Court allows couples who gave children up for adoption to take them back
By Tan Ju-Eng
December 10, 2011 / thestar.com.my
PETALING JAYA: Two toddlers were finally “reunited” with their mum and dad when the Children’s Court here allowed the parents to withdraw their consent to give the children up for adoption.
The court has also ordered that another two toddlers be placed under Yayasan Chow Kit’s (YCK) care until their parents’ whereabouts can be traced.
The decision on Thursday follows an application by the Welfare Department for a permanent order to have the four placed in a children’s welfare home in Kuala Kangsar.
The toddlers were separated from their families two years ago when they were given to a private welfare home in Ulu Tiram, Johor, by their unwed parents for temporary care.
The desperate and illiterate parents were asked to sign a document and told that it was a consent form to allow the welfare home to care for the babies until the parents were ready to take them back.
In reality, they were giving up their babies for adoption.
Their case came to light when the home’s caregiver contacted YCK’s Dr Hartini Zainuddin in September, asking for help to take the four boys away as it had run out of funds.
Dr Hartini picked up the boys and notified the department, as required by the Child Act Section 35, that the children were in YCK’s care.
However, when the department realised that YCK did not have the proper documents to keep the children, they placed the toddlers at the Kuala Kangsar home.
On Oct 6, the department sought the Children’s Court here to seek a protection order to have the children temporarily placed where they were for two months pending investigations.
YCK, meanwhile, sought the help of the Johor Welfare Department and non-governmental organisations to trace the boys’ parents.
“They managed to find the parents of two of the toddlers,” said YCK’s counsel Pramodini Nair.
“One has since become a mother of 10 whose husband had died of cancer,” Pramodini said, adding that she was now settled with a steady income and wanted to take her son back.
Login to http://SwitchUp.TV/ to watch a parent tell his story about giving up his son.