SF vil stoppe adoptioner fra Indien

Danmark bør stoppe adoption fra Indien, indtil forholdene er undersøgt til bunds, kræver SF. Indisk politi mener, at forældre franarres deres børn til adoption.

Søndag den 20. juni 2010, 23:18

SF vil stoppe adoptioner af indiske børn til Danmark, indtil det er grundigt undersøgt, om forældre i Indien bliver franarret deres børn til adoption.

Det siger partiets retsordfører, Karina Lorentzen, efter nye oplysninger i DR-programmet 21 Søndag. Heraf fremgik det, at indisk forbundspoliti mener, at et børnehjem i Indien har narret børnene fra en indisk mand, hvorefter børnene blev adopteret til Danmark.

- Oplysningerne har skabt så megen usikkerhed omkring indiske adoptioner, at det er uholdbart at gennemføre flere, før vi har vished for, at det kan foregå på en betryggende måde, siger Karina Lorentzen.

Hun vil bede justitsminister Lars Barfoed (K) undersøge sagen og tage stilling til, om der skal indføres et midlertidigt stop for adoptioner fra Indien.

Tv-programmet fortalte historien allerede i 2007, hvorefter Familiestyrelsen lukkede for adoption fra Indien. Men en undersøgelse kom frem til, at manden godt var klar over, at børnene blev bortadopteret. Derfor blev der igen åbnet for adoption fra Indien.

Nu bakker det indiske forbundspoliti ifølge 21 Søndag op om manden. Efter at Ramesh Kulkarnis kone døde, afleverede han for otte år siden sine børn på børnehjemmet Preet Mandir. Ifølge manden selv skulle børnene kun være midlertidigt på børnehjemmet, indtil han igen kunne tage sig af dem.

Men han kom aldrig til at se dem igen, for de blevet adopteret til Danmark. De papirer, som Kulkarni skrev under, viste sig nemlig at handle om bortadoption og ikke indskrivning på børnehjemmet, som manden troede.

/ritzau/

Organizations: ACT CASE Ramesh Kulkarni

In search of mother with an aching heart

Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

In search of mother with an aching heart

By K. Venkateshwarlu

Organizations: ACT CASE Arun Dohle

French Supreme Court Recognizes Foreign Gay Adoption

by GILLES CUNIBERTI on JULY 9, 2010

Yesterday, the French supreme court for private and criminal matters (Cour de cassation) held that an American judgment permitting the adoption of a child by the female partner of the mother was not contrary to French public policy and could be recognized in France.

The women were two doctors living in the United State. They had entered into a domestic partnership. The mother was a American national, while her partner was French. After the child was born, the Superior Court of the county of Dekalb, Georgia, permitted the adoption of the child by the French female partner of the mother in 1999. As a consequence, the birth certificate mentioned that the American woman was the mother, and that the French woman was a parent.

The Paris court of appeal had denied recognition to the judgment. The appeal against their decision is allowed by the Cour de cassation which rules that the American judgement is recognised. The French text of the judgment of theCour de cassation can be found here.

This decision is presented as historic by French newspaper Le Monde.

Countries: France, United States of America

Legislation to allow adoption of married parents' children

In this section »

CAROL COULTER Legal Affairs Editor

LEGISLATION IS being drafted that will provide for the adoption of the children of married parents.

The Bill, to be published prior to the children’s rights amendment, probably after the summer recess, will also allow for the tracing of the parents of adopted people, Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews has said.

Speaking to The Irish Times , Mr Andrews said the Bill was being prepared now that the Adoption Bill 2009 – providing mainly for the Hague convention on inter-country adoption to be part of Irish law – had been passed. It will come into operation on November 1st.

The proposed children’s rights amendment to the Constitution will, among other provisions, allow for the adoption of the children of married parents in circumstances less extreme than exist at the moment. In order for such children to be adopted, including being placed voluntarily, the parents must fail in their moral and physical duty to the child, and be likely to continue to do so until the child is an adult, for the child to be free for adoption.

