Adoptions were not always "in the best interest of the child"

It is not easy for adopted children to find out the story behind their adoption. Prakash Goossens believes that there is a need for independent historical research in Flanders.

Belgian by adoption from India

Testimonials about fraud concerning adoption documents of Ethiopian and Indian children, an Unicef ??interim director who has to step aside because of "irregularities in the adoption of children from Guatemala" (DS May 13): heavy accusations have recently been made against of adoption services and to the Flemish Community. A "exchange of views" about fraudulent adoptions took place last week in the Flemish Parliament. The conclusion was to acknowledge the testimonials, to extend aftercare for adopted persons and to set up an "expert panel" that investigates irregularities and places them in a historical perspective. Competent Flemish minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V) referred to a similar investigation to historical (sexual) abuse in relationships of trust. He also referred to the research conducted on forced adoptions and the harrowing treatment of metis in the colonial period.

Why is that demand for openness just now? No one can give a ready-made answer, not even after the hastily convened session in parliament. It seems that everyone is doing their best, but nobody wants to take full responsibility.

AHMEDABAD: In a strange case, a 39-year-old man, a resident of Vadaj, approached the Gujarat high court seeking custody of his just 3-year-old daughter, who was abandoned by his ex-wife and the child’s mother, at an orphanage in Nadiad.

After hearing the case, Justice V P Patel on Monday stayed the Matruchhaya Orphanage in Nadiad and the superintendent of the Children’s Home, Kheda (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Kheda), from initiating any adoption process for the child.

The HC intervened after the father placed before the court the ‘swaichhik parityag patra’ (deed of surrender) that the mother

signed while leaving the girl at the orphanage. One condition in on the deed says that the signatory who surrendered the child “understands that my child may be adopted by person(s) residing in India or abroad and give my/our consent for this purpose”. It also said that the mother would not object if

the child was handed over to anybody for adoption.

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)An American couple living in Nairobi, Kenya, is demanding answers after a 3-year-old boy in their custody, they say, was taken away by authorities last month without explanation.

Surveillance footage from April 5, obtained by CNN, shows two cars pull up to the Mazzoncinis' apartment complex and a group of people piling out. Shortly after, two women, their faces obscured by headscarves, can be seen carrying the boy downstairs and out of the building. That was the last time Matt and Daisy Mazzoncini saw Kiano, whom they say they've been caring for since he was 6 months old.

"I had just finished putting Kiano to bed and he had just fallen asleep and I walked out of his room and saw Matt's face and all these people and I just knew something was really wrong," Daisy told CNN. Kiano, who is Kenyan, was found as a newborn abandoned along with another baby believed to be his twin, according to a police report. The twin later died.

After receiving medical treatment, Kiano was taken to Mogra Children's Centre orphanage in Kiambu, Nairobi. Daisy met Kiano when she began volunteering at the orphanage in the summer of 2016, and she soon started helping to pay for his medical bills. As an infant, Kiano suffered from pneumonia and a chest deformity, according to Matt, but in 2018 was diagnosed with atypical febrile seizures, according to medical documents seen by CNN.

Daisy sitting by Kiano's bedside at the hospital. He has been treated multiple times for seizures. Daisy and her husband Matt were named Kiano's legal guardians by the Children's Court of Nairobi in April 2017. However, the order specified Kiano would not leave the jurisdiction of the court without the court's permission. But they say the plainclothes police that showed up at their home told them the guardianship order was fraudulent.

High Court Judge Ngenye Macharia on Tuesday granted a request by the lawyer of Baby Kiano’s guardians to visit the child where he is being held so as to confirm he is alive and safe.

The judge further directed the lawyer not to disclose the location or the house where the child is being held.

“Applicant counsel to be accompanied by officers and Bernard Baraza from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to the location where the child is being held tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm for purposes of confirming that the child is alive,” ruled the court.

The Attorney General has also since filed his response to the case saying the police took Baby Kiano and placed him under the care of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, further rubbishing claims by the Mazzoncinis that the child is unwell.

“No medication is being administered to the child, who has been under special treatment,” the court heard.

