PATNA: The Bihar government on Saturday closed an adoption centre in Gaya after a US-based couple complained that a child adopted by them from there in August this year was physically abused.

A case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has also been lodged and five persons have been arrested, officials said on Sunday. They said all 13 children from the centre have been shifted to other centres.

“Following the allegations made by the US couple, we have been asked by the CARA [Central Adoption Resource Authority] to get the medical examinations done of all other children at the Gaya adoption centre and submit a report by end of September,” said Rajkumar, the director of Bihar’s social welfare department.

CARA works under the Union women and child welfare ministry and deals with inter-country adoption.

The US-based couple had adopted the five-year-old girl on August 17 from the social welfare department centre being run by a non-government organisation in Gaya. All the 13 children who lived there are all below six.

NEW DELHI: More than a year after the case of illegal trafficking and alleged selling of babies at shelter home

(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/shelter-home) run by Missionaries of Charity in Ranchi came to light, the National

Commission for Protection of Child Rights has received statements of two former inmates which shows that they were survivors

of sexual abuse when they were brought to the shelter home but no police case was registered.

The NCPCR (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/NCPCR) feels that prima facie it appears that it may be a violation of

The eye and the hand

Adopt me

Marie-Laure is 50 years old, is hearing and lives in Paris. In 2011, without her really explaining it, she decided to learn

the sign language. Sasha is deaf, and spent the first 6 years of her life in an orphanage in India without sign language. After a long adoption process, Marie-Laure's life meets that of Sasha. One walks towards the other, sometimes with difficulty and fragility. Both build, on a daily basis, the link that will make them a mother and a son. A film by Jean-Philippe Urbach. School of Turenne 52-54 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris. Kindergarten Tel. 01 48 87 28 44 Fax 01 83 98 03 85 Mail: ce.0751416g@ac-paris.fr Composition of classes 6 classes (PS, MS, GS) and 1 class LSF-F multiage (PS to GS). Elementary School Tel. 01 42 71 16 29 Fax 01 42 77 64 97 Mail: ce.0752327x@ac-paris.fr Composition of classes 11 classes (CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2) and 1 class LSF-F multiage (CP to CM2) . Pediatrician Jean-François Chicoine Consultation at the Air France International Vaccination Center. www.vaccinations-airfrance.fr/ Official website for adoption procedures: www.adoption.gouv.fr/ Authorized Bodies for Adoption (OAA) www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/adopter-al-etranger / the-players-of-the-adoption-international / operators-the-l-international-adoption / organizations-authorized-to-the-adoption-oaa /

Directed by: Jean-Philippe Urbach

You can't take a dog out of a shelter the way this little girl was taken

gyamugy

Sándor Joób

ALEXANDER JOÓB

UP

On 23 September 2019, Greek law enforcement authorities, supported by Europol, dismantled an organised crime group involved in the trafficking of human beings (selling ova), illegal adoption and money laundering.

€25 000 TO €28 000 PER ILLEGAL ADOPTION

Active since 2016, the criminal network recruited vulnerable pregnant women from Bulgaria. The group transported them to Thessaloniki, Greece where they were placed under medical observation and sent to private hospitals to deliver their children. The newborns were then illegally adopted for between €25 000 and €28 000 each. The fees included paying the biological mother, all legal expenses, hospitalisation, delivery itself and the members of the criminal group. Some of the mothers brought to Greece were also used as surrogates.

The same criminal group was also involved in ovum trafficking. The criminals recruited donors in Greece, mainly from Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia. The women were then transferred to Thessaloniki to undergo a series of fertility treatments to increase the number of ova.

AT LEAST HALF A MILLION EUROS IN PROFIT

Kenya has announced the immediate ban on child adoption by foreign nationals. The decision announced by Kenya’s government, follows a cabinet meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, and has brought the subject of intercountry adoption back on the international stage.

Kenya’s ban follows an earlier one by Ethiopia last year and is part of a growing global trend towards either complete elimination or sharp restriction of trans-boundary child adoption.

Foreign child adoption in Africa is an emotive subject, with concerns raised over child-trafficking and abuse, cultural displacement, and unregulated adoption processes.

But with many children still in need of safe and secure environments to grow up in, domestic options alone face an uphill task in catering to the needs of children in need of family care. So what will be the fate of foreign child adoption in Africa?

