Anna (71) travels through Brazil to perform DNA tests: 'Every mother deserves contact with her child'

When Anna ten Have traveled to Brazil in 2016 to find the biological mother of her adopted son, she found herself embarking on a nearly impossible task. Mothers in Brazil yearn for contact with their 'missing' children, but money for DNA testing? There is none. Anna is now changing that. "What we have seen is heartbreaking."
 

Anna ten Have (71) is currently in Brazil for the third time. This time in Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon. She and a number of other volunteers are visiting all kinds of women there to take DNA tests. Her goal? To bring mothers into contact with their children, often adopted abroad. "A test like that costs 50 euros. But most people in poor cities simply cannot afford that."

Anna from Woerden discovered this in 2016. In the 1980s, she and her husband adopted two children from Brazil. Nine years ago, she went looking for the biological mother of the youngest, Alfredo.

"We were approached by a Brazilian television program, similar to the Dutch Spoorloos," says Anna. "There were all kinds of women who signed up for the program and thought they were Alfredo's mother. Then DNA was taken from them."

Emotional moment

Although Anna and Alfredo were almost certain that one of the women had to be the biological mother, the DNA did not match. "We went to the woman to tell her that she was not the mother. That was so heartbreaking. She was extremely emotional and completely collapsed," Anna recalls.

Alfredo didn't find his mother in the end. But Anna did find a mission. "Because these women deserve to find their child."

In 2017, she founded a foundation called PDBeH (Pessoas Desaparecidas Brasil e Holanda, missing persons Brazil and the Netherlands, ed.), with the aim of bringing mothers and children together. "I myself adopted two children, thinking that they would have a better life. And that's what almost everyone who brought a child here from abroad thought. Only afterwards did it become clear how much went wrong."

Stolen children

Because many children have simply disappeared, Anna hears from Brazilian mothers. "I hear the most terrible things. Fourteen-year-old girls who have been raped and forced to give up their babies. But you also hear that children are stolen from the hospital. Women are pregnant with twins, but only get to take one child home. The other baby has died, they say. There are no papers."

Also a common story according to Anna: "Women who temporarily bring their baby to an orphanage, to have time to work and earn some money. After a while, the mothers come back and then their child is suddenly gone," she says. "Many Dutch parents have it on their adoption papers that the baby was found in a shoebox. But that is simply not true. I even think that 9.5 out of 10 adoptive parents hear a fake story. Including myself."

Joustra Commission

The Joustra committee also came to that conclusion a few years ago. The Netherlands eventually banned the adoption of children because there were too many abuses. In doing so, the government also released 36 million euros to help adoptees in their search for their biological parents. This may not be spent on individual searches, but on websites, information and peer contact.

It ensured that Anna received a subsidy for her foundation. "Not to buy DNA tests, because that is for the individual search. But with this money we were able to arrange a lot of other things. For example, we created a website where women who wanted a test could sign up."

In order to buy all the tests, in recent years, doughnuts were baked, face masks were sewn, art was sold, triathlons were run. "We raised money in all sorts of ways."

Brazilian television

In 2023, Anna and a number of volunteers made the trip to three locations in Brazil to perform the first DNA tests. She is currently visiting two other cities. "We looked at where most adopted children in the Netherlands come from. For example, we are now visiting Tefé and Manaus. There are many illiterate people living here," Anna says on the phone. "So unfortunately, not everyone knows that we exist. We have already been on Brazilian television, but people here are very behind. So we cannot yet reach every mother who has lost her child."

Anna's foundation performs DNA tests in Brazil, by taking a buccal swab. The results are then entered into the national database. “That data does not automatically end up in the international database. We do that. Ultimately, a match can be found with people who take a test in the Netherlands at MyHeritage, for example.”

Matches

So far, a match has been found in 8 percent of the cases, says Anna. "Am I satisfied with that? I don't know yet. I still think it's a small number, because we know that there are a huge number of mothers who have lost their child."

At the same time, she is very happy with it, she says. "We are now planting seeds. When we return to Brazil as a foundation in three years, it will all be much better known. Then I also hope to be able to make more matches."

Admittedly, not every match has been a success so far. "Sometimes the child does not want contact with the mother. The child has then provided DNA to see, for example, whether there are hereditary diseases in the family, but not to seek contact. "That is difficult to tell mothers," says Anna. "But when it does work, that is the best thing there is. Once we matched a mother with a French lady. The five of us were on the phone to translate, but that was ultimately wonderful."