Nepal comes to terms with foreign adoptions tragedy (BBC)

Nepal comes to terms with foreign adoptions tragedy (BBC)

28 September 2011

By Thomas Bell -- in Kathmandu

Hundreds of parents in Nepal are struggling to come to terms with the fact that their children have been adopted by Western couples without their consent.

Adoptive parents pay thousands of dollars in fees and "donations" to orphanages and government officials who process their cases, creating what many observers describe as an incentive for widespread abuse.

Fraud in international adoption became so rife that several Western governments suspended adoption from Nepal in 2010.

"Many of the documents turned out to be false," explained one diplomat. "When we tried to investigate we were either blocked by the Nepalese government or we were unable to confirm anything we had been told."

Sarita Bhujel was a struggling single mother when a neighbour persuaded her to put her seven-year-old daughter in a Kathmandu children's home.

During an interview she wept and buried her face in a rag while she described what happened.

Illiterate parents

"The neighbour said that I should keep my child in the organisation since her future would be secured," Ms Bhujel recalled.

"She said that she would be educated and would do well. I loved my daughter. I have two sons but only one daughter. I loved her more than anything."

Researchers say that there are about 20, mostly female, agents operating in Kathmandu, obtaining children for orphanages by offering similar promises to those Ms Bhujel received.

However, the majority of so-called "orphans" come from remote Himalayan districts such as Humla in north-west Nepal, where agents persuade illiterate parents that their children will receive a proper education in the capital.

Only later do they discover that their son or daughter has been adopted.

In Ms Bhujel's case she was promised that she could meet her daughter in the orphanage, although she says she was discouraged from visiting often.

She would take sweets and biscuits when she went. For about a year everything seemed to be fine.

"One day my daughter said, 'Mummy, there is someone from a foreign country who is going to take me away.' I told her that nobody was going to take her and that I would not allow such a thing. I told her not to worry," Ms Bhujel said.

She claims that she asked the orphanage staff and received assurances that her daughter would not be adopted. "I believed them. I am uneducated and I had faith in them," she said.

Desperate to adopt

After that Ms Bhujel was prevented from seeing her daughter on various pretexts - that she was studying for exams or had gone for a picnic.

She said she broke down in tears at the orphanage and was insulted when she persisted with her inquiries.

Ms Bhujel works as a labourer on building sites and had only 50 rupees (40p) to her name at the time.

She used 30 rupees to bribe a member of staff at the orphanage. In that way, she says, she discovered that her daughter had been adopted by an Italian couple and gone to Italy.

The orphanage in question denies Ms Bhujel's account. Its director said that she would not have sent the girl to Italy if she had known at the time that she had a natural mother.

"I always remember the meeting with her when I explained about her daughter being adopted by [an] Italian family. She was so happy and told me that we have saved her daughter's life," the director said.

Ms Bhujel recalls being distraught and relying on the support of neighbours for months after learning what had happened.

"For six months, I could not do much… no sleep, no food," she said.

"They did not tell me anything for six months. For three years they did not give me much information. I would be restless and sleepless. I cried for three years."

In 2007 media revelations about corruption in international adoption led the Nepali government to suspend the process.

But following pressure from European countries, where childless parents are desperate to adopt, the process began again in 2008 without substantial reforms. Ms Bhujel's daughter was adopted that year.

Foreign couples are required to pay $5,000 (£3,216) to the orphanage and $3,000 (£1,930) to government officials for handling the paperwork. In many cases adoptive parents are believed to make other payments as well.

Old practices

Diplomats and child rights activists describe how the scam usually works.

Orphanages place advertisements in newspapers showing children's photographs but giving little other information.

The text states that the child has been found abandoned. If no one comes forward to identify them, the police issue documents declaring the child is an "orphan".

Among the papers and photographs from her daughter's case Ms Bhujel has a copy of the advertisement placed by the orphanage, picturing her daughter and claiming that she had been found abandoned.

She also has a copy of the police letter certifying her as an orphan, although the police have subsequently said that the serial number on the document indicates an irregularity.

Ms Bhujel, who is illiterate, says the orphanage eventually asked her to put her thumb-print on a document in exchange for photographs of her daughter, which her new family were sending from Italy.

The undated document - which she can not read - states that she agreed to put her daughter up for adoption.

