In the far North East of England during the mid 1960's , my mother Wendy left her tiny mining village of Dipton, to live in as a student nurse at Newcastle General Hospital.

Early in 1966, my mother and father met at a party held for the medical faculty. He was a young Indian Muslim Doctor and Registrar at another major hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Over time my parents became very fond of one another and they embarked on a secret romance.

My mother’s family were Christian, my father’s were Muslim and so my parents felt their time together should be hidden to avoid any chance of family disapproval. They sensed their love was forbidden but towards the close of 1967, my parents were so deeply in love and felt determined to marry.

My mother’s father refused to give his blessing for their marriage owing to my father’s nationality. His parents refused to offer their blessing owing to my mother’s nationality and quite suddenly, my father was sent for an immediate arranged marriage to his birth village in India.

On realising my father had gone, my mother was in a terrible state and heartbroken, they had lost one another. My mother didn't have a forwarding address for my father, their forced separation came as a devastating blow and within weeks following his disappearance, she discovered she was pregnant with me.

Au Mali, une ancienne magistrate continue de dénoncer des adoptions frauduleuses

Publié le : 15/06/2020 - 04:12

Modifié le : 15/06/2020 - 04:13

L'association Rayon de Soleil a organisé plus de 320 adoptions au Mali entre 1989 et 2001.

L'association Rayon de Soleil a organisé plus de 320 adoptions au Mali entre 1989 et 2001. REUTERS/Joe Penney

DCI-Liberia Wants GOL Investigate the Trafficking of 34 Children

By Hannah N. Geterminah -June 15, 2020046

Foday M. Kawah, Executive Director DCI-Liberia

Defence for Children International-Liberia (DCI-L), a child right advocacy group, has called on the government through the ministries of Justice and Labor to investigate 34 children trafficked from communities in Todee, Lower Montserrado County.

Foday M. Kawah, DCI-L Executive Director, at a press conference held in Monrovia, said DCI-Liberia during its preliminary investigation conducted in Todee communities including Zuana Town, Kpenibu Town, Dowee Town, Tokpalon Town, Gbeno Town, Juhag Town, Kaiyeah Town, Gbajah Town, Beabah Town, Nyehn town and Bona Fahn and came to a conclusion that 23 parents have been allegedly victimized by child trafficking.

Defence for Children International-Liberia (DCI-L), a child right advocacy group, has called on the government through the ministries of Justice and Labor to investigate 34 children trafficked from communities in Todee, Lower Montserrado County.

Foday M. Kawah, DCI-L Executive Director, at a press conference held in Monrovia, said DCI-Liberia during its preliminary investigation conducted in Todee communities including Zuana Town, Kpenibu Town, Dowee Town, Tokpalon Town, Gbeno Town, Juhag Town, Kaiyeah Town, Gbajah Town, Beabah Town, Nyehn town and Bona Fahn and came to a conclusion that 23 parents have been allegedly victimized by child trafficking.

Kawah, speaking on June 9, said the incident occurred ten years ago (2004-2009), during which 34 children were allegedly “abducted, smuggled and trafficked” from their parents and subsequently adopted by the West African Children Support Network (WACSN) without their consent.

He said out of a total of 34 children, there were 12 boys and 22 girls who are believed to be trafficked in the US and other parts of the world.

Kawah, therefore, is calling on the government of Liberia to investigate at the level of the Probate Court whether or not the biological parents of these children gave consent prior to adoption; ascertain whether these children were adopted with their known names and that the state party takes urgent measures to abolish informal adoptions and expedite the enactment of the Adoption Bill, as well as ratify the 1993 Hague Convention No. 33 on Protection of Children and Cooperation regarding Inter-country Adoption and the Proper implementation or enforcement of the Anti-Trafficking law.

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Against Child Trafficking

Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 23:55

Subject: Ms. Roelie Post

To: ec-president-vdl@ec.europa.eu

Suspicions of irregular adoptions in Mali: Rayon de soleil already involved in another case

by Hélène Chevallier

June 10, 2020

The adoption agency against which 9 people adopted in Mali in the 1990s complained had already been involved in an illegal adoption case this time in Peru in the early 1980s.

Rayon de Soleil had already been involved in an illegal adoption case © AFP / Patricia de Melo Moreira

Pathways to adoption SURVEY (2/2). From 1989 to 2001, more than 300 children were adopted in Mali via a French association. Many wonder about the conditions of these adoptions.

