A dramatic rise in foreign adoptions from Africa is ringing alarm bells among child advocates who worry that the soaring numbers are fuelled by financial incentives and a lack of basic safeguards.
The number of African children adopted by foreign families has nearly tripled in the past eight years. Nearly 6,350 children from Africa were adopted by foreigners in 2010, compared to less than 2,240 in 2003, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The rapid growth has been accompanied by a proliferation of adoption agencies and orphanages, even though the vast majority of “orphans” actually have at least one living parent.
Many orphanages in Africa are set up to generate profits for the owners, since they can receive up to $30,000 per adopted child, the report’s author says. “They were created for financial gain,” said David Mugawe, executive director of the African Child Policy Forum, which released the report Tuesday. “A lot is happening under the table.”
For remaining article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/profit-driven-adoptions-turn-children-into-a-commodity/article4217172/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=Referrer%3A+Social+Network+%2F+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Presbyterians to probe maternity homes in wake of Post forced adoption revelations
The Presbyterian Church in Canada has launched an internal review of its historic maternity home practices, becoming the third church to do so since the National Post last month began an investigation into coerced and forced adoptions targeting unmarried mothers between the 1940s and 1980s.
Stephen Kendall, the clerk of the Presbyterian assembly, said the review was sparked by a “concern” for mothers who have recently alleged they were coerced or forced by social workers, medical professionals, and maternity-home staff into surrendering their children because they were not married.
“[We’re concerned] about any mothers whose children went for adoption that might have concerns today,” he said. “Our archivist is compiling a list of documents and doing a review of them.”
For remaining story:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/19/presbyterians-to-probe-maternity-homes-in-wake-of-post-forced-adoption-revelations/
Stephen Kendall, the clerk of the Presbyterian assembly, said the review was sparked by a “concern” for mothers who have recently alleged they were coerced or forced by social workers, medical professionals, and maternity-home staff into surrendering their children because they were not married.
“[We’re concerned] about any mothers whose children went for adoption that might have concerns today,” he said. “Our archivist is compiling a list of documents and doing a review of them.”
For remaining story:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/19/presbyterians-to-probe-maternity-homes-in-wake-of-post-forced-adoption-revelations/
Coerced adoption: Salvation Army launches review of maternity homes that housed unwed mothers
The Salvation Army says it is conducting an internal review into its historic maternity homes, just as a retired Calgary judge — who was once a high-ranking child welfare worker in the city — has come forward and corroborated some of the claims mothers have recently made about coercive adoption practices directed at unmarried mothers decades ago.
‘These people thought they were doing good – they thought these girls were sluts. They thought they were rescuing these children from a life of poverty,” said Herbert Allard, a former social worker, who said he was prompted to speak out upon reading the National Post’s story on forced adoptions over the weekend.
“At the time, I was divorced from the reality … It upset me in a way, but it’s just what went on.”
His account appears to confirm the coercion was systematic: He said the Salvation Army accepted teen mothers into their maternity homes on the condition they would surrender their baby, city social workers purposefully withheld information about revoking the adoption or the option of temporary wardship, and that unmarried mothers were punished in a Salvation Army hospital for getting pregnant out of wedlock.
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/13/coerced-adoption-salvation-army-launches-review-of-maternity-homes-that-housed-unwed-mothers/
‘These people thought they were doing good – they thought these girls were sluts. They thought they were rescuing these children from a life of poverty,” said Herbert Allard, a former social worker, who said he was prompted to speak out upon reading the National Post’s story on forced adoptions over the weekend.
“At the time, I was divorced from the reality … It upset me in a way, but it’s just what went on.”
His account appears to confirm the coercion was systematic: He said the Salvation Army accepted teen mothers into their maternity homes on the condition they would surrender their baby, city social workers purposefully withheld information about revoking the adoption or the option of temporary wardship, and that unmarried mothers were punished in a Salvation Army hospital for getting pregnant out of wedlock.
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/13/coerced-adoption-salvation-army-launches-review-of-maternity-homes-that-housed-unwed-mothers/
Your baby is dead: Mothers say their supposedly stillborn babies were stolen from them
Sheri Sexton says her mother was told her younger sister was stillborn, but Ms. Sexton believes her sibling was actually adopted out. Ms. Sexton believes her own adoption is suspicious, too, partly because she says her adoptive grandmother was her natural mother’s nurse. She also said the same doctor is listed on both hers and her stillborn sister’s hospital records.
This is how the woman, then young, remembered the August day in 1963 on which she gave birth to her illegitimate daughter: She was in an Edmonton hospital; the doctor ordered she receive an injection. She blacked out, and when she started to come to, a male voice said: “knock her out.”
She claimed she woke up sometime later and was told she had given birth to a girl, but the baby had died.
