Just 40 special needs children across the country were adopted from April 2018 to March 2019,

reveal government figures, highlighting societal bias and the reluctance of adoptive parents to take

on the responsibility of dealing with the challenges of disabilities minor and severe.

The 40 children accounted for 1.12 per cent of the 3,374 children adopted in 2018-19, according to

an RTI reply by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of the Women and Child

Sash Simpson now owns his own restaurant with a 'global' menu reflective of his upbringing

With crisp, white linen draping every table and a carefully curated menu, Sash is a new fine-dining restaurant located in the heart of Summerhill — a long way from Chennai, India, where owner and chef Sash Simpson spent his early years as a street kid abandoned by his birth family.

Simpson says being adopted felt like being given a second chance. (Sash Simpson)

"Being a street kid, a runaway, jumping on and jumping off trains, living on the streets, begging, stealing ... that's what life was for quite a bit of time," he told CBC's Our Toronto.

Around the age of seven, Simpson was cleaning up a movie theatre in exchange for a place to sleep. He stepped outside to get some air when workers at a local orphanage spotted him on his own, began questioning him and eventually took him in.

German police have identified a popular Asian food market in Berlin as an important way station in a global human trafficking network, Berlin media report. Many of the trafficking victims are minors.

German authorities believe a large Asian food market on the outskirts of Berlin is a way station for a human trafficking network bringing hundreds of people, including minors, from Vietnam to Western Europe.

Investigators told the public broadcaster RBB24 that organized criminal networks use the Dong Xuan Center, a wholesale market where about 250 traders from across Asia do business, and other locations in Berlin to bring people into Germany via Russia, the Baltic states and Poland.

"We have evidence that these cases are in association with other cases nationwide, and that with the use of criminal trafficking methods underage people are brought illegally to Germany to work in nail studios," Michael Bender, spokesman for the German Customs Office, told RBB.

Read more: Germany slow to tackle human trafficking, right evaluators told

The Delta State Government through the Ministry of Women Affairs has secretly placed embargo on children adoption in the state with a view to curbing child trafficking, DAILY POST can report.

When contacted for comments on the matter, the newly sworn-in Commissioner, Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Flora Alatan was not on seat.

However, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Gladys Peugeren in a chat with our correspondent in Asaba said she was not in the position to speak, noting that, “It is an internal issue.”

Peugeren pointed out that it is only newly sworn-in Commissioner, Ministry of Women Affairs, Flora Alatan that can address the press wondering how Our Correspondent got the information.

Meanwhile, Delta State Chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR has commended Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa for placing the embargo on children adoption.

South Africa: the doors of orphanages where abandoned babies fail

When the shrill alarm sounds in the Door of Hope orphanage in Johannesburg, all eyes are turned to a CCTV screen.

In the image, inside a "baby box", a metal cube embedded in the garden wall to collect abandoned children. Today is a false alarm. But the night before, when the alarm sounded, an infant was in the box. "A five-month-old boy, a healthy baby," says Francinah Phago, manager of this children's home run by the Door of Hope association. In 15 years, the former kindergarten teacher has seen dozens of children in this box installed in 1999.

About 3,000 children are abandoned each year in South Africa, according to the National Adoption Coalition. A figure that reflects only part of a problem that regularly makes headlines: often abandoned in their first weeks of life, sometimes in dangerous conditions, many children die before they are found again. According to specialists, the total number of drop-outs could rise to 10,000 per year.

"Baby F" is the 216th baby to join Door of Hope through this "hole in the wall". He is lucky, says Francinah, enjoying a rare moment of silence, while the seventeen toddlers of the house take a nap: "Many children are abandoned in the streets, on the side of the road, in parks or in toilets ". Like this infant dropped a few days earlier by the police, after being picked up in the street by a passer-by.

"I knew she was not trained, but she had this presence about her that you kind of just believed that she knew," an ex-volunteer the charity says.

Earlier this year, a women’s advocacy group in Uganda sued a U.S. missionary, accusing her of operating a nonprofit in Uganda as an unlicensed medical facility, leading "to the death of hundreds of children." Now the missionary is speaking up, saying the organization she founded had more than a 96 percent “success rate” at treating malnourished kids.

“Mistakes were made and lessons were learned, but mistakes and life lessons never resulted in the harm of any individual,” the missionary, Renee Bach, 30, told NBC News in an email.

By Bach’s own admission to NBC News, 119 children died in the facility between 2010 and December 2018 — a figure also cited in SHC’s internal documentation.

The two women suing Bach claimed that she was "seen wearing a white coat, a stethoscope and often administered medications to children in her care," even though Bach had no medical training.

Violation of children rights will not be tolerated, warned Child Welfare Committee (CWC) District Chairman Gurugubelli Narasimha Murthy.

She lost her husband and daughter, now she may lose her son!

Ad: MILAAP

Srikakulam: Violation of children rights will not be tolerated, warned Child Welfare Committee (CWC) District Chairman Gurugubelli Narasimha Murthy. Speaking to media at CWC office here on Thursday,he said that CWC was a statutory body established under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 (JJA) to

protect neglected, orphan, abandoned, disserted, missed, differently abled and mentally retarded children from exploitation. He added the CWC has ordered to close two childcare institutions (CCI) in Srikakulam city.

DIPLOMAT 'BRIBE' British ambassador denies claims she adopted an African child by bribing a controversial minister with a ‘substantial sum’

A BRITISH ambassador has denied claims she adopted an African child by bribing a controversial minister.

A Zimbabwe MP alleges Catriona Laing, 55, paid a “substantial sum” to the country’s ex-social welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira to flout adoption rules.

A British ambassador has denied claims she adopted an African child by bribing a controversial minister

Ms Laing adopted her daughter three, from a children’s home in 2017 when she was ambassador to Zimbabwe.

About 3,000 children are abandoned each year in South Africa

Johannesburg: When the alarm sounds at an orphanage in the Berea district of Johannesburg, all eyes turn to a video surveillance screen in the living room.

The screen is linked to a camera inside a metal box, built into the perimeter wall of the orphanage garden.

Today, it is a false alarm, but the night before, at about 8.30 pm, the alarm sounded and an abandoned baby was collected from the box.

"It was a boy, five months old and healthy," said Francinah Phago, the manager of the children's home run by the Door of Hope charity.

Abandoned children from Romania

With the fall of the communist regime in the 1990s, Romania opened up to international adoptions in a chaotic, unchecked context. Then, in the 2000s, to be able to join the European Union, the country introduced new, far more restrictive rules to stop abuses. As a result, thousands of children are still abandoned, but can no longer be adopted.

Reporter:

Fanny Lépine

Country: