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Libya: 105 Children Kidnapped in Misrata Orphanage

Libya: 105 Children Kidnapped in Misrata Orphanage

Posted: 2011/07/13

From: Mathaba

World silent as Libyan children abducted and disappear abroad to unknown fate

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OKC Couple Charged in Toddler's Death Admits 3-year-old Was 'Whooped' with Switch

Authorities are investing the death of 3-year-old Larandon Nichols. The boy&#39;s adoptive mother and her boyfriend were charged with child abuse, neglect and enabling abuse charges.<br /><br /><strong>More:</strong> <a href="http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12791159" target="_self">Oklahoma City Police Arrest 2 in 3-Year-Old&#39;s Death</a>

 


 

OKC Couple Charged in Toddler's Death Admits 3-year-old Was 'Whooped' with Switch

 

Found: the nine-year-old orphan who became the symbol of Haiti's tragedy

Found: the nine-year-old orphan who became the symbol of Haiti's tragedy

 

In January, Wideline's only possession was a tartan dress. Now she has a school uniform - and hope for the future

By Guy Adams

Monday, 12 July 2010

Wideleine Fils Amie impresses her teachers

GUY ADAMS

Wideleine Fils Amie impresses her teachers

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She still has the same broken front teeth and those innocently-wide eyes. Her home is still a filthy orphanage on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, where you won't find a single toy and where the children sleep, up to eight to a room, on rusty bunk beds. But Wideleine Fils Amie no longer counts a red tartan dress as her only worldly possession: a couple of months ago, she also acquired a yellow school uniform.

 

The nine-year-old told me she was "hungry" and "scared" when we first met, on 19 January, in the backyard of the Foyer de Sion orphanage in Pétionville. Then, she was one of 18 anxious girls and boys, aged 2-15, waiting for help that seemed like it would never arrive. They hadn't a drop of clean drinking water left and their entire food reserves consisted of three bags of rice, three bags of beans, a few yams and half a bottle of ancient orange cordial.

Today, she's a healthier, happier child than the traumatised specimen whose plight filled the front page of this newspaper and was later featured on TV programmes, websites, radio shows and in newsprint around the world.

Wideleine, who came to symbolise the tragedy facing hundreds of thousands of Haiti's orphans in the aftermath of January's earthquake, has also learned how to smile.

I finally found her on Friday, at the Ecole Evangelique de Pentecoste de Beraca, a modest school, with roughly fifty pupils, perched on the side of a hill half a mile's walk from the orphanage she still calls home. It was mid- afternoon and students were sitting in a maths lesson, chanting times tables in French from behind wooden desks.

"She's a clever girl," said the headmaster, Herold Lira. "She talks a lot, especially likes reading and is as happy as anyone could expect, given what she went through."

Wideleine, who never knew her father and lost her mother when she was six, is one of half a dozen children from the Foyer de Sion receiving what amounts to a full-time education.

Across Haiti, hundreds of other schools have now re-opened in one of the few good news stories to come out of a still-ruined country where millions remain homeless and reliant on handouts and where the rebuilding effort has barely started. "I am always happy here," she told me, in a shy whisper. "My favourite subject is reading, but I also enjoy learning to count. My favourite way to spend time is with books, so I have decided that when I grow up, I want to be a teacher."

To the delight of Mr Lira, she added: "I think it is very important to be in school, because my teachers have been showing me how to be a better person."

The tale of the girl who now wears a yellow dress doesn't yet have a happy ending, though. The fact Wideleine is still living at the Foyer de Sion means that, like the vast majority of the country's hundreds of thousands of orphans, she remains almost completely institutionalised and seems to have no prospect of being successfully resettled outside of the orphanage.

As Haiti marks the six-month anniversary of the worst natural disaster in modern history, the plight of children who lost their parents remains in a curious state of limbo. Shortly after the quake – which struck around 5pm on 12 January – the Haitian government announced that all pending adoptions from the country would be fast-tracked through the legal system.

But it also placed a complete moratorium on brand new overseas adoptions, in an effort to prevent fraud, abuse and child-trafficking.

The move was applauded by experienced agencies like Save the Children, who were concerned of a "free for all" in which vast numbers children would be spirited out of the country to new lives without anyone checking they were indeed parentless. "Children who are on their own are incredibly vulnerable to abuse, trafficking and exploitation," explains a spokesman. The moratorium has prevented over-hasty adoptions which would have: "compounded one tragedy with another".

It seemed particularly pertinent in the aftermath of the scandal that saw a bus-load of Baptist missionaries from Idaho arrested at the country's border trying to export 33 children, many of whom turned out to still have parents.

