Introduce…

Fiom is the expertise center in the field of unwanted pregnancy, distance & adoption and kinship questions. Working at Fiom is based on the right to self-determination of unwanted pregnant women and the right of a child to know where he or she comes from and to grow up while retaining his or her own identity. Fiom offers information and help with unwanted pregnancy, aftercare in the field of adoption and guides people in their search for biological family at home and abroad. In addition, we manage the KID-DNA Database, which enables a match between a donor child and an anonymous donor. We do all this with about 80 motivated employees from our offices in 's-Hertogenbosch and Houten.

We are immediately looking for a:

SENIOR SPECIALIST POLICY

Unwanted Pregnancy Program

Introduce…

Fiom is the expertise center in the field of unwanted pregnancy, distance & adoption and kinship questions. Working at Fiom is based on the right to self-determination of unwanted pregnant women and the right of a child to know where he or she comes from and to grow up while retaining his or her own identity. Fiom offers information and help with unwanted pregnancy, aftercare in the field of adoption and guides people in their search for biological family at home and abroad. In addition, we manage the KID-DNA Database, which enables a match between a donor child and an anonymous donor. We do all this with about 80 motivated employees from our offices in 's-Hertogenbosch and Houten.

We are immediately looking for a:

RESEARCHER

16 hours a week

Introduce…

Fiom is the expertise center in the field of unwanted pregnancy, distance & adoption and kinship questions. Working at Fiom is based on the right to self-determination of unwanted pregnant women and the right of a child to know where he or she comes from and to grow up while retaining his or her own identity. Fiom offers information and help with unwanted pregnancy, aftercare in the field of adoption and guides people in their search for biological family at home and abroad. In addition, we manage the KID-DNA Database, which enables a match between a donor child and an anonymous donor. We do all this with about 80 motivated employees from our offices in 's-Hertogenbosch and Houten.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, cheerful and stress-resistant centipede who knows how to get things done. You know your responsibilities and you support the team secretariat and the HR team to organize the daily ins and outs down to the last detail. You are versatile, from conducting telephone conversations and chatting with people who have questions about unwanted pregnancies, providing support with recruitment and selection, receiving guests and taking care of personnel administration.

SECRETARY (HR)

24 hours a week

Introduce…

Fiom is the expertise center in the field of unwanted pregnancy, distance & adoption and kinship questions. Working at Fiom is based on the right to self-determination of unwanted pregnant women and the right of a child to know where he or she comes from and to grow up while retaining his or her own identity. Fiom offers information and help with unwanted pregnancy, aftercare in the field of adoption and guides people in their search for biological family at home and abroad. In addition, we manage the KID-DNA Database, which enables a match between a donor child and an anonymous donor. We do all this with about 80 motivated employees from our offices in 's-Hertogenbosch and Houten.

For the research project 'Distance files in the picture' we are immediately looking for a:

RESEARCHER - Archive research

20-24 hours a week (temporary)

Kaoru Tachibana’s journey in becoming an adoptive parent has been a race against time involving layers of legal hurdles, stacks of bureaucratic paperwork and considerable soul-searching as she waited for her child with an empty baby bed.

Before she received notice this summer that she should be expecting to welcome a newborn in October, the 40-year-old office worker was on the verge of giving up on the prospect of becoming a mother. A prior match had fallen through earlier this year when the birth mother decided against giving her child away. Tachibana’s husband was also about to turn 52, several years beyond the age limit many private adoption agencies have set for aspiring parents.

“We had rented a baby bed in anticipation of welcoming a child the first time around. It had a six month lease, so we decided to call it quits if we didn’t hear back from our agency before that expired,” says Tachibana, who asked to be referred to by her maiden name to protect her child’s privacy. She currently lives in Okinawa with her husband and adopted baby girl.

“Needless to say, we are grateful to be able to welcome a child into our family,” she says. “I know it didn’t have to be us — she could have been adopted by others — but we’d like to do everything we can so she feels glad she came to us.”

Tachibana belongs to a small but slowly expanding pool of couples adopting children in Japan, a patriarchal society with an emphasis on blood ties where the vast majority of adoptees aren’t kids — in fact, most are men often recruited as heirs to family businesses.

‘Did she feel guilty abandoning me in a parking lot? Did she wonder about me? For the first time in 30 years I thought, ‘I have to find her.’: Adoptee reclaims identity in search for birth family

“An endless black hole. Nothingness. Question marks. This is what marks my past, before I came to America as a 2-year-old orphaned Korean child to my new country, new family, new home, new name, and new identity: Kara Mee Bedell.