Nepal is a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention which sets standards for international adoption but has not implemented it.

The officials in charge of reform are widely seen as linked to the old practices and there have been allegations in the local media of corruption in the committee charged with bringing the system in line.

Nevertheless, children's rights activists and diplomats - interviewed on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject - say that while the Nepali government drags its feet on reform there is pressure on some Western governments to reopen the process.

BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15066220

For more on Sarita Bhujel and Prayas Nepal, see PEAR Nepal:

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal.blogspot.com/2010/06/fake-police-document-to-adopt-girl.html

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

A far-away rescue (Nepali Times)

A far-away rescue (Nepali Times)

Young girls from the remote mountains of northwestern Nepal who were trafficked to the southern tip of India are rescued this week

RUBEENA MAHATO in COIMBATORE, INDIA

FROM ISSUE #571 (16 SEPT 2011 - 22 SEPT 2011)

In the suburbs of Coimbatore at Sulur, the first thing that one notices in the impressively walled Michael Job Centre is the sheer enormity of the complex.

There is a school, a post graduate level college and an orphanage in the sprawling premises housing some 500 girls that the organization claims are abandoned or orphaned children of Christian martyrs. The last thing one would expect to find there are young girls from the remote Nepali district of Humla. But there they are, all 23 of them with Christian names living for the past nine years here as orphans despite having parents back home.

They were rescued from the centre last week at the initiative of the Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation (EBMF), Nepal, ChildLine India and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) at the state of Tamil Nadu.

EBMF got into action when the families of four girls from Humla requested them to find their missing daughters. The parents of the girls had sent them along with their brothers in the care of Dal Bahadur Phadera, a local politician.

Many families in Humla had paid Phadera Rs 5-20,000 to get their children out of war-ravaged villages at the time and educate them in boarding schools in Kathmandu. The boys are still in the institution run by Phadera, but the girls, between 3 to 7 years old, were taken away nine years ago. Their families never heard from them.

When rescued, many girls didn't remember their parents' names or where they came from. They have been given Christian names and identities.

In the website of Michael Job Centre, the girls are falsely depicted as children of Christian martyrs in Nepal murdered by Maoists. The Centre runs on the donations given by Christians from all over the world for 'orphans'.

In one of the pages of the website was where we first saw pictures of Anna Bella, Daniela, Persius and Jael (Christian names given by the centre, original names withheld). Their mother and brother had made a three days journey from Humla to join us in Kathmandu for the trip to Coimbatore in India's southern tip. Persius and Jael's mother Shangmo Lama had never been in a car before. After a long and tiring journey to Coimbatore, a frail Shangmo smiled for the first time when we stepped inside the gate of the Centre to get back her daughters. She had waited nine years for this moment.

At first, the principal of the centre flatly denied having any Nepali children at the centre. But she was forced to accept having illegally kept the girls as orphans when the photos of the children and the mother were shown (pictured, right).

Outside, a very Nepali looking girl's face stopped me. After few exchanges in English, I asked if she was Nepali. The girl's face brightened up. Lynsy then gave me her Nepali name, informed there were now 23 of them left in the centre and that they have not forgotten to speak Nepali. Soon the news spread of the team from Nepal and Nepali girls surrounded the principal's office.

There was noisy chatter and a sense of jubilation in the office. Some of the girls were seven years old and all had parents and families back home and hadn't heard from them in all these years.

It was an emotional scene when Shangmo met her girls, who at first failed to recognise their mother. But her brother's daughter Daniela instantly recognised her aunt.

PP Job, the centre's founder has denied having known that the children had families in Nepal. The self-styled Christian preacher has alleged that the children were brought to him by Phadera and that the center has only provided good education and living to these underprivileged children.

"It is illegal under the Indian law to bring children, orphaned or not from Nepal to India, and house them in an institution here. It is a clear case of trafficking," Nandita Rao, Childline's lawyer told Nepali Times.

The Centre is now under investigation by the social welfare department in Tamil Nadu and has been given 15 days to furnish details and prove that it was not involved in child trafficking. On Monday, 500 activists from different Hindu organisations staged a protest outside the orphanage accusing it of proselytizing.

