The 88-year-old priest decided to return to the United States for health reasons and after receiving death threats from Islamic extremists. A defender of the tribal north of the country, he has published hymns and prayers in the Garo language. He founded at least 30 schools to give children an education.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) – Thousands of Catholics and tribal Garo greeted Fr Eugene Eduard Homrich, a 88-year-old missionary of the Holy Cross, who left Bangladesh yesterday after 60 years of work in the country.

On 12 August, parishioners organised a party in a church in Pirgacha, Tangail district (northern Bangladesh). In greeting him, a young Catholic said, "I thank you Father because you have sacrificed yourself for the Garo people. May God bless you and be with you, always. Thank you so much."

Fr Eugene Eduard Homrich was born in Michigan in 1928 and arrived in Bangladesh in 1955. After learning the Bengali language, he served for three years in the diocese of Dhaka, an ethnically Bengali area. In 1959 he moved to JalchatraPparish, diocese of Mymensingh, where he remained until 1992. He was then sent to Pirgacha Parish, in the same diocese, and stayed there until now.

A few months ago, Fr Eugene received death threats from radical Muslims. For this reason, and because of his health, he decided to return to the US.

In November 2016, Aggarwal happened to see a photo of a nine-day old baby boy. “A relative of mine had planned to adopt the boy. But later they decided to have a baby by in vitro fertilisation (IVF),” said Aggarwal.

Seventeen months after Abhinav and Rekha Aggarwal lost custody of their son following allegations of illegal child trafficking, the family was reunited when a city civil court declared the Aggarwals legally adoptive parents of four-year-old Yatarth. On December 7, Yatarth was reunited with his parents after spending more than a year in a state-run orphanage. Even as they celebrate, the Aggarwals are keenly aware that Yatarth has borne the brunt of this case. “I accept I had committed a crime, and so did those who offered the baby to me. But the child was not at fault. He [Yatarth] became the victim in this case,” said Delhi-based businessman, Abhinav Aggarwal.

On July 5, 2019, the Aggarwals’ lives were turned upside down when Mumbai Police’s crime branch took their three-year-old adopted son Yatarth away and booked Aggarwal, 42, and his wife Rekha, 40, for illegal child trafficking. The shocked Aggarwals were among seven couples charged by Mumbai Police as part of its investigation into a child trafficking racket.

In November 2016, Aggarwal happened to see a photo of a nine-day old baby boy. “A relative of mine had planned to adopt the boy. But later they decided to have a baby by in vitro fertilisation (IVF),” said Aggarwal.

He and Rekha have a daughter, who was 15 years old at the time, and they decided to adopt the baby boy in the photo.

24 children adopted till November this year

The pandemic seems to have had little bearing on adoption in the district, with 24 children having been adopted till November.

This was equal to the total number of adoptions last year. A majority of adopted children were in the 0-to-four age group, and one child was adopted by a single parent from outside the State.

The pandemic has, however, forced the District Adoption Committee to shift its meeting to Google Meet. “The window for document verification and meeting between adopting parents and the potential adoptee has been extended from the previous 20 to 30 days in view of the pandemic,” said M.K.P. Hafzeena, protection officer (non-institutional care) District Child Protection Unit.

It helped that the Ministry of Women and Child Development had shifted the adoption procedure online long before the pandemic, with applications having to be submitted over the portal of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

After working for the welfare of local Mandi (Garo) and other ethnic minority people for 57 years in Madhupur upazila of Tangail, Father Eugene Homrich is returning to his home country USA.

Homrich, the parish priest of Saint Pauls Darmopalli, a mission at Pirgachha in Madhupur upazila, left for Dhaka on Saturday morning and he is supposed to fly to the USA today.

Born in Michigan City in USA in 1928, Father Homrich came to Madhupur in 1959 and started preaching Christianity alongside arranging education and healthcare for the ethnic minority people in Madhupur Garh region after establishing Jalchhatra Mission.

He gave shelter to many freedom loving people during the 1971 Liberation War and after the country's independence, he was given recognition as a freedom fighter.

A farewell function for Homrich was organised at Saint Pauls Darmopalli, about 20 kilometres from the Madhupur upazila headquarters on Friday.

The state government is launching a foster care scheme under which citizens can parent children from state-run child care institutions for a limited period of one to three years. The scheme is being implemented as a pilot project in five districts including Mumbai suburban. The government has invited applications from interested parents.

Maharashtra has about 450 government-run institutes that house thousands of children who are either orphaned or whose parents are unable to raise them. Children living in these child-care institutions and between the ages of 7 to 18 may be placed with families under the foster care scheme.