Her baby girl did not die, though. She was adopted by a married couple.
“I never wanted to give up any child of mine for adoption,” the Edmonton mother swore in an affidavit before her recent death. “I went through my entire life believing that the baby I carried in 1963 had died…. I believe that I was lied to and my baby was stolen from me.”
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/your-baby-is-dead-mothers-say-their-supposedly-stillborn-babies-were-stolen-from-them/
This is how the woman, then young, remembered the August day in 1963 on which she gave birth to her illegitimate daughter: She was in an Edmonton hospital; the doctor ordered she receive an injection. She blacked out, and when she started to come to, a male voice said: “knock her out.”
She claimed she woke up sometime later and was told she had given birth to a girl, but the baby had died.
Her baby girl did not die, though. She was adopted by a married couple.
“I never wanted to give up any child of mine for adoption,” the Edmonton mother swore in an affidavit before her recent death. “I went through my entire life believing that the baby I carried in 1963 had died…. I believe that I was lied to and my baby was stolen from me.”
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/your-baby-is-dead-mothers-say-their-supposedly-stillborn-babies-were-stolen-from-them/
‘The fathers had no say’: Men tell another side of coerced adoption story
As more mothers come forward to push for an inquiry into Canada’s historic adoption practices targeting unmarried women, fathers have emerged to say they, too, were coerced into surrendering their children.
In Sutton, Ont., Raymond Cave said he was never asked to sign a surrender document in 1967, even though the people handling the adoption knew he was the father. In Saskatchewan, Bernard Shepherd said he was only allowed to look at his baby before signing the surrender document, and said he was never told about the option for a temporary wardship so he could take some time to consider raising the child with his mother’s help. And an adoptee remembered how when she contacted her natural father, he had no idea she existed.
for remaining story:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/13/the-fathers-had-no-say-men-tell-another-side-of-coerced-adoption-story/
In Sutton, Ont., Raymond Cave said he was never asked to sign a surrender document in 1967, even though the people handling the adoption knew he was the father. In Saskatchewan, Bernard Shepherd said he was only allowed to look at his baby before signing the surrender document, and said he was never told about the option for a temporary wardship so he could take some time to consider raising the child with his mother’s help. And an adoptee remembered how when she contacted her natural father, he had no idea she existed.
for remaining story:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/13/the-fathers-had-no-say-men-tell-another-side-of-coerced-adoption-story/
Quebec's Catholic Church accused of coercing adoptions
Class action alleges abuses.
MONTREAL - A class-action lawsuit accusing Quebec's Catholic Church of kidnapping, fraud and coercion to force unwed mothers to give up their children for adoption is being organized by one of Canada's highest-profile law firms.
The accusations date back to the 1950s and '60s, when the law firm alleges unwed mothers in maternity homes and hospitals were coerced by social-service personnel and hospital employees, often members of the Catholic Church working for the government, to sign documents giving up their children without being told they had the right to keep them...
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Quebec+Catholic+Church+accused+coercing+adoptions/6298084/story.html#ixzz1p8gkWnzl
MONTREAL - A class-action lawsuit accusing Quebec's Catholic Church of kidnapping, fraud and coercion to force unwed mothers to give up their children for adoption is being organized by one of Canada's highest-profile law firms.
The accusations date back to the 1950s and '60s, when the law firm alleges unwed mothers in maternity homes and hospitals were coerced by social-service personnel and hospital employees, often members of the Catholic Church working for the government, to sign documents giving up their children without being told they had the right to keep them...
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Quebec+Catholic+Church+accused+coercing+adoptions/6298084/story.html#ixzz1p8gkWnzl
Curtain lifts on decades of forced adoptions for unwed mothers in Canada
Karen Lynn was 19 when her mother sent her to a home for unmarried pregnant women in Clarkson, Ont., in 1963. There, she was known as Karen No. 1 to protect her family’s reputation, and said it was clear she would not have been allowed to stay there if she did not agree to an adoption. A year later, Sharon Pedersen was 20-years-old when she was drugged and tied to her bed during labour and then shown four different babies through the nursery window at a hospital in Victoria, she said.
She ultimately signed adoption papers at the local children’s aid society, she said, but not before social workers held a pen in her hand and threatened to call the police because she was screaming and throwing furniture in protest...
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/09/curtain-lifts-on-decades-of-forced-adoptions-for-unwed-mothers-in-canada/
She ultimately signed adoption papers at the local children’s aid society, she said, but not before social workers held a pen in her hand and threatened to call the police because she was screaming and throwing furniture in protest...
For remaining article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/09/curtain-lifts-on-decades-of-forced-adoptions-for-unwed-mothers-in-canada/
`Mistaken orphan' to meet lost father after 34 years
By Bruce Ward, Canwest News ServiceMay 30, 2009
OTTAWA - Thirty-four years after he was mistakenly whisked away from a Saigon orphanage, Thanh Campbell - Orphan 32 - is returning to his homeland.