The leader of the American group, Laura Silsby, spent four months in prison before being convicted of "arranging illegal travel".

Yet for children like Wideleine, the moratorium has also had the effect of dramatically reducing the prospect of ever escaping the Foyer de Sion. Even before the quake, it could take 2-3 years to finalise an adoption from Haiti. With the country's legal system in turmoil – and almost all records destroyed or missing – she has little chance of being whisked away to a new life soon.

Compounding that is the unfortunate fact that she has recently watched 10 other children leave the Foyer de Sion under the fast-tracking policy. "I miss my friends who have gone, but of course I still have friends left behind," she said. "Maybe I will also go to America one day. I know that God will provide for me."

The moratorium is widely disliked by the management of Haiti's orphanages, since it has cut off two major sources of income. Well-meaning couples wishing to adopt from Haiti would have traditionally paid around $20,000 in fees, much of which ended up in the hands of the homes and their lawyers. And they would often also make additional donations during the adoption process.

"Before the earthquake, there would always be parents from America who were in the process of adopting and they would come to the orphanage and give us money and gifts, like diapers, milk and toys," said Pascale Mardy, who runs the Foyer de Sion.

"But with the adoption process as it is, we don't have any of those parents visiting. And that means our funds are running very low. Yes, we are in a better position than we were in January. But that does not mean life is yet back to normal, for us or our children."

Voorwaardelijke straf voor achterlaten baby

Voorwaardelijke straf voor achterlaten baby

Uitgegeven: 12 juli 2010 13:45
Laatst gewijzigd: 12 juli 2010 13:45

UTRECHT - De 24-jarige Katja B. uit Utrecht, die haar baby te vondeling legde, is maandag door de rechtbank in Utrecht veroordeeld tot vier maanden voorwaardelijke celstraf.

Twee dagen na de geboorte liet B. haar baby achter op een grasveldje vlakbij het Diakonessenziekenhuis in Utrecht.

Ze vond zichzelf financieel en geestelijk niet in staat het kind op te voeden. Ze had niemand over haar zwangerschap ingelicht.


De rechtbank vindt dat de zorgen van de vrouw begrijpelijk waren, maar dat ze andere keuzes had kunnen en moeten maken.

Bij het vonnis woog de rechtbank mee dat de vrouw verminderd toerekeningsvatbaar is. Bijzondere voorwaarde bij de straf is dat B. in behandeling gaat. De straf was gelijk aan de eis van het Openbaar Ministerie (OM).

© ANP

Help adopt Sandra (Alabama)

Post# A48611

Help adopt Sandra (Alabama)

Posted on: Sunday, 11 July, 2010  15:57
IP address: 41.217.152.138 
Nation advertiser: Cameroon 
Reply to: lindamcmahon24@yahoo.com 
Cute and affectionate as the baby is is looking for a new home interested persons looking to adopt on to a new home.pls get back and SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY.We are looking for a new home for this baby.





It is NOT ok to contact this poster with commercial interests.

Of life lost and loved (50.000 $)

Of life lost and loved
 - Jaswinder and Joe Ollek with adopted daughter Haveen and son Bevin. - Murray Mitchell/The Daily News
Murray Mitchell/The Daily News
 
Jaswinder and Joe Ollek with adopted daughter Haveen and son Bevin.
 
