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Sele Enat moved to Layla facility

OPPORTUNITY HOUSE

In March 2007 AAI opened Opportunity House (OH), a home designed to serve children with special needs in Addis Ababa. Start-up costs were provided by a generous grant from the Margaret T. Biddle Foundation. Three years later, in 2010, OH was officially sanctioned by the Ethiopian government as a model program improving the holistic well-being of children with developmental disabilities.

The dozen or so children living at Opportunity House have a variety of disabilities including autism, blindness, deafness, and developmental delays. AAI also partners with nearby orphanages to care for several children with similar issues. Many of the children referred to the OH program have families who are unable to assist with the challenging daily needs of their child. These children are not eligible for adoption. The ultimate goal is for children to be reunited with their birth families. In 2011-2012 several children did indeed go home to improved lives with their families!

Treatment is highly individualized and designed to help each child reach his/her maximum developmental potential. Caring professionals provide speech, physical, and occupational therapy, as well as training for the staff and families responsible for the ultimate care of the child. Slowly but surely the stigma surrounding special needs is giving way to empathy and appropriate educational and therapeutic programs.

We have seen evidence of great progress! Children who were silent have begun to speak; those who were immobilized are sitting and walking with the help of intensive therapy; and all are learning to interact with others and communicate their needs appropriately.

Organizations: Adoption Advocates International (AAI) WA, Sele Enat Mahiber, Ethiopia, Layla House

HAS PRESIDENT JAMMEH SACRIFICED SOS BABY ADOPTED BY THE FIRST LADY AS A RITUAL?

A newly born Gambian baby, who was dumped by her mum immediately after labor, and was “adopted” by Gambia’s First Lady Zeinab Suma Jammeh back in 2000, has disappeared—amid speculations that the dictator might have allegedly sacrificed the girl as a ritual. The baby was being taken care of by a foster parent at the Bakoteh Children’s village, where the First Lady offered to adopt the baby as her parent. At the time, her daughter baby Mariam Jammeh needed a company, and she thought that the best way to keep her child entertained was to become a foster parent.

Zeinab left the State House under the company of Fatou Jahoumpa Ceesay, Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang, and a handful of her protocol staff to the Children’s village to ask the SOS management to help allow her adopt the abandoned new born baby. Management agreed, and she later showed up with a pregnant goat, bag of rice, cooking oil and Cola-nut to christen the baby.

The SOS staff, including the foster parents at the SOS threw a party for the child. The baby was named after the President’s wife Zeinab Souma Jammeh. The goat that was brought by Zeinab died, when a heavy storm hit the SOS village, a source said.

Fatou Jahoumpa Ceesay, and Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang played a crucial role towards the baby’s adoption. Nyimasata used to work with the SOS as a Social case worker prior to joining the Jammeh regime. She was very familiar with the SOS.

The First Lady came to pick up the child a month after the naming ceremony. She told the girl’s foster parent that she was going to take her to the State House to keep her daughter accompany. This tells you that Jammeh has no family in the Gambia to interact with his daughter. They had to adopt an abandoned child to keep baby Mariam accompany. There is nothing wrong with Zeinab adopting an abandoned kid, but the circumstances surrounding the child adoption raises a red flag. There was no legal paperwork signed to account for the adopted child.

For eleven solid years, the SOS adopted child is nowhere to be seen around Zeinab’s kids. The baby was last seen by the SOS management when Zeinab, FJC and Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang came to adopt her.

Concerned parties approached the Freedom Newspaper asking for help to locate the adopted SOS girl. The parties concerned said they were present when the First Lady was accompanied by Fatou Jahoumpa Ceesay, and Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang asking the SOS Management for the baby to be adopted by Zeinab.

During our investigations, we interviewed numerous sources within the Jammeh State House. One insider said he was aware of the child adoption. The insider said after adopting the child, the First Lady decided to give the baby to her aunty one Hadija. Hadija raised Zeinab when she was poor child. She has not been blessed with a child in her lifetime, the insider said.

According to the State House insider, the baby was never hosted at the State House, contrary to Zeinab’s initial impression that she was going to raise her with Mariam. The baby was staying with Hadija at a property within the Greater Banjul Area, the insider tells the Freedom Newspaper. He said Hadija will occasionally bring the baby to the State House to interact with baby Mariam.

