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Happily adopted

Sometimes life comes full circle — something 33-year-old Mousami Damle would fully testify to, after she returned to the

city she was adopted from in 1979, by Non-Resident Indian couple Vijay and Vidya Damle.

Mousami is now the Vice President (Human Resources) of a New York-based advertising company, but returning to the place

that was her home before she found a loving family, she could barely hold back her tears. Today, Mousami knows that she too

may adopt a child someday, and give him or her a happy home.

Adopted in 1979, 33-yr-old back to ‘find roots’

Adopted in 1979, 33-yr-old back to ‘find roots’

Adopted in 1979, 33-yr-old back to ‘find roots’  Anuradha Mascarenhas Canada-based Damle couple was first family settled abroad to adopt child from SOFOSHMousami had first come to the orphanage run by the Society of Friends of Sassoon General Hospital in Pune when she was barely a few days old, and alone. A few months later, when she left the place in 1979, she had a family complete with parents and an elder brother, and a surname — Damle.Thirty three years ago, Vijay and Vidya Damle were the first Indian couple settled abroad to fly down to Pune to adopt a girl child from SOFOSH. On Monday, Mousami was back at the orphanage, but she was not alone this time.“It’s an emotional moment and about finding my roots,” says Mousami, a former staff sergeant with the US air force who loves cycling and outdoor sports. She now works at an advertising firm in New York.“My biggest challenge was to always let Mousami know that she was loved,” says Vidya, 57. She and her husbandhad decided to adopt a girl child when their son, Sarang, was two years old.Vijay, 64, who was an engineer with a construction company, is originally from Thane and had migrated to Canada with Vidya, who is from Belgaum. “I worked as an accountant when we were in Canada,” says Vidya, who gave birth to Sarang soon after her marriage. “After two years, I felt the need to have a daughter and decided why not adopt,” she says.“It was, in fact, easier to adopt then as I flew down from Canada, saw Mousami as a two-month-old baby and fell in love with her. The papers were processed and she was with us after two months,” Vidya recalls. She says it’s easier to raise an adopted child abroad. “Frankly, nobody cares whether you have adopted a child or are a single mother abroad. We were a family and Sarang and Mousami, like other siblings so, had their own share of fun and rivalry. There were moments when we as parents felt like pulling our hair. But this family bonded well andsoon became a role model for others, encouraging them to go for adoption,” says Vidya.The Damles are on their fifth visit to SOFOSH. Earlier too, they had participated in several workshops organised here to encourage adoption. “Mousami is at ease with her 84-year-old great grandmother and has an increasing list of cousins and relatives both in the US and in India,” says Vidya.Mousami says she would like to adopt a child if there were an option. There have been a total of 2119 adoptions so far at SOFOSH since 1974, of which 1,012 were girls. According to officials, as many as 662 adoptions since 1974 had been by couples settled abroad, of which 480 were girls.

Zusters ontkennen geldgewin bij gedwongen adopties in Lommels tehuis

Sisters deny money for forced adoptions in Lommel's home

The Congregation of the Kindsheid Jesu Sisters was not the initiator of the non-profit organization Tamar in Lommel and did not derive any financial benefit from it. The sisters wish to clarify that today, after yesterday the Een magazine unpacked Koppen with a report about forced adoptions in the Lommel home in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Tamar was an autonomous association recognized by Child and Family. At the request of the non-profit organization, the congregation provided material support by opening up part of its buildings for assistance to pregnant women in need. She also made some sisters available for the care and guidance of those women, who often had to brave the judgmental attitude in society at the time, "the sisters report on Kerknet, the website of the Church in Flanders.

When the home was set up, there was also no legislation about giving up a child, the congregation believes. Only the legal procedure for adoption was arranged, the sisters say. The congregation strongly denies that it has taken any financial advantage from the service provided to the women who stayed in Tamar.

Today, based on victim testimonials, Het Belang van Limburg writes that the sisters sold the babies for big money (3,500 euros per baby) to well-to-do adoptive families.

