Spanish couple gives Nashik orphan wings

NASHIK: Six-year-old Aditya got a fresh lease of life on Tuesday when a Spanish couple decided to adopt him from a city orphanage, Adharashram.
Maria Jose Jimenez and Felipe Puigsener took Aditya, their second adopted child, to Mumbai on Tuesday sfrom where they would by flying to their home town Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Before this, the couple had adopted their first child, Alex, from China, who is seven years old now.Alex had some minor medical problem when the couple adopted him, which has now been treated. Meanwhile, Aditya, who was brought to the orphanage when he was barely a day old, suffers from a digestion problem.
"He was unable to pass urine or stool. Medical examination showed that his intestines were twisted. He was operated twice and while he is fine now, he still needs special care as some parts of his intestine had to be removed," said Nisha Patil, secretary of Adharashram.
Aditya, who has been staying at Adharashram for the last six years is a child with special needs and has been adopted under the central government's scheme of 'Assistance to Homes for Children (Shishu Greh) to Promote In-country Adoption'. The scheme is implemented by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The couple and their first child, Alex, gelled well with Aditya from the first meeting, which made it easier for the caretakers of the orphanage to cajole the boy into moving in with his new family. "We told him that they were his parents and he was comfortable. On Monday, he was with them in their hotel room and they were all very happy," said Patil.
"We don't have any medical problems in conceiving a child of our own, but we decided to adopt instead and were keen on adopting one from India. When Aditya grows up we will tell him that people in India love him very much," said Maria.
When asked about the difficulty in Aditya picking up a foreign language, Maria said that children pick up languages in three months and Alex too picked up the language in three months.
Felipe, a mechanical engineer whose office is located close to his home, has made it a practice to have lunch with his family everyday. Maria, on the other hand, works in a social organisation. For them, family is their first priority.
"This is the first such case in Maharashtra where a child has been adopted through the coordination of two organisations under the government of India's scheme," said Sunil Kumar Arora, executive director of Bal Asha Trust. "There are only 69 licensed organisations for inter-country adoption and ours is one of them," said Arora.
"As per the CARA's guidelines, the orphanage should have license for international adoption. But those which are not licensed can upload information about children with need for special caring on CARING (Child Adoption Information and Guidance), software of CARA. This is linked with international adoption centres," said Rahul Jadhav, coordinator of the adoption programme at Adharashram.
A joint petition was signed between Adharashram and the Bal Asha Trust, a Mumbai-based licensed organisation for international adoption. Aditya's details were sent to CARA that approved him as a special child. Later, the details of the child and the couple were exchanged and all the formalities and confirmation of both the parties were made. Adharashram and Bal Asha Trust filed an affidavit at the Bombay High Court where the couple had to submit a fixed deposit of Rs 2 lakh in the child's name as security till the court passed the order. The affidavit got the seal of the home minister and the Spanish government. The child's passport was made and as per the travel plan the couple was to arrive in the city on May 20. Adharashram called them a day earlier so that they could get familiar with the child before they took him.
The 60-year-old Adharashram has given 620 children for adoption in India and 17 to foreigners till 1987 but Aditya is the first child with special needs to be adopted by a foreign couple.