Amanda Lipitz's film, which follows three adopted American teenagers who discover they are related and embark on a journey to explore their Chinese roots, will be released Oct. 20.

“When you know where you come from, you can find the peace in your heart.”

That’s the thesis behind the upcoming Netflix documentary Found, which follows a trio of three American teenage girls – Chloe, Sadie and Lily – who find each other via the genetic lineage site 23andMe and discover that they are related and, coincidentally, all adopted. With the strength of their newfound bond, they decide to embark on the journey of returning to China – and exploring their origin stories – together.

The film’s director (and Chloe’s aunt), Amanda Lipitz (2017’s Step), reached out to the company My China Roots, which specializes in helping diaspora Chinese find long-lost relatives and trace their genealogical lineage. With the guidance of researcher Liu Hao, whose personal story has given her a deep empathy for China’s adopted daughters, Chloe, Sadie and Lily gain new insight into the circumstances of their early years, revisiting their orphanages and reuniting with the nannies who loved and cared for them.

“Asian American women are an extremely underrepresented group in film and television, and I’m sure that was a motivating factor to them,” said Lipitz of Chloe and her cousins’ decision to participate in the documentary. “It felt like a moment of ‘Let me tell my story. Let me show people that I’m here.'”

Family Power is a joint initiative of nine Dutch NGOs and their international partner NGOs spread over four continents. With an extensive research and communication program, these relatively small organisations want to show together how vulnerable children can still grow up in a safe, caring and permanent family.

Worldwide, more than 6 million children live in institutions such as orphanages and many more are at risk of losing their family. Of 80-90% of children in institutions, one or both parents are still alive.

Family-based care offers a solution.

What we do

Strengthening cross-border cooperation to improve protection and care for children worldwide

Body

Court of North Holland

Date of judgment

27-06-2018

Date of publication

Body

Court of North Holland

Date of judgment

27-06-2018

Date of publication

This article is the 18th in a series about Koreans adopted abroad. Apparently, many Koreans never expected that the children it had sent away via adoption would return as adults with questions demanding to be answered. However, thousands of adoptees visit Korea each year. Once they rediscover this country, it becomes a turning point in their lives. We should embrace the dialogue with adoptees to discover the path to recovering our collective humanity. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

I'm often asked by Western diplomats, "I know Korea had a problem with that issue in the past but is it still relevant these days?" Korean civil society and human rights groups have demonstrated a similar depth of understanding, "Wasn't that the legacy of the military dictatorship? With democratization, hasn't that already changed?" Rather than addressing the fundamental flaws and injustices of the legal system and legislation, these problems have been swept under the rug to be forgotten or ignored.

Korea's political landscape has changed since 1992 and now resembles a "democratic" presidential system. This progress has been complemented by economic growth that has elevated the level of social and cultural development of the country. Unlike in many other countries, a 1987 revision of the Constitution banned consecutive or multiple executive terms, limiting the president to a single five-year term. Critics have expressed frustration over the short term-limits that encourage presidents to prioritize short-term gains to secure their legacies. However, considering the times in which the revision was passed, the primary aim of the term limit was to prevent the re-emergence of prolonged dictatorial rule, which remained fresh in the minds of the people.

The democratization of Korea did not mark the end of tyranny but rather ushered in a new stage of struggle for human rights. We only need to look at world history to see that democratization does not guarantee an actual "democracy." Moreover, "democracy" does not automatically equate to the protection of human rights.

For the first time, the Belgian government risks being sentenced to reparations for crimes against humanity committed in the Congolese colony. "Apologies aren't enough."

Simone Ngalula (71), Léa Tavares Mujinga (78), Monique Bitu Bingi (72), Noëlle Verbeken (76) and Marie-José Loshi (74) stayed as metis children – children of Congolese mothers and Belgian fathers – together at the mission post of Katende, in Congo. Sixty years later, they are suing the Belgian state for kidnapping, assault, being separated from their families and taking away their identities. All on a racial basis, because of their skin color. The case will come before the Brussels civil court on Thursday.

"We don't want to have the entire colonization condemned," says Brussels lawyer Michèle Hirsch. "We ask that the Belgian government be ordered to repair the damage it has done to these women."

Children of sin

The so-called mulatto question troubled the colonial government from the beginning. Mixing between the varieties had to be avoided at all costs. God created the white and the black man, the devil made the 'mulatto', also called 'child of sin'. If they were born anyway, they had to be checked. By the middle of the twentieth century, missions were deployed all over Congo to help solve the 'problem'. The same happened in the mandated territories of Rwanda and Burundi.

Accused’s Wife Is Not The Child’s Mother

Minister of state for home Harsh Sanghavi told media that the police had identified and nabbed the father of the child, along with his wife, from Kota in Rajasthan. They are being brought to Gandhinagar.

