Birth father searched for him and his mother for two years in vain, living in sorrow and ill health until his death in 2009

Eight months after the poignant reunion of a PhD graduate with his long-lost Chinese birth family – following his adoption to the Netherlands three decades ago – he brought his Dutch father to China to visit his birth mother, envisioning a future filled with love and care from both families.

In early October, Gouming Martens, originally named Gao Yang, revisited his birth mother Wen Xurong’s home in Miyi county in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, accompanied by his adoptive father, Jozef Martens.

They received a warm welcome from Wen and her husband, whom she married in 2010 and with whom she has a teenage daughter.

Wen’s husband prepared local dishes for their guests, while Wen served food to her son and his adoptive father, a traditional gesture of hospitality in Chinese culture.

The practice specializes in Career/Business & Life coaching, Relationship therapy as well as trauma and addiction treatment through cognitive and hypnotherapy. The essence lies in increasing your (self) awareness, developing and strengthening the personality. Optimal use (learning) of your potential as well as developing your competencies are central.

My main goal is to provide insight and generate transformation in thought and behavior patterns partly from Systemic Psychology, Setups and NLP. In support, practical tools and assignments are provided that are easy to integrate into daily life. When the authentic identity of the person behind the person becomes visible, this will have a positive influence both individually and collectively in almost all areas of life.

In addition to coaching individual clients in my Practice, I also coach in-house for various (international) companies and institutions. My expertise lies in burn-out prevention and optimization of team dynamics, at various organizational levels.

Why the name Pankaja?

The name Pankaja refers in Sanskrit to the Lotus flower, from which the Hindu god Brahma was born. The Lotus is a sacred symbol in Indian mythology and represents the development of an individual. This flourishes when the petals unfold one by one and the core (the inner source) becomes visible. Brahma is also the god of Creation, the creating.

The end of China’s international adoption program has left adoptees with mixed emotions

This decision has affected not just families who wanted to adopt from China but also Chinese adoptees.

For Aili Montague, being a Chinese adoptee makes up a significant part of their identity.

Montague was adopted from the city of Huainan, China, in the Anhui province at around two and a half years old.

A now 18-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a 13-year-old girl in Hjallerup on 11 March. 

The North Jutland Police write this in a press release.

The defendant's defender, Mette Grith Stage , also confirms to Nordjuyske that the 18-year-old pleads guilty to murder.

Quickly arrested

The 13-year-old girl was found seriously injured at the heating plant in Hjallerup around 10 p.m. 

Condamnée à 10 ans de prison pour enlèvement d’enfants dans le cadre de fraudes à l’adoption, la Belgo-Congolaise de Namur Julienne Mpemba fait appel

Julienne Mpemba, une Belgo-Congolaise originaire de Namur, a été condamnée le mois passé à 10 ans de prison ferme pour fraudes à l’adoption. L’arrestation immédiate avait même été ordonnée. Julienne Mpemba va en appel du jugement.

Julienne Mpemba interjette appel. - D.R.

As the war on reproductive rights rages on, I can’t help but think of the battleground that both sides of the aisle have already conceded, the demilitarized zone of the reproductive rights conflict: adoption.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month, typically filled with heartwarming stories of children finding their “forever families.” Judges often refer to adoption proceedings as “the happiest day in court,” while politicians view it as a universally agreeable policy solution to unplanned pregnancies. But adoption is not the neutral area that we unquestioningly believe it to be—especially not for those like me, who, at 22 years old in my Indiana hometown, sat in panicked disbelief, staring at two pink lines that would alter the course of my life forever.

Fresh out of college, with no support from my baby’s father and still relying on my parents, I was thrust into a world of limited options and impossible choices. With abortion no longer an option and single motherhood feeling insurmountable and shameful under the weight of a conservative and religious mental framework, I turned to adoption.

Momentarily, I felt relief, believing it would solve my “problem” and maybe even redeem me from the perceived sin of premarital sex. Little did I know that choosing what society labels “the loving option” would expose me to an unregulated industry rife with predation.

Ranchi: Adoption process in the state has become increasingly difficult for prospective parents in recent times. The waiting duration has significantly lengthened, with families now having to wait between 2.5 to 3 years before being matched with a child. The waiting list in Jharkhand exceeds 3,000 families.

Govt agencies offer children aged between 0 to 6 years for adoption, comprising those who have been surrendered by their parents or found abandoned.

Sangita Sahay, a social worker at Karuna NMO, said, "Parents in line to adopt is more than the children available for adoption across the district. Since 2018, the number of families seeking to adopt has surged. Now, prospective parents are required to wait at least 2.5 to 3 years before they can adopt a child. These days, the lists from 2021 are being released.

