Agency restructuring may not be enough

ADOPTION: Planned restructuring of troubled Imagine Adoption agency would focus on Ethiopia, but city couple wanted to adopt child from Panama

Posted By FIONA ISAACSON/Examiner Staff Writer

Updated 16 hours ago

A possible restructuring of Imagine Adoption may not be able to help a Peterborough couple trying to adopt from Panama, which hasn’t been identified as a “target country” by the trustee in bankruptcy.

 http://fr.rian.ru/world/20090416/121151686.html

MOSCOU, 16 avril - RIA Novosti. La Russie prône le renforcement des modalités d'adoption d'enfants russes par des étrangers et l'instauration de mesures de protection contre la violence exercée contre eux, a déclaré le chef du ministère russe des Affaires étrangères Serguéi Lavrov dans les pages de la Rossiïskaïa gazeta.
"La Russie prône le renforcement des droits des enfants adoptés et l'instauration de mesures de protection contre la violence exercée contre ces derniers dans les familles adoptives. Les problèmes de l'adoption internationale relèvent désormais de la compétence du ministère russe de l'Education et de la Recherche qui a élaboré et présenté au gouvernement de la Fédération de Russie des propositions axées sur le renforcement du contrôle des organismes et autres organisations étrangères chargées de l'adoption d'enfants sur le territoire de la Russie", a précisé M.Lavrov.
La mise en oeuvre de ces propositions "permettra plus facilement aux employés des représentations consulaires du MID de rendre visite aux enfants adoptés et de déceler en temps opportun les cas de maltraitance à leur égard".
"Il est suggéré d'introduire la pratique d'accords réglementant l'adoption internationale sur l'exemple de l'accord signé en 2008 entre la Fédération de Russie et l'Italie sur coopération dans la sphère de l'adoption d'enfants", a souligné le ministre.
"Le règlement de ces questions au niveau international consacrera officiellement les fonctions de contrôle des organisations mandatées à cet effet, évitera que les personnes coupables de maltraitance sur des enfants adoptés puissent se soustraire à leur responsabilité", a ajouté Serguéi Lavrov.
Selon le diplomate, seuls les Etats-Unis "cherchent des échappatoires à la proposition russe d'accords bilatéraux".
"Je pense que la question devra être formulée sans ambages: pas d'accord - pas d'adoption", a conclu le ministre russe.

Saving Imagine Adoption
 Email story

MP'S FIRM LINKED TO ADOPTION GROUPFAMILIES CONSIDER BAILOUT OF FAILED ADOPTION AGENCYEDITORIAL: ADOPTION OVERSIGHTFAMILIES LEFT IN LURCH AS AGENCY FOLDSPARENTS BEG PROVINCE TO FINISH ADOPTIONSWOULD-BE ADOPTIVE PARENTS TAKE ACTIONFamilies left in limbo by agency's bankruptcy cheer plan to hire new management team

Jul 31, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story  (2)
BRIAN CALDWELL
WATERLOO REGION RECORD

KITCHENER–Families are buoyed by a plan to try to save a bankrupt Cambridge adoption agency by bringing in new management.
If successful, it would mean hundreds of clients who invested months of time and up to $20,000 would still be able to adopt children from overseas.
Would-be parents were devastated when Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which operated as Imagine Adoption, collapsed July 14. But they left a Kitchener meeting in good spirits yesterday after about 200 creditors voted unanimously to pursue a restructuring effort outlined by bankruptcy trustees from BDO Dunwoody.
"I've never seen so many people in one room agree on something so quickly," said Ingrid Phaneuf of Etobicoke, who is trying to adopt an Ethiopian child. "It was fantastic."
Under the plan, about six people with the necessary expertise would take over the non-profit agency. The plan would require approval from the provincial government, which licenses international adoption organizations.
Bankruptcy trustee Susan Taves said the plan will be explored and developed over the next two to four weeks to see if it can work.
"I think it's really probable – a high percentage of success here," she said after the meeting.
Companies, church groups, individuals and affected families have contacted trustees with offers to help salvage the agency.
"This is a really unique file," Taves said. "In 20 years of doing this work, I've never had people call and say they'll give money to keep an organization going."
The effort also has an ally in Kitchener lawyer Ted Giesbrecht, who went to Ethiopia this month to ensure children at an agency transition home were properly cared for.
Giesbrecht, who is working for free, said staff at the home – where children matched with Canadian families are housed – hadn't been paid in six weeks.
While helping to complete adoptions that had reached the matching stage, he also reduced expenses at the home from more than $50,000 to $17,000 a month.
If the agency is restructured, Giesbrecht said, that will help stretch the money Imagine still had in the bank when it went bust.
 