This rules out their adoption in circumstances where, for example, one parent is dead and the other severely incapacitated. The Oireachtas committee on the children’s rights amendment proposed that the Constitution be amended to change this.

The new Bill would deal with such issues as what “failure” in their parental duty meant, and the length of time for which this needed to persist, Mr Andrews said. It would also deal with the length of time a child would be in the care of foster parents or potential adoptive parents before he or she could be adopted.

He said the proposed legislation and the amendment would clear the way for more domestic adoptions. The staff who worked on the 2009 Bill are working on this and on the tracing legislation.

The area is a complex one because of a Supreme Court judgment underlining the right to privacy of parents who gave their children up for adoption on the understanding they would not be contacted. “We need to find a balance between the right to know who your parents are and the right to privacy,” he said.

The information that would be provided for would include medical records and the nature of the relationship between the parents. “We want to spell out the greatest possible amount of anonymised information that is possible to be given,” Mr Andrews said.

Asked whether this would include the identity of parents, he said it would be hard to provide this and trust the recipients not to approach parents. “The Supreme Court was very clear [that] you can’t defeat the privacy of the person who gave up the child. But that was in relation to the adoption legislation in force at the time. We could modify it in the light of later adoption legislation.”

Referring to the situation in the UK, where adopted children have the right to their parents’ identity, he said there was no constitutional right to privacy there, and open adoptions existed in the UK since 1975, which was not the case here.

Asked whether both matters would be dealt with in the same Bill, he said it was likely they would be dealt with separately, but that may change if the drafters found it more appropriate to bring the two pieces of legislation together.

The recently passed Adoption Bill provides for the replacement of An Bord Uchtála (the Adoption Board) with a new adoption authority, which will have members from a number of specified relevant disciplines. Arrangements will be made to ensure continuity between the Adoption Board and the new authority, the Minister said. It will exercise a quasi-judicial function and regulate mediation agencies and other bodies involved in the process.

Under the new Hague regime the children adopted are likely to be slightly older, Mr Andrews said, to ensure the option of a domestic adoption has been exhausted. This could mean that the children could have more attachment issues, and they and their parents would need more support, he said.

Countries: Ireland

White House Backs Kenyan Constitution Allowing Abortion

By Tess Civantos

Published July 06, 2010

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The Obama administration is offering incentives to Kenya to approve a controversial new constitution that would legalize abortion for the first time, promising that passage will "allow money to flow" into the nation's coffers, including U.S. aid.

But there's a hitch to that pledge. A federal law known as the Siljander Amendment passed in 2006 makes it illegal for the U.S. government to lobby on abortion in other countries -- and three U.S. lawmakers say they want a federal investigation into the promises made by the administration.

Kenya has long been ripe for a new constitution, one that will balance power in the country and prevent the kind of violent rioting that followed Kenya's 2007 presidential election.

The Obama administration has vocally expressed enthusiasm for the new constitution, which it says will provide for easier transition of power through more balanced branches of government.
But according to anti-abortion groups in and outside of Kenya, the constitution will cause harm to the nation by overturning its ban on abortion.

Article 26 of the proposed constitution states that abortion is allowed if "in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger or if permitted by any other written law."

The problem for some is how much that provision is left open to interpretation.

"There are parts of this constitution that violate human dignity," Rebecca Marchinda, director of advocacy for the human rights coalition World Youth Alliance, told FoxNews.com.

"A trained health professional could be anyone who has health training, including a student or a physical therapist," Marchinda said. "The provision is also broadly defined to include any kind of health, including psychological health or emotional health. Finally, this clause opens the way to create other laws that make abortion available on demand."

In a speech delivered last month in Kenya, Vice President Joe Biden urged the Kenyan people to pass the constitution in a referendum scheduled for Aug. 4.

"The United States strongly supports the process of constitutional reform. ... Dare to reach for transformative change, the kind of change that might come around only once in a lifetime," he said.

"If you make these changes, I promise you, new foreign private investment will come in like you've never seen," Biden added.