"The current situation is evident at Ranchi's two adoption agencies. Karuna houses 18 children whilst Sahyog Village has seven children available for adoption. Adoption costs Rs 64,000, and agencies conduct post-adoption monitoring to ensure child welfare.

Alka Sharma, superintendent at Sahyog Village, said, "This number is likely understated, as many interested families do not even register with the agency, leaving a significant number unaccounted for. The demand for adopting both a baby girl and a baby boy are the same.

The Karnataka High Court recently quashed a criminal case against a woman booked for human trafficking, who allegedly sold her minor daughter for Rs 15,000 to a couple in Maharashtra as she was unable to maintain herself and her child.

In doing so the court noted that the woman had a "bonafide intention" to get the child adopted, even though the procedure was not followed adding that ingredients of the offence of trafficking were not made out. 

Justice K Natarajan allowed the petition filed by one Mandara and quashed the proceedings registered under Section 370 (Trafficking of a Person) read with Section 34 (common intention) IPC and Section 81 (Sale and procurement of children for any purpose) of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The FIR registered by the police on March 13, 2019 was based a complaint filed by the one Punith Kumar E., District Child Protection Officer alleging that the petitioner woman had sold her child to accused Nos.2 and 3. 

It was alleged that the petitioner is said to have married to one Girish and out of the wedlock, they begot a male child and the petitioner's husband deserted her and the child. Thereafter, it was alleged that she became intimate with another person named Venkatesh and out of that relationship, she delivered a female child on February 24, 2019.

Kathryn and Joshua Silvers allege gross negligence, medical malpractice led to their son's death at Discovery Ranch

The family of a boy who died at a teen residential treatment center in Mapleton is filing a notice of intent and notice of claim against the facility and others as a prelude to a possible malpractice claim.

Kathryn and Joshua Silvers are alleging in the notice that gross negligence, medical malpractice and systemic failures at Discovery Ranch Academy led to the death of their son, Biruk Silvers, on Nov. 5, according to a release from their attorney.

Kathryn Silvers addressed the allegations in a statement from the family during a virtual meeting Monday morning.

“In our efforts to get (Biruk) the help he needed, we placed him at Discovery Ranch Academy, believing their promises to us and at great expense to our family. We were assured we would be partners in his care and kept informed at every step of the way, but they broke that promise,” she said. “They kept us in the dark about the very things we needed to know to protect our son. On Nov. 5, 2024, a parent’s worst nightmare came true. Our son Biruk died (of) asphyxiation while in the care of Discovery Ranch Academy. And now, almost two weeks later, we know this is not an inevitable tragedy, it was a preventable one.”

Vidya Liselotte Sundberg’s albums will find tangible expression at a unique concert in Pune and Mumbai from next month on.

When they say the best songs come from a deep sense of pain and loss they could well be talking of Vidya Liselotte Sundberg. Born in Pune and adopted at three months by Swedish parents, she grew up in Gavle, Sweden. Her journey to becoming a jazz singer was one phase of her life. The next began when she set out to find her biological mother, equipped with something she was given at the age of 10 to 15 – a letter left for her by her biological mother before she relinquished her at an orphanage here.

Her adoptive parents had divorced, enhancing her vulnerability, but with the support of her Swedish partner and her son Vidya began her quest. It took many visits to India, herculean efforts, time and patience but at the age of 39 she finally traced her biological mother, filling all the blanks she had grappled with in her life. It also perhaps fortified her for the losses that lay ahead—of losing two mothers, both her biological and adoptive one, in the space of four years. This was when she turned completely to her music for answers—and they came rushing in taking the form of lyrics and songs that only a broken heart can feel and create. Today these songs have been strung together to form the basis of both her second and third albums—Papillon and Adi Shakti and will find tangible expression at a unique concert that Vidya has planned in Pune and Mumbai next month on, where she will weave in her life story within each number on stage.

Vidya went to London and started working on her album AdiShakti, inspired by the Adi Shakti mantra.

“Life has taken me on a rollercoaster. After some very fulfilling years with my biological mother I lost her. I returned to Gavle, where I had grown up. Covid struck and I started to spend more time with my music. I then learnt that my Swedish mother had cancer and my focus shifted to her. She died in 2022, one week after my second album—Papillon—was released. The very next day after her death this poem came up inside me, that I think I had been carrying for many years. It was Rumi’s—‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there…’,” recalls Vidya, who then went to London and started working on her album AdiShakti, inspired by the Adi Shakti mantra. The album was released in May this year.