Govt extends deadline for inter-country adoptions (The Himalayan Times)

Govt extends deadline for inter-country adoptions

The Himalayan Times

2012-02-25

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has extended the deadline for applications from foreigners to adopt Nepali children after it received only a handful of requests.

Foreign parents who want to adopt Nepali children now have two more months to file their application, which was due by mid-February for this year.

“We extended the deadline after we received only around four applications from Indian and Japanese nationals,” said Sher Jung Karki, member-secretary at the Inter Country Adoption Management Committee of the ministry.

Before the system of applying to the government for adopting Nepali children came into effect, interested couples would approach orphanages directly and select children. They would pay huge sums to the orphanages to take away the children of their choice. But now couples can only choose the gender and age of children.

The application has to come through embassies, diplomatic missions and international adoption agencies concerned, said the ministry. Couples seeking to adopt a Nepali child also need to submit documents showing that their government has granted permission to adopt the children.

Karki said the number of foreign nationals, who want to adopt Nepali children, has fallen after the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International Law raised questions over documents of children up for adoption. He said the ministry did not receive a single application for the adoption in 2011 due to pending applications from 2009/10.

The European countries’ baning of adoption of Nepali children after ‘extensive cases of abuse, fake documents and false statements’ has also driven interest in Nepali children down. Italian, French and Spanish nationals were enthusiastic about raising a child from Nepal before the ban. The ministry received around 500 such applications each year from those countries and the US.

Karki informed that the US launched a probe into 65 cases of adoption for a year, but did not find irregularities.

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Govt+extends+deadline+for++inter-country+adoptions&NewsID=322004

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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Govt opens applications for inter-country adoption (Republica)

***Please note: although Nepal has announced it is accepting applications for intercountry adoption, the US Suspension on processing I 600 petitions for abandoned children remains in place. See: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/08/145767.htm

Govt opens applications for inter-country adoption

REPUBLICA

ARJUN POUDEL

KATHMANDU, Nov 29: After receiving no application for inter-country adoption in 2011, the government has asked prospective foreign parents to apply for adopting Nepali orphans for the year 2012.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) has formally invited applications through concerned embassies, diplomatic missions and international adoption agencies for the first time after inter-country adotption was suspended in 2009.

The ministry had suspended inter-country adoption following disclosure of rampant irregularities in the process. Some European countries including USA had also suspended adoption of Nepali children indefinitely after revelation of irregularities. Before the suspension, the ministry used to receive more than 500 such applications each year.

“We have completed listing eligible children for adoption for 2012. Altogether 252 children are eligible for adoption,” the legal officer at the ministry, Sher Jung Karki, said. Children formally relinquished by the family will also be put on offer for adoption, he said.

Some of the children´s homes had stopped providing shelter to newcomer orphans since a year after foreign countries stopped taking in Nepali children. The children´s homes cited financial problems for stopping providing shelter to newcomer orphans. Foreign adoption is one of the main financial sources of the orphanages.

The government has also introduced strict measures after reports of irregularities in adoption were disclosed.

Karki said that the foreign parents seeking to adopt Nepali children cannot approach the children directly. “Prospective parents cannot visit Nepal to select children without the consent of the Nepal government. They have to apply through the Internet,” the legal officer at the ministry, Karki, stated. The ministry has asked foreign parents to submit application within three days from November 17.

He also said the adopting parents need to submit documents concerning permission from their respective governments for adoption and should apply through registered adoption agencies.

The government had also fixed fee for adoption. Adopting parents have to pay US$ 8,000 and the orphanage will get only US$ 5,000 per child. The US$ 3,000 will go to the state and it will be spent for the welfare of children.

Previously adopting parents would approach the concerned orphanage directly and select a child. They would pay huge amount to the orphanages to take away the children of their choice. Karki said that adopting parents from now on will be able to choose only gender and age of the children.

The ministry says 29 orphanages have renewed their licenses for inter-country adoption. Seven new orphanages have acquired licenses for adoption. Parents from around 72 countries adopt Nepali children.

