<div>I was given up at birth. It might seem strange but, for most of my life, I never thought that affected me. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. I don’t think a younger me could have handled the bundle of emotions — deep grief, joy, excitement, longing — without falling apart.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I was born in India and adopted when I was 1.5 years old. My parents instilled my love of animals; we never had fewer than four cats and a dog living with us. I grew up in Vermont alongside my three other adopted sisters, also from India. Enmeshed in American culture, I developed a deep curiosity about other languages and cultures from a young age. Could this have come from a sense of something missing, because I was adopted?
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Four years ago, a desire to uncover this part of my identity began to gnaw at me. I was perplexed. Why would I yearn for a life and people I don’t know? It hit me when I interacted with my 3-year-old niece: I realized there has to be a whole world of memories, attachment and even love locked away in my brain for a family I don’t consciously remember.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I’m a journalist, and I wrote about such complex feelings for an article that was published by The Juggernaut about South Asian adoption:
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>“Adoption is both intimate and geopolitical. To be adopted often means living with contradictions: you may deeply love your adoptive family and still ache to understand where you came from; you may feel grateful, yet robbed of something you can never fully name.”
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I’ve scoured my adoption papers hoping to find clues to my past life in India, but I’ve hit roadblocks. For example, I now realize that not everything in my adoption papers is true. This shocked me, but in speaking with other adoptees, I learned it isn’t uncommon. Adoptees can’t always trust something as seemingly straightforward as the birthdate they’re given.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This process will clearly exceed my capabilities. So I enlisted the help of Arun Dohle and Anjali Pawar. They formed the Adoptee Rights Council to help Indian adoptees find their biological families. Arun explained to me how they’d pursue my case. And he understands this work from his own experience. He was adopted from India by a German couple in the early 1970s. For 17 years, he fought to find his family, ending up in the Supreme Court of India to fight for the right to access his adoption papers. In 2010, he won a landmark judgment. Three months later, he met his birth mother. His partner, Anjali Pawar, is a lawyer, social worker and noted child and women’s activist who was instrumental in pushing forward his case.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>All people should have the right to know where they come from, to know a detail as seemingly simple as the sound of their biological mother’s voice. For adopted people, such access is not guaranteed.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I hope, with my search, to find my biological parents, to learn the cultures and the people who shaped my earliest moments as a human. I am both excited and ready to brace myself. I don’t know what I’ll find — if anything. But I know my best chance is with Arun and Anjali and their past success in reuniting Indian adoptees with their birth families.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I would greatly appreciate your help with this momentous personal goal. The cost is significant. But it means I don’t have to bear the expense to fly to India myself for this search, which would likely end up in a dead end, with money wasted. I don’t have local connections, the necessary local languages, nor relationships with orphanages Arun and Anjali do.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Here’s a breakdown of how I would apply your donation:
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Search fees:  2,500 Euros/about $2,855 USD
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>General organizational costs and individual search costs: 200 Euros per month/about $229 USD/month
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Bank transfer fees: Estimating about $2 USD - $3 USD per month
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>My initial goal is 9,870 Euros/about $11,268 USD, which will cover the first three years of costs. If the organization hasn’t found my birth family at that time, I can cancel. I’ll plan to reevaluate before that point and update donors.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I am grateful for any support, no matter how small, you can provide at this time.
</div>

Snigdha Sur

Anonymous

Rachel O'Reilly

Paola Peña

Alejandro Ramirez

Samantha Watson

Emma Bloksberg-Fireovid

Katherine Vesely

Tommy Ngan

Tracie Carlson

Thomas J Carlson

Kumar Jensen

ROXANE DEFILLIPO

Isatu Samura-Ernst

Help Siobhan Find Her Birth Family in India

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help Siobhan Find Her Birth Family in India

Still $9,608 to go. Help us build momentum.