{"id":85184,"date":"2019-01-28T14:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=85184"},"modified":"2019-01-28T14:29:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:29:34","slug":"sri-lankan-adoption-scheme-questionable-but-not-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/01\/28\/sri-lankan-adoption-scheme-questionable-but-not-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan adoption scheme: questionable but not illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Carmela Odoni)\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0 Swissinfo.ch<\/cite><\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Swiss authorities have published a report aimed at shedding light on a long-running, partly illegal adoption programme involving hundreds of children from Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Martin Kl\u00f6ti, a member of the St Gallen cantonal government, said on Monday that it was necessary to account for the past and help the children find their biological parents.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/div>\n

Jacintha came\u00a0from Sri Lanka. When she was one year old her father died and her mother left her with an orphanage. Jacintha then went to live with a foster family in Switzerland.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

He said a private adoption scheme by a social welfare worker Alice Honegger, and lawyer Rukmani Thavanesan, in place since 1948 had official approval and the surveillance authorities were not guilty of any wrongdoing in the legal and social context at the time.<\/p>\n

However, the programme should have been examined more thoroughly amid allegations of abducting and smuggling operations as well as handing out false identities, according to Kl\u00f6ti. He added that the legal situation changed in 1997, notably when Switzerland signed the convention of the rights of the child.<\/p>\n

Criticism of Honegger first emerged in the 1980s, but she was cleared by the international police organisation, Interpol.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0controversy over the adoption scheme resurfaced in 2017<\/a>\u00a0through a television programme in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

An estimated 11,000 toddlers from Sri Lanka are believed to have been brought to European countries for adoption, including about 700 to couples in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

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THE CHANGING FACE OF ADOPTION<\/cite><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2018My parents loved me as if I were their own child\u2019<\/h1>\n
By\u00a0Sibilla Bondolfi<\/a><\/span><\/address>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Schwangere<\/div>
Carmela Harshani Odoni at her home in Bern, Switzerland(Sibilla Bondolfi)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

With photographs and audio recordings, the photographer Carmela Harshani Odoni shows how adoption can be a stroke of good luck or bad luck. She was adopted and taken from Sri Lanka, and to this day, she hasn\u2019t managed to trace her birth parents. Nonetheless, she is happy.<\/p>\n

Carmela Harshani Odoni\u2019s apartment in the Schosshalde district of Bern radiates family contentment and happiness: children\u2018s clothes lie alongside a laptop, a family calendar on the wall reminds everyone to take the dog for a walk, mice are burrowing noisily in sawdust in a spacious cage designed for their comfort. A terrier jumps around barking, gets stroked on his tummy, and then makes himself comfortable on a sofa on the balcony.<\/p>\n

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Carmela Harshani Odoni<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carmela Harshani Odoniexternal link<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was born in 1980 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. When she was three weeks old, she was adopted by Swiss foster parents and grew up in Lucerne. After a photography apprenticeship and an internship at the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, she completed her diploma in press photography at the Swiss School of Journalism (MAZ) in Lucerne and worked as a photographer at the St. Galler Tagblatt. Today she works as a freelance photographer. She has presented her work in numerous exhibitions and won the first\u00a0SonntagsZeitung prizeexternal link<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at the Swiss Photo Awards.<\/p>\n

end of infobox<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the late stages of pregnancy, Odoni remains unruffled despite an impending move to a bigger apartment at the same time as her photography exhibition. She puts some coffee on and calmly recounts how she decided on adoption as the subject for a photo exhibition.<\/p>\n

The search for her birth mother<\/h2>\n

In 2005, she travelled to Sri Lanka to try to find her birth mother. Odoni was adopted by Swiss parents in Colombo when she was just three weeks old. Odoni\u2019s journey was successful \u2013 even if she didn\u2019t find her mother and still doesn\u2019t know who her birth parents are. I didn\u2019t know who I was for a long time,\u201d says Odoni. The trip, which she photographed, has given her stability. Today I know who I am.\u201d Becoming a mother herself helped. I could put down my own roots once I had children,\u201d Odoni says.<\/p>\n