Published on 2011-11-29

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=38929


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Submission of Application regarding the Inter Country Adoption (MOWCSW)

Submission of Application regarding the Inter Country Adoption (MOWCSW):

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/inter-country-adoption-15-en.html

Government of Nepal

Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare

Inter Country Adoption Management Committee

Singh Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal

Subject: Submission of Application regarding the Inter Country Adoption

Date: 17 November 2011

In accordance with the Article 8 of Terms and Conditions and Process for Granting Approval for Adoption of Nepali Child by Alien, 2008, Inter Country Adoption Management Committee invites applications from the prospective adoptive parents through all the concerned embassies/diplomatic missions or international adoption agencies, for the year of 2012. In this regard, the Committee would like to request all to take the following notes:

Application for orphan and relinquished children should be submitted within 90 days being effective from 17 November, 2011 and no time restriction for the children with special needs.

Application includes-

Consent letter from concerned authority of the home country of adoptive parent/s,

Guarantee letter from the concerned authority (Government or Embassy) of the home country specifying that adopted children will be treated as biological children,

Birth certificate of applicant/s,

Documents proving the marital status of the applicant/s,

Family status including the birth certificate/s of biological/adoptive child (if any),

Health certificate of applicant/s issued by licensed medical practitioner,

Character certificate of applicant/s issued by government authority,

Documents proving properties and income sources of the applicant/s,

Photocopy of passport of applicant/s,

Social, psychological and home study report of applicant/s,

Covering letter of the embassy/ diplomatic mission/adoption agency,

Photographs depicting exteriors and interiors of living apartment/residence,

Commitment of the applicants to comply with post adopting requirements,

Prospective adoptive parent's sheet.

3. Application without valid and complete documents shall not be entertained

4. Application exceeding the quota shall not be entertained.

5. Application should be attached with the proof of bank transfer of an advance payment (non-refundable) of US $300 (three hundred) to the following bank accounts:

Name of the Bank: Everest Bank Limited, Singh durbar, Kathmandu

Name of Account: Inter Country Adoption Management Development Committee

Account Number: 00101102200050

Swift Code No: E V B L N P K A

Download Prosepective parents' Sheet

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/uploads/02-%20Final%20Information%20about%20prospective%20adoptive%20parents%20Sheet.doc

Ethics, Transparency, Support
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Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare -- notices

Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare

Notice on domestic adoption

Date: October 23, 2011

In accordance with the details received from Land Reform and Management Department, this is to inform that 48 Nepalese children from the children's homes enlisted in the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and 11 children from other children homes have been adopted by the Nepalese prospective families in the year of 2009-2010.

Inter Country Adoption Management Committee under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare is working for the promotion of alternative child care including domestic adoption. Therefore, the Committee would also like to request to concerned prospective Nepalese families to contact the telephone numbers 01-4200140 and 01-4200328 of the Committee for further information in this regard.

Notice on

The Number of children in the children homes listed in the Ministry

Date: October 23, 2011

This is to inform that the Ministry has renewed 29 orphanages/ Children homes for the year 2011-2012 for the purpose of Inter country adoption. As per the data provided by the children homes, 252 children (129 Female and 123 Male) out of 1172 are eligible for inter country adoption.

Notice for Foreign Organizations or Agencies regarding the extension of time for paying the amount of MOU

Date: 22 October, 2011

In relation to a notice on renewal of foreign organization or agencies dated 4 September, 2011, this is to inform that the Committee has extended the date to deposit the rest amount annually payable for MOU in 2010 for 3 weeks effective from 19 October, 2011.

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/inter-country-adoption-15-en.html

Ethics, Transparency, Support

~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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Disabled kids to get priority in adoption (The Himalayan Times)

Disabled kids to get priority in adoption (The Himalayan Times)

2011-09-10

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: The government is to give priority to ‘children with special needs’ –– those who have some kind of disability –– for inter-country adoption, said a committee established to monitor inter-country adoptions.

To pave way for the new provision, the government in January amended the Inter-Country Adoption Regulation.

Inter-country Adoption Management Committee Chairman Mahendra Shrestha said the provision will be implemented as the panel prepares a new list of kids, who are to be made available for inter-country adoption.

“After collecting data on children eligible for the adoption, we will invite applications by next month,” said Shrestha. “Although some countries have banned adoption of Nepali children, citizens of some European countries have shown interest in adopting children with disability,” he added.

A dozen European countries such as Noway, the UK and Italy soon followed suit and barred their citizens from adopting Nepali children.