According to reports, U.S. ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger told Kenyan officials in May that the U.S. has offered $2 million in taxpayer funds for "civic education" to support the process of enacting a new constitution.

That's a problem for Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey. In letters to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Government Accountability Office and U.S. Agency for International Development, the lawmakers said they want a federal probe to determine whether the administration violated federal law with its assistance.

"Any advocacy by the administration in support of the proposed new constitution would constitute lobbying for abortion," reads one letter sent in May. "There is no doubt that the administration is advocating for adoption of the proposed constitution."

Issa's office confirmed that the congressman has not spoken to Biden regarding the request for a federal probe, and they did not say whether they had received a response from the inspectors general.

Funding from the United States, meanwhile, is the least of the Kenyan pro-lifers' worries. They are facing violent and even fatal opposition from constitution supporters within their own nation.

A peaceful anti-constitution protest and prayer service on June 13 turned violent when two bombs exploded, killing six people and injuring over 100 more, according to Kenyan newspaper The Standard.

Not only are constitution opponents being bombed, their leaders are being arrested. Three members of the Kenyan parliament were taken into custody on June 16 on charges of alleged hate speech relating to their prominent leadership in opposing the new constitution.
Three other members of parliament were also accused of hate speech, including Higher Education Minister William Ruto, widely seen as a leader in the campaign against the new constitution.

Obadias Ndaba, who works in the World Youth Alliance branch in Kenya, told FoxNews.com that the government "is trying to do everything it takes to pass the constitution."

"The US VP Biden, while in a visit here, promised that Obama would visit the country only if the constitution is passed," he wrote in an e-mail Friday.

"What is clear is that we are having a powerful elite in government supported by foreign powers against the weak forces of church leaders (plus few politicians under threat of hate speech) with huge support in the population but with less means and security to get their message across," he wrote.

Requests for comment sent to the vice president’s office were not returned.

Countries: Kenya

Bulgaria strives to end plight of abandoned children

By Vessela Sergueva (AFP) – 16 hours ago

SOFIA — Kuna, a pretty eight-year-old girl, lives in an orphanage in Bulgaria, abandoned by her family, but her Roma origins mean her chances of adoption are almost nil.

"Kuna's features do not reveal her origins, but her documents dissuade adoption candidates," said Nadya Dzhunova, director of the Slaveykov children's home in Sofia.

Indeed, Bulgarians are still highly prejudiced against the poor Roma minority, suspecting them of abandoning children at a young age only to claim them back when they are old enough to earn money.

At Slaveykov, Kuna lives alongside 61 abandoned children aged seven to 18, including six who are handicapped.

Her parents only kept two of their seven children but they refused to give up their parental rights over the little girl and four of her siblings, meaning the children could not be put up for adoption and would have been condemned to live in orphanages until adulthood.

But a new law that came into force in October means children who have spent more than six months in institutions and have not been taken back by their parents can now be put up for adoption, without the parents' approval.

This has already allowed Kuna and her four siblings to make their way onto adoption lists.

The practice of leaving children to the state's care due to poverty or a child's disability goes back to communist times and Bulgaria now has one of the highest rates of abandonment in the European Union, with some 6,730 children left to the care of state institutions.

"The problem is difficult to solve after 50 years during which the state readily placed in an institution any child at risk," deputy social minister Valentina Simeonova explained.

This was the case for eight mentally disabled teenagers, who after years in a dilapidated children's home in the remote village of Mogilino in northeastern Bulgaria, recently moved into their own house in the western village of Glozhene.

Confined to a wheelchair, 20-year-old Sergey can neither walk nor talk. Blind since birth, he was often tied to his bed at Mogilino to keep him still, according to the nurses at his new home in Glozhene.

Sergey and several dozen other children and adolescents with disabilities lived at Mogilino behind "a barbed wire fence and barred windows," cared for by unqualified, indifferent staff, according to Branimira Pavlova, head of a daycare centre in Teteven that temporarily hosted the eight youngsters.