July 12,2010 

By JASON HEWLETT
Daily News Staff Reporter
When her oldest son died on a soccer field in 2001 Jaswinder Ollek believed her life was over. Nine years of sadness, tragedy and turmoil later she’s found new hope and joy in a young daughter from India.
She feels that joy every time Haveen, 4, looks at her, smiles and says “Oh mom. You are the best mom in the world.”
Haveen climbed onto her mom’s lap and told her she loved her as Ollek explained the long journey of her daughter’s adoption.
“Having a baby girl in my life is a dream,” she said, and gave Haveen a squeeze.
She always wanted to have a daughter. She said that must be every mother’s dream. Instead, she and her husband, Joe, had two sons: Sandeep and Bevin.
Neither pregnancy was easy for Ollek. She was rocked with morning sickness, low energy and difficult deliveries. Ollek said it got so bad while carrying Bevin that she could barely take care of Sandeep.
“I just lay on the floor,” she said.
But the desire to have a girl never left. The Olleks talked about adopting but got caught up in their busy lives.
Then Sandeep died when he was 13, from a heart arrhythmia.
Ollek was so overcome with grief that she shut down for a year. At times all she could do was sit on the sofa and hug a picture of her dead son.
She stopped being a mom and just struggled to survive day to day. If it hadn’t been for Bevin, she might not be alive today, she said.
“That was my worst nightmare,” she said. “My son was there for me. I wasn’t there for him for a year. I feel sorry about that.”
More tragedy followed as Ollek’s sister and mother passed away in 2003 and 2005. She said there was a period when she believed she would never adopt a child. Then life became about moving on and putting the sadness behind her.
“I wanted to give a child who was already in this world a life that I couldn’t give to my own son,” said Ollek.
The couple decided to adopt internationally, and chose India, where Ollek has family. She applied through Immigration Canada and also put an ad in a newspaper in Jalandhar.
Eventually the Olleks were led to a family living in poverty with three girls and another on the way. The fourth child turned out to be Naveen.
“When I saw her, I thought she was mine,” said Ollek.
The family agreed to the adoption and within months a passport was ready for Haveen. Little did Ollek know it would take two years and almost $50,000 before the family was able to bring their daughter home.
Ollek could not hide her frustration as she explained the hurdles she jumped through. She split her time between Kamloops and India and fought hard to secure the proper court orders, child study reports and No Objections Certificate needed to adopt Haveen.
The NOC was crucial. Without it, Haveen would not be able to get a visa into Canada, said Ollek. That required meeting with family services in Canada and Central Adoption Resource Agency in New Dehli.
But the benefits of her two-year fight outweigh the emotional turmoil it put her through. Ollek said the depression she suffered after Sandeep died is gone. In its place is an undying love for her daughter.
“It was worth it,” she said. “I don’t think I can live without her hugs and kisses.”
Haveen is a central part of the Olleks’ life. She putters away in the family’s greenhouse in Knutsford and sometimes works with her mom at the Blooming Acres Garden Centre in North Kamloops. She attends preschool and enjoys dancing and skating lessons.
Bevin loves her so much that he has her name tattooed on his body, said Ollek.
Haveen also knows about her dead brother is and has, on occasion, given her mom his picture when she is sad.
“She helps us. She is such a sweetheart.”
 

République tchèque : les enfants roms concernés par l’adoption internationale

 

Âgé(e) de un à cinq ans, d’origine rom et en bonne santé. C’est dans ces termes que sont proposés pour l’adoption internationale un certain nombre d’enfants en République tchèque. D’après la responsable de la fondation Notre enfant, « dans les Pays tchèques le désir d’adoption de ces enfants est quasi nul. Tout le monde voudrait un petit à la peau blanche et une fille, si possible ». Selon l’Office de la protection juridique et internationale de l’enfance, qui devrait traiter 40 dossiers environ en 2010, contre 28 en 2009, le nombre de demandes d’adoption est en augmentation croissante. Environ 200 dossiers ont été déposés par des familles originaires de onze pays différents. Avec 40 % des demandes, les Danois, qui bénéficient dans leur pays de toute une série de mesures d’accompagnement des parents de substitution, arrivent en tête, suivis par les Allemands, les Italiens et les Suèdois. Les procédures d’adoption sont relativement longues et contraignantes. Une fois l’enfant légalement abandonné et placé dans une institution, cette dernière recherche, dans la région, une famille de substitution. En cas d’échec, le Ministère du Travail et des Affaires sociales prend le relais et étend l’investigation à tout le pays. Si, celle-ci s’avère infructueuse, l’enfant est alors inscrit au registre de l’Office de la protection juridique et internationale de l’enfance qui se charge de trouver, en trois mois, une famille d’adoption à l’étranger.

Mis en ligne le 12 juillet 2010

European Commission: UNICEF signs US$ 1.2 Million cooperation agreement with World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale to assist and em

UNICEF signs US$ 1.2 Million cooperation agreement with World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale to assist and empower orphans and other vulnerable children.

UNICEF signs US$ 1.2 Million cooperation agreement with World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale to assist and empower orphans and other vulnerable children.

MASERU, Lesotho, July 12, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Under the overall umbrella of the Government of Lesotho, European

Commission and UNICEF Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s programme UNICEF joins forces with civil society to support the most vulnerable children.

Maseru, Lesotho 12 July 2010 – Civil Society organizations, World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale, received over US$ 1.2 Million from UNICEF last week as they entered into an agreement to support scaling up of an integrated social protection system for orphans and other vulnerable children in Lesotho.

