Written by Smriti Gupta, co-founder of WAIC.
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8-year old girl finds her permanent home after a rough start
One of the first cases WAIC tackled in our very first pilot district, was of an 8-year old girl, who had been in shelters since she was 5. She was found on a railway station in Telangana, and then shifted to Maharashtra (because she spoke Marathi), which means her case involved 2 States. We had just started working in both States. Our co-founders and team on the ground chased the case through the shelters, police stations, and government officials in both States and the child was declared legally free for adoption after several months. Imagine our joy when we found out that she was matched with a family.
The day she left for home with her family, we got a call from the shelter saying that the child was anxious and crying, and the new adoptive mother didn’t know what to do. We immediately reached out to an experienced adoptive mom who had adopted an older daughter, and connected her to the new mom. The connection helped. The new mom calmed down. The child eventually calmed down and settled. Our case worker kept following up on the case and was invited to the girl’s birthday party one year later. He skipped the party to give the child space to continue bonding with her new family, but she will forever have our best wishes.
Child protection officer publicly acknowledges WAIC’s work on X/Twitter
Nagarkurnool district in Telangana had not put any kids from shelters into the legal adoption pool due to lack of training/awareness about adoption laws and processes in the district. After WAIC entered the district in September, 2023, five children came into the legal adoption pool through extensive work by WAIC caseworkers, and the consistent support and involvement of the district officials. The Protection Officer-Non-Institutional Care (PONIC), Shri Mallesh Yadav, not only acknowledged WAIC’s contribution, but also publicly appreciated our work. Check out his tweets below:
https://x.com/MalleshBaddela/status/1818621123682304101
https://x.com/MalleshBaddela/status/1818619184898822591
https://x.com/MalleshBaddela/status/1818619832226705716
The WAIC ground team is used to working with a range of shelters and government officials, ranging from highly supportive to more resistant individuals/teams, so we are grateful for officers like Shri Mallesh Yadav who focus on the best interest of the children ensuring our work is smoother and within the prescribed timelines.
New WAIC project associate finds his own support system
As the adoption ecosystem is complex and distributed, we diligently train our project associates about the processes and prescribed timelines. But we can’t always solve every challenge for our team on the ground, which means every project associate needs to be resourceful to get the work done. When our new associate in Karnataka, Chalapathi, joined our team, he quickly realized that he would need to gain the trust of the government officials and Child Welfare Committee members in the district. He networked with a senior social worker (not a WAIC or government employee) who had done good work in the child protection space. The senior social worker helped Chalapathi introduce and establish himself with the government officials and Child Welfare Committee, and then as WAIC’s work progressed in the district, the work spoke for itself. We are in awe of every member of our team as they navigate small and big challenges on the ground and find creative solutions.
As always, thanks to all our donors, supporters, and well-wishers, on behalf of the children whose cases we work on, and on behalf of our team. #AFamily4EveryChild
