Last week, a crowdfunding campaign was launched in Ten Boer to reunite Muniz Dekker with his biological family.

More than EUR 750 has now been raised of the intended EUR 5,000. The money must be used to pay for the travel and accommodation that will reunite the 29-year-old Muniz with his biological family, and to continue the search for his still missing brother. The search for his biological family started in the spring of 2021. 27 Years ago Muniz was given up for adoption from Brazil, and ended up in Eenrum. He now knows who his biological mother is, and how old he really is. He also discovered that he has two sisters who were also given up for adoption and who live in the Netherlands.

Muniz is happy that he managed to get so close in his quest. Unfortunately due to setbacks it is impossible to finance the trip independently. More information about the crowdfunding campaign can be found on this page .

Hello my name is Muniz Dekker, 29 years old. Last year I started the search for my biological family. 27 years ago I was given up for adoption from Brazil and I ended up in Eenrum in Groningen. I now know which woman gave birth to me and how old I really am.

My search starts with vlogs on Youtube. As a result, I soon got in touch with people who knew how to make a difference in my search. My search took place from my office converted into a detective room. From here I started networking. (You can follow my story step by step on my Youtube channel. 'Muniz Searching for the truth',)

GURUGRAM: Umesh Lohia's passengers were in for a surprise when the cabbie they had hired to go to Alwar stepped on the accelerator and screeched to a halt at the DLF-3 police station.

Without wasting even a second, he rushed inside the police station and came out with a group of cops.

The alacrity of the cab driver from the city led to the arrest of three persons - two women and a man - and lifted the veil off a gang that stole newborns from hospitals around Delhi-NCR and sold them to childless couples across the country since 2014.

On Saturday, the three persons had stopped Lohia's cab near Dhaula Kuan and asked him for a lift to IFFCO Chowk. Lohia, who was anyway returning home to Nathupur in the city, agreed as the two women had a newborn each in their arms and it was drizzling.

Just a few minutes into the ride, the two women - who were seated in the back - asked Lohia if he could drop them to Alwar in Rajasthan. The cabbie agreed, saying it could cost them Rs 3,000. A little later, one of the women asked him to drop them back to Delhi from Alwar and take Rs 4,000 for the round trip. As they headed towards Alwar, the women asked him to stop at a chemist shop to buy feeding bottles and at a sweet outlet to purchase milk.

The High Court not only stayed the shifting of 44 orphan kids from Saint Francis Orphanage in Sagar but also sought a report from the district Child Welfare Committee on why it was being done in this cold weather amid spiking Covid cases

The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stayed an order of the state-run Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for shifting orphan children from an orphanage run by a Christian missionary in the Sagar district.

The Sagar CWC’s move came after the licence of the Saint Francis Orphanage was not renewed by the district administration over allegations that beef was being served to the kids in the orphanage run by the Sagar Diocese of the Catholic community.

Some members of the right-wing Hindu groups had also alleged conversion of tribal kids in the charitable orphanage and demanded an FIR against the institution.

The High Court not only stayed the shifting of 44 orphan children but also sought a report from the Sagar CWC on why they were being shifted in this cold weather amid spiking Covid-19 cases.

The Stormont Executive must take urgent action to move towards a public inquiry into the mother and baby homes scandal.

Sinead McLaughlin, chair of the Assembly committee which monitors the Executive Office, said a decision must be made on appointing a lead civil servant as well as the structure and framework for the way forward.

Executive officials are due to appear before the scrutiny committee in the next few weeks after ministers were told they must “come down hard” on those who ran the homes.

SDLP Foyle MLA Ms McLaughlin said: “It is over to us and the Executive Office to make sure that we do you justice and that your truth is told.”

Her promise came as Eunan Duffy, of the campaign group Truth Recovery NI, said it was difficult to gauge how many victims of the institutions there are but there were estimates that 10,500 women went through the mother and baby homes.

