Rani (39) from Maarheeze was just 2 years old when she was adopted from her native India by a Flemish couple. She soon ran into numerous problems with her adoptive parents. She recently found out that her biological mother is probably still alive and has started a search. "My adoptive parents kept this from me for years."

Profile picture of Jade Smith

Written by

Jade Smith

Rani was picked up in India by her adoptive father. “I had tapeworms in my intestines when I entered Belgium. In all likelihood I was ill and therefore my biological mother had to give me up, ”says Rani.

Adoption practices continue to challenge the ethics of social workers due to myriad conflicting interests which have existed since the practice began. Dangerous informal child care arrangements in the early to mid 1900s have been replaced by a patchwork of state and federal laws, regulations and child care practices meant to serve the best interests of everyone associated with adoption, but we continue to allow for ethically concerning “wrongful” adoptions.

The transition to formal adoption practices was initiated in the early 1980s, with adoption case law establishing best legal practices for improving positive outcomes for children and families. Starting in 1981, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) followed suit by formalizing standards for child welfare with the publication of the NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Child Protection.

adoptions

Daniel Pollack, Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work.

Over the last two decades, the NASW Code of Ethics and the child welfare practices have evolved and stronger assessment practices related to approval of adoptive parents have been established. Despite these advances, social workers have found themselves observing or being caught up in ethically challenging adoption practices that have continued to lead to unethical family disruptions and poorly implemented adoption policies, all of which have created more “wrongful adoptions” and a continued mistrust of the profession.

In 20 countries, children and young people are said to have experienced abuse in SOS Children's Village Aid facilities. An independent commission is to clarify the incidents.

Vienna - “In an atmosphere of trust and reliability”, children and young people should grow up in SOS Children's Villages. At least that's what it says on the organization's website. In 20 countries in Asia and Africa, young people are said to have become victims of violence and sexual abuse in institutions and projects. The aid organization made the child protection violations public on Thursday in Austria and set up an independent commission to deal with the incidents. According to its own information, indications of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds should also be investigated.

At first it was not known exactly which countries are involved. The sub-organization in Germany announced in a press release on Thursday that there were also allegations against employees of a facility in Bavaria . These relate to incidents in the 2000s. A work-up has been initiated. "The information available as well as the results from the first discussions that have already taken place show that there have been serious incidents of educational misconduct and allegations of abuse," explains Prof. Keupp, who is leading the investigation. Results are planned for autumn 2021.

SOS Children's Villages apologize to alleged victims of abuse

The number of victims is said to be rather small worldwide. The managing director of SOS Children's Villages in Austria, Elisabeth Hauser, spoke of "serious misconduct by employees and serious allegations". The children concerned had been "inflicted violence", it had come "to mistreatment up to sexual abuse ". Hauser assured a "relentless and transparent processing" of the incidents.

Noida police, along with the district Childline, has started a helpline to help the children who are stuck alone in a house because of their parents and other family members being hospitalised after testing Covid positive and in need of food and shelter. Cops have said that such children can be provided food, shelter and water in case they require and can also be dropped at a relative’s place in case they need to. The helpline number — 9870395200 — can be contacted in case a neighbour or relative wants to give information about such children needing help.

Satya Prakash, manager, FXB India Suraksha, the NGO that runs Childline for Noida, told TOI that in a discussion with police, the idea was developed and transportation can be arranged for children who need to go to their relative’s place in case they are left alone.

“If someone wants to donate a transportation service for such a child or provide children with food, such Good Samaritans will be welcomed and help be extended to the child in need,” he said.

.

DOCUMENT

"Many Christians do not understand the complexity of adoptions"

The priest Rebecka Folkesten wants Christian actors to be examined

Documents with children awaiting adoption.

There are approximately 60,000 internationally adopted children in Sweden. Experts that Dagen has spoken to say that a large proportion of these have grown up with Christian adoptive parents. (Moises Castillo, private)

November is National Adoption Month, during which several awareness programmes and workshops will be held for prospective parents.

It took Simon Qvennerberg 40 long years to find his way back to Shreevatsa, a child care centre in Pune, from where he was adopted by a Swedish family when he was barely eight months old.

As he walked around the centre on Tuesday, Simon said, “My mother told me I was adopted when I was five years old, but I preferred not to think about it. I was not really interested. Today, I am finding some answers, but I am actually doing this for my teenage children,”

During the visit, Simon and his parents Monica, a social worker, and Tommy, a retired priest, interacted with the staff and children at Shreevatsa, a centre run by the Society of Friends of Sassoon General Hospital. Set up in 1973, the centre has a well-established adoption programme, and caters to the needs of abandoned and orphaned children. Currently, the centre is taking care of 50 children.