After her Harshani\u201d exhibition, she set aside the subject of adoption for more than ten years. It was only in 2016 that she dug out a project she had started on adopted children in Switzerland and finished it. That led to the current exhibition Who am I? The Changing Face of Adoption.\u201d During this time,\u00a0it became public that in the 1980s Sri Lankan infants were stolen from their mothers<\/a>, sold, and given to foster parents in Switzerland. This scandal really upset me,\u201d Odoni says. The adoption fraud put everything in a new light. If I was taken from my mother against her will, then I would really like to be able to tell her that I am fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Odoni does not expect her birth mother to become a key person in her life; she is happy with her foster parents. My parents loved me as if I were their own child,\u201d she says, and lays her hand on her the baby bump. She learned from her conversations with adopted children that this isn\u2019t always a given. Not all of them were as lucky,\u201d Odoni says. I was shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Gruppenbild<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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PHOTO EXHIBITION<\/cite>“Who am I? The Changing Face of Adoption”<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Bernese photographer Carmela Harshani Odoni is exhibiting a series of black-and-white portraits of adopted people at the Bern Polit-Forum …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The exhibition shows the range of adoptions in Switzerland: Some were born in distant countries, others in Switzerland; one woman was sold as a baby in Sri Lanka, others were forcibly removed from their mothers in Switzerland for their protection. Until 1981, huge numbers of Swiss children were taken away and cared for elsewhere because their parents\u2019 lifestyle didn\u2019t comply with the authorities\u2019 expectations. The authorities frequently took babies away from single mothers directly after their birth and gave them up for adoption \u2013 sometimes against the will of the mothers.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know about these forcible precautionary care measures before,\u201d Odoni says. I was shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Odoni tried to be balanced in choosing those she portrayed. In about half the stories, the adoption went well \u2013 in the other half, it didn\u2019t,\u201d she says. After all the life stories she has heard, she says: It varies greatly from case to case \u2013 adoption can be a stroke of good fortune or bad luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am happy,\u201d Odoni says of herself and her life story. This is obvious when you meet her. After reflecting for a moment, she elaborates. Sometimes I hear that I should be glad to have come to Switzerland from a third-world country,\u201d Odoni says. That is partly true. But sometimes it\u2019s a burden as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her exhibition aims to enlighten people about adoption. She doesn\u2019t want to present adoption as good or bad. I don\u2019t judge adoption,\u201d Odoni says.<\/p>\n

Let the eyes talk<\/h2>\n

The exhibition displays black-and-white portraits, audio recordings and a short film. In the recordings, those portrayed discuss what they think about adoption. Odoni is seeking to give adopted children a voice.<\/p>\n

Her photographs are analogue and medium format, and she developed the films herself in the dark room. You photograph more slowly and with more concentration\u201d with analogue photography, she says. The portraits are black and white to allow the eyes and facial expression to speak, because black-and-white photography reduces the background, Odoni explains.<\/p>\n

As a photographer, Odoni has always been interested in story-telling and encounters with people. I like to see people\u2019s trust in the pictures,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t know those portrayed before, but says that from the beginning, there was a lot of trust. It was as though we knew each other. We didn\u2019t have to explain ourselves to each other.\u201d She developed a friendship with all those she photographed.<\/p>\n

And how did Odoni\u2019s own story continue after the Sri Lankan adoption scandal was exposed? She has done a DNA test and is waiting for the results. But Odoni doesn\u2019t complain about her fate. An adopted child takes a different path, but that is part of life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The exhibition\u00a0Who Am I? The Changing Face of Adoption\u201dexternal link<\/span><\/a>\u00a0runs from August 13 to September 21 at the Bern Polit-Forum in the K\u00e4figturm and is accompanied by a range of panel discussions – for example on the subject of forced adoptions in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Translated from German by Catherine Hickley<\/address>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Carmela Odoni)\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0 Swissinfo.ch The Swiss authorities have published a report aimed at shedding light on a long-running, partly illegal adoption programme involving hundreds of children from Sri Lanka. Martin Kl\u00f6ti, a member of the St Gallen cantonal government, said on Monday that it was necessary to account for the past and help the children find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}