At the beginning of April '23 we launched a call . Organizations for adoption stakeholders could submit ideas for a joint project, in collaboration with at least 2 other organizations. The applicants were eligible for a one-time incentive, consisting of financial support and the opportunity for guidance.

Adoption Support Center launched this one-off call in the context of the policy action 'expansion of accessible care and guidance' and the policy recommendation 'professional development of peer contact for adoption stakeholders' from the 'care and guidance' working group.

We received 4 nice applications. An independent jury assessed these applications based on the submitted file and a presentation round of all projects.

From the applications received, the jury selected 'Round & about adoption' as the best project. We wish the initiators of the project congratulations!

We would also like to thank the other submitters for the wonderful projects and the commitment they have shown in presenting their projects.

Round & about adoption

The Round & about adoption team consists of Binnenlandsgeadopteerd.be , Association for Adopted Child and Family , Adoption Schakel Connecteert and a-Buddy .

What exactly does their project entail? We asked the initiators themselves.

A roundabout, a roundabout, round & about, round & about adoption...

Turning at a roundabout and missing the exit, you do the tour again and are still unsure which exit to take. Everyone feels insecure sometimes.

That feeling is common among adoptees. How do you learn to create more security ? What tools can you take to get out of this situation? We want to make these tools a little more tangible through inspiring stories .

Every story is different, everyone experiences her or his adoption or bond with adoptees in their own way. There are many different, contradictory feelings associated with it. By letting everyone tell their story, we try to reflect the complexity . In this way we try to raise society's awareness. We want to give the floor to those involved in adoption (first parents or birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents, partners of adoptees, adult children of adoptees, other family members, friends, teachers, etc.)

through a podcast

. The need and idea of ​​this project comes from the dominant social discourse that adoption is only a fairy tale. By sharing stories we want to highlight the dark side, without destroying the feelings of good stories. We especially want to create a realistic picture of adoption.

We will place a call through various media. In this way we want to reach as many adoption stakeholders as possible . With this we want to demonstrate that the adoption triangle is no longer up to date. There are many more people involved than just the adoption triangle. Consider, for example, partners of, children of, etc. We will also work on a concrete work bundle for education

, among other things . This way, several people can work with our material to make society more adoption-sensitive. We will organize an event in November 2024. Here we will take the opportunity to share the podcast with the world. Everyone is welcome to come and listen to the stories and talk to fellow sufferers. Contact with fellow sufferers, making society more sensitive to adoption, offering concrete tools to education, networking, aftercare and recognition are central to this project. We get to work enthusiastically. See you soon!





 

Posted in: Current

The Government wanted to empty Shishur Sevay and fill it with new children. That was their plan. We simply would not allow that to happen and it didn’t.

In the life of every orphan child there is a time when suddenly every person, every place, every landmark they have known is gone! No thing and no one is familiar, and the orphan is powerless. That simply would not happen to the Daughters of Shishur Sevay. By the government’s intent, our older girls would be out on their own, living elsewhere. Our disabled girls over 18 would be housed in institutions. Our under 18 would be put up for adoption, ignoring that three girls are already 17 years and severely disabled. The fourth is 13 and the most severely impaired. But to these government officials who were under pressure to place children, our children were just inventory that needed to be moved to make room for new inventory. Gone would be everything that had allowed the our girls to thrive within a family/community of sisters, care-takers, aunts, “mummy”, the people they loved and who loved them. The tagline of our Shishur Sevay logo is, “To not Feel Alone in the Universe.” The orphan child, particularly the severely disabled child is certainly alone in the universe.