"Poor countries are turning into a missionary haven for religious zealots and this has led to a new form of trafficking," says Philip Holmes of Esther Benjamins Memorial Foundation. The girls are now on their way home by train via Gorakhpur.

The girls had kept the memory of their home country alive for nearly a decade, and were full of pride as they sang the Nepali national anthem for the rescue party from Nepal. They had memorized the words from the mobile ring tone of a Nepali visiting the center.

Said an ecstatic Sabita Bogati: "I want to go home. I would not mind walking all the way to Nepal."

POST SCRIPT: EBMF is now preparing to file charges against Phadera for trafficking. In India, child rights organisations have taken up the issue and are now planning to bring PP Job and his accomplices to book. Efforts to repatriate children trafficked from Tibet and Bhutan who were also kept in the centre are now underway. But even if the children are reunited, their lost years, separation from parents and loss of identity will never be returned.

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2011/09/16/Nation/18563#bottom

Dal Bahadur Phadera is also an alleged adoption trafficker.

For more on Phadera, see:

A trafficker remains scot-free (The Kathmandu Post):

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/07/08/features/a-trafficker-remains-scot-free/223763.html

And the horrific, first-hand account of Phadera at Lonely Planet (read the full thread):

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2032255&start=0&limit=1000

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Nepal: Children for sale (Al Jazeera)

Nepal: Children for sale (Al Jazeera)

With weak law enforcement, can foreigners adopting children from Nepal be sure that they are really orphans?

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2011/09/2011920125119853524.html

Video:

http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/2012/pieces.php?iid=429797&pid=1

Orphaned, abandoned or trafficked? That is the question facing foreigners who wish to adopt Nepali children.

International adoption services have provided a lucrative business to poverty-stricken Nepal. But in 2007, Nepal stopped adoptions for two years as it investigated claims of child trafficking.

After adoptions resumed, law enforcement remained weak.

By the end of 2010, many countries including the US, stopped granting visas to children from Nepal. This was in response to unscrupulous agents falsifying children's status as orphans so they could be adopted overseas.

Today, loopholes remain in Nepal's adoption processes and the government has been slow to formulate new policies, creating more problems for children in orphanages.

101 East investigates the scam behind an industry borne from the desire to love a child.

Al Jazeera -- 101 East

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

The Children Left Behind (The Pulitzer Center)

The Children Left Behind

LISA DESAI AND HABIBA NOSHEEN, FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Published on June 29, 2011

Nepal became an important source of children for international adoption in part because adoption is not widely practiced or accepted among the Nepalese, an attitude that is prevalent across South Asia.

But the United States and several other countries have recently stopped adoption of abandoned children from Nepal because of allegations of fraud.

Some critics opposed to the U.S.’s decision say it only punishes the children left behind and sentences them to a life stuck in an institution. It’s a position that Elizabeth Bartholet, director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard, strongly agrees with.

“The easy thing to do is what our regulators do, which to say let’s punish the children. Let’s just imprison the children who have done nothing wrong,” Bartholet said. “It destroys a lot to keep kids in these institutions.”

The State Department’s Susan Jacobs defends the decision to clamp down on adoptions from Nepal. She says the sole goal is to ensure international adoptions are ethical—the U.S. had no choice but to stop adoptions of abandoned children after finding that documentation provided by the Nepalese government was often fraudulent and unreliable.

“Our goal has always been to protect the child, the birth parents and the adoptive parents because I can’t think of anything worse than completing an adoption and then finding out a week or month or a year later that there is a parent out there looking for their child,” said Jacobs.

One orphanage tucked away in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, however, is seeing the effect of this policy change first hand.

Sapna Ekta Rana runs the Sagarmatha Children Home. She says as international adoption has dried up, so too have the funds needed by the orphanage to sustain its regular operations. And in the Sagarmatha Children Home, that means providing food, education and shelter for children is getting harder and harder.

“The main source of funding is from adoption parents...there is no government support,” said Rana.

Before the recent policy change, when parents adopted a child from Nepal through the international adoption program, they were required to pay the child’s orphanage a fee or “donation” of $5,000. That money, Rana says, was used to fund the rest of the children at the orphanage who hadn’t been adopted or could never be adopted.

And without that regular income coming in, Rana says they have no choice but to shut their doors. “Right now we are not able to take in any children because the home is full,” said Rana.