Time has stood still in Saint-Thégonnec Loc-Eguiner, in the north of Finistère. Sitting in front of two photo albums, Françoise Raoult and her son Jean-Noël, 35, relive each image one by one, with a smile on her lips and tender eyes. This October 17, 2019, nothing else exists except these pictures, vestiges of the childhood of Jean-Noël and that of his little brother Pierre-Yves. “A real bath. With water coming out of the shower head! » , Marvels Jean-Noël again, pointing to the photo where they both laugh out loud in a bathtub.

It was in December 1990. Françoise and Bernard Raoult, a Breton couple, had just adopted Jean-Noël and Pierre-Yves, who arrived from Mali at the age of 6 and 4. Thanks to the French association Rayon de soleil defant stranger (RDSEE), parents and their new children then realize their dream: Françoise becomes a mother and the two brothers discover France within a loving family, after having been "Abandoned" by their biological family. "Abandoned" , that's in any case what RDSEE has always told them ...

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Nine French people of Malian origin file a complaint against an adoption agency

Workplace round up: Ark Globe Academy walkout + Homerton outsourcing dispute

UVW union members have been involved in crucial battles

UVW union members have been involved in crucial battles (Pic: UVW union)

Cleaners at Ark Globe Academy in south London walked out on a wildcat strike on Thursday last week.

They say they are still owed wages from as far back as January 2019 in some cases.

PARIS-BAMAKO SURVEY , paths to adoption (1/2). Between 1989 and 2001, more than 300 Malian children were adopted through a French association. Nine of them are now taking the case to court.

A red dress with flowers among the boubous. This September 21, 2019, Marie M. stands out with her look. By his attitude too. On this day of celebration, this Frenchwoman of Malian origin, expatriated in Luxembourg, seems embarrassed. At his side, about forty members of the Malian diaspora are celebrating the 59th anniversary of independence, at the cultural center of Ellange, a small town in the Grand Duchy. But the young doctor knows nothing of this distant country where she was born thirty-two years ago, not even its anthem. To reassure herself and be able to sing a few verses with her lips, she stares at the screen where the lyrics scroll, like at karaoke. Marie M. seems disturbed to be suddenly immersed in this culture. These people, this hymn, these colors, it's a little, a lot, his story.

Read also

Nine French people of Malian origin file a complaint against an adoption organization

His Malian life was brief, eighteen months. When she was one and a half years old, Marie M. was adopted in 1989 by a French couple. For years, growing up in this loving family, she didn't really ask questions about her African past. Until the day she herself became a mother, in 2017. So, to offer a complete family history to her daughter, she opened the blue binder, that of her adoption file, so long set aside. Inconsistencies, things left unsaid, lies: the examination of the various documents plunged her into doubt, to the point of encouraging her to go in search of her roots. With a central question: under what conditions had she left Mali in 1989?

Nine French nationals of Mali origin file a complaint against an adoption agency

House likely to have sheltered children adopted through the Rayon de Soleil association. Hippodrome district, Bamako, Mali, January 3. Matthieu Rosier for “Le Monde”

They are called Marie M., Jean-Noël R., Lise F. or Florent T. *. They were born in Mali about thirty years ago. All of them then became French, adopted through the Paris-based association Le Rayon de soleil de l’Enfant Alien. But under what conditions ? Thirty years after their adoption, this Monday, June 8, they are nine to file a complaint at the tribunal de grande instance of Paris against the French organization and their former correspondent in Mali, Danielle Boudault, for “Scam, concealment of fraud and breach of trust”.

“This case is dramatic. There are still people who have had their identities stolen, children who have been lied to all their lives, and people who are quiet today. The purpose of this complaint is to hold everyone accountable for their responsibilities. The state too, because there has been action at all levels “, said Noémie Saidi-Cottier, one of the complainants’ two lawyers. ” This is not an isolated case, adds Joseph Breham, the second lawyer. Here it is Mali, but other countries are probably affected. This is this association, but there are probably others. We are not on an epiphenomenon, but on something that affects a certain number of French women. “

In this 38-page complaint, containing more than 100 documents, the two French lawyers, members of the Alliance of Lawyers for Human Rights (AADH), detail the main operating mode of the Rayon de soleil and the “Stratagems” implemented to allow “Circumvention of the law” in order to have Malian children adopted in France who, under local law, should not have been.