Talk Talk

Wed Jan 6 – With 20 minutes on the clock and gulping a chapatti in my dusty hotel room I visited two agencies and talked to one in Mumbai and didn’t get a good sense that there are any children. The first agency’s director Ms. Nagpurcar was very glad to receive me but they were more or less looking for money for Foster Parents – children that have been adopted but waiting in Foster home until parents come and pick them up from abroad. The director was very willing to send our applications to internal agencies if there are any children so they can transfer them to their agency on our behalf.

The second agency – was a true orphanage. They have babies to grown teenage girls. The assistant director Ms. Shaw was very cautious to talk to me. I had permission from her boss earlier (who couldn’t be at the agency since she was working from home) that day that I could visit the children but Ms. Shaw wasn’t going to let me until she verified with her boss on the phone. The orphanage was clean – and there was a room with small babies no more than few weeks old... under a care of doctor and nurse around the clock which was a good sign. They babies were sleeping and looked like a typical hospital baby room.

Another room with slightly grown babies – 3 months to 9 months... where some were sleeping in cribs and some playing and again they looked very healthy and playful and some even smiled at me 

Then she took me to another room where the room had about 25 children - boys one side and the girls on the other side from ages 3 to 5 were drinking milk and playing with each other and talking to the caregiver. They all looked beautiful and healthy, only child had a small disability but they were so happy to see me and came and surrounded me and said “hello didi” meaning “hello sister” (if they only knew how old I was hee hee). They were fascinated with me and came near and touched me and ran away. They were very sweet but not shy and very well adjusted. Didn’t see a single one cry or sit alone.

In the 2nd floor there was a play area where it had about 10 kids in the age of 1 to 2 and as soon as they saw me, they ran to me and wanted me to pick them up. I’ve heard this from other parents who adopted that they children love strangers and thinking they are going to be taken away by new parents so they ask you to pick them up and take them away. They were so cute and some spoke and some didn’t but were fascinated by my earrings and hair and were not shy to touch me or talk to me, again saying “didi” –”sister”.

Ms. Shaw took me to the kinder garden area – where there was a class room filled with 6 year olds where they had English lesson and were singing nursery rhymes. They wanted to practice their English and stated to say “What is your name” “I love Apple” – very sweet.

Most agencies don’t keep boys after they reach 5 years old and they are sent to an all boys orphanage. There are girls here up to the age of college – as they grow up in the agency and go to school outside and stay in the residency area until they get a job and move out. I’ve seen this in Nagapattinam when I visited an orphanage during the tsunami time.

I wasn’t allowed to take photographs so I could only take picture from the outside. I totally understand their policy as it’s to protect the children. I was very glad to see they had healthy babies and children but the problem is shortage of healthy children as most of them are waiting for their adoptive parents to pickup them up except the older kids – after 5 years old.

Adoption has increased in India as the middle class has grown and they are no longer adopting within families or private so the government owned ones have real shortage of healthy children.

The director said even though there are millions of children in the street, they are there due to their parents or relatives putting them in the street. No matter if they are in the street, there is a guardian somewhere in India for them even though it doesn’t seem like it and they are not ready to relinquish their guardian or parental rights to those children.

Thursday Jan 7 – I talked to another agency on the phone since she didn’t want me to come by as they had no children. She was very helpful and echoed the same as the first one - no children. She said if I mailed her my forms she would keep it in their file and send copies to local agencies and transfer any child to their agency for international adoption but at the moment nothing.

This is Mumbai so far – there are more agencies in Mumbai that I will courier my forms to from Tamil Nadu and follow up.