Child Protection India Project #19906

Safe care and adoption for Indian Babies

by Snehalaya 'Home of Love'

Safe care and adoption for Indian Babies

Project Report | May 26, 2020
Keeping babies safe during Corona

By Girish Kulkarni | Founder

Blissfully unaware of COVID 19

We sincerely hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during these unprecedented times. As a valued supporter of our Adoption Center we want to reassure you that the love and care of the babies in our care continues despite the challenges the current pandemic and lock down is presenting on a daily basis.

Maharashtra, where we are based, currently has registered the largest number of confirmed cases in India and as a result we have been on lock down since 24 March. Before the national and state governments intervened, we had already taken action by stopping visitors to our 23 projects, reducing our field work and providing our staff and beneficiaries with health and sanitation support. As a direct result of our early interventions, we are happy to report that so far we have no suspected cases of the virus.

Despite a reduction in our services, many of our staff remain at work to provide support to our beneficiaries who do not have homes or families they can safely return back to. The same applies at our Snehankur Adoption Centre, which has been closed to visitors since March. A skeleton staff includes our caregivers and we are conducting regular disinfecting of the premises, floors, toys, and so on, as well as monitoring children for signs of flu and crisis management planning.

Unfortunately the lock down means that pregnant women and girls are unable to access maternity hospitals and are being forced to give birth at home. Normally we rely on maternity hospitals and professionals to refer underage pregnant girls to us so we can support them through their pregnancy and take over responsibility for their unwanted babies if that is what they chose. With a lack of access to maternity services we are already seeing an increase in abandoned babies. In the past week alone, two newborns have been left on the street and found by our supporters who fortunately heard their cries in time. We were able to find one mother, a 16 year old girl forced to give birth at home after which her parents threw her baby away! Despite our search we have been unable to find the mother of the second baby. We are glad to report that both babies are now healthy and safe in our center.

We remain worried about all of the other pregnancies being conducted at home without adequate support both for delivery and those unable to care for their newborn. Our Snehankur team continues to support those who approach us for help while our volunteers, Childline team, women's shelter and other staff continue to remain vigilant in searching for others through our regular nightly patrols and socially distanced outreach work.

With all adoptions currently on hold, our center is already over capacity with 36 babies awaiting adoption. Our team is dedicated and is managing but, as we are unable to employ additional staff, our already limited resources are becoming overstretched. With no end to lockdown in sight we are doing everything we can, but are also deeply concerned on the lasting impact in our communities and how we will manage the anticipated increase in demand for our support post-lockdown.

While Snehalaya is responding to the immediate crisis and the well-publicised plights of daily wage and migrant workers through a range of aid packages and practical support, we also continue to work for and with our existing beneficiaries, including the babies, and other communities most affected by the lock down. Your support has never been so vital. We understand your own situation may prevent you from donating at this time but you can still help by spreading the word about our work and raising awareness of the situation for unmarried others, pregnant women and abandoned babies in India.

Never before has it been so important to know that we are all in this together. Please take good care to stay safe and healthy.

Still locating & rescuing newborn infants

Keeping our center Corona-free

Links:

Permalink

Jan 27, 2020
A Family Completed

By Nick Cox | Honorary Director

Proud Daddy

Happy new year!

No sooner had we welcomed in 2020, another adoption was taking place at Snehankur. The adoptive parents who had met their infant a few weeks previously could barely contain their excitement. Our Snehankur Adoption Center is the largest in India and with almost 1,000 adoptions since it was established in 2004, each official handover ceremony remains unique.

Many people ask how the babies come to be here? Each have their own individual story. Common reasons for a baby being abandoned is often because they were born to people from low economic backgrounds, or they have a defect in some way or just simply because they are a girl - over 90% of our babaies are girls! Before the adoption there are many papers to be signed and Balu, a former lawyer who is now our project manager, is a regular in the Ahmednagar courts, as there are many legal requirements to meet. If a baby is found there is a two month window period until the baby is eligible for adoption. They are then registered on the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA: the government agency) website where proseepctive adoptive parents can find their future son or daughter. Most of our adoptions are with Indian parents, however, if a child is passed over three times by an Indian couple hey become free for international adoption.

Snehalaya's official handover ceremonies, where the child is formally handed to its new parents, are attended by local officials, dignitaries and in some cases the person who brought the rejected child to us. All who are present can’t help feeling overwhelmed and privileged to witness the important event that is taking place. Needless to say the couples who are finally united with their toddler express their deep gratitude and love for the new life that is in their lives, tears are shed and it can be an emotional occasion for all concerned. Like any proud new parents the baby is cradled in arms and shown to all who come to congratulate them, then there's the collective sound of clicks as hundreds of photos are taken for the family album.

Witnessing Snehankur in action can be a breathtaking experience, although many of the babies arrive in poor shape, our center boasts a 100% mortality rate.

Thank you for choosing Snehankur and the part you have played in transforming the lives of nearly 1,000 children and their adoptive parents.

Thank you for holding hands with us

Links:

Visit our website

Permalink

Nov 4, 2019
A vital service for teens

By Joyce Connolly | Honorary Director

Childhood not motherhood!

Thank you for supporting our Adoption Center, you are helping us to continue to be the biggest center in India having adopted over 700 children since 2004. Our umbrella organisation, Snehalaya was established in 1989 which means we are currently celebrating 30 years of empowering women and children and support from people like you.

Following our philosophy that ‘every woman and child has the right to live a life free from inequality, cruelty and discrimination,’ our adoption center was primarily formed to provide support to girls and women too young or unable to look after their babies themselves.

Today many are referred through our network of health professionals, NGOs, volunteers, supporters and government agencies, meaning we are often able to reach them early to support them through their pregnancy. It was a very different story when we first opened our doors with many of the babies we took into our care having been abandoned in public places and found by our volunteers and Childline team on their daily rounds of transport hubs, temples, hospitals and other public spaces. Therefore we are pleased to report that our intervention and promotion of our service means that now less than 2% of babies reach us this way.

However demand for our services remains high, particularly from minor girls as, according to figures given by the High Courts of India, incidents of child abuse are registered every five minutes. In 2016, statistics from National Crimes Records Bureau registered 19,765 cases of rape under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Therefore, along with a high prevalence of child marriage, it’s not surprising that 11 percent of the world’s teenage pregnancies happen in India, meaning 16 million Indian women between the ages of 15-19 become mothers each year.

It’s thanks to you that we are there to help young girls like Devi who was raped while grazing the family sheep. Coming from a very poor rural family, the 14 year-old was terrified when she realized she was pregnant. Unsurprisingly she had been traumatised by her rape and the resulting pregnancy sending her into a severe depression. Unable to help, her family brought her to Snehankur where we gave her shelter, prenatal and counseling support.

Devi’s depression continued after delivering her baby girl, who she gave up for adoption, and in no fit state to return home, we transferred her to our Snehadhar project where she could access further medical support and psychological counseling. Gradually, with regular counseling, love and care, Devi came out of her depression. She felt able to go back to her family and village where our local volunteers took on responsibility for her completing her education and, having recently graduated in the arts, she is now looking forward to the future.

Thank you so much for supporting Devi and her little girl, without you and Snehalaya who knows where they would have ended up!

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ... 13 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.