ABOUT 20 South Australian families who have been waiting up to three years to adopt Indian babies remain in limbo after an adoption agency was accused of baby trafficking.

The State Government has also said the private agency – known as Preet Mandir – asked for exorbitant "donations" of $5000 on top of the usual $5000 fees from SA couples.

The Indian Government revoked Preet Mandir's inter-country adoption licence in July, following an undercover CNN investigation where babies were sold to foreigners for $16,000.

That followed the adoption agency being investigated and cleared of tricking poor, vulnerable women into giving up children last year.

Preet Mandir has brokered around 40 babies for SA families since 2000. It is believed many would have paid the so-called $5000 donation.

Preet Mandir, Pune

From this orphanage, only one child has come to FFIA. As soon as that adoption was complete, FFIA suspended the collaboration for several reasons. On the one hand, the children did not receive the care we were guaranteed, and on the other hand, neither the financial nor the administrative process was handled as promised.

For many years, the orphanage transferred children to other organizations around the world. Many serious social workers and organizations reported the misconduct on Preet Mandir, but it was extremely difficult to get their license revoked due to the organization's contacts in influential circles. See article below for more information.

https://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/docs/adoption_Dohle_cumb_final.pdf

The children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages has admitted that it received 37 reports of the sexual abuse of children involving charity personnel in 2016.

The charity, based in Vienna, Austria, admitted the reports in the wake of the sex scandal involving the international charity Oxfam which was also accused of child sex abuse in South Sudan earlier this week.

The press officer for SOS Children’s Villages Cecilia Bergling Naucler said that while they did receive 37 reports of sex abuse, they did not want to identify those accused for “privacy reasons”, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

According to Ms. Naucler, the victims were “either children or young adults”. She added: “Due to confidentiality legislation and consideration for children and young people in our activities, we can not comment on individual cases or an exact number.”

The charity, Naucler said, tends to hire locals wherever it operates and the charity told the Swedish broadcaster: “In case of suspicion of serious abuse, notification is made to the police and judicial authorities, in accordance with the country’s current legislation.”

Nanna Behmer has grown up in a good and loving adoptive family. Still, she believes that all children should have the right to know their biological origins.

At a small country house near Otterup on Funen, just a few kilometers from the north coast of Funen, 19-year-old Nanna Behmer is on her way out to air the family dog.

She has lived here since she was very young, with her adoptive parents and her older brother, who is also adopted.

But even though Nanna Behmer has a loving family and could not wish for a better life, she now chooses to meddle in the debate about forced adoption.

She believes that all children should have the opportunity to know their biological origins. Also the children who are adopted away by force because the parents for various reasons are not considered suitable to raise a child.

Stolen Generations survivors from the Northern Territory are taking their fight for compensation to the courts, with legal firm Shine Lawyers preparing to file a class action against the federal government this morning.

Key points:

Stolen Generations survivors in the NT have never been compensated

Shine Lawyers will file a class action in the NSW Supreme Court this morning

Some survivors say compensation would mean proper recognition

Whether they were willing to adopt 5 brothers and sisters at the same time? Elise (37) and Klaas (43) were soon out. "These children needed each other terribly."

Elise: “The past seven years have gone way too fast. My oldest daughter Irma will turn eighteen this year. Efraín is sixteen, Rufino is twelve, Ishmael is eleven and Rosa is ten. Suddenly we only have adolescents in the house and that takes some getting used to. Not only because things can get quite explosive here with their Latino temperament, but also because as parents of teenagers you start the process of letting go. I find that difficult, because I feel I only just got them. I keep telling Irma, 'If you ever move out, please stay close to me.' ”

Always wanted

“I had a girlfriend at primary school who was adopted. Maybe that's why I already said that I wanted to adopt a child later. Although that idea had faded into the background when I married Klaas at the age of 21. Pregnancy was welcome, but we were still young and in no rush. It wasn't until years later that getting pregnant still hadn't worked out, and we turned to the doctor and ended up in the medical mill. We've made a number of IUI attempts, but to be honest, I had my doubts from the beginning. I reacted strongly to the hormone treatments and it felt quite unnatural to look forward to a child like this. After an information evening about IVF, I suddenly knew for sure: I am going to fill out adoption papers.

It has never been discovered why we could not get pregnant, so there is a good chance that a pregnancy was eventually successful. The fact that I was able to close this chapter so easily, I think, is because the desire to adopt children had subconsciously grown within me for a long time. Klaas and I are Christians and we do not believe in coincidence. We think God has led us to this choice. And I like that we can tell our children that adoption was not our last option, but actually the first. ”

STATEMENT OVER INDIA

4 maart 2020

In het werk van SOS Kinderdorpen staat het belang van kinderen altijd voorop. SOS Kinderdorpen is een wereldwijde kinderontwikkelingsorganisatie die in 136 landen en gebieden actief is met lokale medewerkers. In de landen waar wij werkzaam zijn, zijn we onderdeel van het nationale zorgsysteem en conformeren wij aan de nationale wet- en regelgeving.