A Caucasian middle class Christian family in Michigan adopted me. They had 2 biological children of their own, but due to complicated pregnancies and desires for a larger family, they decided to adopt. This is when I came into the picture. Adoption has always been known as something good. There isn’t any question about it when someone mentions they are adopting. They are often times met with a smile, and praise for the good deeds they are offering to the world. Rescuing an ‘impoverished child,’ who wouldn’t see it as a good deed (I put ‘impoverished child’ in quotations as we’ll be coming back to that later). For many children who are adopted it becomes one, at least in the beginning; these children are given a home, education, healthcare, and most likely opportunities that would never afford them if they had been left in their countries of origin. However, was that the case for me? Let’s travel back to my childhood and adoption story…

I was, as I said, adopted when I was 2 years old from South Korea, found at a bus terminal in Goesan (a province 2 hours South of Seoul) crying, saying only my name Kang Misuk and my age 2 years old. I was brought to an orphanage in Cheongju on November 18, 1983. 10 months later, September 1984, I was flown to Detroit, Michigan to meet my new family, The Bedells. I have fond memories of my early childhood, as I was treated just as a sister by my siblings, in the shelter of my family protected from any ‘differences’ and only seen as one of the family. However, as I grew older and went to school is when the ‘differences’ became more prevalent. Kids would ask, ‘Why is your nose so flat? Why is your face flat? Where are you from? How did you get here?’ Some would even shout out, ‘Hey you, Chinese dude!’ I was a fighter though, and those kids didn’t usually win those arguments as I would retort, ‘Don’t you know an American when you see one?!’ This is how I saw myself, and I was proud to be able to say it.

Growing up in middle class rural America, the pride of being American is instilled in you at a young age. So even at the tender age of 4, I was yelling out these proclamations from the bottom of my belly. Being outgoing, and with a rather strong character, I was well liked among my classmates. Being different on the outside, in the end, didn’t affect my popularity in my early years of education. However, as the outside beauty changes and forms as a child grows older, I started to dislike my small eyes, short eyelashes, dark hair, and flat face. I tried out a perm in order to have the wavy caresses I saw in other girl’s hair, but it turned into a disaster as my aunt used the same type of perming solution as she did on her hair…I will leave this to your imagination, but yes, I looked like a poodle. I never understood why boys didn’t want to go out with me, as only when I looked in the mirror did I remember I was different – Asian.

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that grandparents can legally adopt their own grandchild, even though the child's biological parent is alive, when the arrangement is in the interest of the child's welfare.

The top court ruled in favor grandparents who filed an appeal to adopt their own grandchildren, and transferred the case to a district court in Ulsan, 415 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for a retrial.

The decision was the first Supreme Court ruling which allowed grandparents to adopt their grandchild even if the child has living parents, given that qualifications are met and the arrangement is in the interest of the child's welfare.

The suit was filed after the grandparents wished to adopt their daughter's son. The baby was born while the daughter was still in high school, and was left with the grandparents for upbringing.

The grandson has lived believing that the grandparents are his biological parents. His actual parents divorced while he was an infant.

Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter has never been able to find the family who put her up for adoption, but her pursuit of information has shaped her life since being adopted by a single mom in Minnesota

Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter will be celebrating her 49th birthday this November 28, but her exact age remains shrouded in mystery.

"We don't know if I was a week old or a couple of months old when they found me, so they just gave me a birthday," Kripa Cooper-Lewter tells PEOPLE.

That's because the mother of two was found as an infant in a cradle on the steps of an Indian orphanage started by Mother Teresa. The sisters there estimated she was born in 1972 and came up with her birthdate.

"That's the story I've been told my whole life," Kripa Cooper-Lewter says. "The sisters said they had a cradle outside the orphanage that people could leave children in, because it was common that babies would be abandoned on the street."

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has informed the Delhi High Court that

it shall consider permitting advocates to appear as 'authorized representatives' to

coordinate and facilitate various formalities that are required to be undertaken in the

process of inter-country adoptions.

It also said that if virtual meetings are required by either biological or adoptive parents,

November was adoption awareness month. The month is dedicated to celebrate families that have adopted children because they give the children emotional, social, legal, and kinship benefits of biological children. Adoptive families provide children an opportunity to be raised in a loving and stable home. Adoption enables caregivers to become parents or to grow their families by adding a child to their family as they give the child a home.

All positive conversations adults have with adopted children make a huge impact in their lives. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises a child’s right to family life and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents or, where applicable, by members of the extended family or community.

The 2019 UN General Assembly resolution on the rights of the child recognised and prioritised the role of the family as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and wellbeing of all its members, particularly children. Families have the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children. In order for a child to achieve their full potential, he or she should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding.

Sadly, 7.5 million children all over the world live in charitable children’s institutions, commonly known as children’s homes or orphanages, yet 80 per cent to 90 per cent of these children have a living parent or known relatives. In Kenya, an estimated 45,000 children live in charitable children’s institutions for various reasons such as the loss of a parent or primary caregiver, poverty at home, sickness and disability, violence, abuse, and neglect.

Some communities perceive life in a children’s home as “good” because the children have better meals, housing, and opportunities for schooling. Yet families play a critical role in a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development that a children’s institution cannot give. The government through the National Council of Children’s Services is spearheading care reforms to promote the best interest of the child to ensure that children are cared for in families and communities.