Chinese Embassy holds reception for American families with children adopted from China

10:36, June 13, 2010

Chinese Embassy holds reception for American families with children adopted from China

Chinese Embassy in the United States held a reception on Saturday for the American families having adopted Chinese children.

"It is a miracle that people so far away apart get connected, form a family, go through all the cultural barriers and live happily together. This is a strong proof how eastern and western cultures can coexist in harmony instead of clashing with each other," Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Zhang Yesui said when addressing the event.

Around 80 American families with children adopted from China, along with officials from U.S. Congressional Coalition on Adoption, U.S. Department of State and other agencies, were invited to the reception.

"The friendship between the two peoples will be further enhanced by a new generation with Chinese descent and American background. China will continue to commit itself to the bilateral cooperation of adoption and to the Sino-U.S. friendship," said the Ambassador.

U.S. officials attending the reception also expressed their thanks and willingness to push forward the friendship between the two countries and the two peoples.

Carrie Lewis, a young American mother, came to the reception with her two daughters adopted from China. Hannah, seven years old, was adopted in 2003 from China's Hunan province, and Molly was adopted from Chongqing in 2008 when she was just ten months.

"I love China, I have been there before. And I thought it's a beautiful country, with beautiful children. I got two wonderful girls, I love them very much," Lewis told Xinhua, explaining why she decided to adopt Chinese children.

"We took Hannah back (to China) when we went to adopt Molly. As soon as Molly is a little bit older, I want to take them back to see the cities they are from, make sure they feel comfortable going to China, being in China," she added.

Source:Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7025169.html

Organizations: Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute

Countries: United States of America, China

Poverty-stricken widow hands over children to orphanage

Press Trust Of India

Chhatarpur, June 13, 2010

First Published: 13:16 IST(13/6/2010)

Last Updated: 13:20 IST(13/6/2010)

Unable to feed her two girls, a widow has handed over her two minor daughters to an orphanage at Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh.

"Rachana Raikwar, a labourer residing in Ward Number two here, handed over her both daughters - Mohini (8) and
Anjali (6) to Samvedana Orphanage as she is in a penury," sources close to her, said.

The orphanage management conceded to her demand on Saturday, a day after she threatened to kill herself and her
children if they did not consider her demand to raise her daughters there, they said.

Rachana ordeal started when her husband Mahesh Raikwar died in December 2009 following which she, along with her
daughters, had approached her in-laws. But they did not allow the trio to stay with them at Khomp Tiwari village.

Later, she came to her parents house who also refused to let her in.

Rachana said that she would have happily reared her children, had she got some financial help from the government
running welfare schemes like widow pension scheme.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Poverty-stricken-widow-hands-over-children-to-orphanage/Article1-556985.aspx

Countries: India

The father and son: From orphanage bond, a family grew

The father and son: From orphanage bond, a family grew

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, June 13, 2010

Organizations: Buckner Baptist Children's Home

Countries: Vietnam, United States of America

Filipino mother gives birth here to have the child adopted

Saturday, 12th June 2010

Filipino mother gives birth here to have the child adopted

Social welfare agency felt the woman should be taken into care

Waylon Johnston

Asenit Liezel Lara, 25, with her baby Kane Lara outside the law courts in Valletta, yesterday.

A Filipino woman who gave birth in Malta to have the baby adopted by Maltese parents yesterday claimed illegal arrest after she was taken into care by social workers accompanied by police officers.

Asenit Liezel Lara, 25, filed an urgent application in court but then withdrew it after both the police and the government welfare agency Appo?? denied she was in any way under arrest and said she was free to leave.

In fact, Ms Lara went back to live with the sister of the prospective adoptive father, with whom she had been staying ever since her arrival on March 18 and after giving birth to Kane Lara on May 19. Her visa expires on June 25.

On Wednesday, social workers, accompanied by police officers, went to the house she was living in and asked her to accompany them to a home run by Appo??.

The woman's lawyer, Roberto Montalto, said the arrest was made by officers on instructions by Police Inspector Louise Calleja.

However, Ms Calleja denied that the woman had ever been under arrest.

She said the decision to take her to a home was made by the Central Agency for Adoption in Malta.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli asked Ms Calleja under which law was the young woman detained and the officer replied that the director of the adoption agency was present in court and was ready to testify.

