Swiss of Goan origin comes searching for his roots October 13, 2013
TEAM HERALD [email protected] PANJIM: While few foster children would actually care to trace their roots, a Swiss of Goan origin is down in Goa to locate his biological parents. Manuel Aloysius Frick, 25, who was adopted as a tiny one year old by a Swiss couple is looking for his parents after 24 years. Manuel, presently working as a team leader with a multinational company in Switzerland, has visited every authority in Goa and is in constant touch with the private clinic where he was born, to gather details. Luckily he identified the names of his biological parents whom he has identified as Constantino Joaquim Afonso and Maria Santana and that they lived in Chorao. However, beyond this, his three-week-stay in Goa has not yielded any results. “I neither have any other information about them nor updates. I approached an adoption institution here which asked me to get records from a local Church but I couldn’t. The clinic where I was born has sought time to give details,” Manuel told Herald. With just a fortnight to fly back to Switzerland, where he has to resume work, Manuel says he will come back in search of them if this trip turns futile. “My search will not be complete till I find my real parents,” he resolved. Manual recalled that it was at the age of seven years that his foster family disclosed to him that he was adopted from a Goan couple. Since then Manuel made a firm decision to locate his biological parents. “I realized that I looked different from my other family members. We would go to a restaurant and all eyes would be on us. In the beginning it was not a good feeling but then I began ignoring people,” he added. His foster parents and the two siblings who are also adopted, have showered all their love and care on Manual of Goan parentage. “I owe everything to my foster family. They have given me everything in life,” he said while also claiming that the urge to see his biological parents will always bring him to India.
