Head of adoption agency knows what she's talking about Sun, Feb. 26, 2006

BY MAUREEN HOUSTON

News-Democrat

Brenda Henn didn't set out to run an adoption agency. "I was a speech therapist from the Midwest. I went to Hungary to get my child (in July 1993)." When Russian doctors (Slava Platonov and Yelena Kogan) who had emigrated to St. Louis read her adoption story in a newspaper, they wanted to do something for the orphans of Russia. The result is Small World Adoption Foundation of Missouri Inc., based in Ballwin, Mo. "When people come in our little office, they say, 'Do you have any other offices?' 'No, this is world headquarters,'" said Brenda 49, director of operations. "I have the best job in the whole world. It's the most fabulous experience. I feel like I have 1,500 to 1,600 children floating around the United States." [More...]

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ST. LOUIS — Serge Zevlever was often known as a protector.

He took on the role when he fled with his family to the St. Louis area from the Soviet Union some 30 years ago to become a U.S. citizen. He did it again when he worked long hours as a taxi driver and pizza delivery man here to bring even more relatives to the U.S.

Zevlever would protect even more in his decadeslong work as a central figure in adoptions of the neediest Ukrainian children to U.S. families. He would split his time between the St. Louis area and Ukraine, helping hundreds of children with medical needs out of orphanages and into welcoming homes.

Serge Zevlever

Serge Zevlever. Photo courtesy of Nicole Zevlever

Ukraine

Families for Children Program Implementing Partner: Holt International Children's Services Funding Period: September 2004 - December 2009 Amount: $3,229,790 Purpose: Develop sustainable and replicable family care models of services for children who otherwise would be institutionalized or on the street. Accomplishments Established model programs on family preservation in the pilot sites. Trained ninety-two regional trainers on foster care in collaboration with the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports, Families for Children Program Developed and tested practical guidelines on foster care (Families for Children Program Child Welfare Task Force). The guidelines were reviewed and approved by the ministry to be used country wide. Conducted two adoption surveys. Survey findings were used to improve the adoption process and develop a national strategy to build a strong and transparent adoption system. Established foster care services for HIV positive children. Supported seventy-eight grant projects, which reported the following: 9,155 people, including decision makers, service providers, parents and children participated in training activities. 16,067 media appearances (publications, TV/radio programs) addressed the issue of vulnerable children and families. 188 products (booklets, posters, films) were developed. 207 community events were conducted. 23 community groups were established. 1,200 children and 727 families received psychosocial support. services. 342 cases of child abandonment were prevented

As with many countries of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine’s rapid social, economic, and political changes have brought a serious crisis in the number of children living outside family care. Orphanages are full, and increasing numbers of children are forced to live on the streets. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports Affairs, as many as 100,000 children are living without the care and protection of a family.

MUMBAI: A 25-year-old woman, unwed when she gave up her son up for adoption last year, ran into a trafficking ring when she wanted the boy back after she got married to his father. She has been forced to approach courts for custody of her year-old baby, reports Rebecca Samervel.

Julia Fernandez, who 'facilitated' the adoption, was arrested earlier this month with an alleged aide Shabana Sheikh for trying to sell a newborn girl for Rs 4.5 lakh.

The Ulhasnagar woman moved the civil court last week to "recover" her son from a Malad couple who had taken him from Fernandez. In a plea submitted through Edith Dey and Mikhail Dey, the mother sought the court "to direct the DCP, ACP and senior police inspector of Bangur Nagar police station, to assist her in recovering her child from the respondents (adoptive parents) who are living within the jurisdiction of Bangur Nagar police station."

The plea will come up for hearing on August 24. The mother said that due to personal and financial difficulties, she was unable to raise the baby and was advised to approach one Julia Fernandez. The mother said that Julia informed her that she had an NGO and would help look after the baby until things settled down and she was in a state to take back the child. The mother said that Julia facilitated adoption of her baby son and informed her that the adoptive couple was wealthy and would look after him well.

In March this year, the civil court had rejected the plea by the Malad couple to be declared the adoptive parents of the boy. The biological mother had told the court then that her husband and she wanted their son back. However, the mother said she never received custody of her child despite the court's orders. "Despite the rejection of the adoption petition, the respondents did not return the baby and are till date illegally holding the custody of the child," the mother's plea said. The mother said that her husband and she had tried to contact the couple several times, through Julia, however, she kept giving excuses and later began threatening to complain to the police.

Kochi: A Anil Kumar, the administrative assistant at the Ernakulam

Medical College Hospital, who allegedly forged a birth certificate to

facilitate the illegal adoption of a newborn, was nabbed by the police on

Friday.

