A state-level orientation program on adoption was held recently in Lucknow, India, with the aim of increasing awareness locally on the issues of adoption in that country.

Domestic Indian adoptions continue to lack popularity, with most people determined to avoid adopting a child.

Also on the agenda, uniformity in adoption rules to remove much of what can be cumbersome when the many religions in the country approach the process.

Also... more

An FYI: My Internet access has been, shall we say, unreliable lately? That's putting is as nicely as possible. The consequence of this is that I have not been posting as much as usual, my research has been limited, and I have not been using as many images as I normally do. I keep being assured that it will be back to full form 'any minute now'. You'll know when it is, as my blogs will be more frequent, and more interesting.

Conflicts cause orphans. That's not news at all, but it's good to post reminders of how this works from time to time.

Official sources on the Pakistani side of Kashmir are ... more

Along with having just about everything else wrong with the country, Zimbabwe now has the world's highest percentage of children orphaned by AIDS, according to UNICEF. Almost one in every four children ... 1.6 million ... has lost at lease one parent to the virus, not surprising when you learn that 3,000 people are dying of AIDS every week.

UNICEF said it had received... more