Amanda Janssen's adoption papers contain a name and date of birth that are not hers. She still doesn't know who she is. She hopes one day to find her real mother through DNA. “If someone asks how old I am, I can't answer that question with certainty. And I don't know my real name either. Nor who my biological parents are.”

“I am not the person described in my adoption papers. All I know is that I am from Sri Lanka. It is almost impossible to explain to others what it means to me that I have lost my identity. It's in a part of my brain where there are no words at all. It has a big effect on me. Sometimes I don't even know who I am anymore. And I'm harder on myself than other people. Like I think: if they did this to me, then I should be able to handle anything.”

'Finally recognition'

“Recently it was in the news that intercountry adoption will be stopped for the time being, due to abuses in the past. People now want to make sure that things don't still go wrong. That in itself is good news, I no longer feel like a voice crying in the desert. I have presented so many facts with other adoptees before, and nothing was ever done about it. Now recognition has finally come.”

“But otherwise we are still at the same point where we were already. No concrete help has come for me and other people this has happened to. What I need is a foundation that's right, an adoption file that's right. In other words: identity recovery. A part of me now remains hidden in the mist. The way I put together, my character, the nature of the beast. It's always a bit of a gamble; from whom do I now have which traits? That applies to every adoptee, but if your papers are correct, then you have the choice to start looking.”

Posters with a search for a 13-year-old girl with name and picture hung up in several places - including at Korsør Library. Father misses help for his forcibly removed daughter.

She's found again, so when I'm done with my work, I'm going to go and peel the posters down again.

This is how it sounds from a 55-year-old man when Sjællandske calls the number on a poster hung at Korsør Library on Thursday morning. The headline is 'Wanted'. Including a name and picture of a dark-haired girl and the age of 13 years. At the bottom the phone number.

Anonymized

Sjællandske has chosen to anonymise both the father and the girl, although the 55-year-old father would otherwise like the municipality to be criticized for the efforts for the daughter by name.

EU fails to safeguard human rights

Friday, September 16, 2011

TWO current media topics suggest that Europe has a long way to go before we can consider ourselves civilised.

Mary Raftery’s excellent RTÉ documentary series “behind the walls” details past and ongoing problems within Ireland’s mental health sector; the second story relates to the alleged imprisonment of captive slave labourers in Britain.

While we are rightly concerned and appalled at what has happened in both instances, we seem less concerned as a European community with what is still happening within our borders. In 2004 an Amnesty International report into mental institutions in Romania detailed the use of captive slave labour to prop up an under-funded care system. Individuals who did not need to be in institutions were being retained in the system to carry out unpaid maintenance and facilities work, replacing an inadequate budget with slave labour. No significant reform of the Romanian mental health system has taken place in the interim; suffering as depicted in the RTÉ documentary still goes on today, within the borders of the EU.

Inter-Country Adoptions: Delhi High Court Asks Centre To Submit its Report On A Permanent Mechanism To Deal With Inter-Country Adoptions

The Delhi High Court has directed the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development,

Government of India to file a report before it regarding the manner and mode of creating a

permanent mechanism to deal with inter-country adoptions under Hindu Adoptions &

Maintenance Act, both direct and indirect, within a period of two months.

No more adoptions from abroad for two years, in order to be able to thoroughly reform the adoption procedure. Minister of the Family Wouter Beke (CD&V) kicks a lot of shins with that surprising proposal. Certainly against that of coalition partner N-VA. There they raze Beke's proposal to the ground, making a clash within the Flemish government inevitable.

Flemish Minister of the Family Wouter Beke surprised friend, but especially foe, yesterday by revealing his plans for intercountry adoption. Flanked by an expert, he plainly pleaded…

…

Wouter Beke argues for a general adoption break, but immediately receives criticism from Flemish coalition partners: "This is rash and ill-considered"

Minister of the Family Wouter Beke (CD&V) thinks an adoption break of two years is necessary. This is apparent from a memorandum that Beke will present to the Flemish government next week and which could view Het Laatste Nieuws. Beke assists a number of experts who have completed a report on intercountry adoption after two years and for whom such an adoption break is necessary. Bad idea, say coalition partners N-VA and Open Vld.

It took a lot of work, but the report was finally delivered. And just like in the Netherlands, the experts here immediately throw a bomb on the table. The current system of intercountry adoption is not good, according to them, and urgently needs to be adapted. According to the experts, adoption agencies have become dependent on subsidies that came with the adoptions. The more adoptions, the more money it raised. And that, they say, has led to “mistakes and malpractice” that many children have become victims of.