SOS Kinderdorpen gelooft in de ontwikkeling van kinderen als voorwaarde voor een betere toekomst. Om zich te kunnen ontwikkelen tot zelfstandige volwassenen moeten kinderen waar ook ter wereld kunnen opgroeien binnen de veiligheid van een liefdevolle familie. Wij werken vanuit de visie dat een kind het beste kan opgroeien bij zijn eigen familie. Helaas is dit niet altijd mogelijk. Elk kind is anders en heeft andere behoeftes. Daarom is het belangrijk dat er verschillende zorgopties zijn, om tegemoet te komen aan de specifieke zorgbehoefte van het individuele kind. Voor kinderen die de ouderlijke zorg (tijdelijk) zijn verloren, en voor wie pleegzorg of andere alternatieve zorgvormen geen optie is, biedt SOS Kinderdorpen, in opdracht van de nationale overheid, opvang in een SOS familie. Dat doen we ook in India.

We zijn op de hoogte van de betwiste situatie waarin drie broertjes en zusjes zijn geadopteerd, die voorheen werden opgevangen in SOS kinderdorp Bhopal. We hebben hierover contact gehad met onze collega’s in India en kunnen het volgende hierover zeggen:

Whether they were willing to adopt 5 brothers and sisters at the same time? Elise (37) and Klaas (43) were soon out. "These children needed each other terribly."

Elise: “The past seven years have gone way too fast. My oldest daughter Irma will turn eighteen this year. Efraín is sixteen, Rufino is twelve, Ishmael is eleven and Rosa is ten. Suddenly we only have adolescents in the house and that takes some getting used to. Not only because things can get quite explosive here with their Latino temperament, but also because as parents of teenagers you start the process of letting go. I find that difficult, because I feel I only just got them. I keep telling Irma, 'If you ever move out, please stay close to me.' ”

Always wanted

“I had a girlfriend at primary school who was adopted. Maybe that's why I already said that I wanted to adopt a child later. Although that idea had faded into the background when I married Klaas at the age of 21. Pregnancy was welcome, but we were still young and in no rush. It wasn't until years later that getting pregnant still hadn't worked out, and we turned to the doctor and ended up in the medical mill. We've made a number of IUI attempts, but to be honest, I had my doubts from the beginning. I reacted strongly to the hormone treatments and it felt quite unnatural to look forward to a child like this. After an information evening about IVF, I suddenly knew for sure: I am going to fill out adoption papers.

It has never been discovered why we could not get pregnant, so there is a good chance that a pregnancy was eventually successful. The fact that I was able to close this chapter so easily, I think, is because the desire to adopt children had subconsciously grown within me for a long time. Klaas and I are Christians and we do not believe in coincidence. We think God has led us to this choice. And I like that we can tell our children that adoption was not our last option, but actually the first. ”

At a press conference on January 18 this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in made statements about adoption, which has shaken adoptees and adoptive families around the world.

According to online media coverage, the president said adoptive parents should have the option to cancel an adoption within a certain time period and possibly be able to swap the child for another.

With good reason, adoptees and adoptive families have been both shocked and outraged by such statements by the head of state in a country that has carried out thousands of adoptions for more than six decades and still carries out hundreds of adoptions - national and international. Korean opposition politicians and the Korean public have also promptly criticized President Moon, who is also a former human rights lawyer, for using these statements to reduce adoptees to a commodity that can only be returned or exchanged.

The president's spokesmen have tried to calm the anger by saying that the president has been misunderstood and misunderstood, and that he instead believed that foster families should be allowed to change their minds before a formal adoption. The many outraged adoptees and adoptive families do not believe this explanation is adequate, and a petition has been launched to demand a clear denial and an unequivocal apology.

Adoption & Samfund also believes that the statements - as they appear in the media coverage online - are criticisable, but also incomprehensible, and we have approached the Korean Embassy in Denmark to get an official indication of whether the said statements are actually comprehensive for the Korean government's view of adoption.

As adopted, the photo album from childhood often has empty pockets, and the first memories are marred by gaps. Jeanette Søm Munk knows all about it. She was left as an infant and later adopted to Denmark. Now she helps people in the same situation

When Jeanette Søm Munk was a child, she did not like being alone. In fact, she was so afraid to spend the afternoons after school with herself that she always had playmates with her home.

She also could not bear to go on holiday outside the country's borders. For all that was new and uncertain terrain frightened her. And with good reason. Jeanette was left on a stepping stone in Iran's capital, Tehran, when she was just a few weeks old.

Or at least that's what she's been told. Jeanette does not know when she was born. That she can celebrate her birthday on November 11 every year is thanks to a doctor who set an approximate date of birth when she arrived at an orphanage in the city of millions.

- I have always sought security, both as a child and as an elderly person. And even though my parents have been amazing, I have always felt a little different. When you can not say exactly when and where you come from, you feel hollow inside. That's why I have always made sure to surround myself with many people - because think now if I were to be alone again. If there were many around me, there would always be at least one left with me, says Jeanette, who was adopted by Danish parents when she was eight months old.