The Winona Daily News from Winona, Minnesota • 19

Insight Winona Daily News Sunday, Aug. 2t, 1WJ Page if Winonans wait for word on adoption By LUCY CHOATE ECKBERG The two families are friends and neighbors Their children are like siblings. Nancy said. It waa three years ago when Jamanie came here after living about three years in an orphanage in a wing of the West Bengal prison that Nancy saw the excitement of international adoption, she said Through the Dorners. Nancy saw bow with a Uttte lave, children from a deprived environment blossom, she said "You do some giving and get so much back" For the past four months, Rohana has been cared for by the IMH Before that she was Irving in Lilooah Orphanage in Calcutta for two and a hah years, Nancy said.

The Kristensen adoption fees totaled $3,200, Nancy said Of that, $900 is for airfare, $300 to the Indian government for preparation of court documents, and $1,400 to IMH for Rohana's care for four months including room and board clothing, medical attention, schooling, and Indian court and attorney fees. Children's Home Society charged about $600 a borne study, pre adoption counseling and extensive post-placement counseling. The -Kristensen first inkling that their daughter's passport was held back was when they read a Tuesday Zinona Dailh News article telling how the "baby-selling report" had damaged the Indian adoption program. At first she cried Nancy said. She and Mark were both angry.

They made telephone calls to Children's Home Society and Sen. Boschivitz's office, then sent a cablegram to IMH showing support for the adoption program, she said. Marge also sent a cablegram. Hers contained stronger language, labeling the London tabloid report "an outrageous lie," she said. The costs for Jamanie's adoption were $700 to IMH for Jamanie's care for six weeks, plus Indian court expenses, and $575 for airfare.

"If that's selling a child for profit, I'd like to know who profited," she said And in answer to her own question, she quickly retorted: "Jamanie profited and we profited everybody who knows her. And when Sumitra came here seven years ago, processing in the Kennedy Airport customs shed took two and a half hours. "Just try to smuggle one in," Marge said. "It would be impossible Of either family, it is probably Jamanie and Sumitra who are hoping the hardest that Rohana will be here soon. Neither remembers their biological parents and both agree that being here is much better for them than living as orphans in India.

(Continued on page 25) (Indian adoptions) Winona ns Nancy and Mark Kristensen are "sitting on pins and needles, the said, waiting for confirmation that the Indian government will continue to allow out-of the country adoptions despite a recent London Daily Mail report alleging that Indian children are taken from the slums of Calcutta and sold to American families The latest news the Kristensens have received is that the Indian government has investigated the report and found the charges to be unsubstantiated The Kristensens had been working through Children's Home Society in St. Paul for the past year to adopt an Indian child through Calcutta-based International Mission of Hope (IMH). The adoption proceedings woe completed and their intended daughter, Ron ana Manu, had been issued passport and visa. She was expected to arrive in this country this week. But since the London news report last Sunday, the Indian government has withheld all passports of adopted children.

Bobbi Wiggins, coordinator for the Indian adoption program at Children's Home Society, said she was optimistic over a radio report saying the allegations had been declared false, but by late Friday afternoon she had not yet received confirmation from Indian officials. The London news report said that Americans for International Aid (AIA) an organization of airline stewardesses and stewards who volunteer their time to bring adopted Indian children to this country sold the infants for 13,480 each. That report, state department officials said, may have been an off-shoot of another article on aborted fetuses being purchased, according to Donnette Hilton, head case worker in St. Paul for Sen. Rudy Boschivitz who had been working to have the Kristensens daughter's passport reinstated.

The AIA, Hilton said, had been going to Calcutta hospitals to find living aborted fetuses for which they had to pay Indian doctors. However in a Thursday Freeman Report on Cable New Network in which Jodi Darragh, a former stewardess who founded the Marietta, Ga -based AIA in 1977, was interviewed along with the British writer of the allegations it was said that the British Airways also had investigated the reports and found no wrongdoing by AIA members. Meanwhile the Kristensens are hoping their daughter will be here soon. And hnoino lust aa prvpntlv arp Ma run Dnmor Rohana Manu BflflHtjjffl Daily News photo by Lucy Choatc Eckberg Jamanie, 9, left, and Sumitra, 12, adopted daughters of Winonan Marge Dorner, both say life with their mother is "better" than the orphanages in India where they lived before coming to this country. and her two adopted Indian daughters, Jamanie, 9, and Sumitra, 12.

