NRI couple based in US adopts two Navsari children
nri adoption, us couple adopts indian baby, navsarim gujarat, indian orphanage adopt, indian express Arvind Somachi and his wife, Jyoti Somachi, with the children. (Express Photo)
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A childless NRI couple from the US has adopted a girl and her brother from a home for children in south Gujarat’s Navsari and given them new life and better future. The couple, identified as Arvind Somachi (49) and his wife Jyoti Somachi (43), who have been working as scientists in San Francisco, started the procedure to adopt the children last year.
It took around one year for the couple to clear all procedures with the Central Adoption Research Authority (CARA). The scientist couple were sent a list containing the details of children at various homes for children. Through that list, they selected four-and-a-half-year-old Kinjal and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother Sunil.
After the selection procedures, the couple landed in Mumbai and drove directly to Navsari and reached Khund children’s home in October last year. The couple met the child protection officer, Pritesh Patel, and shared the information, who facilitated the adoption.
Talking to The Indian Express, Arvind Somachi, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, said, “The children’s home officials helped us a lot. After spending a couple of hours with them, we got emotionally attached and we decided to adopt them. We stayed for a couple of more days after taking permission. We took them outside and we all had lunch in a hotel. Both the kids were happy in our company. They liked us a lot.”
Arvind and his wife stayed in India for about a month and had to go back to San Francisco, leaving some pending work in India. After all the procedures were completed, the couple again came back to the children’s home on January 8. There, the officials gave them the custody of the children under “Pre-Adoption Foster Care” the legal procedure is still under way.
Arvind added, “We had been thinking about adoption for the last few years but decided we will adopt two children from India. The final legal procedure is left and will take some more time. Once it is finished, we will become the legal parents of these children. After this, we will go ahead with their passport and visa procedures.” The couple have have now gone to Jyoti’s native place in Bangalore and have taken the children along.
Arvind said, “We will try to fulfill their wishes and make all possible efforts to keep them happy. We don’t know about the background of both these children and only know that their parents died sometime ago.”
Child protection officer at Khund children’s home in Navsari, Pritesh Patel, said, “We got the children from Valsad over a year ago. We have come to know that their parents died and for a few months, their uncle was taking care of them. However, their uncle is also poor and could not afford to raise them. When these children left home, they were caught by police and sent to us. For the last one year, we have been taking care of these children.”
Patel added, “We have seen good intimacy between the kids with their foster parents and that is why we have allowed the couple to take the children with them till the legal process is done from a local court in Navsari, which is mandatory.”
As per the sources in children’s home at Navsari, there are 26 children between 6 to 18 years and 12 children between 0 to 6 years. “This is the third time when the kids from Khund children’s home have been adopted by foreigners. About an year ago, two brothers were adopted by a couple of Spain and a girl child was adopted by a Swedish couple.
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