The police arrested a couple who were planning to adopt a child, two women who orchestrated the child trafficking and the couple’s relative who acted as a mediator in the business.

A team of Delhi Police, after a week-long search, rescued a toddler who was kidnapped and allegedly sold to a childless couple in Vrindavan, 210 kilometres away from Budh Vihar from where he was reported missing.

The police arrested a couple who were planning to adopt a child, three others, including two women who orchestrated the child trafficking and the couple’s relative who acted as a mediator in the business.

“The missing child has been rescued safely. Efforts are being made to nab one more accused,” Jimmy Chiram, DCP Outer District, said.

According to the police, the one-year-old child was abducted from Kanjhawala Road, near Rajni Gupta Hospital, around 10.30 pm on July 6.

The gang is accused of coaxing poor parents to give up their newborns for adoption, after which videos of the children — along with their “prices” — would be shared with prospective buyers

Like clockwork each day, officers at the Begumpur Police Station in New Delhi have been receiving two calls for the past six months from Punjab — one from a farmer in Firozpur district and the other from a wedding photographer in Muktsar district. Both callers ask them the same question: “Test report aaya kya sir (has the test report come)?”

The report of the DNA test they have been enquiring about will determine who would finally take home the six-month-old unnamed girl, living under the care of a West Delhi-based NGO since she was rescued from Rohini’s Begampur colony on February 20 from a gang accused of selling babies. She was barely 10 days old at the time of her rescue.

The gang is accused of coaxing poor parents to give up their newborns for adoption, after which videos of the children — along with their “prices” — would be shared with prospective buyers. According to the chargesheet filed in the case in a Rohini court recently, nine persons, including two Punjab-based ASHA workers and a midwife who ran a clinic there, have been named as accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 370 (4) (trafficking), 120B (pertaining to conspiracy) and 34 (pertaining to common intention).

When the police arrested ASHA workers Simranjeet Kaur and Pooja Rani in connection with the racket, they stumbled upon blank stamp papers bearing the signatures of Lek Singh and Amandeep, besides copies of their Aadhaar cards. Lek Singh and Amandeep were then tracked to their villages in Punjab.

DEHRADUN: For once, no one was attached to the police lines. The opposite happened, in fact. The police lines, this one in Pithoragarh, got attached to a young orphan girl. So much so that cops in the Uttarakhand station got together to organise her wedding to a local boy, laying out a grand feast for locals.

The usually austere place — commonly used to accommodate reserve forces or receive cops on punishment posting — turned into a radiant wedding venue on Tuesday, the touching event led by none other than their superintendent.

But then, the story of Pushpa Bhatt, the 21-year-old bride, would melt any heart. Pushpa lost both her parents when she was five years old. Raised by her grandmother, the elderly woman too died just as Pushpa stepped into her 10th year. Left an orphan, she relied on the kindness of strangers to get by in life.

About 25 days ago, Pushpa came to Pithoragarh city from her home in Balwakot in search of work. Reserve inspector Naresh Chandra Jakhmola found her sitting alone by the roadside and, being a cop, asked her a string of questions. By the time Pushpa answered them, Jakhmola had decided that he wanted to adopt her.

Jakhmola told TOI on Friday: “I saw her as a blessing from Ma Durga. I have two sons, and when I met Pushpa, I knew she was the daughter I never had. I told her, ‘You are my daughter now and have nothing to worry about,’ and brought her home. My family welcomed her wholeheartedly.”

As luck would have it, a week later Jakhmola was contacted by his son’s mother-in-law, who was looking for a bride for a relative. Seeing it as a sign, Jakhmola introduced Pushpa to the family. Despite Pushpa’s slight disability in one leg, Bipin Upadhyay, who works at a TV cable office in Dharchula, agreed to marry her. Pushpa happily consented.

Jakhmola informed SP Rekha Yadav about the situation and expressed his desire to get Pushpa married off traditionally and with pomp. “When I heard about it, I thought it was a noble idea and immediately pledged the district police unit’s support. We all contributed voluntarily to organise the wedding at the district police lines. Pushpa is now not just Jakhmola’s daughter, but the daughter of the whole district police unit,” Yadav said.

The Pierhagen family has supported SOS Children's Villages since 1980. When their adopted son, Tico Pierhagen, first returned to his native Colombia in 2008, he had many questions. His family encouraged him to search for answers. In Colombia, Tico met his biological family and visited an SOS Children's Village. This made such an impression on him and his Dutch family that they set up a Named Fund : the Doris Tuapante Children's Fund.  

Tico Pierhagen visited Colombia in 2008 and met his biological family there. ''Before that time, I often felt empty and out of place. The visit to Colombia changed that. You are a more complete person when you know where you come from.'' His family understands this completely: "The principle of letting a child grow up in the country where he was born really appeals to us", says his Dutch mother Andel Pierhagen. That is also the reason why the Pierhagen family supports SOS Children's Villages. If the possibilities are there, the preference is always to let a child grow up in the country where he was born with his own family. That is what the family strengthening programs within SOS Children's Villages stand for. "With these programs you really get to the core. We feel at home with the formula of SOS Children's Villages: the family, the family, that is the basis", explains Mrs. Pierhagen.

