The gang targeted women through closed groups on social media, exploiting those who were struggling to provide and care for their children.

Hanoi:

Police in Vietnam have arrested more than a dozen people in connection with a baby smuggling ring that trafficked 16 newborns across several cities and provinces in the country, state media said Wednesday.

Sixteen men and women have been taken into custody for trading the babies aged between three days and three months old, according to the official newspaper of Ho Chi Minh City Police.

The gang targeted women through closed groups on social media, exploiting those who were struggling to provide and care for their children.

In the search for biological family, the field workers play a very important role. Due to the geographical distance, the different language/culture and the number of cases we work on, it is practically impossible to follow all leads without help.

That is why we use local people for this. They come from the region, speak the language/dialect and can therefore more easily generate the much-needed trust.

Shapla has partnered with Lef4Life in Bangladesh, and their students will follow leads, conduct interviews and hopefully solve many cases successfully, under our coordination.

On November 21st, the time had come. The first part of the training. It was a very interesting day with a lively discussion about adoption and its history in Bangladesh.
Part two was about Shapla. Who are we, what do we do, what services do we offer. What was important here was what processes do we have; accuracy and reliability are very important in searches (we want to prevent things like a well-known TV program).

After the theoretical part was completed, it was time for practical exercises.

10 Years Later, Still Fake?… Ministry of Welfare Begins Audit of Adoption Record Computerization Project

The Child Rights Protection Agency (formerly the Central Adoption Agency) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been carrying out the ‘Adoption Records Computerization Project’ since 2013 to collect and computerize adoption records scattered across private organizations. The purpose is to permanently preserve adoption records in the private sector by integrating them into a public institution and to increase adoptees’ access to information.

However, suspicions have been raised that this project, which has been in progress for about 10 years, has been managed poorly. It is said that everything from basic record scanning to the process of uploading data to the online system has been handled poorly. It has been confirmed that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has also identified the related issues and has begun an audit of the Child Rights Protection Agency regarding the ‘Adoption Records Computerization Project’. Previously, Newstapa conducted the <Overseas Adoption and Money> project to identify the structural problems of overseas adoption in the 1970s and 1980s. Through this, we have reported in depth on cases of overseas adoptees who were unable to find their information due to the barriers of adoption agencies. The adoption records computerization project of the National Institute of Child Rights, a public institution, was started to help adoptees find their roots, but it is being revealed that it has been carried out haphazardly. Newstapa plans to track and report on the reality of the adoption records computerization project that has been carried out for the past 10 years. Adoption records computerization project 10 years… Suspicions finally surface Adoptees usually do not stay in one institution after being separated from their original families and adopted into another family. In the case of overseas adoptees in the 1970s and 1980s, they were admitted to child welfare facilities that were formerly called orphanages, and then sent to institutions that arranged overseas adoptions such as Holt Children’s Welfare Association, where they were finally adopted. This means that there can be records from multiple institutions for one child. Welfare facilities and adoption agencies each create records in different forms. This is one of the reasons why adoptees have difficulty finding their records. The adoption records computerization project was implemented for the purpose of integrating and managing records scattered across individual facilities. This project was first started at the Central Adoption Center in 2013. After the Central Adoption Center was integrated into the Child Rights Protection Center in 2019, it was run by the Child Rights Protection Center for a total of 10 years until 2022.

Adoption records containing personal information about children, circumstances of admission to facilities, and information about biological parents are more than just records to overseas adoptees. Adoptees said, “If there was a problem, the Child Rights Protection Agency should take responsibility,” and “(the agency) should quickly step forward and explain (what happened).” <Overseas Adoption and Money> Project Collection.

From 2013 to 2022, the Child Rights Protection Center computerized the records of 86 closed child welfare facilities for 10 years. The project was not implemented in 2023 and 2024. Starting next year, records from adoption agencies such as Holt Children’s Welfare Association and the Korea Social Service Association will be mandatorily transferred to the center.

