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Netflix Releases Trailer for Chinese Adoptee Documentary ‘Found’ (Exclusive)

Amanda Lipitz's film, which follows three adopted American teenagers who discover they are related and embark on a journey to explore their Chinese roots, will be released Oct. 20.

“When you know where you come from, you can find the peace in your heart.”

That’s the thesis behind the upcoming Netflix documentary Found, which follows a trio of three American teenage girls – Chloe, Sadie and Lily – who find each other via the genetic lineage site 23andMe and discover that they are related and, coincidentally, all adopted. With the strength of their newfound bond, they decide to embark on the journey of returning to China – and exploring their origin stories – together.

The film’s director (and Chloe’s aunt), Amanda Lipitz (2017’s Step), reached out to the company My China Roots, which specializes in helping diaspora Chinese find long-lost relatives and trace their genealogical lineage. With the guidance of researcher Liu Hao, whose personal story has given her a deep empathy for China’s adopted daughters, Chloe, Sadie and Lily gain new insight into the circumstances of their early years, revisiting their orphanages and reuniting with the nannies who loved and cared for them.

“Asian American women are an extremely underrepresented group in film and television, and I’m sure that was a motivating factor to them,” said Lipitz of Chloe and her cousins’ decision to participate in the documentary. “It felt like a moment of ‘Let me tell my story. Let me show people that I’m here.'”

Reactivated India-Australia adoption program sees first family adopt Indian child in Northern Territory

The story of Purvish and Swara Shah is a happy one. The couple remembers the rush of love when they first saw their two-year-old son Reyansh in Karnataka through a video call. They are the first family in Northern Territory to successfully adopt a child from India after the India-Australia intercountry adoption program was reactivated in 2019.

Their journey to adoption started when Mrs Shah decided to become a parent. The couple organised all the relevant paperwork and wasted no time to lodge their application in 2019. This was soon after Australia and India reactivated its adoption program for Queensland and Northern Territory applicants only in April 2019.

Highlights:

Queensland and the Northern Territory have started assessing a small number of prospective adoptive parents: Department of Social Services

In 2019-2020, Australia finalised just over 330 adoptions

Jeunesse & Droit - JDJ - A parliamentary commission of inquiry is needed!

A parliamentary commission of inquiry is needed!

The dossier of this issue, exceptional for its scope and the variety of contributions, intends to review international adoption, by examining the evolution of international and national regulations and by pointing out abuses and shortcomings, sometimes of a criminal nature, that these procedures have known.

He also largely gives the floor to people who were adopted as children, to show how these shortcomings had long hidden, minimized, ignored consequences on their life, their development, the construction of their personality and their personal journey. . One of the most striking aspects is the construction of identity, in a context where most of the time, important components of this notion are non-existent, have disappeared, have been deliberately destroyed.

Hence, obviously, the focus on the search for origins which sometimes leads to the discovery of illegalities and criminal behavior. This research is therefore of capital, even vital, importance for adopted children, and requires support and accompaniment. We will see that this is also where the shoe pinches cruelly.

We cannot ignore the role of the actors involved in intercountry adoption. We thus explain the structures set up in Belgium and their missions (including the Higher Adoption Council, the COSA), evoke the local actors in the countries of origin of the children, and analyze more particularly the role of the intermediaries of the intercountry adoption, including accredited bodies, which had, and some of them still have, crushing responsibilities in criminal actions. We will not ignore the financial dimension that makes international adoption a lucrative business, which some consider more lucrative than drug trafficking!

Bengaluru police bust interstate infant trafficking gang, rescue 15 children

The gang, over five years, sold 28 infants for amounts ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. The babies were aged anywhere between 10 days to three months.

The follow-up investigations into the kidnapping of a newborn child from a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) hospital last year has led to the busting of a large network that was allegedly involved in selling infants in southern India. The Bengaluru police have, so far, rescued 15 children and arrested five members of the network.

The sources said that the gang, over five years, sold 28 infants for amounts ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. The babies were aged anywhere between 10 days to three months. The gang had networks in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala.

The arrested are identified as Devi Shanmugham, Ranjana Devi Das, Mahesh Kumar, Dhanalakshmi and Janardhanan, all living in Bengaluru. Rathna, a resident of Vijayanagar and the alleged kingpin of the gang, died of Covid-19 and that has affected the investigation, said the police.

According to the police sources, the network identified those couples who were in need of children and those who were ready to sell them. In some cases, they also stole newborn babies from hospitals to sell them.

Karnataka police bust fake surrogacy racket, rescue 11 children; 5 arrested

Bengaluru: The Karnataka police have busted a fake surrogacy racket selling children to childless people, by claiming that they are born of surrogate mothers in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The accused were identified as Devi Shanmuga, Mahesh Kumar, Rajana Deviprasad, Janardhan aka Janarthan and Dhanalakshmi. The kingpin of the racket Ratna died after contracting coronavirus.