The utter misery there sparked a nationwide fund-raising campaign, supported by UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, and private bTV television, to build new homes for the children and eventually close down the orphanage.

The government now plans to shut by 2013 all 27 remaining institutions for children with serious disabilities. Most of these facilities are situated in poor remote villages.

Meanwhile, it is encouraging the creation of daycare centres like the one in Teteven, where teams of nurses, psychologists and teachers can take care of children with disabilities during the day, allowing the parents to go work.

This would help battle high abandonment rates, Pavlova said.

Almost 98 percent of abandoned children in Bulgaria still have parents somewhere and social workers are seeking to encourage them to take their children back or place them in foster care.

Some 1,200 children aged 12 and above, or with grave disabilities, have been put on a special list for adoption abroad, mainly in the United States, Canada, Sweden and Italy, where families are more open to adopt these children.

Authorities are also seeking to limit the number of abandoned babies, aged three and under, which currently number 2,300 in all of Bulgaria.

In 2009, 536 Bulgarian babies were adopted domestically and 103 abroad, including 23 percent who had some sort of disability.

"If we manage to do away with abandonment at birth, we will manage to reverse the high number of children in institutions," Simeonova said.

Countries: Bulgaria

Everybody’s Children

July 5, 2010
Everybody’s Children
By Diana Markosian
RIA Novosti

The International Scandals Surrounding Foreign Parents Who Abuse Adopted Russian Children Have Obscured the Challenges that Russian Orphans Face at Home

Tucked quietly away in an isolated corner of Russia, far from civilization, is an orphan village called Kitezh Children’s Community. The houses are shaped like castles, the sun is beaming and a dozen or so happy children are playing in the yard, just like in every good fairy tale. But this is not your average Russian orphanage. Only a few lucky orphans from the thousands growing up in modern Russia are privileged enough to live here; volunteer parents, able to provide a home and a future, officially adopt the children.

Twenty-five year old Maria Pichugina is the director of the Kitezh center in Orion, about 60 kilometers south of Moscow. She has spent most of her life in the orphanage, but not as a foster child. Pichugina’s mother moved to Kitezh ten years ago with her two daughters to devote her life to the plight of Russian orphans.

The community was set up nearly 20 years ago by former Moscow-based radio journalist Dmitri Morozov in response to the growing number of street children in Russia, and as an alternative to the state institutions. “In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were a lot of kids who didn’t have homes, and no one cared,” Morozov said. “People were too busy worrying about making money. There was an attitude on behalf of the government and on behalf of the people that this was not our problem.”

The situation has barely improved since then. According to a 2008 trial census, Russia has around 700,000 orphans. The vast system of orphanages presently in place dates back to the early Soviet period, when many orphans appeared on the streets following the Civil War, and orphanages became part of the communist education system. Since then it has grown and perpetuated itself, while alcoholism and the general destructive tendencies in society supplied children in need of parental care. Up to 80 percent of children in today’s orphanage system are so-called “social orphans” who have been taken by the authorities away from their problematic families.

The recent cases of mistreatment of Russian adoptive children in the United States have brought the pitfalls of international adoption into the limelight, but several fundamental questions have been brushed over: why does Russia have so many orphans in the first place? And what is the country doing to solve the problem?

More than 1,500 Russian children were adopted in the United States in 2009, putting Russia in third place in the number of children taken from there after China and Ethiopia. Over the years, Morozov has kept a close eye on Russia’s adoption trend, and believes that international adoption is the country’s way of ignoring the actual problem. “It seems to be the easiest way for bureaucrats who don’t care very much about what is really happening,” said Morozov. “In the last few years we have actually been moving in the right direction. I see that the government is trying to develop the structure: for instance, non-governmental organizations are emerging. But Russia is a big society and we have to contain the problem.”

For years, a major hurdle in the adoption process in Russia was its bureaucracy. Deacon Alexander Volkov adopted a son three years ago. The process itself, he said, was the most difficult part, and for many Russians it is an ordeal they are not willing to go through. “It was very hard for years to adopt a child. The system just didn’t allow it, and people didn’t want to deal with it,” said Volkov. “Now the government and volunteers are starting to take care of this situation. Many orphanages are even closing because people are adopting so many children.”