Rana notes that without the ability to adopt out children from her orphanage internationally, the future of many Nepalese orphans is grim. Once a child turns 16, the orphanage no longer is able to support him or her. That’s when many Nepalese orphans might find themselves abandoned with nowhere to turn.

Many international organizations, including UNICEF, have urged the Nepalese government to finds ways to increase domestic adoptions. They argue that international adoption should be considered a last resort, and countries such as Nepal must first try everything they can to take care of orphans within the country.

The State Department’s Jacobs urged the Nepalese government to implement stricter oversight of its adoption program.

“There are countries, and not just in the west, but all over the world, that can do this properly. And there is no reason that Nepal can’t. All it takes is a little bit of political will,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs says the political turmoil that Nepal has faced over the last decade cannot be used as justification to ignore the need for better adoption oversight.

“I know there is a lot of political chaos there. It’s a difficult place to be right now, but they could do this. They need to do this for their children. The children are the most important thing in a country and they are just letting these things happened to them and there is no excuse for it,” said Jacobs.

http://pulitzercenter.org/articles/nepal-trafficking-kathmandu-orphans-children-adoption

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Better Sit By the River Than Be a Bird of Cage (Terre des hommes)

- Published by Darcissac, Marion

From our delegate in Nepal, Joseph Aguettant

A new publication highlights new ways to support families in rural areas instead of institutions such as orphanages and children’s homes (mostly in urban areas).

The news came as an earthquake in the world of child care: Naxal’s Bal Mandir, the oldest orphanage in Nepal, was taken over by an Australian NGO. Following months of negotiations between Nepal Children’s Organisation and Mitrataa Foundation, it was announced that the management of the largest institution in the country, currently hosting 250 children, was shifted to foreign management, from 1st May 2011 and for a five year term. Volunteers found the children in desperate condition, some of them suffering from acute malnutrition. The children had not been enrolled in schools due to lack of funds. This didn’t come as a surprise to those who knew about the old Bal Mandir.

A change of guard at Bal Mandir raises a set of questions: are all these children orphans? Did they really need to be institutionalised in the first place? Can the prospect of a “good education” wash away the trauma of family separation? Are there ways to keep children in their own families and can we find alternatives in communities? Why does Nepal maintain large institutions while the rest of the world is closing them down?

Burned alive

In the last few days, several untoward events reminded us of the gravity of the situation. At the beginning of June, an eye witness reported that in an orphanage in Kathmandu, the main caretaker was using torture to “discipline” the children. She was seen holding a candle over a 10-month girl and pouring wax on her as a punishment for wetting her pants. This was not an isolated incident.

The situation was worse (even nightmarish) in another institution. According to a Central Child Welfare Board official who visited the home, the orphanage was “far below standards”. The institution was closed down on 20th March 2011 and all the children rescued. Picture this: 21 children were crammed together in one bedroom with no separation between boys and girls. They were not being fed regularly, were living in squalid conditions and their profiles were falsified. Worse is yet to come: the director was routinely beating children with a metal stick. One child had died six months ago and another one disappeared. As a punishment, one child she was beaten with a metal rod and nettles and kept in isolation (on the terrasse upstairs) for two weeks. The director did not give the child any food, but the other children managed to bring her food and water secretly. The child was taken to the hospital by a visitor and died on the same day. Her name was Sangita. The surviving children are still having nightmares about the horror they witnessed in this home and are seriously traumatized. They have nightmares that the orphanage director will take them to Pashupati and burn them alive. They say that this is what happened to one child some years back because the home could not afford medical treatment.

Similarly, a 12-year old child died mysteriously in Jorpati in a child care home. Although she was admitted as an orphan, it was found that both her father and mother were alive. She had been institutionalised five years ago through a fake village development committee recommendation letter from Ramechhap District stating that she had no father. The orphanage was running illegally.

In another large orphanage, a young man entered the premises at night and molested adolescent girls who were hearing and speech impaired. They were able to alert orphanage staff by making loud sounds such as banging on their beds.