“The baby later stopped coming to the State House. I don’t know where she is right now. I don’t know whether she is alive, or has been sacrificed by the President,” the insider said.

“ I do know for a fact that the President worships idols. He has “Jalangs” in Kanilai. One Faye Bojang has been assigned by Jammeh to pour alcohol on the “Jalangs” on every Thursday and Friday. This has been a routine practice. Even whereas the President is away, Faye Bojang must pour alcohol on the Jallangs. The President worships idols,” the source said.

Countries: The Gambia

Organizations: SOS Villages (SOS Kinderdorf)

Cambodia reopens adoptions by Americans

Published: Oct. 30, 2012 at 9:14 AM

Countries: Cambodia, United States of America

Persons: Susan S. Jacobs

Russia demands US grant access to adopted child subject to abuse

© RIA NovostiTags: Abuse, Adoption, The Foreign Ministry, U.S12:50 30/10/2012MOSCOW, October 30 - RAPSI. Moscow has demanded that the U.S. authorities grant Russian consulate employees unlimited access to Maxim Babayev, who was subject to abuse from his U.S. foster family, according to a statement by foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.Maxim's adoptive parents were arrested in Brevard, Florida on suspicion of child abuse last year. The court later closed the case.

In September, Russian diplomats requested a full explanation from the US authorities and details of the boy's whereabouts so that they could meet with him.The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the ruling recently passed by the Brevard District Court, Florida, refusing to grant the Russian consulate access to Babayev contradicts the provisions of the Consular Convention between the Soviet Union and the United States of 1964.

Zakharova said that the Brevard District Court ignored Moscow's request to grant Russian consulate employees unlimited access to Babayev, and instead recommended talking with Maxim's temporary guardian over the telephone.

Countries: Russia, United States of America

European Yoga Porn 'Cult' Establishes a U.S. Beachhead: Where Is the Outrage?

Posted: 10/30/2012 12:00 pm

It calls itself the "Movement for Spiritual Integration in Absolute" -- or MISA -- and is reputedly the largest "yoga" movement in Europe, claiming some 40,000 members in more than a dozen countries. But it's actually a dangerous personality cult whose "supreme spiritual leader," Gregorian Bivolaru, has been accused of coercing or seducing hundreds of vulnerable women into producing hard-core porn videos, abandoning their spouses, and in some cases, becoming strippers and prostitutes -- all in the name of "liberating" the female body and bringing MISA members into intimate communion with the "Divine Goddess."

On its face, the group might sound like an obvious fraud, even a criminal one. But it has escaped prosecution to date, in part because Bivolaru, who first founded MISA in his native Romania in 1990, was persecuted under communist rule. For years many of his countrymen, including influential members of the Romanian elite, as well as human rights groups like Amnesty International, have treated Bivolaru as a "victim" worth defending. Thousands of Romanians have marched and protested on MISA's behalf, and after the communist regime fell, and the new authorities still decided to arrest him -- this time, on sex crime charges -- Bivolaru somehow escaped from prison and wound up in Sweden. There, after what most independent observers consider a sham investigation, the Swedish government granted him political asylum.

The full extent of MISA's alleged criminal activities may never be known. However, based on testimony from group defectors -- first presented on the website, exmisa.org -- MISA's development parallels that of other, more notorious yoga cults. One obvious forerunner is the movement surrounding the Indian mystic Bhagwan Rajneesh (aka "Osho") that flourished in the late 1980s, just as MISA was getting started. Bivolaru, like Rajneesh, has claimed a special channel to the Divine Source that endows him with God-like powers, including the ability to channel spiritual energy and telepathic insights to his followers viamass gatherings and virtual "hook ups" that appear intended to induce MISA followers to surrender their will and identity -- and in some cases, their life savings -- to their beloved "guru."