Sandra Hili Vassallo testified that Ms Lara had no financial means to support herself. The agency felt she should be taken into care because living with the prospective adoptive family would prejudice the adoption.

This was because the child was only a month old and, according to law, it was only after six weeks following birth that the adoption could take place. Also, private adoption was illegal and the mother would have to make a free and objective decision to allow her child to be adopted.

The director said the adoptive parents had started legal proceedings to adopt the child.

Dr Montalto asked whether his client could leave the court room and live wherever she wanted and Dr Hili Vassallo replied that she doubted whether Ms Lara could live wherever she wanted to, but she was free to leave the Appo?? home.

Ms Lara told the court she did not need any protection from the adoptive agency and preferred to go back to where she was living before, with the family.

Dr Montalto then withdrew the application.

Countries: Philippines, Malta

Two doctors arrested in adoption case

Two doctors arrested in adoption case

Asseem Shaikh, TNN, Jun 12, 2010, 01.03am IST

PUNE: The Yerawada police on Friday arrested two doctors and the manager of the Gurukul Godavari Balak Ashram in the illegal adoption case of a six-month-old baby.

A magistrate court remanded the doctors — Sanjeevkumar Bhate (42) of Phursungi and Nandkumar Nalawde (37) of Manjari — and manager Rajan Kusalkar (21) of Gultekdi to police custody till June 14.

With the three arrests, the total number of people who have been arrested in the case has gone up to six. Earlier, the police had arrested ashram president Matthew Yanmal, Preet Mandir caretaker Shivaji Sanake and school teacher Santosh Shinde in the case.

Senior police inspector Deepak Sawant of the Yerawada police station told TOI that Dr Bhate, upon a request from Yanmal, had got the mother admitted to the maternity home run by Dr Nalawade at Manjari.

The newborn, which was diagnosed with HIV, was given up for adoption to one Anita Yadav of Mumbai in 2009 when it six months old. The fact that the baby boy had HIV was not told to Yadav. The child died six months later.

According to inspector Sawant, Dr Bhate, Yanmal and Kusalkar forged documents to give the child up for adoption to Yadav. Dr Nalawade, who performed the delivery along with Dr Bhate, neither kept a record of the delivery nor did he inform the gram panchayat, which is mandatory, Sawant said.

Persons: Mathew Rayappa Yanmal, Shivaji Sanake

Countries: India

Organizations: Gurukul Godavari Balak Ashram

E-Mail Regarding Hoksbergen Chennai

Betreff: my first meeting with Hoksbergen and Mary Rukmani´s case

I met Hoksbergen at the YWCA Chennai- run by Sarah Chanda- close friend of sister theresa.

First thing he said to me…” oh..i head you are so angry on the adoption system…and you have a right to”….my neck hairs were going up….i said yes..of course I m angry….he said I can help you…I know even people ( most likely SD Gokhale) who are very close to your indian family…I m going to Pune and I could possibly mediate…- I replied you can try- but I don´t think you have a chance….i felt he was playing a game- and I know no one can mediate in my case.- just no way….Later we went to his room with his friend/ companion and watched the documentary about my story…he then also showed me the annexed gpapers…and told me that his friend Andal asked him to search for that child….i read it…..read Christ Faith Home – ICCO ( german now defunct criminal agency) and Meiling partner…..i said give me a copy, he refused…I told him, that Andal´s Damodaran´s ( ICCW/ scrutiny agency)duty would have been to lodge a complaint and that he is now used to cover up a kidnapping case. We got in a sort of fight. I was really furios.- however maintained basic courtesy.

Later I met Sarah Chandon and her friend…talked with her about the adoption issues. There for the first time in my life I received subtile death threats, that Chennai is such a dangerous place and that people get just killed or other terrible things. Clear advise was given to me to not dig into this adoption mess.

Arun Dohle

Persons: Andal Damodaran, Rene Hoksbergen, Arun Dohle

Countries: Netherlands, India

Organizations: Stichting Meiling, ICCO, International Council of Social Welfare (ICSW)

Lagos rescues 10 children from illegal orphanage

By Agency reporter
Friday, 11 Jun 2010

Officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development on Thursday rescued 10 children at an illegal orphanage in Alakuko area in Lagos.