All these cases are symptomatic of a larger problem. We estimate that at least 4,000 children live in substandard institutions across Nepal. In terms of numbers and seriousness of child rights violations, we are in fact facing a major child protection crisis. In 2008, Terre des hommes estimated the number of children in residential care to reach 15,000 throughout the country. There were at least 440 private institutions, many of whom were being run by businessmen as a side activity. According to CCWB, this figure has not changed and it is still the official one. To get a true picture of institutional care, however, one should add illegal institutions, boarding schools, faith-based institutions, as well as “correction homes”. The rate of institutionalisation in Kathmandu is higher than that of Cambodia (193 per 100’000 children aged 0-17) or even China (27). A large number of unregulated orphanages is a recipe for disaster for children but also for society at large.

“We’re sorry for the tragedy of childhoods lost”

“We come together today to offer our nation’s apology, to say […] that we are sorry. Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation, and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. Sorry for the tragedy, the absolute tragedy, of childhoods lost.” These words of contrition were those of the Australian Prime Minister in 2009. Mr. Rudd offered the nation’s apology to the hundreds of thousands of children who were separated from their families and institutionalised in Australia. Many children were placed in religious institutions, where they were abused or neglected. The homes attracted pedophiles: many children said they were sexually abused. Others have described miserable, lonely lives, during which birthdays and festivals went unmarked, and they never received any affection.

We trust that one day the suffering of children in institutions will be recognised in Nepal as well. We, child rights advocates, are sorry for the tragedy of childhoods lost. We look up to countries like Australia, and many others, which have completely reversed the situation in a few decades, to help us. Australia has closed all its orphanages. There are no “orphans” in the country- only children placed in foster care and then adopted domestically.

We have hope. Less than a year ago, there was almost no recognition of the risks inherent to institutionalisation of children in Nepal. The 2005-2015 National Plan of Action for Children was openly “promoting children’s homes” and recommending an “increase in the number of orphanages”.

Today the situation has changed. Institutions are no longer immune because they would be protected by the Queen Mother or some politicians. The Terre des hommes project has put in place 41 verified foster families in the four Midwestern districts and have placed 27 children in their care. There will be many more foster family placements in the years to come, in many more districts.

From time immemorial the preferred way to care for and protect orphans was to send them to the extended family. Kinship care remains one of the primary responses – it needs to be strengthened and made safe. The challenge is to ensure that this is in the child’s best interest and that child labour is eliminated from this form of care.

Where consciousness goes, energy and resources will follow. As this is a complex and resource-intensive process, de-institutionalisation will help bring more resources into the country. It doesn’t mean simply emptying boxes: it will require a conscious effort to develop modern and effective child care services.

It is probably as easy to carry out de-institutionalisation as it is to pronounce the 22-letter word. All those engaged in the process will know that it is an arduous and time-consuming endeavour. But the concept is straight forward. It basically means opening the boxes. It means support to other forms of care and the establishment of a gatekeeping mechanism. It means investing in competent and compassionate staff who will leave no stone unturned to return the children to their families or provide family-based alternative care.

A few individuals and organisations have taken a head start: Tdh, Hope for Himalayan Kids, Next Generation Nepal, The Himalayan Innovative Society and Umbrella Foundation. We are greatly encouraged by the inclusion of de-institutionalisation as a topic of discussion with the Government, particularly the Central Child Welfare Board and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. The National Plan of Action has been corrected. Several organisations have approached Tdh with requests for assistance and an informal working group has been set up. We have created a list of organisations that promote family preservation, family-based alternative care and de-institutionalisation (if you feel you should be on this list, contact nawjeet@tdhnepal.org).

One new resource might come in handy: Terre des hommes Nepal Delegation Office teamed up with Hope for Himalayan Kids, to produce a hands-on manual on how to reduce the number of children in institutions and promote family-based care. Swiss Ambassador to Nepal, H.E. Thomas Gass launched the publication titled “10 Steps Forward to De-institutionalisation” in the presence of other ambassadors and staff of Diplomatic Missions, Nepal Government officials, UNICEF and non-profit organisations involved in working with children in institutions. The main author is an Australian social worker, Deborah MacArthur, assisted by Aruna Khadka, a pioneer of de-institutionalisation. The key philosophy of the document is that the rights (and best interests) of children are better served in families compared to institutions.

A Humli proverb sums it all: “It is better to sit beside the river than to be a bird of cage.” We hope for less and less “cages” and a lot more little birds flying around – and above all, little birds learning how to fly with their families.