But while negotiations on an agreement to regulate Russian-U.S. adoptions draw to a close, Russia’s domestic orphan problem lingers on. The Russian Children’s Welfare Society (RCWS), a non-governmental organization based in New York with an office in Moscow, estimates that the proportion of declared orphans is four to five times higher in Russia than in Europe or the United States. Some 30 percent live in orphanages. Most are children who have been either given up by their parents or removed from dysfunctional families by the authorities. As of 2009, there were 2,176 orphanages in Russia. That number has grown by more than 100 percent in the last decade, reports RCWS, whose main mission is to help Russian orphans.

Morozov believes that the problem is twofold: the number of abandoned children is rising but too few Russians are willing to take them in as their own. At Kitezh, things are different, he says; adoptive parents are not only willing to look after the children, but they also devote their entire lives to the cause.

Pichugina and her husband have adopted five children in the past four years. She is now expecting her first biological child. “I don’t even think of them as anyone else’s children, but my own,” said Pichugina, whose own mother has adopted ten children in Kitezh. “Once you’ve taken them in you are inseparable from them. They are my own children.”

Anastasia and her younger sister Vera have lived with Pichugina for four years. Though at first glance they may act like the average teens, the two are wise beyond their years. They have to be, they say. Their mother and younger brother both died four years ago. “After she died, our father was too drunk to take care of us, and he left us,” said Anastasia, who is now 14. “Sometimes I feel sorry for myself, and just say: ‘why me?’ Life is not fair. But you have to get over it. I can’t do anything about what happened.”

The attitude toward orphans in Russia is slowly shifting. There is no overnight solution. Anastasia knows that her past will not define her, but she is part of the minority. The future for most Russian orphans is still rather nebulous

Countries: Russia

Malaysia's first 'baby hatch' boy finds new home

(AFP) – 3 hours ago

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian baby boy, the first infant dropped off at a "baby hatch" centre to rescue unwanted newborns, has found a new home, reports said Wednesday.

The centre -- modelled on similar services in Germany, Japan and Pakistan -- was launched in May and is the first of its kind in Malaysia, which is grappling with the problem of rising numbers of abandoned infants.

The facility in suburban Kuala Lumpur allows mothers to leave their babies anonymously.

A small door opens to an incubator bed on which the child can be placed, and once the door is closed and the mother has left, an alarm alerts a staff member to the arrival.

The first baby received by the centre, on June 27, has been adopted by a couple selected from 80 eligible parents, OrphanCARE which runs the centre was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper.

"In keeping with the rights of both the biological and adoptive parents to confidentiality, no other information pertaining to the adoption and the baby will be released," the centre said.

The hatch has sparked debate in the Muslim-majority nation, with critics saying it will encourage premarital sex. Supporters of the centre say it gives desperate mothers an alternative to abandoning or killing their babies.

Official statistics show 407 babies were abandoned between 2005 and 2009 in Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation with a population of 28 million people. This year a total of 24 cases were recorded as of April.

Media reports have highlighted cases of newborn babies abandoned in the streets or at rubbish dumps. In March, the body of baby boy who was left on the roadside was found by passers-by with his left hand bitten off by wild dogs.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has attributed the rise in abandoned babies to unmarried couples not knowing where to seek help after having a child out of wedlock.

Countries: Malaysia

Bulgarien will Waisenhäuser schließen

06. 07. 2010, 09:12

"Isolierheime"

Bulgarien will Waisenhäuser schließen

Mehr Stories Sofia

Mörderischer Agentenkrimi in Bulgarien »

Noch leben fast 8.000 junge Menschen in "Isolierheimen". Adoptionen sollen erleichtert werden.

