Parents who have adopted children from India have appealed for compassion, understanding and support after the tragic story of a Maltese man who contracted COVID-19 as he went to pick up his newly-adopted daughter from New Delhi and died just before he was medically evacuated to Malta.
“What people don’t understand is that we go to pick up our children. The pandemic will not stop us. If anything, it will make you want to get your child home safely. They say you will go to hell and back for your children. A pandemic won’t stop a parent,” Nicolette Borg Vassallo says.
India is facing a human catastrophe as COVID-19 spirals out of control, leaving hospitals unable to cope amid a shortage of oxygen concentrators. The country remains a popular country for child adoption.
Borg Vassallo and her family made the headlines in May last year when their trip to India to pick up their second adoptive daughter turned into a nightmare as the pandemic forced them into lockdown in a hotel room for six interminable weeks. They eventually returned to Malta where they have settled down, a different fate to the Barbara family.
She understands the urgency that Ivan Barbara and his wife felt to pick up their child and attributes critical comments from the public – claiming the couple should have stayed in Malta – to ignorance about the realities faced by adoptive parents.
Reuben Gauci, Malta’s High Commissioner in New Delhi, understands this sentiment. He moved to India with his wife and 13-year-old daughter in September and has since met various adoptive parents and witnesses the passion.
“Right now, the travel advice is: do not come to India. But there were adoptive parents who decided to ignore the advice and come nonetheless. And I can understand. Here we are talking about one’s children. This is no holiday,” he says, confirming there is currently one Maltese couple in India to pick up their child.
Gauci admits he has been scarred with the story of the Barbara family, whose evacuation he helped coordinate: “We thought everything would be OK. He was ready to leave to Malta, but the unexpected happened. His wife was and is a very strong person. I had to admire the way she dealt with these horrible events.”
The pandemic will not stop us
Maltese parents who adopted children from India are now raising money to send oxygen concentrators to a hospital in Mumbai that is struggling to cope with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“India gave us our most precious children. This is the least we can give them. We are eternally grateful to India,” said Borg Vassallo, who adopted her two daughters, Leah Mae and Francesca, from India.
Joanne Sciberras Edwards adopted her son from India and is now awaiting the outcome of a second adoption request.
“It’s Mother’s Day and it is thanks to India that I can celebrate this day. This is why I am doing what I can to help this country that gave us so much. By helping them I may be helping my future daughter,” she said.
Both women adopted their children through Aġenzija Tama that is now raising funds to buy oxygen concentrators for the Holy Hospital in Mumbai. Oxygen concentrators help concentrate oxygen from the ambient air by removing nitrogen and delivering pure oxygen to patients inflicted by COVID-19, a respiratory disease which can cause oxygen levels to drop to dangerous levels.
Over the past two weeks the number of people infected with the highly contagious Indian variant of coronavirus took a turn for the worse. As the number of daily cases soared to 400,000 in the capital New Delhi, hospitals were put under a lot of strain and thousands have been dying due to a shortage of life-saving oxygen supplies.
Ivan Barbara who died in India last week, pictured with his wife Rosanne.Tsunami of help is needed
Last week, the virus claimed the life of Ivan Barbara, a Maltese notary who travelled to India with his wife Rosanne in March to pick up their adoptive child.
The family were about to be evacuated to Malta, but Barbara died as soon as he was boarded on an emergency air ambulance for Malta. His wife and their newly-adopted daughter returned to Malta with his ashes a few days later.
Caroline Busuttil, a representative of Aġenzija Tama in India, said that as news spread, the agency informed her it wanted to help. “Round about that time I received an SOS from a small hospital run by nuns telling us they are running low on oxygen reserves. I informed the agency and I was suddenly flooded with adoptive parents wanting to help. It’s such a beautiful thing. If it’s a tsunami of grief, there should be a tsunami of help coming.”
Busuttil moved to Mumbai in 2010 to work in finance for an international company based in Italy. In 2016 she supported her brother to adopt a child from India, helping facilitate communication between the entities in India and Aġenzija Tama in Malta.
Living in lockdown for a month since the second wave began, Busuttil explains that adoption is very well regulated in India to prevent child trafficking.
“It is a very lengthy process made longer by the pandemic. These couples go through a lot before being given the go ahead to be united with their child.”