“The basic principle of the Juvenile Justice Act is non-institutional parenting of children. Besides the adoption scheme, this is an opportunity for the children to live with the unrelated families albeit for a limited period. Their stay in the families will help them their qualitative growth,” said Manisha Birasis, program manager of the integrated child protection scheme and assistant commissioner, department of women and child development.

Birasis said district-level committees comprising district women and child welfare officers, child protection officers, members of the child welfare committee and protection officers of non-institutional care will look into the background of the family who apply to foster children. “There will be strict monitoring every 15-30 days by us with the help of interaction with the principals of the schools, neighbours of the family and with the child itself. Children in conflict with the law, those living in observation homes and those in the age group of zero to six years are excluded from the scheme. The first category is excluded for security reasons, while children younger than six years have prospects of permanent adoption, which is our top priority. Children from child care institutes and in the age group of six-18 years are being placed in this scheme, among which our first preference will be the children between six-10 years,” she said.

Explaining the difference between adoption and foster care, Birasis said adoption gives parents the rights of biological parents while foster care is temporary and the parents have no legal rights over the child.

Today the court ruled in the case of Dilani Butink, born in Sri Lanka and adopted in the Netherlands. Butink found out during a trip to Sri Lanka in 2015 that her birth papers are incorrect. Butink sued because she believes the state and adoption agency that brokered her adoption made serious mistakes. Today the judge ruled that she has been late. The case is barred after twenty years. According to Defense for Children, this is a disappointing statement with major consequences for other adoptees and also for children who are still internationally adopted.

Limitation period

According to the judge, the limitation period started when, among other things, Butink's papers in Sri Lanka were forged. That means that within twenty years after that, she should have held the state and the adoption agency liable. According to Defense for Children, this is unreasonable. A baby or young child cannot claim to have been unlawfully adopted and often cannot go to court themselves. In addition, in cases of potentially faulty intercountry adoptions that are reported to the Children's Rights Helpdesk of Defense for Children, we see that adoptees are now twenty, thirty or forty years old if they find out that the adoption file is incorrect, or if they have their biological parents found and it turns out that they never wanted to give them up. According to Defense for Children, the statute of limitations should not start from the moment of improper adoption, but from the moment an adoptee finds out that there have been irregularities.

Immediately go to court

The judge also indicated that Butink could have held the state and the adoption organization liable earlier, now that she found out in 2015 that her papers were incorrect. Reports of irregularities had also appeared in the media before. In practice, Defense for Children sees that an adoptee does not immediately go to court. First, an attempt is made to obtain information from the country of origin, from the adoption organization in the Netherlands and from the Ministry of Justice, the central adoption authority. Here, adoptees often get no action after many referrals. It takes some time. It often also takes some time for an adoptee to investigate the full extent of the wrongful adoption. In addition, it is often emotionally difficult for adoptees, because their identity seems to be incorrect and the adoption story is faltering. Time is also needed for the full meaning of the wrongful adoption to become known. It is therefore very understandable that Butink only later gathered sufficient information and courage to go to court for these reasons. It is not reasonable to say that she should have done this earlier.

The policy has come into possession of internal notes from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Interior, which show that Astrid Krag is considering a state model for international adoption. Parties fear the consequences.

In response to the article in Trouw today about the possible involvement of Terre des Hommes in abuses with adoptions from Bangladesh in the 1970s, Terre des Hommes would like to emphasize that it appreciates that former employees of Terre des Hommes make their voices heard. Terre des Hommes is investigating the case and is in contact with the adoptees.

Diffuse situation

Terre des Hommes appreciates that former employees such as Elly and Mart van den Berg are stepping forward to provide better insight into what happened 40 years ago with regard to intercountry adoptions from Bangladesh. At the moment, Terre des Hommes is looking indoors for all relevant information that can clarify the diffuse period back then.

Reception in your own country

The focus of Terre des Hommes has always been to care for orphans or children who cannot be brought up within their own family in their native country and to help build their future.

First Name:

Melkamu

Surname:

Frauendorf

Position:

COLOMBO - A boy who went missing when a deadly tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004 has been tracked down by his mother after years of searching the eastern part of the country, police reported Tuesday.

The boy, identified as Akram Rizkhan, was 5 years old when the tsunami devastated his village of Karativu, 367 km east of the capital, on December 26.

The child was initially admitted to a hospital in the area and then adopted by a family, the boy's mother said.

“I searched for my son for years, but could not find him. I appealed to the president and sought help from the police, ”she told reporters after the reunification.

DNA test