Download the “10 Steps Forward to De-institutionalisation” manual

Further information on the Terre des hommes intervention in Nepal

http://www.tdh.ch/en/news/nepal-better-sit-by-the-river-than-be-a-bird-of-cage

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

A trafficker remains scot-free (The Kathmandu Post)

A trafficker remains scot-free (The Kathmandu Post)

SHAHANI SINGH

JUL 08 -

It was in April this year when three worried adults in Humla submitted a letter of appeal to the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), a statutory body under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Humble words requested for help in repatriating girl children from Tamil Nadu, India- “…a place wherefrom it is impossible to learn of their well being and condition…and where our children have expressed over the telephone their inability to continue staying”-the letter states in Nepali.

Guardians Dhan Maya Lama, Saraswati Lama and Krishna Lama (names changed) of Humla had entrusted the responsibility of their children to a local politician in the year 2004, convinced of his promises to educate them in a boarding school in Kathmandu, away from the conflict-ridden place that Humla was in those years. But in the year 2006, the parents came to learn that their children had been taken all the way down to Tamil Nadu, and they were not even informed about it. “When he first took them, we gave him money for taking our children to a better place. But it has been seven years now and he refuses to bring them back to us,” said Dhan Maya over the telephone from Humla.

Claimed by many villagers in Humla, such a practice—of entrusting one’s child into the hands of people with authority, along with sums of money—has been a resort for many parents, as they trust those more empowered to give their children a better future. The families of Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna followed suit and their children were taken away, later enrolled at the Michael Job Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu—a Christian organisation that claims to house and provide education to orphan girls.

About four years ago, another Humli parent Dhiren Lama (name changed) along with five friends hunted down the person who had taken their children away. UML member Dal Bahadur Phadera was coerced by the group to bring their children back. Phadera had succumbed then, taking the group of guardians with him to the Michael Job Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. “We had to spend so much money to finally track him down, but even then he tried to assuage us by saying, ‘Let me celebrate Tihar first, and then I shall get your kids’,” recalls Dhiren. Dhiren and his friends invested significantly in making their way from Humla, to Kathmandu and Gorakhpur, en route to Tamil Nadu. But unlike him, Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna, have yet to gather finances and the courage to make Phadera bring their children back.

Dhiren’s niece, who was brought back with 12 other girls talked of receiving an education in Tamil Nadu. The place appeared to be good for children in Dhiren’s eyes too, letting one believe that such a case would be hard to define as trafficking. But says Dhiren: “He (Phadera) is not a good man. I had given him Rs. 12,000 when I handed my niece over to him and a separate Rs. 3,000 to my niece for her personal expense. But Phadera snatched the money off her hands.”

The Michael Job Centre claims to have a mission of saving orphaned girls of Christian martyrs, after the principal Dr. P.P Job’s own son, Michael, was run down with a car—as the website claims—by radical Hindus of India. Also accepting orphans of any other religion, it has had a record of receiving girls from Nepal. But the centre’s reputation would best be defined as ambiguous. A news report titled ‘Mother seeks return of her daughter’ (Apr. 30 2010) from the Manipur Mail informs of 20 Manipuri girls from Churachandpur district to have been “beaten to bleeding” and confined all days inside the Michael Job campus. Could this be a reason why the children express their inability to stay in the centre, as stated in the letter?

What Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna should ideally have done is filed a First Information Report (FIR) with the local police, enabling rescue organisations in India to enter and investigate the alleged institute where their children are kept. But uninformed of these criminal justice procedures, and unsure of its advice from local NGOs and INGOs, Dhan Maya went back to Phadera instead to consult the matter. “He was extremely angry when I talked to him about this,” recalls Dhan maya, who told the Post of Phadera’s bullying ways whenever she gathered her voice to ask of her child. “The school is good, don’t file the report,” Phadera would tell her and end the conversation. Corroborations with officers of a local NGO in Humla that works closely with Humli families to bring back their lost children confirm the same.

