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Couples get new hope for adoption

Couples get new hope for adoption
by Sacha Molloy, AUT journalism student | 13th August 2010

Rotorua couples desperate to adopt may face an easier road ahead as Russia opens its doors.

Russian officials have begun negotiating an agreement with Child Youth and Family and Intercountry Adoption New Zealand to allow New Zealanders to adopt from Russia.

Russian adoptions were suspended in 2006 but ICANZ were recently granted a permit allowing them to operate an adoption programme which is consistent with the laws of the Hague Convention.

C3 Rotorua Church pastor Phil Wiseman and his wife Jill adopted their 7-year-old daughter through Child Youth and Family when she was three weeks old.

The couple were unable to have their own children and the idea of adoption arose in the early 2000s while Mr Wiseman was on a trip to Romania.

"I was very keen to adopt through Romania. I saw one child I would have loved to bring back," he said.

Unfortunately the doors for international adoption closed around this time as Romanian officials struggled to maintain control over an adoption industry which had become "corrupt".

The Wisemans next looked into adopting a Russian child through ICANZ but they had barely begun the application process when they received a phone call from Child Youth and Family in Auckland.

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They were told there was a family in Whangarei looking for someone to adopt a child.

Mr Wiseman said he thought the move to open up international adoption laws in Russia was a good move but international adoption was costly.

"I've been in those countries and the children don't get a very good life. Unfortunately it's [intercountry adoption] the domain of the fairly wealthy. We were told it would cost us $30,000."

He said adoption could be a lengthy process, ultimately depending on an applicant's portfolio being chosen by birth parents. "The demand exceeds the supply in New Zealand."

At the time of his daughter's adoption there were 70 couples on the waiting list but only eight placements that year.

Ministry of Social Development director of international adoptions Paula Attrill said now ICANZ had a permit in Russia the next step was for the New Zealand Government, through Child, Youth and Family, to start negotiating with Russian authorities to formalise a process acceptable to both countries.

There are more than 670 Russian adopted children in New Zealand but Child, Youth and Family could not say how many live in Rotorua.

There is interest in New Zealand in intercountry adoption just as there is interest in adopting New Zealand children.

As at July this year there were 278 New Zealand parents waiting to adopt a child from New Zealand.

New Zealand also has adoption programmes with seven other countries - Chile, China, Hong Kong, India, Lithuania, Thailand and the Philippines.

It is birth families who consider placing a child for adoption and who choose the adoptive family.

"This means some approved adoptive applicants in the waiting pool in New Zealand may never be selected by a birth family and others may have the opportunity to adopt more than once," Ms Attrill said.

Countries: Russia, New Zealand

CBI: Preet Mandir funds used to buy diamond necklace, pay hotel bills

CBI: Preet Mandir funds used to buy diamond necklace, pay hotel bills

The special court in Pune on Friday remanded Joginder Singh Bhasin, the managing trustee of Preet Mandir, in judicial custody. Additional sessions judge J D Kulkarni passed the order.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested 71-year-old Bhasin on Monday in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, in connection with the adoption racket. Bhasin was booked under charges of forgery, cheating, kidnapping and misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs 25.7 lakh. The court had remanded him in police custody till Friday.
The CBI produced Bhasin at the special court on Friday. CBI’s lawyer Vivek Saxena told the court that investigations are on in the case and it was revealed that money from Preet Mandir's bank account was used to buy a diamond necklace worth Rs 1.25 lakh from a jewellery shop in Delhi on August 16, 2004. Saxena said some hotel bills were also paid from Preet Mandir’s account.
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Saxena told the court that CBI is also probing the transfer of 42 children from Navrang Balakashram in Pandharpur to Preet Mandir in 2009. Meanwhile, Bhasin’s counsel Shrikant Shivade sought his interim bail on medical grounds. Shivade told the court that Bhasin should get bail for medical treatment and that he would co-operate with the investigation. The court said that the hearing on Bhasin's bail application will take place on August 16.
The CBI had earlier submitted to the court that the parents had given temporary custody of their children to Preet Mandir due to their compelling domestic and financial condition. However, the parents were asked to sign a permanent relinquishment deed of their children fraudulently without their knowledge.
The CBI had submitted that Preet Mandir produced fake and bogus non-acceptance slips, adoption coordination clearance, no-objection certificate from Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA). Bhasin had allegedly sent one Namrata for inter country adoption without ACA clearance with unidentified CARA officials abusing their official position to issue an NoC.
There have allegedly been 70 instances of illegal adoption between 2002 and 2005, in which he charged money in excess of Rs 50,000 from adoptive parents. He also alleged that Bhasin has misappropriated the orphanage fund for his own use to the tune of Rs 25,70,016 between 2002 and 2007.