There was a time when foreign adoptions from Africa were rare. In 2003 for example inter-country adoptions from Africa are reported to have accounted for only 5% of the world total. However, this figure rose to 25% by 2012, representing a staggering increase of almost 400%; making Africa the then new frontier for the adoption of children by foreign nationals.

Ambassador Susan S. Jacobs, Retired Advisor

Ambassador Susan S. Jacobs (Retired) was the Special Advisor for Children's Issues at the Department of State from 2010 until her retirement in 2017. During her tenure, she traveled to more than 40 countries to discuss International Parental Child Abduction and Intercountry Adoption. In addition, she led U.S. delegations to international conferences and commissions concerned with issues effecting children. A career diplomat, Ambassador Jacobs joined the Foreign Service in 1974 soon after married women were allowed to serve as officers. Throughout her career, she held various overseas postings including Israel, India and El Salvador. Prior to her appointment as Special Advisor, Ambassador Jacobs served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs and as Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Ambassador Jacobs received her Bachelor degree from the University of Michigan and did graduate studies at Georgetown University Law School and George Washington University. She is married to Barry Jacobs, also a retired diplomat and has three children and four grandchildren.

Peter Leppanen Advisor

Peter Leppanen is an advocate for the right of every child to grow up in a permanent loving family. He has consulted, served as a board member and collaborated with a number of organizations who share his conviction. Pete served as a Strategic Advisor to Both Ends Believing from 2013-15 and helped to create the organization’s current strategy. He continues to serve as an advisor to BEB. Previously, Pete served as President and CEO of Wide Horizons For Children for six years overseeing child permanency programs in a dozen countries around the globe, including the United States. These programs included family preservation, family empowerment, orphan support, community development focused on healthcare and education, adoption counseling, domestic and international adoption and post-adoption support. Prior to becoming President, he served as a board member and volunteer consultant to Wide Horizons. In his previous career, Pete worked in consulting for 25 years. As a Senior Partner at CSC Consulting, he directed a consulting practice focused on strategy, business process re-engineering, and systems integration.

THERE is a common misconception that children at community residents are orphans and easily adopted. They are not. Many have families and it is the priority of the Children’s Authority to reunite these children with their relatives.

So said chairman of the Board of Management of the Authority, Hanif Benjamin yesterday at a press conference at the Ministry of Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Port of Spain.

The press conference was called to clarify issues of adoption after president of the Rapidfire Kidz Foundation, attorney Kevin Ratiram appealed to the public to start adopting children in community homes at the Foundation’s Annual Gala Dinner on September 14.

Ratiram said, “Many of these children would never know what it feels like to sit on a father’s lap. They will never know what it feels like to fall asleep in their mother’s arms or wake up in their mother’s arms. They are destined to remain there (in orphanages) almost forever... Why is it they are not good enough to be part of us, part of our home, our families?”

Benjamin said, “It’s not that you can just walk in a community residence and say, ‘I like this one. Gimme this one. Or I like these two, put these two in a bag. It’s a process and it’s important to understand that process where a child must be freed.”

Why you should not read booklets about adoption

There are beautiful and less beautiful stories about adoption. But what are the stories of the people who have been adopted themselves? In the new podcast from 3FM Tussenuur (Human) Luc Sarneel talks to three guests who have been adopted about the positive and negative sides of adoption.

This focus on adoption is due to a web series that can be seen on the YouTube channel of NPO3: Ik Kom Niet Van Sri Lanka. In this series, Dinja Pannebakker from FunX, who was adopted from Sri Lanka shortly after her birth, investigates why she actually feels absolutely no need to look for her biological parents.

In fact, she almost developed an aversion to Sri Lanka, mainly due to the roots journey she made with her adoptive parents when she was around 13 years old. Pannebakker feels 100 percent Dutch. In the series, she therefore investigates to what extent origin determines your identity.

Dutch:

The Department of W&CD and Mission Shakti (MS) have issued letters to all District Collectors in this regard.

he Department of Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti have decided to conduct mapping of orphan and children of single-parent throughout Odisha to bring them to the protective network of the society.

"The survey will be conducted with an aim to get an exact number of orphan children and children of single-parent living in the state and to bring them to the protective network of the society through the intervention of the government where ever required," the Women and Child Development department (W&CD) said in a statement.

The Department of W&CD and Mission Shakti (MS) have issued letters to all District Collectors in this regard.

The survey has to be made district-wise across the state by the Anganwadi workers engaged in the Anganwadi centres, the district functionaries like District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) and District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) are to be entrusted to supervise the survey process.