Orphaned In COVID, Two Sisters From Odisha’s Gajapati On Way To Spain With Adoptive Parents

Berhampur: Kalpana and Sunita Sabar, aged 6 and 4, were rescued by the district administration from R. Udayagiri area in tribal-dominated Gajapati district after they lost their parents to COVID some two years back. As luck would have it, the girls are on their way to Spain now, having been adopted by a Spanish couple.

The girls have been flown to New Delhi with their adopted parents to complete visa formalities, before taking the flight to Spain.

Maxmio Buil Marcial, a farmer, and his wife Maria Yolanda Gave Ganarul, who works in a supermarket, had been looking to adopt for a while. “We wanted to adopt the girls from here because we like India’s culture and tradition,” said Maria.

The couple had applied to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARC) to adopt a girl child from India three years back. Three months ago, they decided to adopt not one girl but two.

Following the guidelines of CARC, Gajapati District Collector Smurti Ranjan Pradhan handed over the sisters to the Spanish couple in a brief function. Dillip Kumar, a representative of Italy AFAA (Authorized Foreign Adoption Agency), additional district magistrate Rajendra Kumar Minz, and district child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathy were also present.

According to the DCPO, as many as 46 orphans from Gajapati district have been adopted in the country and abroad in the last five years.