Organizations: ACT CASE Preet Mandir

Persons: Sardar Joginder Singh Bhasin

Bypassing panel, 42 kids shifted to Preet Mandir: CBI

Asseem Shaikh, TNN, Aug 14, 2010, 12.22am IST

Tags:preet mandir|pandharpur|cbi|adoption racket

PUNE: Investigations conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the inter country adoption racket has revealed that 42 children were directly transferred to Preet Mandir from an orphanage at Pandharpur bypassing child welfare committee.

CBI inspector S Bhattacharya made the statement in its remand report when Preet Mandir managing trusteeJoginder Singh Bhasin was produced before the special court, following expiry of his police custody remand on Friday.

Organizations: ACT CASE Preet Mandir

Collegeville family fights halt on Nepal adoptions

August 14, 2010

Collegeville family fights halt on Nepal adoptions

By Amy Bowen

abowen@stcloudtimes.com

COLLEGEVILLE — Tears well up in Cherie Beumer’s eyes for the daughter she doesn’t know, but loves.

Countries: Nepal, United States of America

Couple risk fine in revealing their adoption nightmare story

CALLIE WATSON

From: The Advertiser

NIGHTMARE: Liz and Darryn Peter are defying state laws by identifying themselves and adopted son Samuel, 7, from Thailand. Picture: BIANCA De MARCHI Source: AdelaideNow

AN Adelaide couple who went through a "nightmare" five years trying to adopt a child say they are defying the State Government and risking a hefty fine by identifying themselves and their adopted son and sharing their ordeal.

Countries: Thailand, Australia

Alleged Child Traffickers on Board of Tamil TB Boat

by Tom McGregor Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:32 PM

World Vision Canada is demanding that the Canadian government crack down on any child traffickers who may be on board the Sri Lankan Tamil ship that is supposedly plagued by tuberculosis-infected passengers, which landed on Friday in British Columbia.

The Toronto Sun reports that, “the aid agency says Canada is known as a haven for child trafficking, both as a transit hub and a destination country. World Vision is concerned that a failure to clamp down on any child traffickers now would reinforce Canada’s unfortunate reputation.”

Canadian Public Minister Vic Toews said at a news conference in Esquimalt, B.C. that he realizes the actions of Canadian officials are being closely observed.

Countries: Canada, United States of America, Sri Lanka

Arun's search for truth

There is a subject that seems to fascinate Indians. That of these children adopted elsewhere who come back to find their biological family in India 20, 30 years after the adoption. And there is one that regularly makes ink flow because it seems to them surely more crunchy than the others. It is that of this 37 year old man born in Pune (India) and adopted quickly (at 2 months!!!) by a German couple.

Arun believes that his biological father is the brother of an Indian minister, that he is the product of an adulterous affair and that he was taken away from his biological mother at birth. He therefore wants to find his biological mother, and files a lawsuit to this effect in India.

Arun, I met him on the English-speaking forums on Indian AI. He had anti-AI positions, had been involved in anti-Indian AI activities and regularly uttered hurtful and insulting words about AI ("International adoption IS child trafficking".). In short, he was regularly kicked off the forums and came back with fake pseudonyms to cause trouble. We could feel a tortured mind, sad to death, despite loving parents, a wife, children...

Despite his extreme positions on AI, his story touches me. Interestingly, he managed to get a DNA test from the biological son of his alleged biological father (I wonder if it was with his consent!!!) which would prove 90% that he is right about his father. In addition, the minister's brother would have played an important role in his adoption (which one??). But despite everything, the Indian justice system seems to be ruling against him.