Bulgarien will alle 32 Waisenhäuser für Kinder schließen. Gleichzeitig sollen Möglichkeiten zur Adoption sowie zur Unterbringung bei Pflegefamlien verbessert werden. Viele Waisenhäuser wurden bereits geschlossen, mehr als 6.000 Kinder haben eine Pflegefamilie bzw. Adoptiveltern gefunden oder sind zu ihren leiblichen Verwandten zurückgekehrt.

7.600 Kinder in "Isolierheimen"
Noch immer aber leben in diese Anstalten etwa 7.600 Kinder, die den Staat 40. Mio. Euro jährlich kosten. Das größere Problem ist jedoch: Jedes Jahr werden 3.000 Babys in diesen "Isolierheimen" zurückgelassen. Hier will der Staat mit neuen Mittel eingreifen, etwa bessere finanzielle Unterstützungen für sozialschwache, junge Famlien und allein erziehende Mütter.

Katastrophale Bedinungen
Die Verhältnisse in diesen Waisenhäusern sind großteils katastrophal, vor allem die Gesundheitsversorgung und die Betreuung der Kleinen. Adoptions-Verfahren funktionieren oft nicht und sind nicht selten von Korruption überschattet. Die Institution der Pflegefamilie wurde in Bulgarien erst in den vergangenen Jahren eingeführt.

Mehrheit für Schließung
Die Schließung der Waisenhäuser stößt in Bulgarien auf große Unterstützung, nachdem im Jahr 2008 ein französischer Film und Recherchen über die Kinderheime für geistig und physisch schwerbehinderte Kinder im Dorf Mogilino im Donaubezirk Russe für große Empörung sorgten. Der Film zeigte Kinder, die an ihre Betten gefesselt waren. In den Waisenhäusern leben überwiegend Kinder aus ärmsten Verhältnissen, vor allem Roma-Kinder, sowie junge Menschen mit schweren geistigen oder körperlichen Behinderungen.

http://www.oe24.at/welt/Bulgarien-will-Waisenhaeuser-schliessen-0737642.ece

Countries: Bulgaria

Nieuwsbrief Annie juni 2010

Dear Partners,

Just a few days ago, 15 3 year olds, faces shining with great joy came onto my office me. There was great excitement in the air, and they all at once wanted to tell me what they had been doing for their school trip that day.
They went to the fire station, and the fire engines were as big as the whole world. After that they went to the bus station and went into the buses, and the buses were very big too. My goodness when one is 3 years old and you look at such big things, it is something to talk about.
AND after that chicken and chips at Mega Bite with a cool drink. Little tummies were very full.
I just enjoyed seeing them so very happy.

We had an other very amusing thing happened. Every six month the dentist comes to Kondanani to check the children's teeth, if anything has to be done we take them to the surgery for treatment.
Last week, 6 of the small ones had to be taken to the surgery. After the treatment there is always something special, after all the dentist is not the nicest place to go, so we have to make it a bit of an outing. That means going out for lunch. Once again to Mega Bite, there are not to many choices in Malawi.
After eating and drinking they had to go to the toilet. These are little once who have never in their lives been to a public toilet or see a grown up man wee.
So, little Tom 4 years old and very inquisitive, stood there next to a man who was doing the same as he. He was fascinated, stopped, stood next to the man bent over and watch the man in action. The man never blinked an eye lid and Tom is still talking about the man and whatever goes with it, not suitable for this newsletter.!!!!
All this was watched by the father of one of our missionaries who are visiting and helping us. We had such a laugh about it.

Our Obert who is 11, decided that eating was not quite the thing to get involved in. It became quite obvious that there was something wrong and we decided to investigate. Well, we soon found out that he was the slowest of the slowest eaters and was being teased by the other children because of it, this was so stressful to him that he decided that, rather than be nagged by the house mother and be teased by his brothers in the house, he would give his food away.
For the last couple of weeks he has been having his meals in my house and of course I can't resist the temptation to spoil him with all sorts of extra goodies.
Obert goes back home bragging about all the nice things mummy gives him and he gets teased again because the others are jealous.
He went back to his own house this morning, I hope he eats, the others have been warned not to tease him, but Obert may just want to go back to me for his meals, and start a little game. Just imagine having 150 children to take care off.
We really need God's Wisdom every day.