From: Arun Dohle [mailto:arundohle@gmail.com]

Sent: Dienstag, 14. Mai 2019 11:13

To: ‘Laura Martinez-Mora’

Subject: RE: working group “illicit practices” meeting

Dear Mrs. Laura Martinez Morah,

Acting director of Unicef ??Belgium dismissed after accusations on Twitter

The interim director of Unicef ??Belgium, who has been in the job for only a week, was temporarily removed from office on Sunday, the organization's president, Eddy Boutmans, said in a statement.

Messages posted on Twitter brought heavy charges against the replacement, claiming he was involved - as a former treasurer of the Hacer Puente association - in a case of fraudulent adoptions in Guatemala.

"After reading some of the messages on Twitter that make heavy accusations against the acting director of Unicef ??Belgium, Bernard Sintobin, the president has asked Mr Sintobin to withdraw temporarily" for the time that clarity is made on these accusations. "The president is personally convinced that Bernard Sintobin is in good faith and is not involved in fraudulent adoptions," said Unicef ??Belgium in a statement.

An open investigation

Unicef ??embarrassed after accusations Belgian director

The director of Unicef ??in Belgium, Bernard Sintobin, resigns temporarily after just one week because he may have been involved in child trafficking and adoption fraud. According to Belgian media, a judicial investigation is being conducted into an adoption agency from Wallonia where Sintobin was a director.

The 67-year-old Bernard Sintobin was appointed last Monday at the Belgian division of Unicef, the children's rights organization of the United Nations. He would combine the position with his job as a business manager at a publishing house.

The federal public prosecutor confirms to Belgian media that research is being done on the adoption agency Hacer Puente. The agency was co-founded in the 1980s by Sintobin. He had just adopted three children from Guatemala and wanted to help other prospective parents with the administration needed to adopt a child from that country.

Counterfeit papers

An attempt to remove a baby from a teenage mother at Hawke's Bay Hospital last week needs to be investigated independently, a health board member says.

The hospital was put into lockdown after a stand-off between midwives, social workers and police, as they tried to take a newborn baby from its 19-year-old mother due to family violence concerns.

The baby was eventually allowed to remain with its mother under a care plan originally put together by her midwives and wh?nau.

Hawke's Bay District Health Board member Jacoby Poulain said she was concerned about how the incident was handled by all agencies.

Ms Poulain said she believed the hospital failed in its duty of care to look after the young mother.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An in-depth study about the adopted children in the state since 1990 has revealed that 42% of the parents who adopted the children have not disclosed to their children that they are adopted children. The hesitance to reveal the truth generates mainly from the fear that the child may search for their biological roots and they may not accept the adopted parents.

The study, conducted as a joint initiative of the department of women and child development and Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Rajagiri-College-of-Social-Sciences), also revealed that 31% of the children who have come to know about their adopted status, have expressed keenness in finding their biological parents, while the remaining 69% had no such desire.

The study was conducted by handing over a questionnaire to adopted parents and children across the state, and then analysing the response using a statistical analysis software. The study has been prepared on the basis of response from 462 parents and 90 children who have adopted and who are adopted, respectively. The study found that the number of adoptions in the state has been on the rise, and more than 6,400 children have been adopted in the state since 1990.

While half of the parents did not reveal the truth to the children, 93% of the children responded that they are aware of their adopted status. Half of those among who know their adopted status (49%) have come to know the truth from their adopted mother, 36% from their adopted father and the remaining 15% from other relatives, peers and friends.

The majority of (91%) adopted parents have stated that they are proud about the fact that they are adopted parents and 68% of them had no problems with their adopted children. Though the minority, 32% said that they faced some problems with their adopted children. Among these, the highest number said that the children were disobedient (21%), hyperactive (17%), stubborn (16%), performed poorly in academics (13%), were in the habit of lying (11%), were lazy (8%), aggressive and had learning disability (5%) and had stealing tendencies (3%).

Abandoned as a newborn, all Abigail Prangs ever wanted was to know who her biological mum was — what she found out instead was heartbreaking.

An Australian woman has uncovered a shocking family secret while searching for her biological mother in Zimbabwe.

36 years ago Abigail Prangs was taken from Harare Hospital, driven four kilometres and abandoned in bush near the Magambuzi River.

“I was dumped outside of the hospital, I was just literally wrapped in a towel, with my cord cut,” Ms Prangs told Sunday Night True Stories.

“Someone in that hospital has done something and, for some reason, has dumped me.”