Campbell, one of 57 children spirited from a Saigon orphanage to Canada in April 1975, is returning Saturday to be reunited with his biological father and the brothers who never stopped searching for him after losing him in the chaotic fall of Saigon.
``The anticipation is from something you never think could possibly happen and is actually happening. I just think of my father and how long it has been for him, searching,'' said Thanh, who is travelling with his wife, Karina, their four children, and his adoptive father William Campbell.
The flight arrives Sunday evening, and Thanh expects to meet his father and brothers Monday morning.....
click here for remaining article
OTTAWA - Thirty-four years after he was mistakenly whisked away from a Saigon orphanage, Thanh Campbell - Orphan 32 - is returning to his homeland.
Campbell, one of 57 children spirited from a Saigon orphanage to Canada in April 1975, is returning Saturday to be reunited with his biological father and the brothers who never stopped searching for him after losing him in the chaotic fall of Saigon.
``The anticipation is from something you never think could possibly happen and is actually happening. I just think of my father and how long it has been for him, searching,'' said Thanh, who is travelling with his wife, Karina, their four children, and his adoptive father William Campbell.
The flight arrives Sunday evening, and Thanh expects to meet his father and brothers Monday morning.....
click here for remaining article
Who's minding the children in Canada?
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
>From Saturday's Globe and Mail
When 13-year-old Russian-born Masha Allen testified in Washington this
week at a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating child
pornography, she described five years of Internet-distributed sexual
torment at the hands of the American pedophile who adopted her from an
orphanage — a chronicle of abuse that left her audience shocked.
But in one key regard, Masha's ghastly tale is not unusual, shedding
light on a gaping rip in the safety net that is supposed to govern
international adoptions. And so worrying is the gap that some of the
home countries have periodically blocked adoptions entirely, often when
the process is midway through.
After Masha arrived as a five-year-old at the Plum, Pa., home of Matthew
Mancuso in 1998, no social worker or government official ever stopped to
check on her, she recounted, even though regular visits and follow-up
reports were part of Mr. Mancuso's adoption agreement with the Russian
authorities....
click here for article
>From Saturday's Globe and Mail
When 13-year-old Russian-born Masha Allen testified in Washington this
week at a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating child
pornography, she described five years of Internet-distributed sexual
torment at the hands of the American pedophile who adopted her from an
orphanage — a chronicle of abuse that left her audience shocked.
But in one key regard, Masha's ghastly tale is not unusual, shedding
light on a gaping rip in the safety net that is supposed to govern
international adoptions. And so worrying is the gap that some of the
home countries have periodically blocked adoptions entirely, often when
the process is midway through.
After Masha arrived as a five-year-old at the Plum, Pa., home of Matthew
Mancuso in 1998, no social worker or government official ever stopped to
check on her, she recounted, even though regular visits and follow-up
reports were part of Mr. Mancuso's adoption agreement with the Russian
authorities....
click here for article
Born in USA; Adopted in Canada
Born In USA; Adopted In Canada
Lesley Stahl Reports On Controversial New Trend In Adoptions
July 24, 2005
(CBS) The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.
But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.
They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up....
click here for article
Lesley Stahl Reports On Controversial New Trend In Adoptions
July 24, 2005
(CBS) The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.
But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.
They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up....
click here for article
A Canadian haven for black U.S. babies
A Canadian haven for black U.S. babies
By JANE ARMSTRONG
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Posted at 2:42 AM EDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The United States is exporting newborns by the hundreds and Canada is a preferred destination.
Most of the infants are African American or biracial; their birthmothers want them to be raised outside the United States and believe Canada is a land of little racial strife.
Although there are no officials figures, an estimated 500 African-American babies are adopted abroad each year. In the past 20 years, about 300 have come to British Columbia, where blacks account for less than 0.7 per cent of the population.
The Open Door, a private adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., has placed about 200 children in British Columbia, including Dave and Juanita Alexander's two sons, Elias and Keiran....
click here for article
By JANE ARMSTRONG
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Posted at 2:42 AM EDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The United States is exporting newborns by the hundreds and Canada is a preferred destination.
Most of the infants are African American or biracial; their birthmothers want them to be raised outside the United States and believe Canada is a land of little racial strife.
Although there are no officials figures, an estimated 500 African-American babies are adopted abroad each year. In the past 20 years, about 300 have come to British Columbia, where blacks account for less than 0.7 per cent of the population.
The Open Door, a private adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., has placed about 200 children in British Columbia, including Dave and Juanita Alexander's two sons, Elias and Keiran....
click here for article
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