Our Isaac, who he is 7, began to have real problems with his eyes. We visited the specialist on several occasions hoping that something could be done for him.
When a mucus was forming on the eye ball the specialist did a biopsy. He was found to have a tumor behind his eye and it could not be saved. We were really sad about that, I cried but he himself never shed a tear.
The eye has been removed and he will get a glass eye very soon believe he needs a new one every year.
It amazed me how quickly he got over the operation. He is a brilliant student at school at it has not in the least affected his school work. Of course the other children try to tease him being a one eyed man, but he laughs it off. Great to see so much self confidence.

Do you remember my last newsletter, I mentioned little Hannah and her split lip. Well she is a beautiful girl now after the operation. She will have to have an other one when she is about 5, but she looks so much better and is a very pretty girl with a very beautiful smile.

The twins are also doing very well and have put on kilos. Both of them are walking now, their muscles will develop properly and there will be no more signs of the severe malnutrition they had suffered before they came.
It is so special to be able to be a blessing to these children, we did not have to leave them in the condition they were in.

Madalitso is 7, he was left abandoned at the Trade Fair grounds in Blantyre just after birth. A child like that will never be able to go and trace his family.
He was the only abandoned child we had, the others have all been adopted.
A great family from the USA are now adopting him, this is so special and I am so grateful. They have 5 of their own and the last born is a boy of the same age as Madalitso. He will now have a real family and a daddy and mummy.
We have already been to court and are awaiting for the final adoption order. Things are a bit slow, but we are expecting it any day and he will fly off to America.
The other children think it is amazing that he is going to America, and fly in a jet as they call it.

We had the official opening of our new baby home "Caring Hands" last Wednesday. Our little once spend the first 3 years of their lives there and than move onto a home were they live as a family with their house mother, nanny and cleaning lady.
I was amazed as to how many people were in attendance as it was a real last minute effort.
Press Trust ( a Malawian organization) sponsored 50% and God TV the other 50% of the building, representatives of Press Trust were present.
TV Malawi, 2 radio stations and various news paper journalists were present and did interviews and filming.
I had to make a speech and all I wanted to do is cry, but I managed to compose myself.
It is a great building, beautiful for our children, and we give God all the Glory for enabling us to bring up our children ion such good facilities

The Rory Alec Clinic is now empty and is waiting for the next project.
A few month ago I invited the Heads of the Community Based Organizations (CBO's) for lunch, there are nine in our area. I really wanted to hear from them what was happening at grass root level. We live in a paradise in the middle of poverty, it is important not to forget what is happening around us.
After lunch I asked them if we could go with them into the villages and see their work.
What we noticed while going into the villages was that, many of the men and women on Anti Retroviral drugs, these are the HIV positive people, were, although still alive, not healthy at all, in fact there was a lot of suffering in spite of the medication.
The reasons being that they are so poor and can't afford food that will help them to get on top of their condition and get them strong enough to go and get a job and earn a living.
This situation would not leave my mind and I really believe that there was a reason for that, my Heavenly Father had a plan and He uses people to fulfil His Plan.
The Rory Alec clinic will become a malnutrition clinic for adults who are on ARV's and still malnourished. It will be the first in the country, there always has to be a first.
It won't be an easy task, we are talking about village people who don't even know how to use a toilet, but it will be such a blessing to see them walk out after about 8 weeks well and healthy, able to find a job.
It is going to be an expensive exercise to begin with, and on going, but then we know Who our Source is.
We work for the big company called "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" ( Unlimited).
We are looking forward to the challenge ahead.

Thank you for being part of this work, thank you for blessing our children and helping us to take care of them.
The newspaper called Kondanani an "Exceptional Children's Village", you my friends are part of that.

Yours in His Service,

Annie Chikhwaza.

Organizations: Kondanani, Malawi

Persons: Annie Chikhwaza-Terpstra