Shrestha said the government was planning to introduce programmes to encourage domestic adoption as well. “To encourage domestic adoption, we are planning to build regional centres for destitute children by using the revenue received through inter-country adoption,” he informed.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Disabled+kids+to+get+priority+in+adoption&NewsID=302399

Nepal has adopted a remarkably broad definition of special needs (see below). Adoption reformers fear this is an attempt by corrupt insiders to game the adoption process. Almost any child will qualify as "special needs" under the new rules:

Government of Nepal

Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare

Kathmnadu,

Date of Decision : 5 January 2011

In accrodance with the Article 15A. of Terms and Conditions and Process for Granting Approval for Adoption of Nepali child by an Alien (First Ammendment), 2067 (2010), the Ministry has defined and classified the special needs children as mentioned below :

Definition: Children who need more care, concern and love from the parents due to the abnormal medical, physical, emotional, and developmental condition and sometime due to their special circumstances Older age children living under special conditions

Classification:

Category-1

Older children over 6 years/sibling group

Category-2

Low Birth weight

Category-3

Children with following Conditions:

Acute Ricketts
Blind
Blood disorders
Brain Lesion
Burns
Chronic Asthma
Chronic Eczema
Cleft Lip-Cleft Palate/Cleft Lip
Colostomy
Deaf
Diabetes
Dwarfism
Ectodermal displacia (no sweat glands)
Epilepsy (does not include fever induced
convulsions)
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Fingers-toes missing
Hare lip
Heart conditions of a severe nature
Hemophilia
Hepatitis B+
Ichthyosis (Collodian baby)
Indeterminate sex
Limbs Missing
Microcephaly
Neurological disorders
Paralysis
Partially Blind
Partially Deaf
Pier Robin Syndrome (no tongue)
Polio
Severe disfiguring birth marks
Severe Orthopedic conditions
Severe Seizure disorders
Speech dysfunction-dysphasia
Spina Bifida
Thalasemia Major

Category-4

Prior traumatic background, disruption, long institutional care, difficult circumstances, psychiatric and mentally challenged parentage.

Note: Older Child means the child above 6 years of age upto 16 years of age.

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/uploads/Child%20adoption%20details/Nepal%20criteria%20special%20need_final.pdf

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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Renewal of Foreign Organizations or Agencies (MOWCSW notice)

Government of Nepal

Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare

Notice on

Renewal of Foreign Organizations or Agencies

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/inter-country-adoption-15-en.html


Date: 4 September 2011

Upon scrutiny the applications submitted by the following foreign organizations along with other documents for renewal pursuant to the notice published on 2 January 2011 for renewal of the foreign organizations enlisted for two years with effect from 1 January 2009 under this Ministry with regards to inter-country adoption, this is to inform all the concerned that the following foreign organizations have been renewed for two years with effect from 1 January 2011 subject to observance of the following terms and conditions.

Terms and Conditions:

(a) The foreign organizations or agencies enlisted with the Ministry shall be required to produce the evidence indicating recognition received from the Hague Secretariat.

(b) It is required to comply with the directives issued by the Ministry and the Committee from time to time.

(c) The enlisted foreign organizations or agencies shall be required to deposit the rest amount annually payable for MoU in 2010 in the bank account designated by the Committee within forty-five days from the date of renewal.

(d) The enlisted foreign organizations or agencies shall be required to establish their contact office pursuant to Section 11(4) of the Terms and Conditions and Process for Granting Approval for Adoption of Nepali child by an Alien 2065 (2008)" and shall also be required to make address of the contact office, contact persons and other employees available to the Committee.

(e) The qualifications of the In-charge of the contact office shall be as follows:

(i) He/she shall be a Nepali citizen designated by the enlisted foreign organizations or agencies.

(ii) He/she shall be a person who has done at least Bachelor Degree from the recognized university or he/she has worked in the sector of children for at least ten years.

(iii) He/she has never been convicted of any criminal offence pursuant to the laws in force.

(iv) He/she or any member of his/her family has not been a Director or Member or administrative chief or employee of any children home/ orphanage or Bal Mandir enlisted with the Ministry.

(v) He/she shall produce written guarantee indicating that he/she is not involved in more than one foreign organization or agency.

