Activists and disabled parents have called for clarity and guidelines on adoption by persons with disabilities. “Every disabled couple has faced a problem at some stage of the adoption process,” said Bhagyam A., a polio-affected disabled mother who has undergone the process twice.

The call for guidelines and clarity has come in the wake of a couple in Thoothukudi having initially been denied a baby on July 5, and subsequently deemed eligible for adoption following a fitness test. S. Velmayil, 34, has a locomotor disability that affects both lower limbs (90% disability), and his wife Baby, 36, has a locomotor disability affecting her right hand and right leg (80% disability). Mr. Velmayil works at a fuel station, and Ms. Baby is an organiser at a noon meal centre.

The couple had registered for adoption in 2020, and renewed it in 2024. A baby was reserved for them in June. “Nobody said during the registration that we would be ineligible to adopt [an infant],” Ms. Baby said, adding that they had to run from pillar to post to get a medical certificate for adoption.

However, an adoption committee in Dindigul reportedly denied them the baby, as it felt that the couple would be unable to take care of the child, especially in the first two years, owing to their disability. After the incident was reported, a fitness test was conducted for the couple at the Thoothukudi Government Hospital. The result, released on Tuesday, deemed the couple eligible to adopt a baby. “There would have been no need for the test had the committee done its work with due diligence in the first place,” said Ms. Baby. The couple is now going through the entire adoption process again, and would next be meeting with the District Child Protection Officer as part of the process.

Recalling her experience during her first adoption in 2021, Ms. Bhagyam said: “It wasn’t until 2019 that I found out about the stand of [Central Adoption Research Authority] CARA on adoption by disabled couple. The adoption agency was extremely supportive in my case. However, It was during the final hearing that I faced discrimination. The judge did not want to sign the papers as he wasn’t confident. But the agency stood their ground, and I was able to adopt a baby. A basic guideline on adoption is required...”

Despite an earlier agreement, taxi drivers who operate through Uber in Amsterdam have again refused drag queens. 

Johan Hol is one of the drag queens who was not allowed to get into a taxi. "When the Uber driver saw that I was in drag, he said he would not give me a ride because I was not human." 

It also happened to drag queen Sletlana, who points out that Uber's website is all rainbow-themed. "Your route is colored in rainbow colors. They say they offer safety for everyone. But it seems like pink-washing ."

 

"They say they provide safety for everyone. But it seems like pink-washing"

drag queen Sletlana

In 2019, a declaration of intent for a 'discrimination-free taxi market' was signed by Uber, all Amsterdam Authorized Taxi Organizations (TTOs) and the municipality, among others. But Richard Keldoulis, also known as drag queen Jennifer Hopelezz , does not think it has helped.

This whole-of-government, multisectoral “Thrive” Strategy, which is mandated by the Global Child Thrive Act, aims to build strong beginnings for children, help families thrive, and prevent violence against children.

The U.S. Congress directs USAID to elevate child development, care, and protection needs within its foreign assistance. A whole-of-government, multisectoral strategy is mandated by both The Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children In Developing Countries Act (PL 109-95) and the more recent Global Child Thrive Act.

Background

Strengthening the capacities of children, adolescents, and the families who care for them are some of the best investments a country can make to eliminate extreme poverty, boost economic growth, and promote a peaceful society. The U.S. Government Strategy for Children to Thrive 2024-2029 (Thrive Strategy) is a whole-of-government, multi-sectoral effort that aims to build strong beginnings for children, help families to thrive, and prevent violence against children. On July 11, 2024, USAID will host an event to publicly launch the updated Thrive Strategy to guide the interagency effort.

The Thrive Strategy builds on the previous strategy, Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity: A U.S. Government Strategy for International Assistance (APCCA Strategy), which ran from 2019–2023. While maintaining core elements of the previous action plan and strategy, the revised Thrive Strategy incorporates updated evidence related to children in adversity and their needs and considers the ongoing impact of global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, spotlighting the complex issues that children in adversity and their families are experiencing. 

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate allowed a federal agency to search the office of Sarim Burney Welfare Trust International in a case pertaining to “child trafficking by way of illegal adoption”.

Social worker Mr Burney appeared before the court via video link from the central prison.

During the hearing on Thursday, the investigating officer (IO) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bilal Ahmed, requested additional time to complete the probe in the ‘child trafficking case’.

He submitted two applications before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq, seeking the issuance of a search warrant and permission to record statements from trustees and a prosecution witness.

In his applications, the IO stated that the trust had not provided the remaining records.

Adoption & Samfund has sent the following to the Folketing Social Committee.The future remains uncertain and unhappy for international adoption in Denmark

Adoption & Society can state that, despite promises of a quick clarification, nothing has been done to correct the inadequate handling of international adoption in Denmark!

On 16 January this year, all international adoptions were urgently suspended by the direct intervention of the then Social Affairs Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil. The promises to the many waiting applicants for adoption were not fulfilled from this date. This also applies to the promises to secure a solution for the many adoptees in Denmark who would like to apply back and have information about their own case. Promises that were made over half a year ago!

In other words, nothing has happened since Danish International Adoption (DIA) announced in mid-January that it would carry out a controlled closure of the organisation.

Adoption & Samfund bears a great responsibility as an interest organization, as we have taken on the important task of fully supporting and helping both individuals and families who want to adopt or have adopted. It necessarily also reaches back in time, because as an organization we look both forward and backward in time.

Seoul, South KoreaCNN — 

South Korea has for decades been known as the world’s largest “baby exporter” – sending hundreds of thousands of children overseas after the country was ravaged by war and many mothers left destitute.

Many of those adopted children, now adults scattered across the globe and trying to trace their origins, have accused agencies of corruption and malpractice, including in some cases forcibly removing them from their mothers.

A report released earlier this week by a Korean government commission supports those claims and uncovers new evidence on the coercive methods used to force mothers to give up their children.

Thousands of Sri Lankan babies were put up for adoption between the 1960s and 1980s - some of them sold by "baby farms" to prospective parents across Europe. The Netherlands, which accepted many of those infants, has recently suspended international adoptions following historical allegations of coercion and bribery. As that investigation unfolds, families who never stopped thinking about the children who vanished hope they will be reunited.

Indika Waduge remembers the red car driving off with his mother and sister, Nilanthi, inside. He and his other sister Damayanthi stayed at home and waited for their mother to return. When she came back the next day, she was alone.

"When we said goodbye to each other I never thought Nilanthi was about to go abroad or it was the last time we'd see each other," he says.

This was in either 1985 or 1986, when Indika's father had left his mother Panikkarge Somawathie to raise three children alone. As the family struggled to survive, he remembers a man his mother knew convincing her to give Nilanthi, who was four or five, up for adoption.

Indika says this man was a broker for a "baby farm" in a suburb of the capital, Colombo, called Kotahena. He claims that while a female clerical officer at a court and her husband ran it, it was the broker who arranged the adoption for foreign parents - mainly Dutch couples.

Siri and his guesthouse provide a good base for a search of the biological parents of adopted children. Siri has already gained much experience in this type of search. He works cautiously with feeling for the situation. He has a lot of contacts in Sri Lanka and if necessary travels all over the island in search of information. He also provides a service for Tros, a Dutch broadcasting company for programs about reuniting parents and children. He has been very successful and has already reunited many biological families.

HANCI gives Le20m to 50 vulnerable families

by Awoko Publications

12/10/2011

in News

Reading Time: 2 mins read

Sierra Leone adoption scheme sparks controversy

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