David and Holly Guistini of Kitchener paid $14,000 in fees to Imagine and were waiting to be matched with a child in Ethiopia.
They were encouraged when a landscaper sitting next to them at the creditors' meeting told them he'd write off the money he is owed if the agency can be salvaged.
"He said, `You getting your child is more important than us getting our money,'" David said. "I was blown away."
Families have filed claims nearing $3 million. Imagine had $500,000 in cash left, plus about $150,000 in receivables and office equipment. The collapse affected 415 families, with more than 200 in Ontario.
Waterloo Regional Police are conducting a fraud investigation after two directors of Imagine alleged senior staff made more than $300,000 in questionable purchases with corporate credit cards.

Sep 9, 2009

Couple sold girl to raise sons

 BEIJING - A COUPLE in Beijing has been tried on charges of trafficking children after they allegedly sold their newborn daughter to raise money to help rear their two sons, state media reported on Wednesday.
The migrant couple is accused of selling their daughter to a middleman for 10,000 yuan (S$2,086) in January as they left the Beijing hospital where she was born, the Beijing Times said.
The middleman is facing similar charges after he sold the girl to another couple for 21,000 yuan, it said.
The three were tried in a Beijing court on Tuesday, but no verdict was reached, the report said.
'Give me back my child, you cheat,' Zhao Zhongying, the mother of the child, was quoted as shouting at middleman Wang Jianjun, an illegal taxi driver, as she entered the courtroom. 'I never wanted to sell my child. I only wanted to find a good home for her.'
Wang allegedly arranged the sale of the child after Zhao's husband complained about the financial difficulties the family was in while riding in Wang's car.
'I thought if we could sell the girl, we could save money to raise our two boys,' the paper quoted the husband as saying.
Trafficking of women and children remains common in China, with many cases often linked to the country's 'one-child' birth control policy.
Young women are also often forced into marriages or prostitution.
During a four-month period ending in August, Chinese police arrested more than 800 suspected human traffickers and freed nearly 3,400 women and children, state media reported earlier. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_427445.html

A Crushing Choice for Ethiopian Mothers With HIV

Facing Death, Women Leave Children at Orphanages

By Emily Wax

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page A01

Seven Nepali kids handed over to adoptive parentsKantipur Report

Kathmandu, September 15 - The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) has handed over seven children to their foreign adoptive parents, after a gap of one and half years. Three Nepali orphans were handed over to American adoptive parents, another three children to French parents and one to British parents, all of whom have been residing in the country. The seven Nepali children were officially adopted after the government approved their documents regarding inter-country adoption.

Officials at MWCSW stated on Monday that the six adoptive parents are planning to take their new children to their new homes at the earliest date possible. Only one child will remain in Nepal with her British parents, who are currently residing in the country. This is good news for both the parents and the children, who have been involved in the adoption process for the past seven months.

The concerned authorities, including MWCSW, have also recently given the go ahead to the adoption documents belonging to another 14 children and the adopting parents. Officials stated that they have already informed Nepali representatives of the Nepal-based international adoption agencies about the approval. This means that other prospective parents can begin plans to return home, with their adopted children.

Over 80 children, who have already gone through matching process, (in which prospective parents are paired with orphans) are awaiting the decision of the recommendation committee. The recommendation committee, comprises representatives from the ministries of home and law, as well as MWCSW, who will collectively make the final decision. The committee selects children in accordance with the adopting parents' preferences. The applications of over 300 prospective foreign parents for adoption are also simultaneously being examined MWCSW.

From Times Online April 4, 2009

Ethiopia's orphans face life of hardship

Jonathan Clayton

The Ethiopian peasant farmer and his wife shuffled painfully into the orphanage. They were in the last stages of Aids and had only weeks to live. However, they were happy. They had heard the Franciscan nuns had found a home for their three children and had come to say farewell.

“I am so happy, they are going to stay together,” the father, Solomon, whispered as he embraced a middle-aged Mormon couple from Salt Lake City, Utah. “Now, I can die peacefully. They will go to school in America and have a future. It is good they leave here.” As they embraced their two daughters, aged 8 and 6, for the last time the tears ran freely. Their four-year-old son did not appreciate the significance of the moment and ran off to play with friends.

PROTOCOLO DE APLICACIÓN DEL CONVENIO ENTRE LA REPÚBLICA ITALIANA Y LA REPUBLICA DEL PERÚ EN MATERIA DE ADOPCIÓN INTERNACIONAL SOBRE MENORES DE EDAD

EL GOBIERNO DE LA REPÚBLICA ITALIANA

Y

EL GOBIERNO DE LA REPÚBLICA DEL PERÚ

a continuación denominadas "Estados contratantes",