At the age of 25, Lenna van den Haak tries to understand what her biological mother has just said to her. She was circumcised as a baby. Her mother points to a tree in front of her house: that's where it happened. Suddenly everything falls into place: the pain when cycling and during sex, the intense reaction to being touched 'down there'. When she discovers the truth, her world collapses.

"There is a life before and after Zandvoort," Lenna (now 42) begins her story. We drink coffee at her home. Her son Benjamin is sitting on the couch with headphones on. The seagulls fly in front of the windows, the beach is around the corner. In Zandvoort she has rebuilt her life. Here she has reinvented herself.

'Three women could be my mother'

First we go back to 2002. Lenna wants to look for her biological mother and travels for three months through Indonesia, the country where she was born. Her Dutch adoptive parents accompany her for the first two weeks. The journey begins in a monastery in Jakarta. It is run by a Dutch woman, Sister Lemmers. She helped Dutch adoptive parents during their process in Indonesia.

Lenna is lucky, an uncle of one of the sisters in the convent is visiting, who works in Lenna's native region. He will make some inquiries. He reported back within three days. "Three women said they could be my mother, but one woman's story matched the details that only we knew. We even looked alike."

With provisions already made possible under the amended law, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security is aiming to commence the process of other countries being able to adopt children here by June this year.

“We are hopeful that international adoption will commence by mid-year and we are working feverishly towards that date,” Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud told the News Room in a recent interview.

In August 2021, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Adoption of Children Act to align Guyana’s law for international adoption with the Hague Convention.

This convention aims to ensure that inter-country adoption takes place in the best interest of the child and with respect to the child’s fundamental rights. In accordance with this convention, Guyana’s revision allows for greater international cooperation to protect children from challenges such as abduction and trafficking.

The new section of the Act, 35 (F), provides for automatic recognition of adoptions certified by another central authority.

Antwerp, Saturday March 4, 2023 : “At the beginning of February, Minister Crevits announced that the Ancestry Center will receive an additional 100,000 euros in subsidies annually.” starts Steph Raeymaekers, chairman of Donorkinderen vzw. “There is nothing wrong with allocating additional resources, but we do not understand why this happened without any audit of their operation or delivery of effective results.”

The Flemish Descent Center was founded in 2020 to respond to parentage questions from various groups: adoptees, donor children, metis, distance parents, etc. The operating framework is rather limited, as it  must not violate other legislation.

​

For example, donor children may only find their donor father or mother through the center by voluntarily registering their DNA in the database of the Center for Genetics in Leuven. Only if there is a first-degree match that confirms the parent-child relationship can they come into contact with each other.

This restriction was included very specifically in the decree because other existing legislation prioritises the anonymity of donors. In this way, the aim is to avoid finding information via a detour or without mutual consent. 

Donorkinderen vzw established that employees affiliated with the Ancestry Center trace donor parents through international DNA databases and the development of family trees. The Descent Center thus violates the founding and operating decree.

I. GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION

(...)

B. Measures taken to harmonize law and policy with the provisions of the Convention

(...)

11. In the context of the improved legal framework for the protection of children, appropriate strategies have been developed on the basis of the following principles, which are to be found in the text of the Convention: assistance for families with one or more children to care for; every child has the right to a permanent family; every effort must be made to ensure that children placed in institutional care are reintegrated into their own family; when the natural or adoptive parents are incapable of caring for the child, the latter shall be considered to be in need of placement, temporarily or permanently, in a substitute family; every special measure for the protection of the minor must take into account the general principle according to which "the needs of the child come first" and must take the wishes of the child into consideration; the development of minors who are the subject of a protective measure must be monitored and that measure must be changed if the needs and interests of the child so require; preventive steps must be taken to ensure that the minor is not exploited, neglected or abused; everything must be done to enable all the rights accorded to the child by the law to be exercised, solely in his interests.

A lack of formal Government apology to unmarried mothers who faced “appalling treatment” in decades past, including unwanted adoptions, has been labelled “disappointing”.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) had called on the Government to issue an apology to women who had their babies taken from them for adoption between 1949 and 1976.

The committee, in a report published in July, argued that the Government “bears ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions”.

It said an apology by the Government “and an official recognition that what happened to these mothers was dreadful and wrong… would go some way to mitigate the pain and suffering of to those affected”.

It gave examples of other formal apologies by the UK Government, where statements were made to the House of Commons.

Recent reports that adoptees were taken without the consent of the parents have jumpstarted an effort by the Northern European nation to look into the history of overseas adoption

Silje Hjemdal, a Norwegian lawmaker, speaks with the Hankyoreh in Seoul on March 1. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

The Norwegian government has recently taken action to set up an independent body to look into illegal adoptions that have taken place in the past.