However, ahead of the mandatory transfer of records from adoption agencies such as Holt Children’s Welfare Association next year, suspicions have been raised that there were overall deficiencies in the adoption record computerization project that the Child Rights Protection Center had been conducting for 10 years. It is pointed out that there were overall problems with the project, such as scanning errors, non-compliance with guidelines, and insufficient system uploads. Newstapa confirmed the details through the testimonies of multiple relevant parties. This is the first time that the problems with the adoption record computerization project that was conducted for 10 years have been reported by the media.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-26/reynolds-calls-for-ban-overseas-adoptions-after-investigation/104252812?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2USRMwTdxNBaBL0WoInx4J4DzwMmTMea4jwMXzseU07-6Zahvt2oncy_A_aem_5MR5EupG5DYZup9pfaMnxQ

The government should freeze all intercountry adoptions and sever ties with its South Korean adoption partner, according to a senator representing Australia on an international human trafficking taskforce.

The call comes following a Background Briefing investigation that found the Korean adoption agency — Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) — falsified documents while sending thousands of children to Australia in the past.

Scores of adoptees say they've grown up unaware they had siblings and believing they were orphans, only discovering as adults that their original paperwork was falsified.

An insider who worked at ESWS in the 1970s and 1980s alleged that bribes were paid to hospital workers in exchange for babies.

If you were adopted from abroad to Denmark before 8 August 2003, it may be relevant for you to contact the Danish Appeals Board if you want to know whether your original family tried to contact you in the period 1987 to 8 August 2003.

In the period 15 January 1987 to 8 August 2003, the intermediary organizations forwarded inquiries from the original family to the supervisory authority. This is shown by a study completed by the Danish Appeals Board in July 2024.

If anonymity was waived, any inquiries were forwarded to adopters or adult adoptees. If anonymity had not been waived, any inquiries were kept in the supervisory authority's archive. This happened in accordance with the guidelines that were then applicable for the handling of inquiries from the original family. The archives were later handed over to the National Archives.

After 8 August 2003, the guidelines were changed so that the adoption mediating organizations AC Børnehjælp and DanAdopt sent all inquiries from the original family to adopters or adult adoptees.

Contact the Danish Appeals Board if you want to know whether there are inquiries from your original family from the period 1987 to 2003.

Background: After decades of research output, it is well established that transnational adoptees—i.e., individuals who are placed for adoption outside their country of birth—exhibit an increased risk of various negative mental health outcomes. Even so, there is a lack of suggestions for preventive measures or treatment interventions targeting the transnational adoptee population in the literature.

Objective: To explore experiences, opinions, and needs among adult transnational adoptees in Sweden concerning healthcare in general and mental healthcare in particular.

Methods: Sixty-six adult transnational adoptees residing in Sweden, born in 15 different non-European countries, were recruited for individual in-depth interviews about their experiences and opinions regarding psychosocial support and healthcare. The interview data were analyzed employing a codebook thematic analysis approach.

Results: Three overarching themes were identified: (a) barriers to adequate treatment, (b) helpful resources in dealing with health-related issues, and (c) health-related needs and suggestions for the development of adequate support. Identified barriers include a lack of insight into and interest in adoptee health, colorblindness and unwillingness to address racism, expectations of gratitude, steep financial costs, lack of support from adoptive parents, and mistrust of support structures that involve adoptive parents or adoption organizations. Participants also describe helpful resources, such as the community of fellow transnational adoptees. Health-related needs and suggestions include more well-defined and easily accessible structures of support, improved knowledge and competence, a broader psychotherapeutic repertoire that better addresses adoption-related themes, improved support in situations that can be particularly stressful for adoptees (such as during pregnancy and as new parents), routine follow-up during childhood and adolescence, and education targeting adoptive parents. The need for greater attention to the well-being of children of transnational adoptees is also highlighted.