Career women in India finding companionship with children

Career women in India finding companionship with children
They are required to have the presence of a father figure for the child, plans for the future, and the ability to take up this enormous responsibility
 
Family ties
  • Actress Raveena Tandon (pictured at a school) adopted two girls a decade ago.
  • Image Credit: IANS
Mumbai: Former Miss Universe and Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen may have been one of India's first well-known, single women to adopt a girl first in 1994.
Sen adopted another child, also a girl, this year.
Actress Raveena Tandon, too, had adopted two girls more than a decade ago.
Today, the trend of unmarried women adopting babies has become an accepted norm in Mumbai.
The Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare consultant Najma Goriawalla told Gulf News that society was now accepting of single mothers.
"And in a city like Mumbai which is liberal in outlook, single women have been coming to us to inquire about adoptions," Goriawalla said.
"These women are well-educated, well-informed, mostly in their 30s and 40s and hold very well-paying jobs.
"They are independent women who have decided not to get married or given up on marriage for want of finding a suitable partner.
"Yet, they don't want to miss out on the joys of motherhood."
Mumbai's Children of the World (India) Trust director Mani Mistry Elavia said this trend was not new since single women had been coming forward for the last 15-16 years.
She herself adopted an eight-month-old baby girl who was now 15, full of life and with a mind of her own.
"Four of my friends, too, adopted babies years back," she told Gulf News.
Apart from motherly instincts, women also found companionship with adopted children, she said.
It was a tough decision to be single and adopt a child, and the going could be even tougher, adoption experts have said.
Adoption applicants must undergo thorough scrutiny of their background and their financial capacity to bring up a child.
Single female adoptees were also required to have the presence of a father figure for the child in a relative or friend, plans for the future, and the ability to take up this enormous responsibility. All agencies stressed the importance of the support of family and friends for the woman.
Who looked after the child if the mother was unwell was also a commonly asked question for potential adoptees.
Mistry said her mother had been a strong supporter.
Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption's Savita Nagpurkar said: "Socio-economic factors are not the only criterion".
"The emotional aspects — that of a keen desire to be a parent — eventually takes centre-stage."
Undoubtedly, the challenge of being a single parent is formidable — to manage a child, career, personal life and the pressure that comes with it.
"But if she has the courage of conviction and confidence, she would certainly do a good job of bringing up a child like any other parent," Goriawalla said.
Social worker Harsha Sheth from Bal Anand, an adoption agency in an eastern suburb, said: "We do get a stream of inquiries from single women wanting to adopt".
"Yet we have found that many give up since they cannot handle the vast paper work."
Despite the interest shown by single women, staff at Bal Anand, like those at many adoption agencies, said they strongly believed a child needed a father and mother to have a complete family life.
"We do not discourage single women but at the same time we prefer couples," Sheth said.
Mistry, too, said that her daughter, at the age of four, said she wanted a father.
"One day, she asked me if marriages in this world were over. She wanted to know if she would ever have a father," Mistry said.
Mistry married when her child was five.
What is your reaction to the growing trend of single women adopting children? Is this an indicator that women finally have an equal status in society? Or is it threatening the balance within families?

Court reverses custody ruling

  • POSTED: JULY 10, 2010
    Court reverses custody ruling
    Rights for unmarried couples at issue
    BY DAVID ASHENFELTER
    FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

    Comments (1) Recommend Print E-mail Letter to the editor Share
    The Michigan Court of Appeals this week reversed a lower court decision that could have given gays, lesbians and unmarried heterosexuals in Michigan legal standing to obtain joint custody of children.




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    The decision came in the case involving Renee Harmon and Tammy Davis, a Grosse Ile couple who broke up in 2008 after 19 years. Along the way, Davis had three children through artificial insemination. Wayne County Circuit Judge Kathleen McCarthy ruled in April that Harmon had legal standing to try to pursue joint custody of the children she helped raise.

    But appeals Judges Karen Fort Hood, Michael Talbot and Christopher Murray disagreed, ruling Thursday that "one becomes a parent under the Child Custody Act through procreation, or through adoption or the presumption ... arising from a child born in a legal marriage."

    They said none of these situations existed in Harmon's case, so she has no legal standing to sue for joint custody. The panel sent the case back to McCarthy for further proceedings consistent with its order.

    "We're very pleased," said Davis' lawyer, David Viar, of Rochester. He said McCarthy was legally off base in her ruling and that the appeals court decision "was not a huge surprise."

    Harmon's lawyers, Dana Nessel of Detroit and Nicole Childers of Royal Oak, said they plan to appeal.

    "Renee is devastated by the decision," Childers said, adding she and Nessel thought the Court of Appeals would allow lawyers to submit legal briefs on the case rather than peremptorily striking down McCarthy's decision.

    Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER: dashenfelter@freepress.com