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Ethiopia-Australia Intercountry Adoption Program closed

Ethiopia-Australia Intercountry Adoption Program closed

28 June 2012

Australia has today closed its intercountry adoption program with Ethiopia, following several years of issues with the program, which contributed to a suspension of adoptions between 2009 and 2010, as well as long waits and uncertainty for Australian prospective adoptive parents.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon explained this difficult decision has been taken following extensive consideration of the sustainability of the program and the best interests of Ethiopian children.

“The best interests and rights of children are the most important consideration for intercountry adoption programs.

Ghanese politie verijdelt aanslag op Maastrichtse koning

12/01/'11XL     Enkele ontslagen werknemers en de directeur van een hotel in Ghana zijn opgepakt voor een moordaanslag op de steenrijke vastgoedmakelaar Arthur Paes uit Maastricht, tevens gekroond koning in de Ghanese provincie Somey met 300.000 onderdanen.

Paes onsloeg in zijn hotel Royal Beach in de Ghanese hoofdstad Accra vorige zomer enkele werknemers omdat ze verdacht werden van fraude. De ex-werknemers zouden samen met de Nederlandse hoteldirecteur Jan Wubbeling een aanslag hebben beraamd op de eigenaar en koning Arthur Paes, die momenteel in zijn kasteel in het Waalse Esneux verblijft.

Volgens Paes was er een plan voor een aanslag met wapens. Toen dat niet lukte, zouden de daders een gif in zijn glas hebben gedaan. De verdachte hoteldirecteur Jan Wubbeling ontkent de aantijgingen.

Lees vandaag meer in Het Belang van Limburg.

Rogue Expatriate On the loose

General News of Friday, 25 November 2011

Source: The Republic Newspaper

Rogue Expatriate On the loose

Editor Dares Dutch Crook and wife!

General News of Thursday, 8 December 2011

Source: Benjamin Tawiah

Editor Dares Dutch Crook and wife!





Editor Dares Dutch Crook and wife!

General News of Thursday, 8 December 2011

Source: Benjamin Tawiah

Editor Dares Dutch Crook and wife!





US couple detained in Ghana while trying to


US couple detained in Ghana while trying to
adopt



Hot Topics








RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, The Associated Press
Updated
8:01 PM Tuesday, June 26, 2012

ACCRA, Ghana — An American couple who used their popular blog to chronicle
their journey to adopt four children from Ghana were detained and their two
biological children placed in a local orphanage over the weekend after
authorities suspected them for child trafficking, officials said Tuesday.


Sol and Christine Moghadam from Irvine, California, had traveled to Ghana
with their two biological sons after their application to adopt the four
siblings had been approved, according to their blog. An adoption agency official
said the family was later reunited and the couple cleared to leave the country
with their biological children, although their newly adopted kids will need to
await their visas.


They were stopped Friday at Kotoka International Airport where they tried to
board a flight with the four children, whom they had adopted from the city of
Kumasi, located 160 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of Accra, police in Ghana
confirmed.


Kyle Tresch, a vice president for the adoption agency Dillon International
Inc., said the couple had already obtained a court order that made them the
legal guardians of the four Ghanaian children and were waiting for the U.S.
government to approve visas for them when the incident occurred.


They were taken into custody after the government received a phone call from
an anonymous tipster who accused them of child trafficking, according to a
statement posted on the website of AdoptTogether, an advocacy group that
produced a video of the couple's adoption process.


"I can tell you that we are investigating a couple who arrived at the airport
with six children — four blacks and two whites — which aroused the suspicion of
security officers at the airport who stopped them from traveling," Comfort Miah,
an official with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghanaian police, told
The Associated Press. "They say the children were adopted and we are
investigating to find out if this has been properly granted by a court of proper
jurisdiction."


On their blog and in a video created on their behalf, the couple and their
friends say Christine Moghadam was forced to spend a night in jail on Friday,
while Sol Moghadam was held in a detention center. Their two biological children
were placed in an orphanage.


The couple had to post a bond for their release, and their passports were
returned to them on Monday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at
a media briefing in Washington on Tuesday.


Tresch said that as of Tuesday, all six children were with the couple. The
couple, he said, was free to leave Ghana, though they will need to wait for
visas to be processed before the adopted siblings can leave. Attempts to reach
the couple through their blog and through Facebook were not immediately
successful.


Frank Kwofie, director of operations for the police's criminal investigations
department, confirmed that the family had provided documentation.