Around the world, over 80 percent of children in orphanages have at least one living parent. So how do these children end up in orphanages rather than with their families? Unfortunately, there are countless families across the globe who face circumstances like the death of a parent, the loss of a job, or conflict that that threaten to separate them.

People like Gladys know that firsthand. When Gladys suddenly lost both her husband and brother in a short period of time, she found herself caring for seven children; alone, with no income.

Many parents who find themselves without support from family or friends are faced with a series of impossible choices. Out of desperation, some families believe they have no alternative but to place their children in the care of an orphanage where they will have food and shelter. But institutions like orphanages are not equipped to provide the individual love, care, and sense of belonging that only a family can offer. The parents and children experience significant loss from family separation in addition to the grief and trauma they have already experienced.

At a time when her children and her brother’s children were already suffering the loss of their fathers, Gladys did not want them to suffer again or risk losing them forever by placing them in the care of an orphanage. A local district government referred her to the family preservation and empowerment program run by Bethany Christian Services in Ghana, aimed at helping families stay together and keeping children out of institutions.

Through the program, social workers walked alongside Gladys and the children, offering connections to direct services as well as mental health support while they continued to cope with the death of their loved ones. Gladys initially received financial support and access to services to meet the family’s immediate, critical needs including food, medical care, and payment of school fees. Next, the program helped her become financially self-sufficient through business training opportunities that she could access while caring for the children.

One woman's story of not wanting to have a relationship with her biological daughter sparked a conversation on social media about the challenges that arise with adoptions.

Shared in Reddit's "Am I the A**hole" forum by the anonymous user u/unwantedchoice_78, the post amassed over 6,000 upvotes and 1,200 comments at the time of writing.

Specifically, u/unwantedchoice_78 wrote about her experience with a "closed" adoption—one where "the adoptive family and the birth parents will never have to see each other again," and the child has no contact with their biological parents. Today, closed adoptions are relatively rare, consisting of only about five percent of all modern adoptions.

In her post, the self-identified 38-year-old woman explains that at the age of 15, she had a baby who she gave up in a closed adoption. "I don't want children and was made to birth her after becoming pregnant," she wrote.

But recently, her biological daughter, now 23, has attempted to contact her. "I've ... began receiving numerous messages via social media and letters from my bio daughter," wrote the woman.

NEW DELHI (CNS) — The Missionaries of Charity congregation has been forced to shut Nirmala Shishu Bhawan, a home for orphaned, destitute and abandoned children in Uttar Pradesh state, after its lease expired. The Defence Estates Office demanded $250,000 from the nuns for trespassing.

The closure came on the heels of the federal government’s refusal to renew the congregation’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration for foreign donations to carry out its charitable works across the country.

Ucanews.com reported India’s defense establishment claimed the Uttar Pradesh home was built on its land, for which the lease had expired in 2019. It claimed the Missionaries of Charity were trespassers and would have to pay penalty charges or face eviction.

Sister Prema Pierick, the congregation’s superior general, felt it prudent to surrender to army authorities and handed over peaceful possession of the home to the Defence Estates Office Jan. 3, Ucanews.com reported.

The 11 remaining children, most of whom were severely handicapped, were relocated to other Shishu Bhawan homes, said Chhotebhai, convener of the Indian Catholic Forum who has been closely associated with the orphanage since its inception.

After the blocking of funds from abroad, the Missionaries of Charity in India have once again been hit by bureaucratic red tape: the renewal of a state concession for the land on which a home that welcomes those abandoned by all has been denied. The Bishop of Lucknow: "A dangerous road has been taken against Mother Teresa's sisters. They attack Christians because they are a community that loves peace".

Lucknow (AsiaNews) - The Missionaries of Charity in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,have been forced to close one of their homes for orphaned children because of an eviction ordered by the Indian Ministry of Defence. The New Year, which had already begun for the Sisters of Mother Teresa with the revocation of their license to receive donations from abroad, thus continues with another serious obstacle to their activity advanced by bureaucratic means in one of the more than 240 centers for orphans managed by the religiousin India.