(f) The foreign organizations or agencies enlisted with the Ministry shall be required to obtain an approval of the Inter-country Adoption Management Development Committee through the concerned contact office while voluntarily providing assistance in the sector of Nepali children.

(g) The foreign organizations or agencies shall be required to place the accurately updated information and data relating to the inter-country adoption on their websites.

(h) If it is found that any foreign organization or agency fails to comply with the aforesaid terms and conditions, the Ministry may delist such a foreign organization or agency at any time on the recommendation of the Committee.

Name of the Foreign Organizations :

1. New Beginnings adoptions and Family Services, USA

2. Holt International, USA

3. AIPA Erga Pueros, Italy

4. ANDENI, Spain

5. AC International,Denmark

6. Namaste Asocion Aragonesa Para La Promocion De La Infancia, Spain

7. Mami Wata, Spain

8. Ninos Sin Fronteras, Spain

9. Wide Horizons for Children, USA

10. International Adoption, USA

11. Gladney Center for Adoption , USA

12. Families Thru International Adoption, USA

13. Internationa Adoption Tracento, Italy

14. Amici De Bambini, Italy

15. Adopsjonsforum, Norway

16. Adoption Ark, USA

17. NAAA, Italy

18. Associazione Ariete Onlus, Italy

19. Children's Home Society & Family Services, USA

20. Danadopt, Denmark

21. DeColores Adoptions International, USA

22. Adoption Alliance, USA

23. Choices Adoption & Counselling, Canada

24. All God's Children International, USA

25. Associazone Amici Trentini, Italy

26. Adoptions Centrum, Sweden

27. Ecai Balbalika, Spain

28. Anpas Associazione Nazionale Pubbliche Assistenze, Italy

29. L'Airone Onlus, Italy

30. Hope Promise, USA

31. Adoption Star, USA

32. Pearl S. Buck International, USA

33. La Vida International, USA

34. Adopt International & Domestic Services, USA

35. Illien Adoptions International Inc, USA

36. The Joy Sowers, Belgium

Terms and Procedures for Adoption of Nepalese Children by Foreign Citizen(Second Amendment), 2067 (2011)

Inter-country Adoption Management Committee (Formation) Order, 2067 (2011)

List of Foreign Agency Enlisted in the Ministry

Definition and Classification of Special Needs Children

Terms and Conditions and process for granting approval for adoption (First Amendment) 2067

Terms and Conditions and process for granting approval for adoption 2065

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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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/

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.
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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.
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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/

U.S. Still Suspects Fraud In Nepalese Orphanages (NPR)

U.S. Still Suspects Fraud In Nepalese Orphanages

by Monica Brady-Myerov

May 10, 2011

Listen to the Story:

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/10/136179395/u-s-still-suspects-fraud-in-nepalese-orphanages

All Things Considered -- National Public Radio


Photo -- Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

The Helpless Children Protection Home is an orphanage in Katmandu. Last August, the U.S. government suspended adoptions from Nepal because it was concerned about fraud in Nepal's adoption system — and there's still concern.


May 10, 2011 from WBUR

Last August, the U.S. government suspended adoptions from Nepal because it was concerned about fraud in Nepal's adoption system. The suspension left dozens of American families in limbo.

After months of investigations almost all of those American families have been granted visas for their adopted Nepali children.

But there's still concern about whether many of Nepal's orphans really are orphans.

Children Sold By Traffickers

The desire to be a mother was so strong for 45-year-old Dee Dee Milton that she went halfway around the world from Boston to Nepal to try to achieve it.

"I tried to adopt through the American foster system here and was not matched with a child and was told they had no idea when I would be matched and if I would ever be matched," she says.

In July, Milton was matched with a 4-year-old Nepali girl. Just after Milton landed in Nepal and took custody of her daughter, Bina, the U.S. closed the program, saying too many children who were reported to be abandoned by their families may actually have been kidnapped or sold into the orphanage system.

Milton and 65 other American families were caught in the middle. Milton ended up living in Nepal and hiring lawyers and investigators to help prove Bina was legitimately abandoned. Milton had to take out a home equity line of credit to afford the delay.

"I was on an unpaid leave from my job, so I literally had no funds coming in the entire time I was gone and then came home to unemployment," she says.

"In the worst cases I've seen ...they are actually forging death certificates for families and putting these children up for international adoption."