"The couple had documentation, but we have had cases where such documentation
is fraudulent, so we are having it verified," he said.


On their blog, the couple described the toll of the ordeal: "We are
emotionally exhausted and traumatized from the entire incident," they posted on
Tuesday. "Our case is not complete yet but our chief officer from the Ghana
police department has apologized for their overreaction and stated that our
detainment was a mistake on their part. Although we have many pending
circumstances before uniting our family, we have complete trust in God that He
will provide a way out and heal our family from this traumatic situation."


Their blog, "Our adoption journey to Africa," has received 47,600 page views
and supporters posted dozens of messages of encouragement. The couple began the
application process in 2010, initially petitioning to adopt a child in Ethiopia.
They were steered to Ghana in November 2011, after they saw the four siblings on
the waiting list of the adoption agency. The blog's timeline states that they
received final approval in April.


"The paperwork was all in place," said Tresch of the adoption agency. "This
is a situation that has never happened in the 40 year history of our
agency."


___


Associated Press writer Laura Burke in Accra, Ghana, Amy Taxin in Tustin,
California, and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
Callimachi contributed from Dakar, Senegal


___


June 26, 2012 11:55 PM EDT


Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Frenan adopciones hasta que se integre el pleno del Consejo de Familia

Frenan adopciones hasta que se integre el pleno del Consejo de Familia

DIF en Jalisco

                                     |                                        

Gobierno del Estado

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Familia

Rubén Reynoso Ledezma, encargado de despacho del CEF.

  • Extranjeros aceptan a niños de mayor edad, explica el encargado de despacho del CEF
  • El Gobierno estatal lanzó una convocatoria para nuevos consejeros facultados para decidir la situación de los menores en los albergues

GUADALAJARA, JALISCO (22/JUN/2012).- Siguieron el procedimiento, tuvieron paciencia y cumplieron estrictos requerimientos con la ilusión de adoptar a un menor. Ahora deberán esperar más tiempo.

Mientras el Consejo Estatal de Familia (CEF) atraviesa por una polémica enmarcada por diversos señalamientos en su actuar, los más perjudicados son los interesados que están en algún proceso de adopción.

Lo anterior, debido a que la institución no cuenta con un consejo que permita tomar decisiones como lo es la asignación de menores a familias, cambio de niños de albergue o emitir procesos de convivencia o custodia, porque los consejeros son los únicos que tienen la facultad de hacerlo.

El encargado de despacho del CEF, Rubén Reynoso Ledezma, indicó que el 4 de junio pasado se terminó el contrato con los consejeros. Sin embargo, el Gobierno estatal ya lanzó la convocatoria para los consejeros, y esperen que pronto se conforme el pleno.

Parte de ello tiene que ver con los cambios de menores de un albergue a otro. Lo ideal es que por cada movimiento de un menor se elabore una resolución firmada por el pleno en la que se digan los motivos del cambio y se notifique a la familia del pequeño, a la Procuraduría General de Justicia y al albergue que tiene al niño.

De manera habitual, el cambio se hace a través de un oficio en el que se explica la justificación del cambio, pero nada más.

Tras la licencia de dos meses de la secretaria ejecutiva, Claudia Corona Marseille, el gobernador del Estado, Emilio González Márquez, no se ha acercado a Reynoso Ledezma para hablar del caso. Y en cuanto a la opinión del encargado de despacho acerca de su antecesora, dijo que es una mujer responsable “estudiosa del derecho”.

De seis adopciones, dos fueron a extranjeros en 2012

En lo que va del año han finalizado algunos juicios de asignación de menores, que terminaron en cuatro adopciones nacionales y dos al extranjero, de siete y ocho años, específicamente a Italia.

Según Reynoso Ledezma, en el caso de los niños adoptados por extranjeros, primero se hace un proceso para hacer lo posible para que se queden con familias jaliscienses y mexicanas.

Sin embargo, la “cultura” de nuestro Estado y del país es querer niños recién nacidos o pequeños, y no buscan niños mayores de ocho años, que sí son aceptados por personas extranjeras, señaló Reynoso Ledezma.

El seguimiento a los niños que se van del país es de dos años, con visitas de la autoridad central del lugar, quien manda información y fotografías de los pequeños al consejo. La dependencia que se encarga de dar el seguimiento puntual es la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores.