Nancy Kristensen 'But we're not going to go away' aftB aaW bbbbWY mm Hal? By LUCY CHOATE ECKBERG Insight Editor In 1776, Abigal Adams wrote to her husband John Adams: "In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be neccesary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of husbands. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." One hundred years later, feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote to her friend Lucretia Mott: "Our demands at the first seemed so rational that I thought the mere statement of a woman's wrongs would bring immediate redress. But I soon found that an opposition, bitter, malignant, and persevering, and rooted in custom and prejudice, grew stronger with every new demand made, with every new privilege granted." And later she wrote: "We every reason to believe our turn will come again not for women's Equality Day rally. Behind her is signer Marian Snotonka of La Crosse, Wis.

Jan Andrews, sociology professor at Winona State University, was among speakers at Saturday's Women's supremacy but for the yet untried experiment of complete equality, when the united thought of men and women will inaugurate a just government." Another famous feminist Susan B. Anthony when in her 80s was asked if she expected to go to heaven or hell. Her reply was: "Neither, I expect to come back to haunt this land until women's rights are guaranteed. Those and other quotes from historic and contemporary leaders in the fight for equal rights were read by Linda Kuhn, Winona State University campus minister, in a Women's Equality Day program at Lake Park. The rally to commemorate those struggles was held Saturday, two days and 62 years after the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was added to the U.S.

Constitution. Although women today "are reaping the benefits of their efforts," Kuhn noted, "the struggle is not yet over. Justice and equality and freedom regardless of gender has not yet been established." The greatest enemy now, she added, is "the temptation to give in and give up." After the rally, six women participated in a 12-mile walkathon, raising more than $700 for the National Organization for Women (NOW) Equality Political Action Committee. The money will be used, according to Jan Ferguson, the rally's organizer, to support both men and women candidates who will consider women's issues arid be accountable to their constituents after the election. Before introducing the speakers, Ferguson noted that women haven't yet used their right to vote "as a real strong bloc." Issues dealing mainly with women such as child care and single families have not been considered by the state Legislature, she said.

While working in Florida in the NOW campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, Ferguson said she saw the "most blatant disregard" by elected officials for the wishes of their constituency. When voting against the ERA although the majority of their constituents were for its passage, legislators told Ferguson they were "not threatened by women, that they would go away," she said. "But we're never going to give up," she added. "We won'tgoaway." Winonan Margaret Boddy, a Democratic candidate for the state Senate, recalled what she "learned by decades." After her high school graduation in the late 1920s, she said, there were no jobs for women so she went to college. But in the 30s when she'd finished her PhD, she found "the best women were not recommended for the very best jobs," because very attractive women were expected to marry and quit work and "no one wanted to recommend unattractive women." In the 40s, women were not considered "healthy enough" to enlist in the armed services, and in the 50s, Boddy said, she was passed over for a full professorship because administrators told her they were "saving it for a man who's not eligible yet." (Continued on page 21 (Equality rally) jpH aKa-aiB Hi siB mmw' Am wWr LLwHbImiIS WmitijjjjjgFk.

mmmwr'''' imm aflRSHHHlt IP9f 'Bmk- life. bT' Wm ibsbbHbbIbV 'are i BNV ffiu JirjkasiuAcaW sl Daily News photos by Brad Burch than $700 for the National Organization for Women's Equality Political Action Pac to support men and women candidates who are committed to equality of the sexes. A Women's Equality Day rally at Lake Park Saturday morning ended with participants singing Kristen Lems' "Ballad of the ERA." After the band shell program, six women took part in a walkathon raising more.