Message from Martijn

My name is Martijn and I have a very important message for all Indian adoptees, especially for those that come from the orphanage in Moodabidri!I was born in the orphanage in Moodabidri ( near Mangalore ) in the state of Karnataka . I have had for a long time a desire to find my biological mother and I have tried to do this on my own, along with two friends (also from Moodabidri). We have approached Wereldkinderen (the Dutch adoption agency who also arranged our adoption) and they would set up a feasibility study to see if it was possible to do a search. We also have approached the Red Cross and the ISS, but we were quickly told that they could not and wanted not to do a search. We were then kept on a leash by Wereldkinderen for about a year. The feasibility study was repeatedly postponed and we have then lost the confidence in them.

We then got in touch with the organization ‘Against Child Trafficking (ACT). This organization has successfully performed many searches. It is not a commercial organization, but the searches they have done are often because some adoptions have not been performed legally (through kidnapping , etc.) and they have tried to the find out the truth. We trusted them because they showed to have much experience with these searches, especially when it comes to trying to obtain the documents from the orphanages. These orphanages have these documents from the time of the adoption, including the names of the mother and father (if known ) and the time of birth, adoption , etc. These documents are generally not released by the orphanages.

The man behind ACT is Arun Dohle and he himself is adopted and he has won several lawsuits in India, he even had to go to the Supreme Court in India so that his documents were given to him. In our situation, Arun , along with Anjali (an Indian social worker from ACT) went to Moodabidri to obtain these documents.

The priest of the orphanage did not want to release these documents but he has eventually given them after considerable pressure from ACT. Thanks to these documents all our mothers were found. I myself went to India last September to meet my family. This time accompanied by Anjali, who was present to help with any social differences. We have also been looking for my biological father, who’s name was also described in the documents and thanks to Anjali we eventually found him and I could meet him.

It was a very nice experience to finally meet my biological family I am writing this post now because I give the message to anyone who wants to search themselves also. Especially if you come from Moodabidri then these documents are now free to get. Some urgency is needed, because the priest is quite old and it is not certain whether these documents are still freely available after his death. Even if you do not come from Moodabidri then ACT can still help you get this information .

Kind regards,

Martijn

Adoptees ” My Story”