Rob Marrevee (60), adoptive father of sons Zenebe (25) and Jarra (22), in his book Vaderland puts an end to the 'fairytale' that a child from a poor country can be 'saved' with enough love. His sons support him. "My mission is to break something open."

"And where are you originally from?"

"From Ethiopia."

'Oh, you speak Dutch very well.'

'Yes, that's right, I grew up here. I've been adopted.'

Giving has been an integral part of India’s culture. Many of us experience it quite early on when we celebrate our birthdays or other special occasions at orphanages or child care institutions (CCIs). While giving to orphanages has been the traditional and one of the oldest ways of engaging in philanthropy, we need to shift our focus towards supporting systems and approaches that address the root causes of child vulnerability,spearhead a movement to shift care reform priorities to prevent separation from family and subsequent institutionalization of children, and invest in research and innovative interventions that build upon the existing efforts by the government and civil society.

According to the Indian National Policy for Children 2013, “All children have the right to grow in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding.” There is a global and national consensus that children can achieve holistic development and mental well-being only in a family and related setup. Research on the institutionalization of children claims that 80% of institutionalized children are below the mean on relevant indicators relating to the delayed brain and cognitive development, 57% of institutionalized children exhibit greater psychological issues, as opposed to only 15% otherwise and staff members often resort to dangerous measures that put the child at a higher risk of future criminal activity according to Lumos Global Research.

A ray of hope

To act on the root causes of child vulnerability in India, there is a need for programs that work as a collective, with on-ground interventions covering rural as well as urban locations, coupled with interventions that strengthen the ecosystem with data, evidence, narrative change, and advocacy. State-based models focused on systems strengthening, that lead to replicable solutions need to involve allied sectors, keeping the child at the center, and leverage resources and structures available or mandated by policy. The philanthropic community can have a multi-fold impact by supporting such collective initiatives, and championing the cause to wider networks.

The work is complex and we have a long way to go in overcoming execution challenges. We need to disproportionately focus on enabling families and communities to provide nurturing environments for their children and building the capacities of child protection actors to undertake all efforts necessary to provide family-based care for children entering the system based on the five priorities for action:

The following extract by Mary Harney comes from the essay “Testimony,” which opens the collection REDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice edited by Katherine O’Donnell, Maeve O’Rourke and James M. Smith and recently published by University College Dublin Press.

How will Ireland redress its legacy of institutional abuse and forced adoption? What constitutes justice? How might democracy evolve if the survivors’ experiences and expertise were allowed to lead the response to a century of gender and family separation-based abuses?

In addition to asking such questions, the essays in REDRESS focus on the structures which perpetuated widespread and systematic abuses in the past and consider how political arrangements continue to exert power over survivors, adopted people and generations of relatives, as well as controlling the remains and memorialisation of the dead.

With diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, they consider how a Transitional Justice-based, survivor-centred, approach might assist those personally affected, policymakers, the public, and academics to evaluate the complex ways in which both the Republic and Northern Ireland have responded to their histories of institutionalisation and forced family separation. Importantly, the essays seek to offer avenues by which to redress this legacy of continuing harms.

Mary Harney is a Maine resident, civil-rights activist, painter and educator; she completed her Master’s Degree in Irish Studies (2013) and Masters in International Human Rights Law (2020) at NUI-Galway.

In a mix-up, the hospital handed over the living baby to another woman instead of the actual mother, Nazma Khanam, due to the similarity in their names.

Three years after a hospital switched a woman's newborn in Assam’s Barpeta district, she was finally able to unite with her son following a court directive.

Three years back, two pregnant women were admitted to a government-run hospital in Assam’s Barpeta district where they gave birth to two babies, but one of the infants was stillborn.

In a mix-up, the hospital handed over the living baby to another woman instead of the actual mother, Nazma Khanam, due to the similarity in their names. Following the court’s directive, as per the DNA report, the original mother has been able to get her baby after three years.

Advocate Abdul Mannan said that the family members of Nazma Khanam’s claimed that she gave birth to a healthy baby and the baby couldn’t die.

For years, evangelical Christians were enthusiastic supporters of adoption by sponsoring conferences, targeting adoption-friendly Sundays and staging adoption fairs in parish halls.