Monica and Tommy, who had two daughters, said they wanted to expand their family and adopt a boy. “How we approached the issue was important as each adopted child has two identities. Families need to offer unconditional love and support to them,” said Tommy.

As COVID-19 has ravaged our nation, it has been particularly heart-wrenching to read stories about children who have become orphans, losing both parents to the disease. It’s impossible to know exactly how many are affected. Official numbers indicate we have lost more than 2.4 lakh people to COVID, with real numbers expected to be much higher. We can safely estimate that many thousands of young children have lost one or more caregivers, and the remaining family members may not be ready or capable to take them in.

Desperate WhatsApp messages have been doing the rounds, telling horror stories of young children left to fend for themselves and advertising children for ‘adoption’. While surely those who forwarded the messages meant well, every single one of us must know that it is irresponsible and illegal to offer or receive children in this way. In fact, such orphaned children are more susceptible, now more than ever, to land in the traps of traffickers or criminals as people scramble to ‘help’ without following proper processes.

It is a common misperception that child shelters are a better option to care for an orphaned child. While it is true many child shelters do a good job of taking care of kids in need, it is also a sad fact that most of them will never assess the children under their care for adoption. Where Are India’s Children conducted a survey in 2019-2020, and found that most shelters keep the children indefinitely, surviving on donations from the public until they are old enough to fend for themselves. While this fate is better than being abandoned on the streets, the child does not receive the same care, attention and sense of belonging that parents can give, has less chances of a good education and a stable future, and can be susceptible to abuse and trafficking. The shelters are also suffering during COVID, with workers not able to attend to the children and donations on the wane.

We must help orphans who don’t have relatives able or willing to take care of them to reach a legal adoptive ‘forever family’ instead, which is much more sustainable and provides permanent rehabilitation for children.

RELATED STORIES

Claude Griscelli and his lawyer at the opening of the Mediator trial at the Paris court in September 2019 (Photo Luc Nobout. IP3)

by Eric Favereau

published on September 15, 2020 at 6:21 p.m.

In the Mediator file, there is of course the central aspect of "industrial crime" , as Dr Irène Frachon called it at the origin of her revelation, but there are also other aspects, in particular that around the intensive lobbying that Servier was doing to impose its anorectic drugs, fighting against obesity. At the Paris Criminal Court, this week, it is a small extension of the great trial (which formally ended at the beginning of July, deliberation expected at the end of March) which is being played out, with a judgment on the “influence peddling” aspect. folder.

And since Monday, we are witnessing a marvel of human comedy. Because this story is a jewel, a textbook case, with all that is necessary of small arrangements between powerful. There is a great doctor there, a renowned ex-senator and, of course, a senior official in the pharmaceutical industry. All three are accused of having j ...

Claire and Ed adopted their sons 13 years ago. When the brothers found their biological family on social media aged 15 and 16, it took just three months for them to cut off all contact with their adoptive parents.

Claire and Ed say their children were sent "intrusive" messages from their birth family and withdrew from their parents. Both children no longer attend school and there have been reports the older boy is involved in drug dealing.

"For us, it's just been devastating to have our family broken," Ed tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But the big tragedy and the big, human cost is theirs. Because they've just been manipulated."

Adoption UK says such complete breakdowns of relationships are rare - but unsupervised contact is becoming more common.

The charity's research suggests nearly a quarter of adopted children make direct contact with their birth family - often via social media - before they gain the right to access information about their origins at the age of 18.

A sessions court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of a woman booked for child trafficking. As per the case, she had sold one child at VN Desai hospital, Santacruz to an accomplice who had sold the child to a Pune resident.

The woman identified as Nisha Ahire had claimed that at the most it is a case where proper adoption procedure was not followed and that there is no money transaction between the parties.

Additional Public Prosecutor Sumesh Panjwani had opposed her bail and stated that the offence is serious, that of trafficking a newborn. The court in its order said that the nature of offence, human trafficking, that too of a newborn child is serious.

It also noted that a year ago, she had indulged in the business of selling a child. It said this is not a simple case of adoption, but that taking assistance from hospital staff, the medical officer has sold the child with the help of co-accused. If released on bail, it said, that the possibility cannot be ruled out that she will sell children again.

.