Participating in The Colour of Difference: Long Term Outcomes

This piece was written for the Benevolent Society: Post Adoption Resource Centre newsletter. Their centre provides post adoption support to adoptees in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

In the late 1990s, I was in my mid 20s and searching for support as an adoptee born overseas, outside of Australia. At that time, I didn’t even have the language to understand how adoption had affected me, I only knew that I had struggled and was reaching out to try and find support somewhere. I came across the Post Adoption Resource Centre (PARC) in my search but I had initially tried the AA type programs, thinking there must be an “Adoptees Anonymous” somewhere to join into. There wasn’t, so when I found PARC led by Sarah Armstrong, I went and joined in with one of their adoptee days where you meet face to face and talk. PARC took us through guided sessions. I found it really useful but the biggest thing I noticed was there was nothing discussing looking different to one’s family/community, nothing on searching and returning to an overseas country, and certainly nothing on racism or the issues I lived as a person of colour adopted into a white society. So I spoke to the PARC team afterwards and asked if there was anything available more specific to my experience. I didn’t even know the term “intercountry adoption” then. All I knew was that I enjoyed meeting the adoptees but they were all born in Australia except me. So I still felt different and quite alone. I enquired about whether there were other adoptees like me reaching out to PARC. They told me yes, occasionally. I said, “Well if you ever run something for us, I’d love to know about it and if you have those adoptees wanting to connect to someone like them, pleas share them my name and contacts.”

And so some time later, PARC did followup and contact me. They asked me if I wanted to be involved in their new book project where we as transracial adoptees could share our stories to help people better understand our lived experience. I said of course and I jumped at the opportunity. I remember trying to figure out what I’d write about, but once I started, it all flowed.

It was quite a lengthy process to get our book project published, finished, and launched. I think it was around 3 years from start to end? But during that process I ended up being honoured to meet the fellow adoptees who also shared in our book, The Colour of Difference. Participating in the book changed my life and PARC had been sharing my name/contacts to adoptees just like me, so over time, once the project finished, I made up my mind that I would volunteer and continue on from the connections we had made, to form a network to support each other.

On Monday, the Supreme Court, inter alia, directed the State Government/ Union

Territories to complete the process of preparation of Social Investigation Reports in

respect of the children who have been identified to have lost both or either parents post

March, 2020 and produce them before the Child Welfare Committee. With respect to the

financial liabilities of the...

Victorians who were adopted will have the choice to include both their birth and adoptive parents on their birth certificates.

Legislation introduced on Tuesday will create integrated birth certificates, allowing the names of an adopted person’s birth parents, adoptive parents and the date of their adoption to be included on their certificate.

Under current law, only adoptive parents are listed on certificates.

The change will enable adopted people aged 18 and older who wish to update their records to access a certificate that better represents their origins and history.

It follows through on a recommendation made by the Parliamentary Inquiry into Historical Forced Adoption in Victoria.

Under the revisions, single people can adopt if they are 25 or older and meet requirements to sufficiently guarantee the welfare of the children.

The South Korean Cabinet on Tuesday approved bills to allow single people to adopt children, as the number of one-person households is sharply increasing.

The Justice Ministry revised the Civil Act and the Family Litigation Act, which currently stipulate only married couples can legally adopt, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Under the revisions, single people can adopt if they are 25 or older and meet requirements to sufficiently guarantee the welfare of the children.

PROJECT COMPLETION ANNOUNCEMENT

" REAL CHANCES FOR A BETTER LIFE"

POCU/436/4/4/126814

"INIMA PENTRU INIMA " FOUNDATION implemented, in Valcea county, starting on 01.08.2019, the " REAL CHANCES FOR A BETTER LIFE " project. The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund, through the Human Capital Operational Program, Priority Axis 4: Social inclusion and combating poverty, Investment Priority 9.ii Socio-economic integration of marginalized communities, such as the Roma.