Organizations: The Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) aka Natha-Denmark, Tara-US, Satya-India

Why Child Welfare Committees need to be overhauled

New Delhi: On an average two babies are abandoned daily in Delhi. If they are found in time they end up in the care of Child Welfare Committees (CWC). Given a new study done by the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) found that among the issues plaguing CWCs include a lack of infrastructure, poor record maintenance, callous attitude of members and violation of rules; questions are being raised about the quality of care these institutions can provide.
CWCs are quasi judicial bodies responsible for conducting inquiries required to rehabilitate children, monitoring the functioning of children homes and declaring children legally free for adoption. Out of 463 CWCs in the country, seven are located in the national capital and each committee deals with 800 to 1200 cases annually.
The DLSA reports suggests that these committees are not equipped to handle cases of ‘extremely vulnerable children who have to be dealt with great care and sensitivity’.
To begin with, the study notes, CWC members are not trained to make decisions in the best interest of children. No training and orientation has been imparted to the chairperson or members of CWCs as mandated by law.
One of the consequences of lack of training is the callous attitude of Committee members while restoring the child to those who approach them claiming to be parents.
“While restoring child to a family, committee members verify documents in a casual manner and in some cases, the child is handed over to the claimant without checking his or her identity,” the study notes.
To substantiate its observation that CWCs have abdicated their responsibility while returning a child, DLSA cites the case of a baby found in a cradle at Palna and produced before the CWC. The next day, the baby girl was released to a woman named Bhagwati, who claimed to be her maternal grandmother. The release was made without any verification or investigation by the police.
In another instance, where a girl who had eloped voiced fears of going back to her family, the DLSA report notes that the CWC seemed to have sent her back to the family without passing any orders for follow up action to ensure the safety of the girl.
Similarly, no efforts are made in the case of missing children who run away from their homes repeatedly, to find out what the problem is, and if the child is in need of protection. The CWCs are fully empowered to keep children from a troubled home for a short while in a children’s home/ boarding school with a proper care plan, to ensure the safety and welfare of the child.
Not surprised by the findings of DLSA report, child rights experts say that there is a case for the overhaul of CWCs and make their functioning independent from the government.
“These bodies have been reduced to administrative structures. We should make changes in the selection criteria of committee members and insist on their training,” says Bharti Ali, co- director of Delhi based NGO, Haq centre for child rights. Haq’s study of CWCs also highlighted similar anomalies.
Anant Asthana, lawyer, who specialises in child rights, says, “Quality of functioning of CWCs depend on the knowledge, skills, capacity of its members and chairpersons, among several other factors. With a composition which changes every three years, the quality is bound to suffer.”
“We should liberate CWCs from ad hoc decisions, restore their independence from direct government control and put in place a system of training and monitoring, as is the case with lower judiciary,” he added.
The recent spurt of sexual abuse cases in child care institutions is also linked to the poor functioning of CWCs. More than 29,000 children live in 638 child care institution (meant for short and long stays) or children homes registered under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 (JJ Act), says the data with the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. According to JJ Act, the inspection committee for such institutions should consist of representatives from the state government, voluntary organizations, medical experts and CWC members.
But the CWCs do not conduct regular visits, citing work pressure, and do not maintain records of the inspections carried out.
“The absence of such regular inspections have resulted in the conditions prevailing in the children homes as was found in Apna Ghar,” said the report, referring to the children’s shelter in Haryana which grabbed national headlines in June this year after inmates complained of sexual abuse.
In several cases, CWCs keep extending the child’s stay in a CCI for months based only on the presentations made by the representatives of that CCI. In case a child is not produced before the CWC on a given date, chances are that the committee would not make a note.
“The CWCs do not maintain proper files and the order sheets (so called) are placed haphazardly so much so that the first orders passed upon the production of the child before the CWC are not traceable in many cases. CWCs have no clue as to the number of children who are to be produced before them on a particular date. Nor do they have any information as to whether or not a child who was to be produced on a specified date has in fact been produced,” observes DLSA.

Countries: India

Foster care: It’s time to think out of the box

Being blind followers of the West, even in matters of child care, may lead us down a dark alley, writes Suranya Aiyar

In sharp contrast to Western conventions for reportage of children, the pictures and names of Abhigyan and Aishwarya were freely used in our media in articles about their escapade with foster care in Norway. But that was not necessarily a bad thing for the ill-starred Bhattacharyas.