Anil, who had gone into hiding, was taken into custody from his hideout

November 3, 2022-

Also offer adopted children from the US the chance of a family in the Netherlands. With this call, COC Netherlands and Meer dan Gewenst respond to the decision of Minister Weerwind (Legal Protection) to break the adoption relationship with the US.

In a letter to the House of Representatives dated 2 November, Minister Weerwind announced that he would break off the adoption relationship with the United States and seven other countries.

"Children are now at risk of being left behind in temporary US foster care when they could be given a loving home in the Netherlands," said COC and the organization for rainbow families Meer dan Gewenst . "That is regrettable and undesirable."

The aim of the review by the Netherlands of the intercountry adoption policy is to reduce the risk of abuses. In the past, abuses have led to suffering among adopted children and often also among their biological and adoptive parents. COC and Meer dan Gewenst wholeheartedly support the objective of preventing abuses.

On March 27, 1980, In-Soo Radstake arrived at Schiphol with eight others from South Korea. Their journey had started about twenty-four hours earlier from the Korean capital of Seoul to Tokyo and finally, via Alaska, ended in the Netherlands. And there a new journey began for him: an inner journey to find his way back to his identity.

I came to Rotterdam for love. As a starting filmmaker, I was actually on my way from Zwolle, where I had studied journalism, to Amsterdam: the beating heart of Dutch film making. But in 2003 I went to Rotterdam to research my first documentary called Made in Korea: a one-way ticket Seoul-Amsterdam? In this documentary I wanted to visit all eight adoptees who were on the same plane with me after almost twenty-five years. I was curious how they had experienced their adoption.

Poster for the documentary 'Made in Korea: a one-way ticket Seoul-Amsterdam?' Photo from personal archive In-Soo Radstake.

And one of those eight would become my girlfriend. I called it love at second sight because not long after our first meeting, in 2003 in a restaurant on the Meent, we fell in love with each other. She immediately made it clear to me that she lived in Rotterdam and did not want to leave here. The city reminded her of another port city, that of Busan in South Korea. The Rotterdam skyline with its tall buildings, the ships that sail on the Maas and the lights that burn everywhere. When she told me that, I had never been to South Korea, let alone Busan.

But that I had never been to South Korea, that was not right. I was born there, spent the first three months of my life in an orphanage in Seoul. Here in the Netherlands a second life began for me, with a Dutch father, a Dutch mother and a non-biological sister who was also adopted from South Korea. So I should have said that I had never been back.

GOOD MORNING NORWAY (TV 2): Being adopted to Norway does not necessarily mean that you have drawn the winning lottery ticket. Alexander Skadberg knows all about that.

When Alexander Skadberg was 22 months old, he was adopted from an orphanage in Colombia to Bodø in Norway. But for all these years he has known little about his adoption story.

- What I know is not really too much, but that my biological mother could not look after me then. Which ended in an adoption, the bodøværingen tells Good Morning Norway.

This has led to him being stuck with many questions growing up.

- But based on what I experienced, things started to be different very early on. Unger asked: "What do you look like, you have big lips, you look different", before adding:

The Gujarat High Court recently held that a registered deed of adoption with a registrar is sufficient to prove the adoption of a child and that there is not requirement to have a civil court decree affirming such deed [Khojema Saifudin Dodiya vs Registrar, Birth and Death].

Single-judge Justice Biren Vaishnav refused to agree with a Bombay High Court decision in this regard which had held that only a civil court can decide if the adoption was legal and done after following due procedure.

which had said that deleting the biological father's name from the birth certificate of a child could be drastic.

"In the opinion of this Court, the refusal to do so and not correcting the birth certificate of the ward post the adoption would lead to multiple hurdles in day-to-day affairs connecting the dealings with various public or other authorities and the practical difficulties that they would face would be more drastic if the power under Section 15 of the Registration of Birth and Deaths Act is not exercised in favour of the parties," the judge opined.

The bench was seized of a plea filed by a woman, who sought to change the middle and last names of her son. The woman had a child from her first marriage.

The girl was rescued on February 9 after her school teacher noticed scars and injury marks on her body and brought it to the attention of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which registered a case at the RK Puram police station.

A 50-year-old nurse, arrested for the alleged physical abuse and torture of a 7-year-old girl who she illegally adopted, said she beat the child to “straighten her out” for not studying enough and for watching too many cartoons, Delhi Police officers investigating the case said on Saturday.

Police said that the woman and her son would heat a knife or tongs, and would brand the nine-year-old child with it. (FILE)

The girl was rescued on February 9 after her school teacher noticed scars and injury marks on her body and brought it to the attention of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which registered a case at the RK Puram police station. The nurse’s 27-year-old biological son, who allegedly also participated in the torture, was arrested the same day, while the woman was arrested from Haridwar on February 16, police said.

Police said the girl’s injuries have healed and she is currently in the care of the CWC.