Kyrgyzstan’s intelligence agencies release corrupt scheme of foreign adoptions

Kyrgyzstan’s intelligence agencies release corrupt scheme of foreign adoptions

06/09-2012 10:08, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency , by Makhinur NIYAZOVA

Intelligence agencies of Kyrgyzstan have released a corrupt scheme of child adoption by foreign citizens, Anti-Corruption Service under the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) informed 24.kg news agency .

According to the Anti-Corruption Service (ACS), the scheme looks like: a foreign married couple pays for adoption services from $35 to $50 thousands to a firm. This sum is spent on receiving of Kyrgyzstan’s staying visa and settling of legal issues. In its turn, every foreign international adoption organization gets certificate for the right to engage in this activity in Kyrgyzstan. As to investigation, officials of the Ministry of Social Development for Adoption receive $15-20 thousand bribe for providing the certificate.

The service points, that at least 10 firms have gained certificates for the right to work only in 2012 and every if them has planned to take abroad 15-20 Kyrgyz children. Moreover, officials of the Ministry of Social Development get up to $2 thousand for every referral for acquaintance of a couple with a child. A thousand dollars “tariff” has been also fixed for findings about the proposed adoption for a court.

Possibility of CIA infiltration - Pakistan kicks out aid agency

Possibility of CIA infiltration - Pakistan kicks out aid agency

Save the Children's foreign staff have been ordered to leave Pakistan within two weeks, the aid agency confirms.

It says it has been given no reason for the order, but correspondents say the move is thought be fall-out from the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.

Following the raid, a Pakistani doctor was arrested for working for the CIA.

Pakistani intelligence officials accuse Save the Children of involvement - the group denies the claims. Six of its staff in Pakistan are foreigners.

The charity has worked in Pakistan for more than 30 years. Correspondents say that it is not thought that the forthcoming expulsions will have any significant impact on its operations in the country in the short term.

Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested after it emerged he had been running a fake vaccination programme on behalf of the CIA as part of efforts to track Bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May last year.
The US authorities say Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid and have called for his release.

Although Pakistan and the US are ostensibly partners in the fight against militancy, the Pakistani authorities viewed his actions as treason.

Media reports say Dr Afridi was in contact with staff of the charity.

But the Save the Children spokesman said that Dr Afridi had never been paid for any work by the charity and had never run any of its vaccination programmes - although he had attended a seminar shortly before his arrest.


"We never knowingly employ anyone who has worked for the CIA or any other security service," the spokesman said. "It is totally against our impartial humanitarian mandate... Save the Children is a global organisation and has a zero tolerance policy for people involved in work that is not humanitarian.


Germanul Gunther Krichbaum trateaz? România ca pe o ?ar? african? din lumea a III-a

German Gunther Krichbaum treats Romania as an African country in the third world

The free attacks of some European leaders on Romania continue

What links CDU leader Gunther Krichbaum with Traian B?sescu and Monica Macovei

What Krichbaum wants the government to solve a month ago

Krichbaum relapses and comes with "upcoming" allegations

Teachers overlook the needs of adoptees

'In the small classes we had to make a family tree. It was certainly in the best interests of my teacher, but it was really difficult for me,' says 20-year-old Ina Dulanjani Dygaard, who was adopted from Sri Lanka. She calls for more information for professionals about adoption


Ina Dulanjani Dygaard was only 49 days old when she was adopted from Sri Lanka. But even though her stay in her country of origin was short, it remains an important part of her story. It has, among other things, led her to get involved in associations where adoptees can meet.

"It is incredibly important that adoptees have a forum where they can meet and talk to someone who is just like them. We have some stories that many of our 'ordinary' friends may have difficulty understanding because they are about grief, illness and death," says Ina Dulanjani Dygaard.

Many of the conversations are about gaining certainty about where you come from, but the young people also talk about very ordinary things like problems with parents.

"Sometimes adopted teenagers have completely different deep issues with parents, which are about us being abandoned and experiencing culture shock."

