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: United States of America, Vietnam

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: Malta, Philippines

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

Organizations: Gurukul Godavari Balak Ashram

Countries: India

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

Countries: India, Netherlands

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

Persons: Andal Damodaran, Rene Hoksbergen, Arun Dohle

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

Countries: India

Persons: Somnath Shinde, Mathew Rayappa Yanmal

Organizations: Gurukul Godavari Balak Ashram

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: Philippines, Malta

Woman who thought she was arrested leaves court free

Friday, 11th June 2010 - 15:26CET

Woman who thought she was arrested leaves court free

A Filipino in Malta legally left the court a free woman this afternoon, after filing an application claiming illegal arrest.

However, it turned out that the woman, whose visa is still valid, was never arrested.

Lara Liezel Asenit, had been taken into care by Malta’s Central Authority for Adoption as she had been living with the family who plan to adopt her one month old baby in two weeks’ time.

Ms Asenit arrived in Malta pregnant on March 18 and went to live with the sister of her child’s adoptive father.

She gave birth at Zabbar on May 19 but the adoption could only take start six weeks after the birth of the child.

Last Wednesday, social workers accompanied by the police turned up at the sister’s home and took Ms Asenit to a home run by Appogg.

This morning, lawyer Roberto Montalto filed an application on behalf of the woman claiming illegal arrest by the officers, under the authority of Police Inspector Louise Calleja.

Inspector Calleja told the court that the police did not arrest the woman. She said Ms Asenit was being kept at the Appogg Home by the Central Authority for Adoption because she had no financial means to support herself and living with the sister of the adoptive father prejudiced the adoption proceedings.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli questioned the director of the Central Authority under what law was she holding Ms Asenit against her will.

The director, Sandra Hili Vassallo, said that Ms Asenit was not under arrest and she had been taken away because for the adoption to take place, she had to decide freely to give up her baby after the six weeks.

The agency felt that contact with the adoptive parents could prejudice the proceedings because private adoptions were not allowed in Malta.

Dr Montalto asked the director whether Ms Asenit could walk out of the courtroom a free woman and she answered she could but the agency preferred her to return to the home so as not to prejudice her rights or those of the child.

He then told the magistrate his client was declaring she did not need any protection from the agency and would prefer to stay where she had been previously staying

Countries: Philippines, Malta

Preet Mandir: Bombay HC tells CBI to file Report

Preet Mandir: Bombay HC tells CBI to file report

Mayura Janwalkar / DNA

Thursday, June 10, 2010 0:50 IST

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Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday said the case against Preet Mandir adoption home in Pune was “serious” and sought a status report from the CBI.

Investigations made by the CBI, as written in an FIR lodged on May 12, showed that the agency had fraudulently given away children in foreign adoptions , and had set up a temporary shelter home for distressed women to procure children from unwed mothers. The centre demanded exorbitant amounts from adoptive parents.
Jamshed Mistry, advocate for Advait Foundation, an NGO, said,

“The court said the adoption centre should be under surveillance till the next date of hearing.”

The FIR said that “inquiry revealed that during the period 2005 to 2010, in as many as 70 instances, Preet Mandir received excess money in the form of donations by extortion from Indian parents, amounting to more than Rs50,000”.

The court was informed that despite these findings of the CBI, two
adoptions have been carried out by the centre. Justices BH Marlapalle and Anoop Mohta will hear the case on June 16.

Organizations: Preet Mandir, ACT CASE Preet Mandir

Countries: India