'I am a more complete person now that I know where I come from'

Tico Pierhagen

Doris Tuapante Children's Fund

Andel and Wandert Pierhagen, Tico's parents, have been supporting SOS Children's Villages since 1980. After Tico met his Colombian family in 2008 and visited an SOS children's village, his Dutch parents and sister followed him to Colombia in 2009. The family wanted to become more involved with SOS Children's Villages because of this trip. It was clear to them: family is the basis, but this is not self-evident for every child. In order to make an extra contribution, they set up a Named Fund. "With a Named Fund, the involvement is very high. You support specific projects and remain connected for several years." 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/14/chiles-stolen-children-a-new-effort-offers-hope-to-pinochet-era-international-adoptees?CMP=share_btn_url&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2Izo0QvWDBCv-HZZLXxlfnsXtmUkS7_xj1ixA06jbrBDPsdRY3sKkY5k4_aem_fzoWAOCPHJpMTD5isVrhig

Thousands of children were adopted abroad during the Pinochet dictatorship – many in murky circumstances

Mirjam Hunze grew up in the quiet Dutch town of Lunteren, but always felt too loud, too different, too curious in her strict Protestant household. She was 10 years old when she found out she had been adopted from Chile, sparking a lifelong quest to find her biological family. Hunze’s Chilean birth certificate and passport listed her Dutch adoptive name, with the fields for her biological parents and place of birth conspicuously crossed out.

UNICEF pilots innovative approaches aimed at breaking the cycle of child poverty and social exclusion

Poverty and social exclusion can have a profound impact on the lives of children, preventing them from accessing basic services such as healthcare, education, nutritious food, quality housing and childcare. For the poorest families, including those who do not have access to social protection, the situation is dire. Children suffer poverty differently from adults and they are more likely to experience lifelong consequences from it.  Malnutrition can last a lifetime, having long-term consequences on children’s physical, social and emotional development. And losses in learning at a young age can result in children falling behind in school, finding it difficult to ever catch up. Without access to health care, children could miss out on vaccines that could be life-saving in later years and the treatment necessary to grow up healthy and thrive.

The Child Guarantee aims to ensure that vulnerable children have access to these quality services. UNICEF, in partnership with the European Commission, is working with national and sub-national authorities and select civil society organisations, children and young people to design and implement services and interventions that reduce the effects of poverty and social exclusion on children in need of support and protection. This includes the most vulnerable children, such as Roma children, children in institutional care, children with disabilities and refugee and migrant children. 

Mia Dambach

PhD candidate / self funded

Name

M. Dambach

Young women and men who have been adopted from abroad are increasingly demanding information about their origins, proving abuses and taking legal action. This has now led to a ban on adoptions in the Netherlands.

By: Sabine Bitter, Elsbeth Gugger , Moderation: Monika Schärer , Editor: Sabine Bitter, Production: Michael Sennhauser

29.03.2021, 21:28

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SEOUL, March 27 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean adoption agency said Thursday that it had seen no signs of any problem with the American couple who adopted the four Korean children found dead this week, calling the deaths of the entire family "unimaginable."

"We are shocked and dismayed. I can't find words to describe it," Hong Mee-kyung, a director of overseas adoption at Holt Children's Services Inc. in Seoul, said. "Considering the personalities and the attitudes they have shown, it's unimaginable."

U.S. police found the children and their adoptive mother, Sheryl Sueppel, 42, dead Monday morning (U.S. time) at their home in Iowa. Police believe their father, Steven Sueppel, 42, killed his wife and the children before taking his own life. His car was found destroyed in a single-vehicle crash, in which the driver died, according to local reports. The driver could not be immediately identified because of the fire, they said.

Local reports linked the murder-suicide to Sueppel's financial woes. He was charged last month with embezzling nearly US$560,000 from his former employer, Hills Bank and Trust, and with money laundering.

The children's birth mothers will not be notified unless they ask. They were all young, single mothers at the time of the children's births, the agency said.

It was very important to note how South Koreans are reacting to the murders of Korean adoptees Ethan, Seth, Mira and Eleanor Sueppel because it really has become an international issue. But a few things should be clarified about my article in the April 1 paper, “Sueppel deaths add to Korean adoption debate.” Everything I wrote was factual (of course!), but a Marion woman called me today to chew my ear on the inaccuracy of the story’s second headline, which I didn’t write. She was also not pleased that I had to leave some facts out of the story due to space restrictions.

This woman and her husband adopted some children from South Korea a few decades ago, so she is familiar with the issues surrounding adoption that the country has struggled with since the mid-1950s, when international adoptions first started. The exportation of their children is a very sensitive issue for the people, she said, one of which they are not proud, adding “Boy, if this article makes it over to Korea they’re going to be hopping mad.”

With that second headline on the story, that could be true. It says, “Despite tragedy, Korean official says push is on for more adoptions,” but that isn’t accurate. Susan Soon-Keum Cox is NOT a Korean official — she is the vice president of public policy and external affairs for Holt International Children’s Services, based in Oregon (in fact, she was adopted from Korea as a baby by an American family). And there is a push for more adoptions to be done domestically in South Korea, but NOT internationally as the headline would lead you to believe.

I can’t do much about the headline, however, since it was written by an editor after I turned my story in. I will, however, go into more detail about the “missing facts.”

I knew from speaking to Ms. Cox that last year marked the first year domestic adoptions in South Korea outpaced international adoptions. Early this morning, I received a reply to my e-mail to Kim Stoker, representative of Adoptee Solidarity Korea, a South Korean group working to unite all Korean adoptees and push for more domestic adoption. Her response sheds some more light on the situation.