Implications: Based on these findings, a number of recommendations can be made. For example, knowledge about adoptee health should be strengthened, and psychotherapeutic competence in addressing issues related to racism should become a priority. After over 20 years of discussion, one or more national research and knowledge hubs on transnational adoption should be created. Moreover, economic resources should be made available to support transnational adoptees in accessing adequate treatment.

Since 2019, India has seen 18,179 recorded adoptions, of which only 1,404 involved children with special needs. Despite a marked increase over the past five years, activists highlight that the adoption rate remains significantly low for these children. Continued challenges include broad categorization and parental reluctance.

Of the 18,179 adoptions recorded since 2019, only 1,404 involved children with special needs, even as overall adoption numbers increased, according to official data.

Despite a rise in the number of special needs children available for adoption, the adoption rate remains significantly low, activists noted.

Children with special needs require more support due to physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional challenges.

In 2019-20, there were 3,745 total adoptions in India: 3,351 in-country and 394 international. Only 56 boys and 110 girls with special needs were adopted, as per CARA's response to an RTI query by PTI.

Survivors of child sex abuse by male and female clergy seek justice – but are answered with silence

Geo, the name he prefers, sits in a coffee shop on a rainy afternoon as streetcars clang along outside. He is 64. He arrived at Madonna Manor, the Catholic orphanage he is now suing, in August of 1967, as a ward of Louisiana, age seven.

“My childhood was horrific,” he says matter-of-factly. “My father was an abusive alcoholic, my mother diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. Madonna Manor was a place where dysfunctional parents dumped their children. My mom was subject to electroshock therapy and thorazine. She lost a baby. She had a psychotic breakdown and was placed in a mental hospital. The state took me over.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/a-mother-s-dying-words-leads-capel-man-to-discover-he-was-adopted/ar-AA1pnjeL?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=128b56d94f4e47d79954b7c243308ed2&ei=8&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0gYjvmUhtvwJeh5l9QD1YDomzddhujRYJ0lrtY7QCdN-4GefEXaT1ECS8_aem_26_C6KGC1ymDsHqLOizkEw

A few days before Anne McDermott's mother died, she pulled Anne aside to reveal a cryptic premonition about Anne's husband, Peter.

"[She] took my hand and said, 'Annie, I'm just gonna let you know everything isn't as it appears with Peter and his family.'"

Anne had always thought of her mother as psychic, but in that moment she fobbed it off.

But the message would stay with her.

Thiruvananthapuram: Even after three years, the government has not taken any action on the report of the Director of Women and Child Welfare Department about people who put the baby up for adoption without the knowledge of the mother. Even the copy of the report of TV Anupama IAS who investigated the adoption of the child has not been given to the complainant. The accused in the government hoarded report are still in the top positions of the party and the government.

It was Asianet News that brought out the incident where the parents handed over the baby to the Child Welfare Committee without the consent of the mother, Anupama. This child was being handed over to other childless parents in violation of all adoption rules. Anupama approached CWC to get the baby back. But there is no justice. The government had to intervene with a mother's protest before the Child Welfare Committee. After the government submitted a report to the court to cancel the dowry and return the child, Anumpak got the child back through the legal process. Anupama complained to the Chief Minister and the police that the father, who is a CPM leader, had smuggled the child with the help of the leaders. The complaint was that Shiju Khan, who was the general secretary of the Child Welfare Committee, and Sunanda, the Chairperson of the CWC, were complicit in the violations. The then director TV Anupama, who investigated the complaint, gave the report by enumerating the shortcomings of the accused. It has been two years since this report was placed in cold storage.

Dr. What action was taken on the report? Minister Veena George said in his reply to MK Muneer's question in the Legislative Assembly on February 22, 2022 that he has sought AG's legal advice for further action on the recommendations. But till date no action has been taken against those mentioned in the report. Even a copy of the report was not given to the complainant despite the request under RTI. No action was taken in the police case filed by Anupama. Anupama filed a complaint with the Navakerala Sadas. The complaint received in the Navakerala audience was forwarded to the Perurkada police, which delayed action on Anupama's complaint, for further action.