Dal Bahadur Phadera, known to anti-trafficking organisations in Kathmandu as ‘DB’, is known to exert considerable fear and influence among civilians in Humla. He is a martial arts practitioner, say some and “someone who follows you around if you come in his way” others. But the man and his notoriety are an open secret among Humlis, child rights officers and administrators in government and non-government bodies, who take his name easily when discussed with about child trafficking. A child rights officer of the District Child Welfare Board claims Phadera to “not have stopped trafficking entirely” whereas an officer at the Central Child Welfare Board acknowledges his reputation as a trafficker.

But aside from these sources who are cautious with their comments, evidence of Phadera’s history in trafficking lies in Saroj Adhikari’s article ‘Bal Balika ko Rahasmaya Osaar Pasaar’ in the July 2006 issue of Nepal magazine. Adhikari reports the stark discrepancy between the number of children registered in a dozen schools in the Valley where Phadera claims to have enrolled them, and the number actually present. “Details given by Dal Phadera state 32 minors to have been enrolled in Pushpanjali Boarding School in Taukhel, but the school’s teacher Sharada Lamichhane of the Accounts Department claims 14 of them to be absent,” he writes. Additional proof of Phadera’s engagement in trafficking children comes from a group of children rescued by the non-profit organisation Next Generation Nepal. Currently staying at their children’s home in Balkot, 16-year-old Sravan Puri (name changed) gives a heart-rending testimony of leaving home for Kathmandu when he was eight, being taken in custody by Dal Phadera, and eventually being forced to beg in the streets for money and at another time, being paid Rs. 25 for three months of washing dishes at a hotel. Similar testimonies have come from Sravan’s friends, who now in their late teens, were all victims of Phadera’s guile. “DB used to bring volunteers to the orphanage in Mathatirtha, but he would take away all the goodies and stationary items they would bring for us,” he shares of his days in the Mathatirtha orphanage run under Phadera’s organisation Himali Anath Bal Bikas Kendra (Himali Orphan Child Development Centre). Both the orphanage and the organisation closed down in the year 2006 after the orphanage was discovered to have been run illegally.

Put into custody for three days by the Nepal Police in the same year, Phadera was released by the sheer weight of his political influence, reports Adhikari, now with the Kantipur Daily. Not once charged for his trafficking activities since, Phadera continues to remain free today.

In a telephone conversation with the Post, Phadera claimed of not taking any money from parents in Humla. “I do not know who Dhiren is, besides, when members of the UCPN (Maoist) party kidnapped me on charges of several complaints of trafficking, it was done with political motives and for character assassination,” he added, regarding an accusation by members of UCPN (Maoist) of Humla in the year 2006-7. Interestingly, in a statement denying charges from the UCPN (Maoist), Phadera quotes the name of a certain ‘Chakkra Shahi’ as a trafficker, who is also named by a villager in the documentary Paper Orphans by Terre Des Hommes, a Swiss humanitarian organisation that gives assistance to children in need, to have carried out similar activities of deceiving Humli parents and taking children away.

The Human Trafficking and Transportation Control Act (2007) and Regulation (2008)— as mentioned in the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report issued by the US Government in June this year—subjects persons guilty of trafficking to 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment. Phadera has not been subject to any such punishment.

This issue of families being deceived by traffickers in the Karnali region has been addressed for the first time in the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, and so have the impunity enjoyed by politically-connected perpetrators and the negative effect it has had in the number of trafficking cases filed with the police. But slow justice and a long wait before reunification remains the reality of most families, who in their circumstances have unwittingly lost their children.

Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna wait for what assistance can come from their local NGO and the DCWB in response to their letter of appeal. Says the NGO officer who has been contacted by the CCWB for coordination: “We have asked for institutional and strategic help in our letter in response to the CCWB, but we have yet to send it.”

Posted on: 2011-07-09

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/07/08/features/a-trafficker-remains-scot-free/223763.html

For a first-hand account of DB Phadera/Fadera, see Lonely Planet (read the full thread):

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2032255&start=0&limit=1000

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Children trapped between supply and demand (Nepali Times)

Children trapped between supply and demand

Where does adoption end and trafficking begin for Nepal's children?

JENNIFER LOWE

Nepali Times (17 JUNE 2011 - 23 JUNE 2011):

http://nepalitimes.com/issue/2011/06/17/Nation/18300


[Photo] -- SHHH: Sign on the wall of an "orphanage" in Kathmandu housing children like the one, right, who have biological parents. The children are offered for international adoption, often without the knowledge of their parents.


