Trudy Scheele-Gertsen was forced to give up her son in 1968 because she was a single mother and is asking for recognition of what happened. About 15,000 Dutch women went through the same ordeal between 1956 and 1984

Ten days after giving birth to her son in February 1968, Trudy Scheele-Gertsen, a 22-year-old Dutch girl, left the foster home for single mothers run by Catholic nuns where she had kept him. Although she was without the baby, she was not going to abandon him. A nursing student, she wanted to pick him up as soon as she got a job and a house, but she didn't see him again for 48 years. Her parents did not want her back with the child, who she named Willem Jan, and despite their repeated protests she was forced to put him up for adoption. Trudy is 75 years old today and is one of about 15,000 women - called distant mothers.- who went through the same trance in the Netherlands between 1956 and 1984. This Friday she has sued the State in court for what happened: she wants it to be recognized that she was pressured by the authorities to give up her little one. The State Attorney argues that the case has prescribed and the pressure exerted could also be social and not only from the Administration.

"What happened is an indelible trauma, and the recognition that it was not our fault is a way to cope," said Trudy Scheele-Gertsen emotionally before the judges. “We were disqualified as people for not offering what was considered a stable family to the child, and there is a general feeling of guilt among those of us who go through this. Loneliness, because society separated us, and it is something that continues to happen today. For example, with women who are assaulted and blamed for what has happened to them. This should not prescribe ”, she added, already made a sea of ??tears. Years later, she had access to his complete file, where the Child Protection Service “tells a story that is not mine. It is assured that I did not go to see the child, and that I was in a meeting and signed the documents renouncing him from the beginning; and it is not true ”, he pointed out. He signed them years later, and to find out what happened to his son he had to ask his permission when he was of legal age to read thenotes corresponding to its adoption . She married and has three other children, and although she has been reunited with her firstborn, the pain is still alive.

Her lawyer, Lisa-Marie Klomp, has alleged that the State is responsible for this forced resignation because “it had an obligation to protect the mother, but she was excluded due to the fact that she was single. The mother and child were abandoned through the Protection of Minors, which prevented me from recovering the child with documents and a story that my client does not recognize as hers, ”he indicated. In 2017, the Dutch Radboud University published a study at the request of the Ministry of Justice, which estimated 15,000 Dutch children adopted in their own country between 1956 and 1984. Its conclusions indicated that “pressure from doctors, families of single mothers , social workers and other instances of the sector could be so strong that it prevented keeping them together ”.

Unheard stories

AN OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE has been told that people who were illegally adopted as children feel they are forced to ‘continuously break the law’ because the birth certificates they use contain false information.

As part of its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Birth Information and Tracing bill, the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth today heard views from a number of organisations.

The legislation will enshrine in law a right for adopted people to access their birth certificates, and birth and early life information.

Representatives from the In it together – Who Am I? group told the committee that each of their birth certificates “contain false information making them illegal, not just incorrect”.

There are 151 officially recognised cases of false birth registrations, but the group said DNA discoveries suggest this number is higher.

Jayachandran, a local committee member of the Peroorkada Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), has allegedly given up his grandson for 'adoption' as he was opposed to his daughter Anupama's relationship with Ajith, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram.

Anupama fell in love with Ajith and became pregnant last year. She gave birth to a baby boy on 19 October 2020. However, just three days after she delivered the baby, Anupama's father Jayachandran gave him for adoption, reported The News Minute.

The couple now allege that the 'adoption' was illegal and are trying to get back their child.

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New Delhi [India], October 21 (ANI): The Delhi High Court (/topic/delhi-high-court) on Thursday asked Centre (/topic/centre)

and others to file a response on a petition by an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder couple, residing in New Delhi for the

last four years, with a grievance that despite having registered with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for the

adoption (/topic/adoption) of a child in 2018, have till date not received any referral for a child.

Justice Rekha Palli granted more time to Centre (/topic/centre), and CARA to file a reply on the petition and listed the matter

Directorate of Child Protection bans celebrations, birthdays and such, of outsiders at child care centres

Have you any idea what children at child care centres or orphanages may feel while you celebrate your birthday

or anniversary with them? Perhaps you simply make them realise they don’t have what you do.

Children at these facilities — where some of them don’t even know their birth dates — ask caretakers when their

turn would come to celebrate.

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Adoption Action Group

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Australia supports open adoption practices. Many adoptees and adoptive families wish to search for information about their birth origins and, where possible, establish and maintain relationships with their birth families. These Guidelines outline the post-adoption reporting process, and factors influencing the exploration of birth origins and search for birth families in Ethiopia.

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Country Programs

Australia currently has an active intercountry adoption arrangement with 13 countries, including:

Bulgaria

Chile

China

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) The Wendy's Wonderful Kids program works to find children and teens a permanent family. It's funded by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Now, the program is expanding by way of a partnership with the Department of Child Services (DCS) and the Villages of Indiana. So far the program has found homes for 160 kids in Indiana.

There are currently only three adoption recruiters in the program. The expansion will allow for more recruiters to be hired so the adoption process can be sped up. The number of recruiters will increase to thirty. Families who are looking to adopt and kids in need of a family will all benefit from the expansion. The Director of Foster Care and Adoption Service for the Villages of Indiana, Nicole Schultz, shares the impact the increase in recruiters will have on local families.

"But obviously with three recruiters, they're spread thin. But, if we can expand that to thirty we can be in the thousands for adoptions in Indiana" says Schultz.

Melissa Crace and her husband Ryan adopted their son Shane in 2019. They went through the Wendy's Wonderful Kids program to adopt their son. Crace says the process was made simple thanks to the support and guidance from a recruiter. Crace faced fertility issues and turned to adoption to make her dream of becoming a mother a reality.

"Shane's only been in our family for four years, but it feels like he's always been there. And even on the hard days because of autism and just life in general, I don't know where our lives would be without him" says Crace.

US citizens have adopted the second largest number of children from India during the pandemic year 2020, according the data released by the US State Department.

A total of 103 children between the age group of 1-17 years have been adopted from India by US citizens in 2020, and out of this, 76 are female children and 27 are male.

Last year was the lowest in terms of adoption of Indian children by the US. Before this, the lowest number of adoptions of Indian children by the US was in 2013, when only 119 children were adopted.

China tops all countries in terms of adoption by US citizens, and in 2020, a total of 202 children were adopted from China. Data further says that the maximum number of children who are adopted are in the age group of 1-2 years. In 2020, a total of 58 children, who were in the age group of 1-2 years, were adopted.

“Did you know? India is the second largest origin country for children adopted by U.S. families,” the US Embassy in India said in a tweet.