Thousands of overseas children got new homes. Leading the way were evangelical luminaries such as recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman (three daughters from China) and then-Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore (two sons from Russia). Enthusiastic parents took up the challenge, traveling overseas for one or more children, even adopting special needs kids whose home countries were not interested in their care.

More than a decade after this movement peaked, many families who went overseas are in crisis mode: respite weekends are booked through 2023, there is an annual Christian conference devoted to burned-out parents, and a new documentary has been released on desperate families who have extremely ill children. Parents now say that the churches that encouraged them to adopt in the first place aren't there for them now.

Few statistics exist on the number of adoptions gone wrong, other than a 10-year-old study by the US Department of Health and Human Services reporting "adoption disruptions" ranging from 10-25 percent. This little-known statistic points to a meltdown in the industry and a sign that adoption and foster care have become a landmine for many families who believed God had called them to help these children.

No one told them there could be an aftermath. Here are some of their stories.

It is estimated that between 10-15% of couples struggle with infertility. After trying to conceive and failing, these couples often seek methods like in vitro fertilization, (IVF) or look into adoption.

A local couple used a different option.

Megan Ivery and her identical twin sister grew up in Sidney with parents who shared their home with foster children. Ivery remembers many children moving in and out over the years and it fueled her desire for a large family.

“When I got married, I knew right away I wanted to start a family,” Ivery, who lives in Harrison Township, said. “We were attending a church in Kettering and there were a lot of folks fostering there.”

Ivery and her husband, Shimar, met with their pastor about fostering. At the same time, they were also trying to get pregnant. The pastor recommended they work on their biological family first, but after a year of trying, Ivery still wasn’t pregnant. The couple signed up to foster and within a couple of months, they got their first placement of a little boy who needed a place to live after a family tragedy. But he only stayed with them for four days before he went back home.

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If it is abundantly clear that the Dutch state has made a mistake in the adoption of children, the State wants to prevent proceedings by settling. The government believes that the argument of prescription should not be discussed in such cases.

On Friday, Minister Franc Weerwind for legal protection informed the House of the state of affairs regarding the so-called distance mothers, unmarried women who say that they were forced to give up their child in the second half of the last century. In the first case of a waiver mother , the State still invoked prescription .

“Perceived abuses during adoptions can have a major and lasting impact on the lives of those involved. When they have the impression that the government has played an important role in this, it is understandable that people turn to the government primarily for acknowledgment of their suffering, but also for help or compensation for damage,” writes Weerwind.

The minister also announced that a commission of inquiry into domestic adoption practice will be led by Micha de Winter, who previously investigated abuses in youth care . The committee will start work in September.

Intercountry adoptions are possible again, from a limited number of countries

Children in care have reported being groomed and sexually assaulted in homes run by a firm making huge profits.

Multiple employees of Calcot Services for Children say vulnerable young people were failed.

BBC News has found it made profits of 36% last year, double that of other big care providers - figures already considered excessive by a watchdog.

Calcot said profits were high because of built up investment, and it prioritises safeguarding children.

The company runs eight homes, four schools and supported living accommodation in southern England. It made profits of 42% in 2020 and 36% in 2021, using an industry-standard measure.

Romania’s minister of family Gabriela Firea announced the Government’s intention to close all orphanages and move children to family-style homes, a project that is almost two decades in the making.

“Closing all placement centers, the so-called orphanages, in the country is our primordial interest, so that children left in the care of the state will have a better, warmer, friendlier life in [the care of] foundations or in family-style homes,” said Gabriela Firea, Romania’s minister of family, youth and equal opportunities. She added that there are currently nearly 47,000 children in orphanages throughout the country, out of which six thousand are up for adoption.

Romania has a dark past when it comes to orphanages. In the aftermath of the 1989 revolution that toppled the communist dictator Nicolae Ceau?escu, a series of pictures came out showing the squalid conditions in orphanages. Subsequent investigations estimated that between 1966 and 1989 there were up to 20,000 unnecessary deaths of children left in the care of the state. The vast majority of those who died were disabled.

“Roughly 70% of the registered deaths were from pneumonia. They were dying of external causes that were preventable and treatable,” said Florin Soare, an investigator, quoted by The Guardian.

Firea’s recently announced intention, however, has been part of the Government’s commitments for years.