CCTVs nailed it

Sanghavi said the accused Sachinkumar Dikshit was identified with the help of CCTV footage and technical analysis. He was identified by the car he used while abandoning the child outside the gate of Swaminarayan Gurukul Gaushala at 9.20pm on Friday night. “Sachin Dikshit is the father, but his wife is not the mother of the child. The identity of the child’s mother is not yet ascertained.”

Dikshit had fled Gandhinagar with his wife and parents on Saturday morning. His house was found locked when the police reached there.

Pennsylvania Act 101 and Other Adoption Intermediary Horror Stories – The Case for Unfettered Adoptee Access to Original Birth Certificates Without Government Interference

One of the most satisfying parts of my work is helping adoptees who have been emotionally abused and traumatized by overbearing government intrusion into their personal and private lives by forcing them to go through court-appointed search agents/intermediaries to get information about their pre-adoption history and to search for and contact families. In PA, we have Act 101, which was passed by the legislature in 2010 in a knee-jerk reaction to increasingly determined adoptee demands to restore access to original birth certificates (OBCs), the same as they had prior to 1985. There are a few other states that have these forced intermediary programs—most notably Maryland, Arizona and Michigan—and their rates of positive conclusions are abysmal, the same as Pennsylvania, about 50% according to written reports and legislative testimony. Needless to say, Act 101 has done nothing to quell the demands for Adoptee Rights—justice, equality and respect for adopted citizens, the same as enjoyed by PA-born people who were not adopted. In fact, the indignation over these intermediary programs is growing daily.

Here in PA, several counties have contracted out these “post-adoption intermediary services” to Catholic Charities (CC), which charges the adoptee up to $500 per search, and has absolute authority and discretion (even superseding a judge’s order) as to what they will do and whether and how much information will be given to the adoptee at the end of the search. This means that ALL post-adoption services, regardless of whether the adoption was handled by Catholic Charities or even if the parties are or ever were Catholic, are handled by an agency under the direct control and supervision of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. Can I hear a chorus of “Separation of Church and State, Conflict of Interest, Abuse of Power, Exploitation and Manipulation of Tax-Paying Adult Citizens!”? Amen!

Carol’s Bungled Search

This was the case with Carol. Born in Clinton County in 1978 and adopted to Centre County two years later, Carol dutifully went through the Centre County Court to ask for her non-identifying information (especially family health history) from the adoption file and the County CYS office and to initiate a search for her mother. The search aspect was referred to CC-Altoona. Thus began an almost year-long bureaucratic nightmare of stone-walling, non-communication, rudeness, and disrespectful dismissal of Carol’s needs and concerns (including serious medical conditions with her and her children). The CYS worker (who, incidentally, had known Carol and her adoptive family for many years) lied straight to her face, telling her “all the records have been destroyed, and I can’t tell you anything.” The CC-Altoona agent who conducted the search actually sent a letter to the WRONG woman (a much-younger cousin who had the same name as Carol’s mother), questioned this lady about her knowledge of the mother’s personal life and history, then called the 79-year-old mother at the nursing home where she is a resident to ask her—over the phone, mind you—about very detailed, private things. Are you as incensed as I am yet? Just wait, there’s more!

Four years after she and her husband were originally arrested, a Hunt County woman received a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of using her adopted children as slave labor in a puppy mill operation.

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday morning that Barbara Barrett of Greenville has been found guilty of Continuous Trafficking of a Child in Hunt County and received a sentence of 99 years in jail.

Barrett and her husband, Jeffery Barrett, are accused of abusing and neglecting their adopted children while forcing them to work in a puppy mill attached to their home. Both were charged with Continuous Trafficking of Persons. Paxton’s Human Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime Division assisted the Hunt County District Attorney in prosecution of Barrett.

As of Thursday morning prosecution was only proceeding against Barbara Barrett. Both had pleaded not guilty.

Prosecution on the felony indictments is under the jurisdiction of the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

A woman from Hettur in Sakleshpur taluk has appealed to the district administration to return her five-month-old baby daughter taken for adoption through an adoption agency in Hassan.

The 36-year-old hearing- and speech-impaired woman has approached the administration through her relatives. Her relatives alleged that the baby had been taken for adoption without her consent. She was allegedly forced to sign a document in English, which she could not follow. “She had been in depression since she was separated from the baby. We want the baby returned to her. She will take care of the baby”, said Bhagya, the woman’s sister.

The woman had lost her husband a few years ago. She had been working in agriculture fields for her living. A person who was also working with her befriended her and impregnated her. Later he allegedly abandoned her.

The woman gave birth to her baby at a primary health centre at Hettur in May this year. The hospital staff sent the woman and her baby to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Hassan, as there were none to take care of them.

The CWC gave the custody of the child to Tavaru Charitable Trust, an adoption agency, for care and protection. After taking clearance from the CWC, the child was put for adoption procedure through Central Adoption Resource Authority.