- Conor Grennan, founder of Next Generation Nepal, an NGO that has reconnected 400 trafficked children with their families

Janice Jacobs, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, says while she sympathizes with what Milton went through, Nepal's child adoption system isn't trustworthy.

"They estimate — the NGOs with a lot of on-the-ground experience — estimate that perhaps 10 percent of the children who turn up in orphanages are in fact abandoned," she says.

That means as many as 90 percent of children in Nepalese orphanages may have been sold by a child trafficker under false pretenses. UNICEF estimates there are 650,000 orphans in Nepal.

Conor Grennan says that happens all the time. He's the founder of Next Generation Nepal, an NGO that has reconnected 400 trafficked children with their families. He says some of the children have been kidnapped. Other children have been sold by their families to brokers, who claim they will educate and care for them.

"And in the worst cases I've seen ... they are actually forging death certificates for families and putting these children up for international adoption," Grennan says.

Grennan says the child trade continues because it's lucrative. Orphanages can make $5,000 per child from an international adoption — a lot of money in a country where more than half of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, according to UNICEF.

Difficult To Prove Fraud

Five months after Milton went to Nepal, Bina got a U.S. visa once a government investigation found no fraud. Now Bina lives a typical life of an American little girl, attending preschool, visiting her nana and tormenting her cat.

Eventually, U.S. investigators determined there was no fraud in the cases of 65 of the 66 children waiting to be adopted by American families. Only one is still pending, which leads Milton to ask: Where is the fraud?

"I mean, the law of averages and the number of cases — [and] there was absolutely no fraud found?" Milton says.

But proving fraud is very hard, says Grennan. He says the only way is to travel to mountainous villages.

"There's no roads here," Grennan says. "You have to put on a backpack and you have to walk through the mountains and you have to get to the village and you have to say this is where the child is from, are the parents still alive or are they not? To me, that is the proof," he says.

The investigation of Bina Milton and the others was done by a government agency outside Nepal. Jacobs of the State Department says you can't draw conclusions about the adoption system in Nepal from those investigations. She says Nepal will have to make sweeping changes to its child welfare system if the U.S. is to reopen adoption.

"They have to work on a system that builds in better protections for these children and they also have to find ways to look for domestic solutions," she says.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/10/136179395/u-s-still-suspects-fraud-in-nepalese-orphanages



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

Child adoption process to become more credible (The Himalayan Times)



Child adoption process to become more credible

The Himalayan Times

2011-05-08

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) is working on the recommendations of the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International Law to make the adoption process more credible and reliable.

The ministry is gearing up to implement recommendations forwarded by the Permanent Bureau.

The Bureau has recommended that the country control the number of adoption files by publicising detailed profiles of adoptable children on their website. It recommended that recipient countries submit an existing file before working on a new file in the adoption process and provide a chance to older children to express their views and experience on the process.

“We will support almost all the points forwarded by the Permanent Bureau but have some problems in implementing recommendations on the financial aspects due to political instability,” said Sher Jung Karki, undersecretary at the ministry. Recipient states should encourage their development aid bodies to contribute to development of child protection system in Nepal so that Nepal does not have to request adoptive parents and Adoption Accredited Bodies (AAB) to contribute to orphanages (US$ 5,000 and US$ 10,000 respectively).

We have been asked to collect information on the origin of children, including police report and interviews of older children to make the process more reliable and effective, informed Karki.

As per the recommendation, the country will work only with AAB under the Hague Convention and delist agencies that did not process any case in the last ten years. Karki further added they had asked for monitoring the AAB website to ensure accurate information.

The Permanent Bureau, receiving states and organisations will provide assistance to Nepal to develop adequate legal framework for child protection and adoption, mentioned the recommendation, urging the country to recognise the need to make changes and improvements before ratifying the Hague Convention.

The Bureau has also emphasised importance of recipient states being assured that all documentation surrounding the status of the child, adoptability and adoption have been carefully scrutinised and authenticated. They also sought regulation and transparency in costs and fees, and their use.