On January 3, in the district of Kanpur, the Missionaries of Charity were in fact forced to suspend the activities of the local Shishu Bhawan, one of the homes where they welcome abandoned children in a gesture that everyone immediately associates with the memory of Mother Teresa.The eviction was ordered by the Indian State Property Office: the structure rises, in fact, on land that had been sold to a private individual with a 90-year concession that expires in 2019. It would then have been this private individual to cede it to the Sisters of Mother Teresa in 1968 to open the orphanage. Now, however, the office of the Ministry of Defense that manages state property does not want to renew the concession; and in addition, it also asks the sisters to pay a fine of 20 million rupees (about 240 thousand euros) for using the structure in the last two years. An economic threat that - together with the uncertainties caused by the blocking of donations from abroad - would have led the Missionaries of Charity to choose not to take legal action to resist the decision, handing over the structure to the State.

"In the last 53 years - recalls the Indian Catholic Forum - the Shishu Bhawan of Kanpur has welcomed and helped secure adoption for 1,500 children according to the rules of the law. It has also offered help to thousands of other poor people such as lepers, abandoned mothers, children of migrants working on construction sites. The State Office seems unwilling to see the selfless service offered by the sisters to anyone in need, regardless of caste or creed. The last 11 children who remained in the facility were transferred to the Shishu Bhawan in the cities of Allahabad, Varanasi, Bareilly and Meerut. But what will happen to the 1,500 families who adopted children from this center? For them this structure was like a Nanihal (grandmother's house), while for the orphans who grew up there and are now married, the Shishu Bhawan was the family home".

The bishop of Lucknow Msgr. Gerald Mathias commented to AsiaNews: "I am deeply saddened by this news. Had it been desired, the concession could certainly have been renewed since the sisters took care of orphans and abandoned, serving the poorest of the poor. Despite Mother Teresa's international fame, neither the government nor the army showed any understanding or support for this facility and were happy to evict her. The Missionaries of Charity in recent times have been targeted in Gujarat and Jharkhand; then came the revocation of the license for donations from abroad: these are all episodes that point to a dangerous path. They attack Christians because they are a peace-loving community. We can only hope that common sense will prevail and the situation will improve.

Pope Francis said Wednesday that people who adopt pets instead of children were exhibiting “a form of selfishness” as he presided over his first general audience of the new year.

“How many children in the world are waiting for someone to take care of them,” the pontiff said in a speech at the Vatican. “And how many spouses wish to be fathers and mothers but are unable to do so for biological reasons; or, although they already have children, they want to share their family’s affection with those who have been left without.”

Francis’ catechism lesson focused on the figure of Joseph, who Francis said was the “foster father” of Jesus.

Repeating his call for couples to have more children to address the “demographic winter” in much of the West, he said those who can’t have children should be open to adoption.

Today “we see a form of selfishness ... We see that people do not want to have children,” he said.

If biological babies are not on the cards – sometimes it’s a choice one makes – adoption could be. But, taking on a child not biologically yours can prove challenging. We asked the experts about things to consider before making that commitment. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Why do you want a child? Lavina Ahuja, clinical psychologist at the German Neuroscience Center, says both partners need to think about this. Why do you want to adopt? Is it because you want a child or because you want to be parent? Or is it because you feel it will change your dynamics or relationship with the world?

2. Mourning: Asma Geitany, Clinical Psychologist at Openminds center, says: “In case of infertility, have you and your partner, grieved the chance of having a biological child?” Finding closure isn’t easy, but it is important when it comes to de-clogging your mind and heart and making space for a new person.

3. Biological hang-ups: she adds, “Can you share your love with a kid who is not biologically yours?”

4. Consider past traumas: Can you provide a safe and stable environment? Ask yourself, says Geitany, “How are you as a person, psychologically? Do you have any trauma from your past which have a huge negative impact on your life? Is your relationship with your partner stable? You have a welcoming family-oriented relationship?”