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Rethink Orphanages Network: better solutions for children is a cross-sector network that aims to prevent the unnecessary institutionalisation of children by shifting the way Australia engages with overseas aid and development.

ReThink Orphanages was set up to address Australia's role in the unnecessary institutionalisation of children overseas. We recognised that as a major sending country of people, money and resources to orphanages overseas, Australians (with the best of intentions) were actually driving the separation of children from their families.

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U on Sunday Feature: The lost children

September 17, 2011 5:50am

Kay DibbenThe Sunday Mail (Qld)

WHEN three young people decided to set up a charity to help orphans in Nepal, little did they know they'd also be saving lives and reuniting families from around the globe in Uganda.

Thirty-nine children - filthy, hungry, skinny - walk listlessly through the dirt yard of their Ugandan orphanage.

Thank you for showing an interest in the Australian Association of the Forget Me Not Children’s Home. Our Association is committed to providing orphans with a future by providing shelter, education and most importantly, love. We are so glad that you have chosen to join us in this journey.

Forget Me Not Children’s Home opened our door in Nepal to 6 beautiful girls in January 2006, then in Dec 2006 our 10 girls moved to a new large house. We now support 21 beautiful little girls and six local orphanage staff in Nepal. We also run a sponsorship program supporting a Ugandan children’s home of 39 children. The organisation runs on a firm foundation, raising funds here in Australia which go direct to the children’s homes. Our ever-growing support from corporate, community and individual supporters, all sharing the Association’s Vision, is truly a gift of generosity and love.

Following the purchase of over 27,000 sq metres of land in Nepal, we are now embarking on our newest adventure – building an eco-friendly, sustainable village which will support an additional 60 children and employ 15-20 local Nepali staff! Introducing Forget Me Not Eco Village (FMNEV)!!!

Forget Me Not Teams in Nepal!

Forget Me Not sent three teams over February/March to visit the children in Nepal and to kick off our building project. The first team arrived in Nepal on 26 February 2010 and focused on visiting the children and preparing the purchased land for the following team. The second team was a Rotary Team. They arrived in early March and spent their time on the land, fencing the building site and repairing an existing building. The final team comprised two child sponsor families who visited their sponsored children!

BEFORE she was even born, little Anouk Lien India had already visited three countries.

Anouk's mum Kate van Doore-Nave and her partner Andrea are involved with the Forget Me Not Children's Home, a charity in Hervey Bay that supports orphaned children overseas.

The couple travel to do work with the charity about twice a year and when Kate was about 20 weeks pregnant they visited Nepal, Uganda and India.

"She is well travelled already," Kate said.

Because they have spent so much time overseas, especially in Nepal, Kate said they were both relaxed about the visit.

( Kate van Doore's partner orphanage in Uganda )

Uganda: Orphanage Swindles Donor Money

THE memories still linger. Of little children chattering around, climbing walls and scampering for porridge. They screamed and, like tiny birds chirped around their 'mother'- a dark-skinned woman with a tardy accent. Her name - Pastor Florence Athieno.The year was 2009. The place? Love Ministries Orphanage in Kisimu village in Nabweru sub-county in Wakiso district. Two years down the road, everything is gone. Love Ministries has been closed.

LOVE Ministries has been dragged to Police by its Australian funders for embezzling funds meant to support the orphanage. Forget Me Not Children's Home (FMNCH), a registered Australian children's charity, has been supporting the orphanage for the last one year.

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'A good intention is not always a good idea'

Associate professor

Dr Kristen Cheney

Professor

Marinus van IJzendoorn

The illegal adoption of babies born in the Republic of the Marshall Islands into the United States has become an industry. In a move to address this issue, three Marshallese citizens were recently charged with criminal trafficking in persons in Majuro.

The three defendants charged by the RMI courts include a Marshallese residing in Arkansas. The other two defendants are residing in Majuro, according to a report from the Marianas Variety. The case involves the attempted recruitment of a Majuro woman to give up her baby for adoption in the U.S. state.

According to the Marianas Variety, charges were filed by RMI assistant attorney general Meuton Laiden against Justin Aine, 46, Aiti “Hatty” Anidrep, 49, and Sally Abon, 53 on March 14.

Marshall Island passport holders can travel to the U.S. under the Compact of Free Association. However, traveling for the purpose of adoption is illegal, according to the report. The RMI court scheduled an April 12 preliminary hearing on the case.

There were 54 successful applications, mostly from foreign countries, for adoptions in 2018 – a 10-year high, Minister for the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity Michael Falzon said as he officially opened the National Adoption Strategy for public consultation on Tuesday.

Out of these 54 applications, 38 were for children from India, 8 from Slovakia, 7 from Portugal and 1 from Thailand.

The strategy is based on 25 recommendations which are planned to be implemented by 2022, and the prime objective of it is to facilitate adoptions while ensuring that everything is done with the best interest of children, who – Falzon said – must never be treated like commodities – at heart.

Falzon said that prospective parents applying for inter-country adoptions had benefitted from a €10,000 government grant to cover part of the expenses that they faced due to the adoption process.

The minister also noted that the government had concluded an agreement which would pave the way for adoptions from Bulgaria, and that discussions were underway for a similar agreement with Moldova as well.

1. Short title.

PART I

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN

2. Power to make adoption orders.

3. Restrictions on making of adoption orders.

"In secondary school, fellow students did the Hitler salute"

There is still a lot of ignorance about adoption. Sisters Maja and Adinda put the finishing touches on the i.

In the adoption debate, it seems like everyone gets a vote, except for the adopted ones themselves. For youth media agency StampMedia, journalist Anouk Torbeyns, himself an adoptive youngster, went looking for that voice. This is the story of Maja and Adinda.

Maja (33) and Adinda (30) are two adoptive sisters from Ghent. At a very young age they were adopted from India and Sri Lanka respectively. Now they feel completely Belgian, but it could also have turned out differently. In their youth, the sisters were regularly confronted with racism.

"If you grow up in the neighborhood of Geraardsbergen, chances are that you will be the only colored person," says Adinda. "In elementary school you hear things like 'you are not allowed to play because you are a brown cow'. In high school I was confronted with students who did the Hitler salute or threw French fries at my head."