Over the past three years, Norwegian society has been stunned by local news reports about children adopted from Korea, Ecuador, Colombia and other countries. According to the reports, some children were shipped off without the consent of their birth parents and others were fraudulently depicted as orphans despite their parents being alive.

The discussion about setting up an investigative body in Norway has picked up speed since the South Korean government moved ahead with an investigation of its own this past December.

HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Shelley Noreika, age 49, of Dillsburg, PA, was sentenced to 30 months’ incarceration by United States District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo for making False Statements Relating to Health Care Matters.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Noreika fabricated serious illnesses and made fraudulent statements to healthcare providers in connection with her 5-year-old adoptive daughter. As result of Noreika’s false statements, the minor child was subjected to unnecessary medical treatment and the downstream insurers incurred monetary losses in the six-figures. In particular, and as admitted by Noreika to federal investigators, Noreika told her daughter to pretend and fake having a seizure while Noreika videotaped her. Noreika then emailed the video clip of the fake seizure to her daughter’s pediatric neurologist, along with false statements concerning the minor child’s medical condition. On multiple other occasions, Noreika likewise falsely reported to medical providers that her daughter experienced seizures, when in fact no such seizures occurred. In fact, at no point did Noreika ever witness her daughter have an actual seizure.

As recognized by both the government and defense, Noreika’s conduct is consistent with factitious disorder imposed on another, formerly known as munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care, to gain attention and sympathy for themselves. However, the government pointed out to the Court there was also a clear financial motive – Noreika received enhanced Medicare and adoption subsidiaries for taking care of a medically ill child, and she promoted the minor child’s purported conditions to seek donations from local organizations and through online fundraising efforts.

“Today’s sentencing sends a strong message that protecting children is a top priority,” said Special Agent in Charge Maureen R. Dixon of the Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Philadelphia Regional Office. “HHS-OIG will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate allegations of abuse against children and ensure claims submitted to federal and state programs by caregivers are truthful and accurate. We would like to thank the Pennsylvania State Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their partnership and commitment in this investigation.”

In addition to the 30-month prison sentence, the Court ordered Shelley Noreika to serve three years of supervised release following incarceration, and to pay a fine of $500 and restitution of $137,710.86 to the victims of the offense. Noreika is no longer in care of the minor child, and she also faces related state charges which are pending.

A man who found the identity of his birth mother after 41 years of searching says he can’t wait to finally meet her in person.

Auckland resident Jozsef Szabo, 49, was adopted as a baby in Hungary in 1974. His mother, Ilona Huszar, gave him up because she couldn’t keep him.

After finally tracking her down last year, she has had a heart scare and he’s determined to reunite with her again before it's too late.

From the age of 8, Szabo knew he was adopted after his parents told him he wasn’t their son by birth.

“My adopted family raised me in very hard conditions,” he said.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s group is getting into genetic mapping, looking to make a health care trend led by disruptive US startups like 23andMe more affordable and widespread in India’s growing consumer market.

The energy-to-ecommerce conglomerate will roll out within weeks a comprehensive 12,000-rupee ($145) genome sequencing test, according to Ramesh Hariharan, chief executive officer of Strand Life Sciences Pvt., which has developed the product. Reliance Industries Ltd., led by Asia’s richest person, acquired the Bengaluru-based firm in 2021 and now owns about 80% of it.

The genome test, which is about 86% cheaper than other offerings available locally, can reveal a person’s predisposition to cancers, cardiac and neuro-degenerative ailments as well as identify inherited genetic disorders, he said.

The project to bring affordable personal gene-mapping to India’s 1.4 billion people — on track to be the world’s most populous nation — will potentially create a treasure trove of biological data that can aid drug development and disease prevention in the region. It also dovetails with Ambani’s ambitions to dive further into the world of data — he has often called it the “new oil” — as he pivots his $192 billion empire beyond refining into consumer and digital services.

“It’ll be the cheapest such genomic profile in the world,” Hariharan said, who also co-founded Strand Life Sciences. “We’re going out at an aggressive price point to drive adoption as it gives us a chance to build a viable business in preventive health care.”

What you need to know:

The couple; Mr Nicholas Spencer and Ms Mackenzie Leing Mathias Spencer that is facing charges of aggravated trafficking and aggravated torture of a 10-year-old, has listed eight grounds for consideration for their release.

An American couple that has been on remand at Luzira prison since late last year, is seeking the intervention of the High Court to release them on bail.

The couple; Mr Nicholas Spencer and Ms Mackenzie Leing Mathias Spencer that is facing charges of aggravated trafficking and aggravated torture of a 10-year-old, has listed eight grounds for consideration for their release.

The couple states that they are responsible citizens of the United States of America with good character who until their arrest resided at Apartment 304 Plot 29 Ntinda View Crescent in Kampala District.