How one experiences being adopted is not in itself unimportant. However, the experiences are not strictly necessary to be able to discuss the system.

Artist Jorun Stiansen wants nuance in the debate about intercountry adoption.

As a critic, I do not believe that one or the other experience should have less space than another. After all, they are experiences. These are not the objects of criticism and scrutiny.

O delegaţie din Rwanda a ajuns zilele trecute în Maramureş pentru a purta câteva discuţii cu reprezentanţii autorităşilor judeţene pe tema protecţiei copilului. Aceştia au ajuns în judeţ la invitaţia directorului naţional HHC România, iar timp de câteva ore s-au ionteresat despre evoluţia sistemului din România.

La întâlnire a participat preşedintele Consiliului Judeţean Maramureş, Zamfir Ciceu, Damien Ngabonziza – preşedintele Consiliului Comisarilor, Comisia Naţională pentru Copii, afiliată Oficiului Primului Ministru şi supervizată de Ministrul Promovării Familiei şi Genului şi Claudine Marie Solange Nyinawagaga – director naţional Hope and Homes for Children Rwanda şi Ştefan Dărăbuş. Scopul vizitei lor în România este de a înţelege felul în care autorităţile române, la nivel central, regional şi local, au reuşit să adopte principiile reformei bazate pe dezinstituţionalizare, provocările cO delegaţie din Rwanda a ajuns zilele trecute în Maramureş pentru a purta câteva discuţii cu reprezentanţii autorităşilor judeţene pe tema protecţiei copilului. Aceştia au ajuns în judeţ la invitaţia directorului naţional HHC România, iar timp de câteva ore s-au ionteresat despre evoluţia sistemului din România.

La întâlnire a participat preşedintele Consiliului Judeţean Maramureş, Zamfir Ciceu, Damien Ngabonziza – preşedintele Consiliului Comisarilor, Comisia Naţională pentru Copii, afiliată Oficiului Primului Ministru şi supervizată de Ministrul Promovării Familiei şi Genului şi Claudine Marie Solange Nyinawagaga – director naţional Hope and Homes for Children Rwanda şi Ştefan Dărăbuş. Scopul vizitei lor în România este de a înţelege felul în care autorităţile române, la nivel central, regional şi local, au reuşit să adopte principiile reformei bazate pe dezinstituţionalizare, provocările cu care s-au confruntat şi se confruntă, dar şi soluţiile găsite acestor probleme. Rwanda este ţara care a făcut cele mai vizibile progrese pe linia dezinstituţionalizării, proces care a fost încurajat şi sprijinit de HHC din 2010.
 

Guvernul Rwandei şi-a asumat construcţia unui sistem de protecţie a copilului bazat pe comunitate şi familie. Pentru a le susţine eforturile de reformă, HHC a invitat factori implicaţi în acest proces, să facă o vizită în România. Preşedintele CJ Maramureş le-a prezentat oaspeţilor felul în care funcţionează sistemul de protecţie a copilului în Maramureş, care sunt instituţiile implicate în acest proces, dar şi problemele cu care acestea se confruntă. „Sistemul de asistenţă socială în România are prea puţin personal. Dacă am avea suficienţi asistenţi maternali, suficiente persoane implicate în acest sistem şi calitatea serviciilor ar putea creşte. Am participat, alături de primul-ministru, la inaugurarea unui proiect social de către ASSOC, care presupune incluziunea socială a persoanelor cu dizabilităţi. E important ca acestea să fie integrate, să fie active, pentru că pot constitui o forţă de muncă, pot fi implicaţi în activităţi potrivite abilităţilor lor“, a spus Zamfir Ciceu. 

Six adopted children, once trapped, are now safely home with their American parents through private rescue efforts—while many others remain stranded in Haiti amid worsening violence and a lack of support from government authorities.

Grey Bull Rescue’s staff members and two American adoptive families pictured after landing at the Tampa International Airport with two 6-year-old adopted girls from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 30, 2025. Photo Credit: Adoptive families.

Overview:

n September of 2022, at the start of her senior year at Indiana’s Purdue University, Mia Griffin was working in her bedroom, laptop propped up on her knees, when an e-mail came in from 23andMe saying that her genetic testing was completed. Mia was not in a hurry. She’d bought the kit a year before, when she’d seen a sale on Amazon. It was an impulse buy for which her enthusiasm had quickly waned. It took months before she got around to spitting into the tube and mailing it back in the prepaid package.

When she logged on, all seemed as anticipated. The test listed her ancestry as 99.9 per cent East Asian and Indigenous American. (At the time, the two were lumped together by the company.) No great surprise there—she had been adopted in 2002 from China, one of more than a hundred and sixty thousand children sent abroad to the United States and other countries in the course of three decades. Not knowing her family’s medical history, she had taken the test mainly to find out if she had a heightened genetic risk for cancer, and she was relieved to learn that she did not, although the test showed a propensity for lactose intolerance and an allergy to cats, two things she already knew about.

Mia knew that finding family was a possibility, but it wasn’t on her mind. She clicked anyway on the tab that listed genetic relatives. There it was at the top of the list: Zhou Changqi, born in 1956.

“You inherited half of Zhou Chang’s DNA,” the report stated. “Predicted relationship—Father.”

While cancelling the bail granted to thirteen accused persons in several cases involving inter-State trafficking of minors, the Supreme Court criticised and expressed its disappointment with how the State of Uttar Pradesh did not challenge the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court despite the matter involving crimes of a serious nature. We are thoroughly disappointed with the manner in...