The Himalayan Times:

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Child+adoption+process+to+become+more+credible&NewsID=287221



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

Commissione per le Adozioni Internazionali (Italy)

Commissione per le Adozioni Internazionali:

http://www.commissioneadozioni.it/it/notizie/2011/comunicato-nepal-.aspx

COMUNICATO: NEPAL (05/04/2011)

Nei giorni 31 marzo e 1° aprile 2011 si è tenuto a Roma un incontro tra una delegazione da rappresentanti del Governo e alti funzionari del Nepal, i vertici del Permanent Bureau della Conferenza di Diritto Internazionale privato de L’Aja e i rappresentanti di 14 Paesi di accoglienza (Belgio, Canada, Danimarca, Francia, Germania, Italia, Paesi Bassi, Norvegia, Spagna, Svezia, Svizzera, Regno Unito, Stati Uniti d’America) ratificanti la Convenzione del 1993. L’incontro, promosso e organizzato dal Permanent Bureau con il supporto della Commissione per le Adozioni Internazionali, è stato determinato dalla necessità di sollecitare e sostenere il Nepal nel processo di adeguamento del proprio sistema normativo e operativo ai principi della Convenzione del 1993, firmata dal Paese asiatico nell’aprile 2009.

Le criticità del sistema nepalese, solo in parte risolte dalle nuove norme introdotte nel 2008, avevano determinato le autorità di tutti i Paesi d’accoglienza a sospendere – già dal giugno 2010 – il deposito di nuovi dossier. In particolare, l’attuale sistema non prevede una reale tutela dei diritti dell’infanzia, non garantisce l’accertamento dello stato di abbandono e non assicura il rispetto del principio di sussidiarietà.

Il sen. Carlo Giovanardi, presidente della Commissione per le Adozioni Internazionali, ha aperto i lavori assicurando il sostegno dell’Italia a tutte le iniziative individuate dalle autorità partecipanti al meeting, volte ad accelerare il processo di cambiamento auspicato.

Le due giornate di lavoro congiunto hanno portato ad una più chiara reciproca comprensione. In particolare, la delegazione nepalese ha confermato la volontà di aderire al programma di assistenza tecnica offerta dal Permanent Bureau, cui i Paesi di accoglienza porteranno il loro supporto. La delegazione ha altresì illustrato le tappe per una serie di riforme già programmate nelle grandi linee, manifestando il bisogno del Paese di interventi di cooperazione per sostenere la transizione. Al riguardo, i Paesi di accoglienza hanno assicurato la volontà di valutare interventi di supporto.

E’ stata comunque confermata la comune decisione di mantenere la sospensione del deposito di nuovi fascicoli, finché il Nepal non avrà raggiunto standard normativi e operativi conformi al “sistema Aja”.E’ stata peraltro espressa alla delegazione nepalese la disponibilità dei Paesi di accoglienza di ricercare soluzioni per i bambini con “bisogni speciali”.


Google Translate:

http://translate.google.com


Ethics, Transparency, Support
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http://www.pear-now.org/

West not impressed by changes in adoption process (Republica)

West not impressed by changes in adoption process

Republica

KIRAN CHAPAGAIN

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Recent government efforts aimed at reforming its widely questioned inter-country adoption practices have failed to impress the United States, one of the main Western countries to stop adoptions from Nepal on grounds of lack of integrity in the system.

The US said the amendment in the adoption process introduced last December is not sufficient to answer questions surrounding inter-country adoptions from Nepal.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs conveyed Washington´s stance on the reform initiatives during her meetings with officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) on Thursday.

“Assistant Secretary Jacobs noted that recent changes to the adoption process in Nepal are inadequate to address concerns about the origin of the children being matched for inter-country adoption,” said Heather Steil, spokesperson at the US embassy, when asked about the US stance on the recent reform measures.

Last December, the government, in the wake up of widespread questions over the adoption system, amended adoption-related provisions, making it mandatory for any children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization facilitating inter-country adoption to submit details about each orphan child to a Probe and Recommendation Committee (PRC) within seven days and to a Family Selection Committee (FSC) under MWCSW within 14 days after the concerned district administration office (DAO) verifies that the child in question is an ´orphan´ or a ´destitute´ seeking foster parents.

In addition, MWCSW has also made it necessary for the children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization to have been engaged for a minimum of six years in the field of child welfare to be eligible for facilitating inter-country adoptions.