A statement from the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, by the spokeswoman, Mrs Titilayo Oshodi-Eko, said the children — three boys and seven girls — were aged between six months and 10 years.

The News Agency of Nigeria quoted Oshodi-Oko as saying in the statement that the children were rescued from Jesus Cares Orphanage located at 23, Alaba Taiwo Street, Kollington Bus Stop, Alakuko, Lagos.

Oshodi-Eko explained that the orphanage was discovered when one Prince Eteng, 22, was arrested begging for alms in a commercial bus between Ikeja and Sango Ota, Ogun State, on behalf of the children in the orphanage.

A female information officer with the Lagos State Government was said to have accosted Eteng and dragged him with the help of another man to the Ikeja Local Government Secretariat Police Post.

“Mr. and Mrs. Clement Edet, (both pastors), are the owners of the orphanage. My duty is to collect offerings and donations from members of the public and deliver same to my employers,” Eteng was quoted as saying.

He said that he received N1000 as transport fare from the pastors and distributed 60 envelopes for offerings daily.

The statement also quoted Mrs Janet Edet as saying she and her husband, Pastor Clement Edet, of Timeless Christian Chapel International, Mangoro, Lagos, decided to help the children because they had no parents.

Oshodi-Eko said that officials of the ministry, who later visited the orphanage, discovered that the environment was poor and empty, with no sign of foodstuff.

“We realised that the children were not registered in any school,’’ she said.

Oshodi-Eko said that the case was first reported at the Alakuko Police Station before the children were moved to the State Secretariat, Alausa.

The statement quoted the Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, as saying that the children had been moved to the government orphanage at Idi-Araba.

Badru vowed that government would not relent in its efforts to rid the state of illegal orphanage operators.

“It is no longer business as usual for those engaged in running illegal orphanages in Lagos,‘‘ he said.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201006112353735

Countries: Nigeria

Chinese man convicted for selling son on Internet

(AFP) – 10 hours ago

BEIJING — A court in China has given a 22-year-old man a suspended jail sentence for selling his toddler son on the Internet for 18,000 yuan (2,650 dollars), state press reported Friday.

The man from the central province of Hubei sold his two-year-old son to a Beijing couple in April last year after advertising the child online, the Beijing Times reported.

The unmarried Lu sold the child after he split up with the boy's mother and decided he did not have the time or money to raise him, the report said.

Countries: China

Principal held in orphanage case

By: Kaumudi Gurjar

Date: 2010-06-11

Place: Pune

A School principal has been arrested in connection with the illegal adoption case at Gurukul Godavari Ashram in Yerawada. The principal is suspected of creating the fake birth certificate given to the Mumbai woman with the baby boy she adopted from the orphanage.

The principal was identified as Somnath Shinde (42) of Fursungi.

Before this, orphanage head Mathew Rayyappa Yanmal (39) was arrested by the police for selling the baby boy to Anita Arun Yadav of Goregaon in Mumbai. Yadav filed a complaint with the police after the child died, saying the boy was HIV positive, which Yanmal hid from her.

Shinde was produced in court and remanded in police custody till June 14.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/jun/110610-Orphanage-Case-Pune-Principal.htm

Persons: Mathew Rayappa Yanmal, Somnath Shinde

Organizations: Gurukul Godavari Balak Ashram

Countries: India

Filipina allowed to live with family

by di-ve.com - editorial@di-ve.com
Court -- 11 June 2010 -- 18:50CEST

A 30-year-old Filipina woman has been allowed to return to the house of the family who are planning to adopt her baby.

On Wednesday, Lara Lizl Asenit was arrested and taken into detention. She has spent the past days living at Appogg. Inspector Louise Calleja said that the woman was not being held under arrest.

Appogg said that her case falls under the Hague Convention on adoptions, to which the Philippines is a signatory. The family was taking her child through a “private adoption”, which is not allowed under the convention. She was therefore taken to a safe place until it could be ascertained whether the adoption was legal or not.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli heard her laywer Robert Montalto explain that she arrived in Malta on March 18 this year, and that her visa was valid until June 25. He said that her freedom was being restricted, and the magistrate agreed that she could not be held against her will.

Her baby was born on May 19.

Countries: Malta, Philippines