Persons: Arun Dohle

Countries: India, Germany

Orphan support group to host reunion for families of adopted Romanian children

BY STAFF REPORTER, THE PROVINCE AUGUST 12, 2010 1:02 PM BE THE FIRST TO POST A COMMENT

The International Orphans Support Group of Canada is hosting a reunion Aug. 28 for families who adopted Romanian children during the 1990s.

An estimated 350 families from Canada and the U.S. adopted 500 children from Romanian orphanages between 1990 and 1992. Aug. 12 marks 20 years since the first wave arrived in Canada.

The reunion will be held at the Langley Events Centre as part of the Romanian Pavilion at this year’s Langley International Festival.

As part of the celebration, Sonya Paterson, president of the International Orphans Support Group of Canada, will hand out two $5,000 cheques to groups currently helping orphans.

One of the cheques will go toward helping children in Pakistan; the other will go to help children in Haiti.

Also included will be the presentation of a short film made by an adopted Romanian living in California. The name of the film is “Born to be our children, Romanian Adoption Stories.”

Countries: Canada, Romania

Persons: Sonya Paterson

Victims of Preet Mandir’s depravity: 41 children waiting to be adopted

Published: Thursday, Aug 12, 2010, 3:09 IST

By Bhagyashree Kulthe | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Over the past five months, the adoption process of nearly 41 children, including some differently-abled in the 1-12 age group, has been affected adversely at Pune’s adoption centre Preet Mandir. The process includes 10 special children (hearing and speech impaired) and two others who tested positive in their first HIV test, but were negative in the second.

The arrest of JS Bhasin, managing trustee of Balwant Kartar Anand Foundation which runs Preet Mandir, on Tuesday has further complicated matters for the children and their prospective adoptive parents.

Organizations: ACT CASE Preet Mandir

Immigrant sues over lost custody of child in Miss.

Immigrant sues over lost custody of child in Miss.
By Shelia Byrd
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 1:47 p.m. MDT

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi officials conspired to take the infant of an illegal immigrant from Mexico so the girl could be adopted by a white couple, a civil rights group charged Thursday in a federal lawsuit.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said Cirila Baltazar Cruz was separated from her daughter, Ruby, for a year before her child was returned to her in 2009 after the intervention of the group.

Cruz had the baby at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula in November 2008. Two days after the child was born she was taken from her mother when the Mississippi Department of Human Services deemed Cruz unfit, according to the lawsuit.

Cruz — who spoke no English and little Spanish and could not read or write — was interviewed by a hospital interpreter. The interpreter spoke Spanish, not Chatino, a dialect indigenous to Cruz's native Oaxaca in rural Mexico, the group's lawsuit alleges.

After talking with Cruz, the interpreter told one of the immigrant's relatives that Cruz was trading sex for housing and wanted to give the child up for adoption, according to the lawsuit. Cruz said in the court filing that she tried to explain to the interpreter she worked in a Chinese restaurant and lived in an apartment.

"When they tried to take my baby away I felt that I was done wrong, and I was very angry. It was a very painful experience for me and for my baby. This is why I want other people to know, because I don't want anyone else to go through the same experience," Cruz said in a statement released Thursday by the SPLC. Cruz is back in Mexico with her daughter.

The lawsuit, which names MDHS, Singing River Health System and others, seeks monetary damages and alleges the state officials conspired to deny Cruz and her child their constitutional rights to family integrity, said Mary Bauer, the law center's legal director. It also alleges Cruz was targeted by state officials because of her race and nationality.

"It's hard to put a value on losing your daughter for year," Bauer said. "It's one of the most outrageous cases we've ever seen."

The child was placed in the home of Wendy and Douglas Tynes, two attorneys who lived in Ocean Springs and were foster parents. The complaint said the Tynes were seeking to adopt. The suit alleges MDHS officials conspired with a youth court judge and the Tynes to keep Cruz from her daughter so she could be adopted by the couple.

Messages left at the Tynes' offices weren't immediately returned.

Even before the lawsuit, the case had drawn national and international attention, prompting a federal review and an agreement that requires Mississippi to notify the Mexican consulate when similar situations occur.

MDHS declined to comment.

Countries: Mexico, United States of America