So it must be different. Starting with putting the best interests of the child first instead of that of the parents. According to the experts, intercountry adoption, where the child is removed from its cultural and religious environment, is not one of them. It should therefore only be possible if no alternative can be found in your own country.

“Immediate Shutdown”

Guys they are, but nice guys. They want to crown their years of love with a child, a baby of their own. But how do you get a baby as a gay couple? Adoption is the only option.

Because they absolutely want a baby of their own, an older child is not adopted and they have to look for a surrogate mother. He will, inseminated with the semen of one of the two, give birth to a child and give it to them after birth. The search for a suitable surrogate mother begins.

Co-aging with your best friend. Sounds like a dream scenario, it is, but actor Rick Paul van Mulligen (38) and his husband René (33), fathers of two children, sometimes run into the law as a modern family. Read it on Kek Mama .

They do not like a Dutch surrogate mother. Friends of those who have chosen this path had to deal with a surrogate mother after the birth of their child, who started to act very difficult. A surrogate mother from an Asian country is also not an option. It is true that you can find one relatively cheaply and easily in countries such as Thailand or Vietnam, but the young and poor women who act as surrogate mothers are often exploited. They don't want to cooperate.

On their quest they end up in the United States. There, surrogacy is well regulated by law and, as far as is known, there is no exploitation of women. A surrogacy followed by an adoption will be very expensive in the US, but because both men have a good salary, they can afford it.

A 1978 law tried to remedy adoption practices created to forcibly assimilate Native children. Now conservative lawyers are arguing that the law constitutes ‘reverse racism’

Members of the Mosakahiken Cree Nation hug in front of a makeshift memorial at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to honor the 215 children whose remains have been discovered buried near the facility, in British Columbia.

Members of the Mosakahiken Cree Nation hug in front of a makeshift memorial at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to honor the 215 children whose remains have been discovered buried near the facility, in British Columbia. Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

Mon 23 Aug 2021 11.23 BST

George Armstrong Custer of the Seventh Cavalry was infamous during the 19th-century Indian wars for riding into the enemy camp, holding Native women, children and elders hostage at gunpoint, and forcing the surrender of the tribe. He systematically attacked and captured civilians to crush Indigenous resistance, which is partly how he defeated the Cheyenne at the Battle of Washita River in 1868. Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho warriors later killed Custer as he fled after trying the same hostage-taking ploy at the Battle of Greasy Grass in 1876.

A mother has reunited with the son she relinquished custody to in hopes he’d find a better home.

Melanie Pressley spent more than three decades wondering about the son she put up for adoption. She said her questions were finally answered when she took a DNA test from 23andMe, which suggested a genetic match to her firstborn son – Greg Vossler.

Pressley gave birth to Vossler in 1988 at the age of 18 in Canton, Ohio. Not being able to care for him financially, she found an adoption agency that would later connect her son to a two-parent household.

With the adoption being closed, all Pressley was left with was a single photograph of her newborn son from the day after his birth.

"You go through a mourning period and yet live the rest of your life mourning," Pressley told Fox News, when recalling the time she spent without her son.

Here is some career advice by Alex Yuster, for our non-retired readers, based on experience! For those of us who are retired: Does it ring a bell?

Early career: make note of how your supervisors and other colleagues further along in their careers treat others. You’ll surely notice this anyway, and discuss it with your friends over coffee or a beer from time to time. Remember what you like, and what you don’t, about how these colleagues treat others – so you can apply these lessons when the time comes for you to lead others.

I’ve had mentors to whom I’m forever grateful; I’ve seen generosity and openness, and colleagues who have encouraged everyone to contribute. There have also been moments of humiliation or worse. You can learn a lot about leadership from all these experiences.

Mid career: I may have joined a long time ago, but some things about UNICEF culture do seem to remain the same. You often have room to innovate, to create your job, to convince others of a good idea. If you feel there is something that needs to be done within your area of professional responsibility, you should do all you can to make it happen. Yes, flexibility is important, but so is tenacity and the power of our convictions. My proudest accomplishment over my entire career [1] came from acting on such a conviction, finding and working with allies, often in other organizations, and keeping my focus to make it happen – often despite naysayers. A few others were the result of bold, quick actions. My few regrets involve instances when I did not act, was dissuaded, or gave up on an idea I knew mattered.

Mid/late career: As we advance up the career ladder in UNICEF, whether in management or technical areas (I did both), it becomes more and more important to focus on empowering others. This starts early on – from the first time you supervise even one person, and the responsibility just grows. While I find it personally rewarding, it is also the way to achieve the most. I guess this is obvious, but I wanted to state it here, since I would say that during my two final postings – as a Rep and then a PD section chief, most of my most significant professional contributions were a result of supporting the ideas and ambitions of my colleagues.