Un niño no puede salir del país si el juez no lo autoriza, afirmó el funcionario.

Niñas recibirán atención externa


En cuanto a las dos niñas que supuestamente fueron manipuladas por psicólogas para que aceptaran una pareja adoptiva de procedencia italiana, recibirán atención a su salud mental pero por parte de una instancia externa al consejo, en este caso, personal del sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) Jalisco. “Es más sano que sean atendidas por alguien que no sea del consejo para no predisponer a las menores, entonces, solicitaremos por escrito a la dirección del fortalecimiento de la familia para ver que nos apoyen con la contención de estas menores”.

PRUEBAS, EN REVISIÓN
Claudia Corona declara ante la autoridad

La secretaria técnica del Consejo Estatal de Familia (CEF) con licencia, Claudia Corona, declaró con relación al caso de las dos niñas que fueron presionadas por un par de psicólogas del organismo para que accedieran a ser adoptadas por extranjeros; las señaladas aún no lo hacen pero deberán acudir, informó el procurador del Estado, Tomás Coronado Olmos, quien dijo que está en revisión por parte del Ministerio Público el video que se presentó junto con la denuncia, a fin de determinar si existe un delito.

Mientras que, al no haber un pleno en el CEF, los niños que recibe esta institución por maltrato u otra circunstancia se derivan a albergues como El Cabañas, donde hay un consejo propio u otro sitio apropiado de este tipo para su estancia, sólo se notifica al primer organismo para el seguimiento de estos casos, explicó el procurador.

TELÓN DE FONDO
Señalado por la CEDHJ


En el más reciente caso de señalamientos contra el Consejo Estatal de Familia (CEF), la semana pasada una pareja interesada en la adopción de dos niñas reveló que dos psicólogas de esa institución presionaron a las menores para que “eligieran” determinados padres adoptivos.

El caso es sólo otra de las irregularidades denunciadas ante la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos Jalisco (CEDHJ), instancia que en casi seis años ha recibido 162 quejas del consejo.

Por las inconformidades presentadas por el actuar del consejo, la CEDHJ ha emitido 10 recomendaciones desde 2007 a la fecha.

Se encuentra en segundo lugar, junto con la Secretaría de Educación (la Procuraduría es la primera), en medidas dirigidas por la CEDHJ en 2011.

Support to Children in Mogilino

Support to Children in Mogilino

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On 31.08.2010. was held the official opening of the last of the Small Houses for the children from Mogilino. This ended up UNICEF's project for closing down the Mogilino institution, which was supported by the bTV fundraising show "The Magnificent Six".

The Project "Children First" was implemented in partnership by UNICEF and an Alliance of NGOs, including For Our Children Foundation, Social Activities and Practices Institute, Bulgarian Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (BAPID), International Social Service, Caritas-Bulgaria, ECIP Foundation, etc.

The project aimed at facilitating the implementation of the Agency for Social Assistance Plan for the closure of the institution "St. Petka" in Mogilino village and directing the children and young people to alternative services. The first of the three main fields of activity was the provision of emergency assistance for care improvement, direct work with the children in the social home until its closure and their preparation for leaving. The second aim was the preparation of individual assessments of all children and young people which will help for the adequate planning of future care. The third sphere of action was providing support to local communities in developing alternative services as well as launching a program and action plan targeted at working with the parents for the reestablishment of the child-parent relationship and the potential reintegration in the family.

Going public in Bulgaria

Going public in Bulgaria

April 9, 2012 at 9:40 AM by Susanna63 Comments »

The clean sweep we’ve been praying for…coming soon

The director of the Bulgarian Child Protection Agency recently met with the new Minister of Health who is directly responsible for the baby orphanages in Bulgaria. She is a young and very determined lady and started acting immediately. The CPA’s director himself is an orphan and spent most of the first part of his life in orphanages and institutions, so he cares a lot. They organized a sudden check up in Pleven. Groups from both the MOH and the CPA went to Pleven last Friday.

They went through all the floors and visited every corner of the building.

Blog - Children in institutions

Children in institutions

Bulgaria’s abandoned children- still waiting for the deinstitutionalisation

by Maria Sharkova

I spent almost a year in the children’s home in Mogilino as an interpreter and assistant of Kate Blewett during the filming of “Bulgaria’s abandoned children”, which was aired on the BBC in 2007. The time spent in that and other children’s homes in Bulgaria made me feel very strongly that:

- all institutions must be closed