An Italian couple has adopted a five-and-a half-year-old boy from the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare at Thycaud here.
The couple Sergio Marino and Lucia Cazzaniga of Sovico, near Milan, welcomed the class 1 student of a government school in the city into their family after a year-long wait.
They had applied online for adopting a child from the country through the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), and as per priority, received the boy from the child care centre at the child welfare council here. The boy had been brought to the city from a child care centre in Idukki more than five years ago when he was just three months old for medical treatment
Till now, Sergio who works with Italy’s Confindustria federation and Lucia who runs a cosmetics company had been seeing and interacting with him through video calls. This past Sunday, they reached the city to meet their adopted son after completing all legal procedures. In two days, during which they played and took to the swings in the park on the council premises, the couple bonded with the boy. He was then handed over to the family in the presence of Women and Child Development Director Haritha V. Kumar; A.A. Rahim, MP; council general secretary G.L. Arun Gopi; treasurer K. Jayapal; and caregivers at the council.
The couple told the council that their family had been waiting for him for long. They also said they would not change his name.
Sergio and Lucia will fly with their son to Mumbai on Thursday, and to Italy on Friday.
The young boy is the 10th child to be adopted by a family living abroad, and the fourth by a couple from Italy. Two children each have been adoped by couples from the UAE and Spain and one each by those from Denmark and the U.S.