Implementation duration:

This article is the 32nd in a series about Koreans adopted abroad. Some of the articles of this series will dedicate space to parts of the Amicus Brief submitted to the Korean court by Dr. Lee Kyung-eun. The Amicus Brief was written as a Q&A to assist the judges in understanding the historic meaning of this case. Special mention and appreciation must go to Raymond Ha (M.A. '21, Stanford Univ.), Hyejin Jang (B.A. '21 Princeton Univ.), Do Yon Lena Kwon (J.D. Candidate '22, Penn Law), Hailey M. Lee (J.D. Candidate '24, Penn Law), and Lydia Lim (J.D. '21, Penn Law) for fully translating this 70-page long brief into English as an act of solidarity for the rights of adoptees. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

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Question: Korea and U.S.' inter-country adoption, which began immediately after the Korean War in the 1950s, increased to the extent that Korea was sending 500 children overseas per month, and 8,000 children per year by the 1980s. Please explain the characteristics of Korea and U.S.' inter-country adoption that led to such a result.

Answer: "Orphan adoption," which originated in Europe post World War II for the emergency rescue of displaced war orphans, became highly systematized in Korea.

New Delhi: In a major development, a Delhi court has allowed a Muslim prisoner to adopt a child. The Patiala House court ordered jail superintendent to take the man to the adoption office for completing formalities where his signs were required.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana said no one can't be barred from adopting a child just because one believes in Islam.

Earlier, the prosecution had opposed the plea arguing Islam does not have any provision to allow a Muslim to adopt a child, according to a report in Hindi daily Hindustan.

The judge said that a person can not be denied the right to adopt a child just because he comes from Muslim community. Everyone has an equal right to adopt a child.

A jailed Muslim man had approached the court through his lawyer Kausar Khan seeking parole to go to Haryana's Nuh district to complete adoption formalities.

Proposal for a

COUNCIL REGULATION

on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic

instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of

Parenthood

Pieter Omtzigt has asked parliamentary questions about Insiya, who was kidnapped in 2016. Her father, Shehzad Hemani, had his daughter kidnapped in 2016 and took her to India, where she still resides, against her mother's will. The questions come at a precarious moment: the Netherlands will receive the Indian president next week.

A year and a half ago, Hemani was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison for having the girl kidnapped from her grandmother's home in Watergraafsmeer and taken to India illegally. A cousin of Hemani was sentenced to four years in prison for involvement, but he fled abroad.

“The kidnapping was violent and unheard of,” the judge said at the time. “A family life has been destroyed. The effects are difficult to measure. For Insiya's mother, it is a never-ending grieving process. Insiya is also separated from the rest of her family.” India has been asked to extradite Hemani, but has so far refused to do so.

Since Insiya has been in India, her father has stopped contacting her mother Nadia Rashid . The girl's parents were divorced before the kidnapping and had a conflict about parental authority. After the kidnapping, Rashid saw her daughter only a few times via Skype.

State visit

When Mariel Vos (39) was four months old, she was adopted. When she was eleven she ended up in a foster family, where she lived until she was seventeen. Mariël: “People often expect that everything will be fine in a foster family. But that is not always the case.”

Mariel's adoptive parents were gifted people. They couldn't really take care of her, so Mariel had to deal with mental abuse. “I kept hearing that they regretted adopting me. They thought I was very expensive and wanted more value for money. As a six-year-old girl, I knew exactly what I had cost. I was also beaten by my parents. It was a very tough situation.”

foster care

When Mariel was nine years old, she ended up in day foster care. Out of school, around three o'clock, she went to a foster home and also stayed there for dinner. Then she was taken back to her adoptive parents. “At a certain point I could see the differences between my adoptive parents and me more and more. Actually, I took care of them, instead of them taking care of me. As a child you are very loyal to your parents. I really loved them, they were my mom and dad, even though their upbringing was totally wrong.”

Two years later, Mariel was then eleven years old, she was permanently removed from home. An experience she will never forget. “In the morning my adoptive parents told me that in an hour I would leave for my day foster care family. I totally panicked. I cried and apologized a hundred times for everything I did wrong in life. I so wanted to stay with them. I promised that I would always be sweet and caring. It was a traumatic event. In retrospect, I also think it was a low point in my life.” In the period after that, Mariel suffered from homesickness. She wanted so badly to go back to her parents. “I also noticed that I found it very difficult to act on the love of the foster family. These people were nice, but I was scared to death for doing something wrong. I was afraid that I would have to leave again.”