I’d known for a few years there would be a challenge as the new Juvenile Justice Act had removed the category of Small Group Homes from its hierarchy of care. Previously the small group home was the last stop before institutioalization. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, the insitutions are formed with groups of minimum 25 children, while the disabled children are in separate units of ten children each. There is no inclusion. Under the JJ Act, children are also segregated by age. Children under six years are the youngest, then 7-11 years, 12-18 years and after 18 they are released or moved to aftercare until 21, or at most 23 years. The JJ Act is/was developed to address the large numbers of children living on the streets, and the abuses that took place within the existing institutions at the time. My understanding is that small group homes were omitted because of expense. Our problem with the JJ Act was that it didn’t apply to us. When we were founded in 2006 we made the choice not to take government aid because that would require us to “discharge” our girls at 18. We have never taken government funds. We promised the girls permanence. The moment we took in the children with disabilities we understood we were committed to lifetime care.

Beginning in 2019 we met with government officials to argue we should not be licensed under the JJ Act because we did not meet the criteria. We lacked the required space. We even lacked beds because we were so small. We sleep on mats in the big room, myself included. Our census was 12 while the minimum was 25. Our ages range from 9 to 25 years, and we are inclusive — abled and disabled, younger and older, all living together in a family style. We were threatened with being closed down if we did not apply and receive JJ Act Registration. When we went to the people who could approve a women’s home they said we had to wait for all the girls to pass 18 years but we still could not be inclusive. To quote them, “You cannot have the handicaps and normals under the same roof.”

New Project & Vacancy! Human Rights in Alternative Care

The goal of drastically reducing numbers of children living in institutions around the world has been a key focus of coherent efforts to realise children’s rights for over a decade, with important advances being made. 

Progress is visible through strengthened international standards and greater attention by the Committee on the Rights of the Children, alongside changes in domestic legislation, systems and practices, as well as greater attention to the voices of children and adults impacted by the harms of institutionalized alternative care.

Together, these are all helping to strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, not least through greater promotion of positive parenting approaches and wider kinship family support, keeping families together safely, and nurturing quality, community-based alternative care, close to home.

The Gaps

Khammam: District Collector VP Gautham on Monday praised an issueless Italian couple for coming forward to adopt an orphaned child. A Babu from Khammam district childcare center was adopted by them, after all legal formalities, the Collector informed. Gautham stated that children who are below 18 years and are orphans, abandoned or have poor parents can be brought under the adoption process and the adoption process is done by the District Collector as per the rules. He informed that childless couples can approach officials through the website www.cara.nic.in. They can also contact anganwadi teachers, district child welfare department, Sisugruhas to learn about the adoption process. District Welfare Officer G Jyoti, DCPO Vishnu Vandana, Protection Officer Soni and others were present.

 

The petition was filed by the son of the deceased's second wife, who had moved the court after a corporation rejected his application saying that he had not filed a valid succession certificate.

New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh high court has held that an ‘illegitimate’ son is also entitled to be considered for a job appointment on compassionate grounds after the death of the father, the Times of India reported.

The petition was filed by Piyush Kumar Anchal, who had moved the court after Chhattisgarh State Warehousing Corporation rejected his application on the ground that he had not filed a valid succession certificate. However, in his petition, Piyush said that his mother’s name was recorded in the nomination form submitted by his father.

According to the petition, Mohan Lal Anchal, the petitioner’s father, worked as a junior assistant at the Pratappur branch of the warehousing corporation and died due to COVID-19 infection. Anchal moved the high court, saying that he was the son of Mohan’s second wife and hence, applied for a job appointment on compassionate grounds.

Suresh Kumar Anchal, the son of Mohan’s first wife, had also claimed compassionate appointment.

When he was an attorney and administrator with the Florida Department of Children and Families in Tallahassee, Stephen Pennypacker helped write the new rules used by investigators that include gathering more information from families to assess their children’s safety.

Since returning to Gainesville as president and CEO of the Partnership for Strong Families in April 2014, he is now implementing those changes on the ground level.

If done right, he said the system will remove fewer children who don’t need to be removed from their families, will remove the right children and provide the right services to families “to teach them how to make their kids safe permanently so we can get out of their lives.”