Fresh scandal erupts over Irish children sold to America for adoption

Fresh scandal erupts over Irish children sold to America for adoption

New investigative report reveals how Irish nuns profited from child adoption scheme

By: JAMES O'SHEA | Published Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 7:29 AM | Updated Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 10:19 AM

See More: Irish news

Fresh scandal erupts over Irish children sold to America for adoption

Oak Park's Adoption-Link Looking for Help

Oak Park's Adoption-Link Looking for Help

Longtime adoption agency specializing in placing special needs children asks for funding help.

By Casey Cora Email the author September 4, 2012

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Romania's problems must not halt childcare reform

Romania's problems must not halt childcare reform

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Monday, September 03, 2012
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Western Morning News



This summer a group of Cornish women have been working to raise funds for washing machines for Romanian orphanages. Remember those? Those scandalous institutions in which sedated, shaven-headed and severely undernourished children rocked to and fro, mindlessly, in cots from which they rarely escaped and within which many were permanently tethered.

The shame of the Romanian childcare system  – that obscene contradiction in terms – was exposed to the world when the Ceausescu regime was overthrown in 1989.

The story isn't over yet. One of the Cornish fundraisers, Reverend Canon Pat Robson, reflected wryly on how many people thought the problem  had been solved. She said: "A lot of the children from orphanages at the time Ceausescu died are still in institutions now. Now they are 28 to 30 years old – who is going to give them a home?"

This is the heartrending tragedy. Many of those children were irrevocably damaged goods by the time journalists and former Westcountry MP Emma Nicholson found them and highlighted their plight. It was relatively easy then to raise funds for the children. The world was rightly aghast. Raising funds for adults, however, is always harder – and yet no less important.

People's needs  do not vanish overnight when they turn 18. That generation of  orphans should never be forgotten and still have a claim on the world's compassion now they are adults.

But what of today's children? Has Romania actually changed? Can a country that knew nothing of democracy and which, less than 25 years ago, blithely accepted those hellish orphanages as normal, really turn itself round and wipe out such abuse?

Romania's democracy and its courts may yet be fragile, but its childcare system has changed radically. It was helpful that the EU made the closure of those ghastly institutions a condition of membership, but much of the real work has been done with the support of a pioneering British charity Hope and Homes for Children.

Founded by British Army officer Col Mark Cook, it came into being after he served as a UN peacekeeper in Croatia during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. He was horrified by the plight of abandoned children and set up Hope and Homes to help them. Its aim was quite simple: to ensure that all children could grow up with the love of a family. Its staff are leading experts in closing children's institutions and reforming childcare.

Hope and Homes moved into Romania in 1999, when 100,000 children were still in those institutions. Today, fewer than 9,000 youngsters are housed in orphanages. The charity hopes to have all orphanages closed by 2020.

This is a complex ongoing operation that goes far beyond shutting individual institutions. Alternative family homes have to be found for the children. In many cases help is provided to enable their own relatives to take them back and to then function as stable families. Local childcare professionals have to be retrained and support services for children rebuilt, almost from scratch.

Hope and Homes cannot deliver on this alone. It gets some EU funding, but works with two principal partners: Absolute Return for Kids –  set up by financier Arpad Busson to help disadvantaged children worldwide – and the Romanian government. Only that, truly, has the authority to make such sweeping reforms. Yet it is a delicate flower of dubious stability. Its president and prime minister are at each other's throats – but whatever the ructions in Bucharest, they must never be allowed to slacken the pace of childcare reforms.

In the meantime, those who grew up in those  Ceausescu institutions have grown into equally needy adults. Jean Baker from Truro, who has been leading the fundraising for the White Cross Mission in Truro, met just some of them when she visited  the orphanage in Remeti that is struggling to care for 74 young people with just a couple of working washing machines.

The laundry was full of dirty, wet bedding and clothing, much of which would have to be washed by hand. In another room, a further four washing machines stood broken. There was no money to repair them.

The women of Truro intend to replace them. Good luck to them. It's valuable work.