Safe care and adoption for Indian Babies

Thank you so much for your support. Youa re enabling us to ensure babies have the best chance in life. Ideally children belong in their birth families and our Snehankur project works with all of our 20+ Snehalaya projects to keep mthers and their babies together wherever possible. Here we share on example.

Recently, a social worker from our district contacted our team about a 36-year-old pregnant woman who needed our help. Reaching the police station, our team took over responsibility for her, immediately finding her to be eight months pregnant.

With COVID restrictions still in place at the time, she was first admitted to our Caring Friend's Hospital, spending eight days in quarantine. She was not very coherent and was constantly referring to her family but could not give her husband's full name. She explained that she had left home after a quarrel and, being uneducated, had no money or identification.

After quarantine, she was placed in our shelter home, where she started mingling, laughing, and playing with the women. Our team managed to find receipts for the woman and her husband along with a copy of her mother's Aadhar card in her belongings. This helped us locate her mother's village in Aurangabad District. We were able to call her cousin, who told us she had run away from home two to three years ago. Unfortunately, we were also told her mother could not take care of her daughter, and no one else was ready to take care of her either.

We decided to focus on the search for her husband, and although she had no other information, she did mention Pimpalgaon village. We took the help of the police to find out more about the town, but they drew a blank. Looking back over the receipts we had found, we were able to find another address and make contact with someone from that village. We were told that the woman's husband was mentally ill and had not been seen for ten days. Meanwhile, her pregnancy was advancing, and after 15 days in Snehalaya, she was admitted to a private hospital for three days.

The woman's behavior changed dramatically; she started singing loudly, laughing out loud, jumping on her bed, blabbering, and trying to run away from the project. She was diagnosed as mentally ill. We searched for organizations working for psychiatric patients who may be able to help her, but none were willing to take her until after she had delivered her baby.

After safely giving birth to her baby girl child, we took her back to our shelter for one month's recovery time. Finally, we were able to admit her for psychiatric treatment. We continue to visit her to check in on her significant progress, and she is looking forward to being reunited with her daughter, who is currently still in our care.

Every penny you donate counts towards transforming lives of so many vulnerable women and girls, thank you. This July Bonus day those pennies go even further with all donations made on 20 July being matched by GlobalGiving. Any amount you can send will go a long way in empowering more women and babies like this.

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• Visit our website

Thank you so much for supporting our infants and young children here in India. Unfortunately in a system already burdened with children waiting for new families and homes, the pandemic is causing even more delays in placing children through the government system, so your contributions have never been so vital. There is an increasing number of COVID orphans on top of the children with disabilities that have already been waiting for some time. It is a sad fact that while we do have many Indian families wishing to adopt they are less likely to take on a child with disabilities and most of these children are put up for international adoption instead. Every adoption we process is a celebration with a special handover ceremony to mark the event. However there is extra cause to celebrate when our special children find their new home. This is just one recent story.

Sameer's mother had four sisters and was married off at an early age by her parents who were working as laborers. Her husband was disabled and addicted, so Sameer's mother worked as a laborer to support the family as best she could, but their financial situation was highly challenging. If she did not pay for his alcohol, her husband would abuse her physically and psychologically.

The husband’s behavior worsened, and one day he threw the mother and disabled son out of the house. She went to the train station where she contacted her parents and, after waiting at the train station for four to five days, she returned to her father, a porter, and started working as a laborer.

After some time, her husband turned up and brought her back home. However, his behavior had not changed. When she became pregnant again, he was not ready to support her or his son who needed medical treatment. The mother gave birth to her second son, Sameer, at a government hospital in Ahmednagar.

Unfortunately, her second son was also born with a mental disability and she shared her concerns about how she was going to be able to also take care of this baby with hospital staff and doctors. They contacted Snehankur who counselled her before completing all the legal procedures to admit Sameer and start the medical treatments he needed. We also gave Sameer's elder brother medical treatment and supported his mother to live independently.

Sameer began to grow slowly but needed multiple interventions by Dr Sunil Sable (ophthalmologist) and Dr Suchit Tamboli (pediatrician specializing in special needs children). He was registered in the CARA adoption system but no Indian parents were willing to take on Sameer’s multiple health issues. Having exhausted the Indian options, Sameer was freed for international adoption.

Sameer’s profile was seen by parents looking to adopt in the USA and happily started the adoption process. After two years living in Snehankur’s care, Sameer was fondly loved by our staff, but they were also very happy to hand over a very handsome and smiling Sameer to his new parents and his new life in the USA.

As you can see your support of our work goes way beyond rescuing and sheltering babies, we are also able to stregthen and liberate families from some of the most dire situations. We not be able to do this without you and I am incredibly grateful to have you in our extended family.

Links:

• Visit our website