The amendment has also provisioned to ´delist´ from its roaster of organizations eligible for inter-country adoption any children´s organization found involved in fraudulent practices. Once ´delisted´, such organizations will be barred from facilitating inter-country adoptions for the next five years.

Jacobs, who arrived here on Wednesday to discuss adoption issues, also conveyed the US government´s concern at lack of integrity and transparency in the adoption system.

Western countries have suspended adoptions from Nepal as investigations by The Hague Conference on Private International Law, an inter-governmental organization based in Holland, last February found the adoption system marred by widespread abuses.

Diplomatic sources told Republica that other countries are also not impressed by the recent steps taken by the government to improve the adoption system. A meeting of the adoption group - a loose alliance of Western countries whose citizens adopt Nepali children - held on January 13, had also concluded that the efforts were not sufficient. In addition, they were also against reopening adoption from Nepal. Besides the US, representatives from the embassies of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Switzerland were present at the meeting called to discuss the reforms introduced in the adoption system in December.

“The U.S. suspension on new adoption cases involving abandoned children will remain in place until substantive progress is made on the issues raised by a February 2010 Hague Convention report,” the US embassy spokesperson further said in a statement to Republica.

The report had called on the government to overhaul the adoption system and even enact legislation so that children are better protected.

Jacobs, during her meeting with government officials here, encouraged the government to work with the international community, including The Hague Permanent Bureau, implement the Hague Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.


Republica 2011-02-19

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28409

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

US bar on Nepali kids' adoption to stay (Kantipur)

US bar on Nepali kids' adoption to stay

Kantipur

BABURAM KHAREL

KATHMANDU, FEB 18 - Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affair Janice Jacob has said that the ban on inter-country adoption from Nepal would remain despite some changes to the adoption process in Nepal.

“The US suspension of inter-country adoption will remain in place until substantive progress is made on the issues raised by a February 2010 Hague Convention report,” said Heather Steil, Spokesperson for the American Embassy in Kathmandu. Assistant Secretary Jacob feels that recent changes to the adoption process in Nepal are "inadequate" to address concerns about the origin of the children being matched for inter-country adoption.

The US decision continues to affect over 80 prospective American parents who have already gone through meticulous paperwork for adoption of Nepali children. Though it is not clear how many American parents have adopted Nepali children so far, according to the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), over 2400 children have been adopted since 2000 by parents in western countries.

The US government in August last year suspended the inter-country adoption involving abandoned children from Nepal questioning the authenticity of the system that has been marred by “fraud and irregularities.”

Jacob—who met officials in the Foreign Ministry, MoWCSW and Prime Minister's Office—encouraged the Nepali officials to work with the international community, including The Hague Permanent Bureau, to implement The Hague Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.

The US government's decision to suspend adoption from Nepal follows a report last February by Hague Conference on Private International Law, an intergovernmental organisation. The report, based on investigation by a group of lawyers, had alleged systemic failure in Nepal's adoption system with widespread abuse and had called for suspension of adoption from Nepal until the system was reformed. Since then, ten other countries—Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Britain—have officially and unofficially suspended adoption from Nepal.

Last year as well, a team from the Department of State had visited Nepal to interact with government officials. The team investigated numerous abandonment cases, including field visits to orphanages and police departments. Its investigation found that documents presented to describe and "prove" abandonment of children in Nepal were unreliable. The US then said in a statement that civil documents such as children's birth certificates often included data that had been changed or fabricated.

Tilak Ram Sharma, acting Secretary of MoWCSW, met Jacob and said that addressing US concerns would take time. He said inter-country adoption was not a priority of the government. "Our primary focus will be to strengthen the domestic adoption in place of inter-country adoption," Sharma said.

http://www.ekantipur.com/2011/02/18/top-story/us-bar-on-nepali-kids-adoption-to-stay/329806.html

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US Asst Secy Arrives Nepal To Discuss Inter-country Adoption (Republica)

US Asst Secy Arrives Nepal To Discuss Inter-country Adoption

KATHMANDU, Feb 16: United States Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday for a two-day visit.

Jacob´s visit comes a day after the US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero, who arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday, wrapped her visit to Nepal.

According to a press statement issued by US Embassy in Kathmandu, the visit will primarily focus on the issue of inter-country adoption from Nepal.

Assistant Secretary Jacobs is scheduled to hold meetings with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) to discuss the US government´s concerns on the inter-country adoption process.

