Adoptees say their documents are riddled with misinformation, fabrications

By Lee Hyo-jin

Peter Moller, 48, who was adopted to Denmark from South Korea in 1974, reached out to Korean adoption agency Holt International for the first time in 2011 to search for his roots.

Holt initially told the Danish adoptee that he was born in Seoul. But in subsequent letters, the adoption agency said he was actually born in Daejeon. Moller was then told that his biological mother gave birth to him in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province on March 16, 1974, which happened to be the same day she brought him to the adoption agency in Seoul.

"How is this possible?" Moller thought. "What is the possibility that a woman who just gave birth to a child could travel across the country to give away the infant?"

An adopted man discovered his biological family after 20 years when his brother tracked him down on Instagram thanks to his unusual first name.

Iverson Poff, 20, was adopted from birth and raised by his adoptive parents—but always wondered who his biological family were.

Iverson, who grew up in Portland, Oregon had a few baby pictures provided by the adoption agency. However it was a closed adoption where adoptive family and the biological family have no contact, and the adoption agency used had long since shut its doors.

It was July 20th however, that he got an Instagram message from a man called Jalen Vickers; he said he was his older brother.

“I have that date tattooed on my arm, because it was so important to me,” said Poff. “I opened the message instantly and I knew straight away who it was. I just knew.”

Marie, born Kadiatou, was adopted in Mali in 1989 when she was only 19 months old. She grew up in France in a loving family, yet ignorant of her story and that of her biological parents.

Marie was 30 when her first daughter was born. The young mother feels ready to reconstruct the film of her life, hoping one day to be able to tell her daughter what she calls 'her great story'.

By consulting the file kept by her adoptive parents, she notices inconsistencies in aspects of her marital status that she took for granted. She then begins to ask herself questions about the conditions surrounding her adoption.

How old was she really? What is his date of birth ? Was she really born of an unknown father? What is his true birthplace? Under what circumstances was she entrusted to an adoptive family thousands of kilometers from Mali, her country of birth?

This quest for truth will lead Marie to take legal action against the Rayon de soleil association for foreign children (RSEE) and one of their correspondents. Eight other Malian adoptees also members of the Collective of French adoptees from Mali created by Marie participated in the legal action. The adoption organization specifies on its site "Between 1991 and 2001, we welcomed about 300 children for adoption" from Mali.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rDwmrvPWLsjcAPy1apo_skF5MMYPCWaA/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101922190264536777845&rtpof=true&sd=true

Rep. Kim Seong-joo "Child exports disguised as orphans... We need to find out the truth about overseas adoptions"

During the authoritarian government, 41.7% of overseas adoptees whose birth parents were unknown… 1.4 times higher than domestic adoption

Reporter Dae-Hong Kim (=Jeonbuk) | Article input 2022.10.03. 08:17:43

? Kim Seong-ju, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea. ?

Controversy has arisen over claims that serious human rights violations have been committed over overseas adoptions under the neglect of the authoritarian government in the past.?

The Flemish Center for Adoption (VCA) is currently working on a renewed system for (intercountry) adoption . This reform is commissioned by the Flemish Government following the final report of the expert panel on intercountry adoption that was published in September 2021.

The focus is on three 'recruitments':

1. strengthening partnerships with the countries of origin,

2. linking foster care and adoption,

3. focusing on aftercare and guidance during adoption.

In New York, a gay couple fighting to make their insurers pay for fertility treatment have found themselves in the middle of a culture war. What happens when the right to parenthood involves someone else’s body?

Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto met in law school in 2011, were engaged by 2014, and had their 2016 wedding announced in the New York Times. They moved to a waterfront apartment block in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a bright playroom for families on the ground floor.

“We got married and then we wanted all the trappings: house, children, 401K [retirement saving plan], etc,” Maggipinto, 37, tells me in their building’s shared meeting room, tapping the table in sequence with the progression of each idea.

Briskin, 33, grew up assuming he’d have children. He came out in college. “Once I had come out to myself and others, I don’t think my expectation of what my life would look like changed all that much.” With marriage equality won years ago, they expected to be able to have a conventional married life.

Six months before their wedding, a targeted ad from an organisation called Gay Parents to Be landed in Maggipinto’s Instagram feed, offering free consultations with a fertility doctor who’d give them “the whole rundown” on how they could start a family. “We had the appointment and we were 100% on the same page – let’s move forward with this,” says Maggipinto.

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The Ghaziabad police on Thursday took into custody a 14-year-old girl, the adopted daughter of a 58-year-old man who was found murdered in their flat in Vaishali on September 22, and her 23-year-old friend from Jalgaon in Maharashtra, on charges of planning and executing the murder.

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The girl was legally adopted by the couple -- the deceased and his wife -- about a week after she was born 14 years ago, police said. She is currently a class 7 student at a private school in Vaishali and lived with her parents till the day of the murder on September 22. That evening, the CCTV cameras caught her leaving home with her schoolbag around 5pm, in the company of a young man.

Later in the evening, when her mother returned home from her office in Delhi, she found her husband dead, with his limbs tied up and mouth taped shut. The police, quoting the autopsy report, said the man was strangled to death with a rope.

An Indonesian man who had built a reputation as a savior of unwanted children has been arrested on suspicion of child trafficking.

Dubbed the “father of a million children,” the story of 32-year-old S moved many in the country after he took in 55 children under his care. The children were mostly born to women who conceived out of wedlock, who would have terminated their pregnancies or ditched their babies to escape social stigma.

On Wednesday, police in Bogor, West Java said they arrested S after uncovering a sinister plot behind his adoption of the 55 children.

“The culprit offered to help the pregnant women. After the children were born, [he would take them in but] they would eventually be given up for adoption. But the adoption process was illegal,” Bogor Police Chief Iman Imanuddin said, adding that S had faked documents to set up his organization, the Father of A Million Children Foundation.

“If somebody wanted to adopt one of his children, they would have to pay IDR15 million (US$985) to the culprit. The culprit used the Father of a Million Children Foundation as a front.”

Biological or not, having children is a wonderful blessing. However, matters of adoption have always invited unwanted questions in the past. Thankfully, the stigma has now lessened down and we have to thank celebrities for that. While Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have won hearts for their beautiful rainbow family, Indian celebrities aren't any far behind.

If there's one celebrity, whose name comes into mind when we talk of adoption, it has to be Bollywood ace choreographer Sandip Soparrkar. The Choreographer was just 40 when he adopted his first child, Arjun, for which, he had to face a long legal battle. Making him the first single father to adopt in India.

Recently he went on to adopt another child, Kabir in the year 2021. While Sandip Soparrkar decision to become a single parent was quite unheard of, the choreographer often mentioned that he never felt the need to second guess his decision, and it all felt natural to him. Now he's become first Indian for being single father of two kids. Sandip's decision definitely opened a lot of doors for people who wished to embrace single parenthood in the country.

About Sandip Soparrkar's Adoption, Madhavi Mhatre, Director, BalAnand, Worldchildren Welfare Trust India, says, "It has been a very positive experience and pleasure to have Sandip Soparkar adopt yet again from our children's home. We had the joy of placing his first son Arjun with him, when we were convinced of his dedication and commitment. We have seen Arjun grow up to what he is today and had no hesitation in processing the adoption a second time when Kabir was chosen. What makes Sandip special, is not the fact that he has adopted, but his complete acceptance of the Child he adopted.”

The world does not undergo any change because a child is adopted, but for every adopted child his/her world changes after adoption. Soparrkar has always chosen the path less chosen and adopting the second time is something even rarer. We hope that many people get inspired by his decision and take steps towards creating a family through adoption.