The police have traced 11 kids and it is suspected that the accused have sold 18 more children. They allegedly charged Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh per child and got the money in instalments from the people who were given the child.

DCP (South) Harish Pande explained that the police got a breakthrough in busting the racket after they found out 28 mothers’ cards were issued to pregnant and lactating mothers from the house of one of the accused persons. “At that point, we did not know that the mother’s card was fake or belonged to original mothers. The police department tracked 11 kids one by one. Mother’s card was manipulated to show parents who bought the children as biological parents,” he stated.

A nurse and compounder of a private nursing home were involved in this racket and they issued the mothers’ cards with fake signatures. The accused sold the kids in various districts in Karnataka. The police are also booking the fathers who sold their kids to the accused persons. However, the people who bought the kids are not being booked, the official said.

Adopted separately nine years ago, but found each other here: twin brothers play together in Flemish musical

A very mischievous duo is currently playing in the musical 'The Bodyguard'. Twin brothers Bekema and Sahladin (10) were born in Ethiopia, but after their adoption ended up in two different families. Bekema lives with his parents in Lokeren, his brother found a home in Lede. “Later we will live in villas next to each other. If we have enough money. With a large garage for our two cars: Teslas and Range Rovers”, says Sahladin enthusiastically. My brother agrees completely, except that he prefers Jeeps anyway.

Kaimur: Warden of child adoption agency sacked, booked for torturing 3-yr-old girl

The incident came to light when agency coordinator Chandra Shekhar Singh noticed injuries on hands and legs of the girl, who was then admitted at sadar hospital on Friday.

A female warden of a child adoption agency at Bhabua in Bihar’s Kaimur district, accused of burning a three-year-old orphan girl with a hot tong for defecating on bed, has been booked by the police and dismissed from her job, officials said.

The girl was brought to the agency from Sasaram railway station on September 4.

The incident came to light when agency coordinator Chandra Shekhar Singh noticed injuries on hands and legs of the girl, who was then admitted at sadar hospital on Friday.

When asked about the injuries, the warden told the coordinator it could be of an insect bite, but doctors at the hospital confirmed they were burn injuries and informed the authorities.

Why I'm not going to the opening reception of the Descendancy Center tonight

It sounded sincere and promising when I was approached 1.5 years ago to work out the content of the ancestry center's application for recognition. In retrospect, I think the main reasons why I was recruited by some of the members of the core steering committee at the time was because:

I was the only one who had ever officially been part of Vandeurzen's working group on parentage information and therefore had a lot of information as knowledge > 1 of the recommendations that we put forward as a working group at the time was the establishment of a parentage center

the group of donor children needed to be represented and I have a large following, expertise and built-up credibility

Other members of the then core steering committee were Jacqui Goegebeur, Benoît Vermeerbergen, Miranda Ntirandekura Aerts and Atamhi Cawayu. Foster care was approached to submit the application together with us, as only an organization with a recognition or license within the policy area Welfare, Public Health and Family could compete for the recognition.

In May 2020, we started working diligently, we worked out the project proposal, and Foster Care submitted it. At the end of August 2020, we received the good news from Growing up that our file had scored best based on various criteria and was therefore awarded the recognition.

UNICEF statement on Ethiopia

NEW YORK, 1 October 2021 – “The Ethiopian Government’s decision to expel the UNICEF representative in the country – along with other members of the UN leadership team – is regrettable and alarming.

“UNICEF has been present in Ethiopia for more than 60 years, working to advance and protect the rights of the most vulnerable children. As the humanitarian situation in the country deteriorates – with children bearing its biggest brunt – our work is more urgent than ever. We have full confidence in the teams working on the ground to save children’s lives, guided – as always – by the principles of impartiality, humanity, neutrality and independence. Our programmes will continue. Our one and only priority is to support the children who urgently need our help, wherever they are.”

Maternity Benefit Act: Plea in Supreme Court challenges restrictive conditions on maternity leave of adoptive mothers

The petition has challenged Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which lays down that adoptive mothers will be eligible for maternity leave only if they adopt children who are less than 3 months old.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which lays down that adoptive mothers will be eligible for maternity leave only if they adopt children who are less than 3 months old (Hamsaanandini Nanduri v. Union of India).

As per the provision, a person has to be an adoptive parent to a child below three months to avail the benefit of 12 weeks maternity leave.

There is no provision for maternity leave at all for a mother adopting an orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child above the age of three months.

Such a distinction will lead to parents preferring to adopt a new born children as against older children, the petition filed by Hamsaanandini Nanduri said.