The images of little Aishwarya driving away from New Delhi airport showing her unmistakeable resemblance to her mother Sagarika, made an eloquent proclamation of where she came from and whom she ought to be with. The footage of the radiant smiles of the mother and grandmother, when they were finally able to meet the children in India were a testament, if any was needed, to their great joy at their return. Watching them, we smiled with them and felt their happiness. Admittedly, some of us did not smile, and rather felt our impatience at the media over-kill. Nevertheless, such public empathy for the family as was generated by the free media access to them was of no small value to the Bhattacharyas. In the situation in which the Bhattacharyas found themselves, cornered by a widely respected and powerful bureaucracy that was deeply invested in justifying its drastic action, the impersonality of faceless and nameless reporting was perhaps the opposite of what they needed. The mother certainly gained something in having out there the images of her holding Aishwarya in her lap and pushing Abhigyan’s hair off his forehead in an everyday mom-like gesture, belying the extreme allegations about her mental and parenting competence.

As with journalistic convention, so with child care: the West doesn’t have all the answers and racism is not its only failing. It was interesting how much public support in India for the Bhattacharyas thinned out when the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (CWS) produced reasons other than their racist evaluation (and it was racist) of Sagarika Bhattacharya and her child rearing practices to justify their actions. It is almost as if the Indian imagination cannot go beyond racism when opposing the West. It is the obverse of the standard Western response to objections from our part of the world to its actions: “these are people of immense pride”.

Countries: India, Norway

Congo: 4 milioni di bambini abbandonati. Aumentate del 90% le adozioni internazionali, ma non bastano. “Abbiamo bisogno di famig

Questo è l’appello che ci giunge dalla Repubblica Democratica del Congo.

Si lavora freneticamente e contro il tempo per tentare di dare una famiglia al maggior numero possibile di bambini abbandonati, ma la situazione è veramente drammatica. Gli orfanotrofi nella sola città di Kinshasa, monitorati dalle équipe locali di Ai.Bi., sono più di 100 e, quasi ogni mese, ne spuntano di nuovi.

L’adozione internazionale non può essere la soluzione per l’enorme problema dell’infanzia abbandonata della Repubblica Democratica del Congo, ma è comunque una chance, che può essere data a qualche centinaia di minori, specialmente per i casi più urgenti.

D’altra parte, l’adozione nazionale non è ancora sviluppata e nonostante gli sforzi che le organizzazioni internazionali stanno compiendo in tale direzione, rimangono ancora troppi minori senza alcun futuro, se non la dura strada.

Ai.Bi., che opera nel paese africano da pochissimo tempo, sta impegnando molte energie per tentare di dare risposte concrete all’emergenza abbandono: nel 2012 le adozioni internazionali curate da Ai.Bi. sono aumentate quasi del 90%, passando dalle 17 coppie del 2011 alle 32 di quest’anno, ma non bastano!

Countries: Democratic Republic of The Congo

Indians join Slovaks in protesting against UK child snatchers

Protesters outside the British Embassy in BratislavaPicture: THEDAILY.SK

By Christopher Booker

27/10/2012

The behaviour of our 'child protection' system is a growing international scandalConcerned by my reporting on how our “child protection” system has gone off the rails, one of my readers, David Phipps of Witney, wrote about it to his MP, David Cameron. As Mr Phipps records on his Witterings of Witney blog, the PM replied that he was aware of my articles but that they give “a very misleading picture” of our care system. I may occasionally single out a case where “a wrong decision” was taken, but he wanted to assure his disbelieving constituent that such mistakes are “exceptionally rare”.Among those rather better informed, and far less complacent, about what our social workers and courts get up to than Mr Cameron are a growing number of shocked foreign observers.

Countries: United Kingdom, Slovakia, India

Mali: bloccate le adozioni internazionali

Data: 02-11-12

Autore: Alessia DeRubeis

Mali: bloccate le adozioni internazionali

Un’importante notizia, che ci arriva dal Mali in merito alle adozioni internazionali, rappresenta un duro colpo alla drammatica condizione dell’infanzia abbandonata.

L’Autorità preposta alle adozioni in Mali “Direction Nationale de l’Enfant et de la Famille Ministère de la Promotion de la Femme, de l’Enfant et de la Famille”, ha comunicato, in data 25 Ottobre, l’entrata in vigore della legge n ° 2011-087, promulgata il 30 dicembre 2011.

Countries: Mali