Shapla Community
DNA & Family Finder Bangladesh
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for free DNA kits for Bangladeshi families in search of their child(ren)
Reconnection Program
2. Organizations to be contacted
For more information on your case you may contact:
- the lawyer that helped your adoptive parents with the adoption
- the Ministery of Justice in your country or Child Protection Service
- the adoption agency involved in your adoption*
- the Ministery of Social Affairs in Bangladesh
- the babyhome that you have been in*
*usually a babyhome wont provide you the files, but you may be lucky when you get there by yoursef to visit in person without prior announcement on the purpose of your visit.
*the adoption agency or middleperson may know about any malpractices in the past and therefore not willing to help in any case.
For the Ministeries you may need to apply officially and based on the Right to Information Act. This can take a long time before it is arranged.
Herewith you can download the Factsheet (english version) to collect all details for your case in a nice overview.
1. Adoptionfile
The content of your adoptionfile differ per country and organization.
Netherlands
In case you do not have your official adoptionpapers and it is no option to get them from your adoptionparents, you can try to collect them from the adoption agency Wereldkinderen. Also the adoptees who came through BANND or Salvation Army can sent a request to Wereldkinderen since they are the official custodian of the files asappointed by the Dutch government. Note that all files are being store in an external archive and therefor a €25,- handling fee will be charged. It is not possible to know in advance which papers are in your file. If nothing is found, the fee will be refunded.
Here is how to collect your file:
- write an email to info@wereldkinderen.nl mentioning
- your original name,
- country of origin,
- date of arrival,
- names of adoptionfather and -mother,
- your current postal addres for the invoice and papers and
- a legitimate ID.
-
write een email to the regionoffice of the Child Protection Service of the area where you grew up. See the link at their website.
- If you want Shapla Community to arrange all this, you can authorize us by sending us an email with the information as mentioned in point 1.
We advice you to directly secure all your information by making a photocopy or scan of all papers and safe them on your computer. You can also safe your papers at Shapla Viadesk, a secured online office, where you can keep your papers in your own personal file with login and password. Apply for your login details through our contactform.
The adoptionfile for Bangladesh should consist of the following documents:
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Affidavit or relinquisement (afstandsverklaring)
-
Adoptionstory (backgroundinformation)
-
Transfer of Guardianship (Blue Paper) (overdrachtspapier)
-
Bangladeshi passport
-
List of arrival group*
-
Other documents
Among other documents can be:
-
medical check
-
Applicationforms of adoptionparents for the adoption*
-
Court papers*
-
Report of the Child Protection Service*
* these papers will not be provided anymore due to the GDBR regulations.
You can download this Factsheet form (NL) to collect all necessary details from your papers for a nice overview.
Canada
Unfortunately the adoptionfiles in Canada are in the hands of a private person and there is no official governemental organization that is in charge of securing the adoption files. The only way, if there is information at all, is to collect as much information as possible from your adoptive parents.
Denmark
Danish adoptees have the chance to collect information from their adoptive parents or to apply for their files at ... The organization that arranged the adoptions from Bangladesh to Denmark is Terres des Hommes Denmark. Unfortunately the files have been in the hands of a private person as well and so it is not sure where they are now.
Sweden
Family Search
You have decided to search. Where to start? Herewith we give you a plan on how and where to start with you searchquest.
3. Undercover search
Searching is a complex thing, it is a process and can be a very emotionally pressing issue for the involved person(s). Something that should not be underestimated.
Also it is not difficult to find a helpfull Bangladeshi, but for all people counts: does he or she understand what is a search? What will happen if one way of searching has been chosen or what is expected with another way? The way we look at things in the west is completely different than how it is working in Bangladesh. And even most Bangladeshi people themselves cannot understand or predict a search process, what it takes and what is underneath.
Besides we do not know what may have been the initial reason that a child have gone for adoption: was it given up by the mother with consent, was it brought to the babyhome by the father, was it born out of wedlock, was it taken by an aunt for work in the big city, did it run away....? We do not know. We alo do not know what we may find or what is the situation we meet at this moment. Therefore we prefer to work initially as discrete as possible. There are several ways to handle the situation, for which the options need to be analysed carefully and for every case differently.
In case you do not want to go searching yourself yet, you may want to start with the services of the Shapla Tracing Team. We can rely on 25 years of search experience and have gathered quite some knowledge: about the country, about the people, the work itself and the involved processes. Analysing the various ways of searching and experiences from many adoptees, we developed our own method. Allthough this is no guarantee for success, it has proven to be succesfull with 25 cases solved in only two years time.
With good support we are able to increase our capacities and scale up on the search activities.
Working undercover will buy you some time in case you are not fully ready for it yet. You yourself will remain at safe distance and can judge from a more objective point of view in your own environment. Another advantage can be that you get the chance to collect information from a blanc sheet, where nobody is prejudiced and information is not being influenced by any foreknowledge of the story or person yet.
If you would like us to search for you, then you can register yourself by sending us an email.
4. Public search
Either immediately or later after trying to search from a safe distance, you may want to give more publicity to your case. Then you better get prepared yourself first!
Meaning you need to be aware that many people may want to decide for you what to say or do, journalists may want to bring out your story in the news, and you need to be prepared for unpleasant questions or remarks. Also you will be contacted by all kinds of people which can be hard to distinghuish who is sincere or not. It can all be very overwhelming.
Besides think about possible effects for the family you are searching for.
Therefore it can help to write down for yourself what you want and what you definitely do nòt want to say or happen and try to stick to that. Stay in control! Best would be to arrange a qualified person who can be the contactperson and filter all reactions for you.
When you are prepared and ready to take off, there are several things you can try:
- Make a flyer. This can be a digital ad and/or for a printed version to spread around in the area. It can say your original name, age, year of adoption and the names of father and mother. Add a photo of the age that you left and a recent photo. In Bangla and/or in English. Make sure you are keeping some details of your story for yourself in order to be able to cross-check with the people that come forward. In case you have birthmarks, this would be good details to keep for yourself.
- Share your ad on Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Try to let your spokesperson place your ad at as much platforms as possible. You can also browse the net for people with matching names. Allthough in the case of Bangladesh, with limited choice of Muslim names and no clear pattern in the name registrations, as well as all kind of different spellings of a name, it may seem like an impossible task to find the right person. But you can never know... Millions of people are using Facebook, and allthough the older generation is mostly illiterate, their children or grandchildren usually can read.
- Make an own Facebook or Blog page of your search quest. This serves as a central point for people to get to and see all information and developments at once.
- Make a video call of yourself and share this at social media, YouTube, Twitter.
- Become member of Facebook groups active in the local area you are searching. You can see if you can find a reliable person in the area that want to help voluntarily.
- Make a press release and sent your story to journalists for local and national newspapers, digital newspapers and television stations.
Note: it would be very noble to collect all information that will get to you as a result of your publicity, even if it has nothing to do with your own case. It may help for an other adoptee's case!
Therefore it would be good to collect the information at a central point --> this is exactly why we set up Shapla Community in the first place: to collect all pieces of the puzzle and bring them together. In this way we can work all together and solve cases.