Kathmandu Valley has dozens of children's homes and orphanages, Thamel is plastered with fliers looking for volunteers and donations to help parentless children. Foreigners can often be seen holding their newly adopted Nepali babies as they dine in hotels.

It is clear that the business of adopting orphans has taken off in Nepal. Below the surface, however, lies complicated political and social conditions that affect the lives of thousands of Nepali children.

Since international adoption from Nepal became legal in 1976, there was a huge increase in the number of both registered and unregistered childcare facilities as well as an increase in incidents of trafficking, false documentation and bribery. This led to the temporary suspension of adoption from Nepal in 2007 by the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare.

But by January 2009, the self-imposed ban was lifted, resulting in an even more disturbing situation.

Inside a small orphanage on the outskirts of Kathmandu live dozens of 'orphaned' children. Younger children lie in small rooms tied to cribs, with the door shut, screaming, in desperate need of a diaper change. Older children stand barefoot outside as they wait for the small amount of food they are allotted each day.

Sadly, this is an all too common scene in Kathmandu. Organisations like UNICEF and Terre Des Hommes Foundation estimate that more than 15,000 Nepali children live in residential care facilities, but no one knows how the children are treated because the shelters are rarely monitored. Shockingly, more than half of the children in the 'orphanages' actually have biological parents.

Inside the same orphanage, a 15-year old girl nervously confesses having living parents and two younger brothers. "I want to go home," she whispers in English as her biological younger brother climbs onto her lap. Her parents voluntarily gave their children to shelters in the city because they couldn't afford to feed and educate them. In many cases parents are promised their children's safe return following the completion of their education, but many never see their children again because they are sold to foreign adoptive parents.

Many child-care facility owners see the struggle of poverty-stricken parents simply as a lucrative business opportunity. This is not surprising because the average price of an international adoption can be up to $10,000.

On the other hand, many adoptive parents also endure great personal turmoil as they wait for their children. Over the past year, 11 countries including the United States, Canada, and Britain have suspended adoption from Nepal, citing an unreliable adoption system and the documentation practices. Although no new adoptions can be initiated from these countries, parents who have already begun the adoption process have been forced into legal battles with government embassies in their efforts to acquire visas for their newly adopted children.

Dozens of families from these counties have put everything on the line to bring their children home, spending thousands of dollars in legal fees and months stuck in small hotel rooms in Kathmandu. Sharon Vause is one parent. "I am meeting families here who are risking everything to bring their children home," she told Nepali times, "some have sold their homes, taken loans, but we are doing it for our children, we can't give up on them."

A growing group of foreign and domestic voices are once again calling for the suspension of international adoption from Nepal. However, those who oppose this fear that children will be forced to live in bleak orphanages for years before adoption is resumed.

In order to bring adoption practices in Nepal up to the standards outlined by The Hague Convention, child care experts say, there is a need to completely reorganise the process. In the meantime some agencies like Next Generation Nepal are concentrating their efforts on rescuing children with their biological families in hope of one day healing shattered lives.

________________________________

SOS for children

Even though the plight of non-orphans in orphanages seems insurmountable, there are some glimmers of hope. The SOS Children's Village in Sano Thimi is part of a chain of international long-term care facilities started in Austria by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949.

SOS facilities are based on a family structure with on-campus schooling, extra curricular activities, and family style housing with 10 children living in each of 14 homes with a single "house mother". SOS ethos also includes a unique integration program that helps children learn how to live on their own while still benefiting from the SOS infrastructure and support. No SOS facility offers children internationally or domestically for adoption, expect by extended family members of the children.

In stark contrast to commercial 'orphanages' in Kathmandu, children can be seen at all hours of the day singing in classrooms, playing football outside, eating healthy snacks, and helping to care for their new brothers and sisters. Perhaps such facilities provide a glimmer of hope in the face of uncertainty for the future of adoption in Nepal. "We create a sense of belonging, children have lost their lives and here they can feel important and valid and like they belong," says Khagendra Nepal of the Sano Thimi SOS Children's Village.

www.sosnepal.org.np

See also:

On sale, A NEPALI TIMES INVESTIGATION
Adopting new safeguards
Cinderella children, PHILIP HOLMES

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/