Dr. Cho's memoir about Korean War orphans, abandoned children will be published in English in May, shedding light on why they were sent overseas to new families

Retired pediatrician Cho Byung-guk, 89, came to understand why some ethnic Korean adoptees search tirelessly for their birth parents and strive to figure out why they were sent overseas to new families, while interacting with numerous adoptees during her five decades of work.

"Every year at Holt Ilsan, we had groups of visitors from overseas. They were adopted by parents mostly in the United States and Europe when they were babies, so most of them don't speak or read Korean," Cho told The Korea Times.

Once their stays ? which could be for days or weeks ? end, there is one thing many of these adoptees do: they buy Cho's 2009 memoir, which is written in Korean.

"Although they don't understand Korean, they purchased the book and took it home with the hope that some of their Korean friends or neighbors could help explain those stories," Cho said.

Is it really in the child's best interest that we send him to an institution so early? Or could we arrange our lives differently while we have small children? Hye Secher Marcussen believes that feminists should take the lead and secure better rights for children.

Hye Secher Marcussen's biological mother knew that she would not be allowed to keep her child if she gave birth to another girl.

Hye's biological father had decided that. The parents already had two girls, and he didn't want any more. He wanted a boy.

So when the mother gave birth to Hye and they saw she was a girl, they immediately adopted her.

Instead, they adopted a boy and made him theirs. They let the outside world understand that it was him with whom Hye's mother had been pregnant.

Caritas says most of the children will come from heavily hit eastern Ukraine amid fears ‘humanitarian catastrophe approaching fast’

The Catholic charity Caritas Poland says it will take in 2,000 children from Ukrainian orphanages, with the first group of 300 arriving on Wednesday.

“Our eastern neighbours are talking about a humanitarian catastrophe that is approaching fast,” charity director Marcin I?ycki said.

“We have decided to respond to the crisis in Ukraine and provide shelter to the most vulnerable in our country.”

The children would come mainly from orphanages in eastern Ukraine, which has been worst affected by Russia’s assault on the country. The first group would be taken to Opole and Cz?stochowa in southern Poland and put up in charity centres and religious institutions.

On Wednesday 23 February, Seamus Kelly, an industrial school survivor, was outside the Probation Service headquarters just off Smithfield Square for the third time in about as many months.

His two earlier visits to the large stone building had been to protest outside. Today, though, he would get in.

Kelly, dressed in blue jeans and a black jacket and clasping a copy of his book in his hand, is 10 minutes early for his meeting with the director of the Probation Service.

It’s a meeting he has been pushing for since 2004, he says. “I need answers and I’m not going to stop this protest until I get them.”

Back in 2004 Kelly met with an assistant principal in the Probation Service to seek answers about the anomalies he had spotted in the official documents he had collected to try to piece together his story and understand the traumas of the early years of his life.

Harjinder Thind, host at RED FM, asked doctors to report mothers who were putting up babies for adoption

A complaint has been filed with the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council (CBSC) over comments made by Harjinder Thind, a host at the RED FM radio station located in Surrey, B.C.

The complaint, filed by Pitt Meadows-based artist Jag Nagra on Monday, concerns Thind's Punjabi-language morning broadcast on Feb. 24.

Nagra, a member of the non-profit Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective, was scheduled to talk on Thind's show that day to promote the organization's search for new board members.

While waiting to go on air, Nagra heard Thind claim there was "breaking news" that numerous South Asian mothers at Surrey Memorial Hospital were giving birth and "abandoning" their babies by giving them up for adoption.

Decision on Wob request regarding communication with the COIA

Freedom of Information Act request | 02-03-2022

On 2 March 2022, the Minister for Legal Protection made a decision on the Government Information (Public Access) Act request regarding communication by a data subject with the International Adoption Investigation Committee.

Decision on Wob request regarding communication with the COIA (PDF | 7 pages | 174 kB)

Annex I to decision on Wob request regarding communication with the COIA (PDF | 240 pages | 22.6 MB)

For Morgan Terch, owner of Wilder Way Threads, business is more than just the bottom line. It’s gotta have heart. That’s why her shop, which sells vintage textiles, donates 25 percent of its proceeds to adoptive parents and families.

The story of Wilder Way began in 2020 when Terch and her husband and co-owner, Jeffrey, were on their own adoption journey. They were trying to bring their daughter, Eden, home from India and needed help to defray costs. Having both worked for a local adoption agency, they were aware of how difficult, and pricey, the process would be and knew they would need to get creative. Terch recalled a supplier in Turkey, whom she had bought pillow cases from for her home, and decided to reach back out to him. She purchased a small order, did a sale on her Instagram account, and sold all 40 items in an hour. Coincidentally, it turned out the man had been orphaned as a child, creating even more of a connection. From there, the seed of an idea blossomed into a plan and things seemed to fall into place. What if they could create a small business to help other people on the same path?

“I thought…let’s keep doing this,” says Terch. “I love looking at these textiles. I love that we’re supporting this man in Turkey…and his small business…that’s a win-win. And then we’re also helping make a way for us to provide a home for our future child.”

According to Terch, a typical adoption, international or domestic, can take years to finalize and cost upwards to $40,000. However, she goes on to highlight, it’s important to use a licensed, Hague-accredited service as it ensures that the proper, legal steps are taken.

“On one hand, that is probably a barrier that keeps a lot of people from adopting,” says Terch. “But, on the flip side, having worked in an adoption agency, I really see the benefit of [it] being expensive. The fees ensure that the adoption is done the right way.”

More than 14,000 girls and women went through the doors of mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and other institutions between 1922 and 1990.

Police in Northern Ireland are probing 29 allegations of criminal activity around mother and baby homes.

Officers have received reports from a number of people who were adopted from different named institutions and also from some who either worked there or were residents within these institutions.

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<Bielefeld, 28.02.2022> Dr. Oetker condemns the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine as an act that violates international law and cannot be justified. This war is contemptuous of human life, it brings hardship and misery to people who want to live peacefully with their neighbors. A war will never be a solution - neither to deal with different views on future issues nor to overcome political or social conflicts.

All Dr. Oetker employees are members of a large family that is active in over 40 countries. Guided by our Purpose "Creating a Taste of Home", we work ever more closely together internationally. We know and appreciate each other, diversity is one of our great strengths and characterizes our cohesion. Our thoughts are therefore with our colleagues and their families in the regions affected by the war, whose safety is our top priority. We are in close daily contact with the management teams of our Ukrainian and Russian country organizations and are jointly examining all options for providing support.

Together with the company's owners, we have decided to make a specific donation of €500,000: Two SOS Children's Villages were evacuated from Kiev and from eastern Ukraine to Poland – with traumatized and starving children. We support this project out of our deepest conviction. In addition, 140 Ukrainian employees work in our Polish plants. We provide accommodation for their family members in particular, but also for others who have fled from Ukraine to Poland, to offer them a first port of call. In addition, we support the people with everything they need to live, primarily food and clothing.

We will continue to closely monitor this extraordinarily difficult situation and take all the necessary measures and decisions. Above all, it is incontrovertible that Dr. Oetker stands for family values – in Ukraine and everywhere!

About Dr. Oetker

An apology to the experimental children has been followed by compensation from the Danish state.

In 2020, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen gave an official apology on behalf of Denmark to the so-called "experimental children" for the first time.

And now the apology is being followed up with 250,000 kroner to each of the six living Greenlanders.

This is stated by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Elderly in Denmark.

The compensation comes after the six people filed a lawsuit against the Danish state, as they believed that the move to Denmark in 1951 was a violation of, among other things, their right to private and family life.