The visit of a senior US official to Kathmandu comes in the wake of concerns being raised by international community that inter-country adoption from Nepal is subject to widespread abuses.

In an apparent bid to address the concerns, the MoWCSW last month amended the conditions and procedures relating to inter-country adoption.


Republica:

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28319

Ethics, Transparency, Support
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Nepal: Corruption and Fraudulent Documents Set Hurdles for Adoption (The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting)

Nepal: Corruption and Fraudulent Documents Set Hurdles for Adoption:

http://pulitzercenter.org/articles/nepal-corruption-fraudulent-documents-adoption

Photo -- Rajan Kumar Nepali sits with his daughter in his house in Ranibari, Kathmandu. He said his daughter was wrongfully placed for adoption with an American family who were getting ready to take her to the United States. Image by Anup Kaphle. Nepal, 2011.

ANUP KAPHLE, FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, NEPAL

Published on February 10, 2011

When Rajan Kumar Nepali handed over his two children to a local orphanage in Kathmandu, he never imagined that they would be put up for adoption.

Rajan was a drug-addict. After being unable to cope with his addiction, Maya, his wife, left him and their two children at their ramshackle rented home about a mile west of the bustling city of Kathmandu. In desperation, Rajan decided to send his children to an orphanage, which he said promised to take care of them while he was in a drug rehabilitation center.

“I thought there were women caretakers at the orphanage who would be able to better care for them,” said Rajan. “I didn’t send my children away so that they could be adopted and taken abroad.”

But his three-year-old daughter was put up for adoption by the orphanage and placed with an American couple, a trend that has developed into lucrative business in Nepal because of the adoption fees that come with it. Last year alone, the Nepali government approved the adoptions of 195 children by international parents, 52 of them going to homes in the United States. But following cases like Rajan, where children were wrongfully put up for adoption, the United States government last August suspended adoptions from Nepal, citing rampant corruption in the system.

The abuse of adoption system is not new to Nepal. Following accusations of falsified documents and unregulated orphanages, the Nepali government shut down its international adoption program three years ago. New legislation later in 2008 banned the adoption of street children, required better verification that a child is an orphan, and established an oversight body to regulate existing orphanages. Under its new program, Nepal now allows two kinds of inter-country adoption: orphans and children voluntarily surrendered by their parents.

The U.S. State Department said cases like Rajan’s have exposed flaws in Nepal’s inter-country adoption system. Consequently, the State Department has cancelled its participation in the program and says it will not renew it until Nepal assures all adoptions are legal and ethical.

“We tried for very long time to work with the Nepalese government but they showed no inclination to work with us on this issue,” said Susan Jacobs, special advisor for international children’s issues at the State Department.

Nepali officials mostly defend their new system, but admit that they have problems at the local level, which is where the documents originate. “We have to depend on the local government for the process -- police, municipality office and district magistrate officers,” said Sher Jung Karki, under-secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.

Another reason the number of adoption scandals has risen is the steep fee that foreigners must pay to orphanages. In an interview with a local orphanage, I learned orphanages can make up to $5,000 per child. Some other orphanages say foreign parents are willing to pay as much as $10,000. This opportunity for easy money led to an increase in the number of orphanages in Nepal, and with limited government oversight, children from the streets and others who had not been volunteered for adoption were put on the adoption market.

With the adoption system currently in limbo, the ones who are suffering are the parents who have already paid the money, have been given the child, but are not allowed to bring the child into the United States until they can prove that child is, in fact, an orphan or legally put up for adoption by the birth parents. In recent weeks, some American parents have been able to bring a Nepali child home, but many children remain stuck in Nepal, awaiting a green light from the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, Rajan and his wife have reunited with both of their children. Rajan said that although the American parents who wanted to adopt his daughter couldn’t do so, they still keep in touch through a pastor at a local church, and occasionally send money to pay for his daughter’s education.

Rajan said he is not against westerners adopting Nepali children. He just wasn’t expecting that those put up for adoption would be his own.

“There are many orphans in Nepal, so maybe it’s good that they get adopted by foreign families, especially those who can’t have children,” he said.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting:

http://pulitzercenter.org/articles/nepal-corruption-fraudulent-documents-adoption

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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