raghu asking him to take care of the baby, till she returns from the rest room.