Oana Sârbu, one of the most beloved artists of the '80s-'90s generation, is living a different story today: that of a devoted, discreet mother deeply anchored in the life of her adopted son, Alexandru. The boy is 16 years old today and is the result of a choice made with her heart more than a decade ago – a choice that changed her life forever. And the story behind this adoption reveals a sensitive and deeply emotional side of the artist.
 

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1 Alexandru, the boy who changed Oana Sârbu's life 

2 A family story that began with two: Oana Sârbu and Robert Turcescu 

2.1 Robert Turcescu, another life, another marriage 

Students who hide their pregnancy under thick sweaters and give birth alone, it still happens in the Netherlands. Stichting Beschermde Wieg, which helps women in all phases of an unwanted pregnancy, has seen the group of students grow in recent years. ‘Above all, these women want to prevent parental interference.’

It sounds like a story from another time. Yet last year a student gave birth alone in her student house. She immediately went out onto the street to give the baby up for adoption, wrapped in a blanket.

Kitty Nusteling, operational director at the Beschermde Wieg foundation, has seen these types of students more and more in recent years. ‘Sometimes they take another exam the following week.’ Every year, around 1,500 women contact the Beschermde Wieg foundation for help in all phases of pregnancy. This can involve a listening ear, advice, shelter or medical support, or giving babies up for adoption. This year, the foundation has already facilitated seven births of women who wanted to give their child up for adoption, three of whom were still studying. Two of those births were in Amsterdam.

Whether this also means that the number of students in the Netherlands who hide a pregnancy is increasing is difficult to say. However, Nusteling does see more women who only use natural contraception, methods to prevent pregnancy without hormonal agents, which are less reliable. Nusteling. 'In addition, there is always a number X, the women who do not report to us. Research shows that women who want their child never to be found succeed in their plan.'

The 13-year-old allegedly conspired with two men to kill her adoptive mother over her opposition to the relationship and to gain control of her property.

In Short

• Victim opposed girl's ties with older men Ganesh Rath and Dinesh Sahu
• Girl, 13, conspired with 2 men to gain control over Rajalaxmi's property
• Murder covered up by claiming heart attack, body cremated in Puri

A teen and her two male friends were arrested in Odisha for the murder of the woman who had adopted and raised her since infancy. The victim, 54-year-old Rajalaxmi Kar, was allegedly smothered to death on April 29 at her rented home in Gajapati district.

Police say the girl, just 13 years old, conspired with Ganesh Rath, a temple priest, and Dinesh Sahu to kill Rajalaxmi over her opposition to the relationship and to gain control of her property. The teenager was allegedly in a relationship with Rath and Sahu.

While there was a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest official data, there has been a continued positive trend, with record 4,515 child adoptions in FY 2024-25, the highest since 2015-16.

A couple from Arizona, USA adopted a 15-month-old baby from Dhanbad in Jharkhand. Credit: iStock Photo New Delhi: Neeraj's (name changed) note to his mother was simple yet profound: "I love you Mom because you take me out to play." Neeraj's words have been the culmination of a journey that began four years earlier, when he was born with a condition called "knock knees" and left at a Child Care Institution just a day old. He was put up for adoption, and for years, families hesitated, often discouraged by his medical condition.

2021, when a couple saw him not as a problem to be solved, but as "their child." Since then, Neeraj's life has transformed. His new parents enrolled him in swimming lessons to help with his legs, took him for regular check-ups, and showered him with love. Today, he is thriving, learning to swim, acting in school plays, and mastering parkour

Neeraj's journey is not an isolated one 

In India, there has been a noticeable surge in adoption numbers over the past decade, with their number increasing from 3,677 in 2015-16 to 4,027 in 2018-19.
While there was a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest ofcial data, there has been a continued positive trend, with record 4,515 child adoptions in FY 2024-25, the highest since 2015-16

As of the current nancial year, 420 children have already been adopted from the Orphan/Abandoned/Surrendered (OAS) category.

Of these, 342 children were adopted by Resident Indian (RI) parents, eight by Non-Resident Indians (NRI), six by Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), and 11 by foreigners.

The New York State Senate adopted a resolution commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, introduced by Senator Jeremy Cooney, who celebrates his Indian origin. “Today, I had the privilege of introducing a Senate resolution to recognise the 75th Anniversary of the Indian Constitution. As an orphan from Kolkata, India, I'm incredibly proud to celebrate our Indian heritage and this important landmark with my colleagues and all New Yorkers,” Senator Cooney posted on X.

“I am introducing this resolution in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, a time to celebrate Indian independence and the many brave Indians who risked their lives for the betterment of their fellow countrymen,’ Cooney said during his address.

“As many of my colleagues know in the Senate, I was adopted from an orphanage in Calcutta and throughout my life, I have worked very hard to maintain a strong connection with India and Indians in my community. That connection continues today as we honour the 75th anniversary of the Indian Constitution,” he stated.

What Jeremy Cooney revealed about his birth and birth mother

Cooney has extensively spoken about his Indian origin. In 2018, he penned his birth story in a blog, though he said he does not know much of it. "I don’t know much about my birth mother, but I know she was alone. She came to my orphanage, the International Mission of Hope Society, pregnant and unable to keep her child. She was able to stay at the Christian mission and deliver me under medical supervision. I was born weeks later with only a first name. No substantial records were kept, assuring her anonymity," he wrote.

He was adopted by his single mother Anne when she was 40. "Years later, I would return to that same orphanage as Jeremy Cooney, with my (adopted) mother, Anne. Single and at the age of 40, my mother took a chance and adopted a little brown boy from across the globe. She did so in the name of love. Nevertheless, it was risky at the time. I was first Indian male adoptee from India in upstate New York," he wrote.