Nenue: Did they seek for foster families through media afterwards?

Ueli Meier: Aeschimann targeted the media resources from the very beginning. The second child he adopted, who was a little girl, was killed in an accident. Therefore, he asked the Dalai Lama for a third child, as the Dalai Lama had guaranteed before on one condition that more exiled Tibetan children would come to Switzerland. And this time about 20 Tibetan children were sent to Switzerland. In order to help these children to find enough foster homes, several media started a campaign. Especially Vinay Warren Begg, a famous political commentator, called for Swiss people to adopt Tibetan children in his own column of Breaking Clouds (an ironic humor magazine in Switzerland). More than 300 families responded since then .

Nenue: How to deal with the applications of adopting Tibetan children?

Ueli Meier: The applications were all given to Aeschimann, then he invited every couple to his home in Olten for checking. Later he connected the elder sister of the Dalai Lama who was working in the children welfare home in Dharamsala. Then she chose several children who were able to be adopted by the Swiss families.

Nenue: Was the whole process ignored by the federal authority of Switzerland?

The fact that an adoption is difficult, adopted children have attachment problems and always want to find their biological parents, is not as easy as it seems, says Mirjam Postma. She was adopted from India as a baby of seven months and tells about it. Her adoptive parents are just her parents.

“Just because it's a success story doesn't mean it's always been easy,” Mirjam begins her story. “I just want to dispel the idea that all adopted children have attachment problems or want to find their biological parents. Of course there are many cases where it is, but it doesn't have to be an assumption.”

Mirjam is adopted when she is very small. “I think age matters a lot. As you get older, you may have a more active memory of the country of origin and that could be a bigger blow. I was only seven months old when I was adopted.”

'Put me a plate with stew and smoked sausage in front of me every day'

The feeling that is often described when it comes to adoption is: I feel different from my parents and other children, but Mirjam has never experienced that so strongly. “My parents have been very open about adoption from the start. Little by little I learned more about it if I wanted to. There has never been any mystery about it or there was a time when my parents finally told me. My brother and I have always been accepted in the village where I come from. Although we were one of the first adopted children, we weren't really bullied about it. I think that makes a big difference.”

Wereldkinderen

12 May at 15:31 ·

????Sulu Kalro komt ook naar de Wereldkinderendag op 21 mei a.s.! Sulu is sinds 1976 jarenlang onze contactpersoon in India geweest en zij heeft veel adoptieouders begeleid toen ze hun kindje gingen ophalen. Sulu kijkt er enorm naar uit iedereen te ontmoeten!

Wil je Sulu ontmoeten? Kijk dan snel op onze website en vraag je tickets met korting aan: https://bit.ly/3snBdKn

#wereldkinderendag #sulukalro #adoptie #geadopteerd

The first child was brought to the child protection unit in June and the second child, after she was declared physically and discharged from the hospital, in July last year.

After losing their mother to Covid-19 minutes after their birth and then their father a few months later who refused to take care of them, two newborn girls saw another ray of hope after they were both adopted by a financially able couple.

It was in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic in June last year when a woman in labour tested positive for Covid-19, according to sources in Chandigarh’s child protection unit. Right after she gave birth to twins, she died

from the infection.

“One of the twins was slightly underweight and was kept under observation in the hospital; the second child was handed over to the father. He took the child home and then told the child protection unit that he could raise the child because he was a daily wager and cannot afford to raise her. He also said that since his wife was no more and he was alone, he didn’t want the child,” an official stated after a post-adoption follow-up.

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.