The Partnership for Strong Families is one of 18 nonprofit organizations around the state that contracts with DCF to manage foster care and adoption services through 1998 legislation to privatize the foster care system. The organization — with headquarters in Gainesville — covers the 13 counties in the third and eighth judicial circuits in North Central Florida with 105 employees and another 150 subcontracted case managers. Most of the partnership’s $32 million annual budget comes from state and federal funding.

Pennypacker said the partnership takes over cases referred from DCF and determines what services and counseling families need. In cases where children are removed from the home, most are placed with relatives and family friends. Others are placed in foster care. After about a year, the partnership and courts may decide to terminate parental rights, leading to the potential for adoption.

Today, October 9, 2019 we just received an email from the Department of State which said the following:

Shortly after the Symposium, I informed the Department that I have accepted a new position with another federal agency, and this week will be my last in the Office of Children’s Issues. LaTina Marsh has assumed acting as Adoption Division Chief.  Being able to hold a Symposium that brought all voices from the adoption community together was a perfect way to mark the end of my tenure here. I have enjoyed working with all of you and wish you the very best as you continue your efforts on behalf of children and families.

Sincerely,

Trish Maskew
The Office of Children’s Issues

On July 28, 2017, the Department of State designated Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity, Inc., (IAAME) as an accrediting entity (AE) under the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (IAA) in accordance with 22 CFR Part 96.  The designation is for a period of five years.

IAAME is the second designated AE, joining the Council on Accreditation, whose designation was renewed July 11, 2016 for an additional five years.  IAAME’s responsibilities as an AE will commence upon:  1) the Department of State’s approval of systems, procedures, and a fee schedule that will be coordinated as necessary to ensure consistency in accreditation systems and procedures used by both AEs; and 2) the Department of State’s determination of jurisdictional parameters. 

The Office of Children’s Issues will provide additional information as it becomes available.

The Daily, 2001

Directors of Adoptions and maternity hospitals involved in the sale of children

The traffickers' technique says it all about their "humanitarian" intentions: the Romanian government takes care of children institutionalized by the Romanian Committee for Adoptions (CRA). According to some provisions of the CRA Regulation, a foundation for child protection cannot mediate an adoption, unless it is accredited by it. In order to obtain a child without any problems, the mobsters arranged a medical certificate for him to take out the sick child, and then to ask him from the CRA, as "nominally distributed". This method caused a scandal in January 1999 in which two foundations were involved, "Irene" and "Stuart", foundations founded by the lawyer Elena Bustea. She obtained several copies for adoption, based on such certificates, but the investigation launched in the case of the two foundations did not prove that any illegalities were committed. Only some officers who investigated the case confessed to the press, that Bustea's two organizations were involved in illegal adoptions, but would benefit from the protection of important politicians and senior officers from the Ministry of Interior.

In August 1996, 60-year-old Elisabeta Amzar, head of the Newborn Department at Caritas Hospital in Bucharest, along with her subordinates, Laura Gheorghe and Ecaterina Balaceanu, were charged with mediating an illegal adoption. Florin Burcea, a child who was born on August 21, 1996 at the "Caritas" hospital, was abandoned in the hospital by his mother, Daniela Burcea because he did not benefit from material funds to support him. After the child was abandoned, Elisabeta Amzar and Laura Gheorghe issued a false certificate, but with the same registration number as the original one, which they sent to the Guardianship Authority. The personal data of the natural mother were not specified in the forgery prepared by the two, and the signature of the doctor on duty, over which the initials were also applied, was also forged. The nurse Ecaterina Balaceanu concluded the clinical observation sheet of the newborn, erroneously passing the mother's home and "forgetting" the mention of the data from her identity card. Based on these documents, Florin Burcea was adopted by an Italian family living in Switzerland, without the consent of his natural mother.

The three then came to the attention of the Criminal Police Bureau within Section 10, being investigated at large.

Varadaan Indian Association For Promotion Of Adoption And Child Welfar

Varadaan Indian Association For Promotion Of Adoption And Child Welfar is a non-profit organisation, established in 1991 that works primarily in the domain of Education. Its primary office is in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

• FCRA

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