Restore hope to Romanian orphans

Restore hope to Romanian orphans
By Matthew Kiernan
GUEST COLUMNIST
Monday, April 18, 2005

In the United States, thousands of couples try to adopt children from within this country and from overseas. Romania has been one country in which these desperate couples have had success. However, with recent changes in the political situation in Europe, that option no longer exists.

More than a decade ago, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Iron Curtain was pulled back, the bleak and dismal reality of life in many of the former Soviet satellites was revealed, with Romania being among the worst. A 20/20 television report in the early 1990s revealed not only that the number of young orphans in the country was astronomical for a civilized society, but also that the conditions in which these children lived was deplorable. There was not enough food to feed them, medicine to heal them, room to house them or keepers to care for them. The alternative to the squalor of the orphanages - life in the streets - usually proved to be even worse. In the decade since this report was issued, very little has been done to combat this situation. But, fortunately, the report generated an outpouring of support from couples in this country who, through adoption, rescued many orphans from deplorable conditions.

This all ended in 2001, when the Romanian government put a moratorium in place to halt all international adoptions. This was done in part because of a few cases of illegal child trafficking. A greater factor was the need to comply with regulations of the European Union, which Romania was hoping to join. Not only did this moratorium end the hope these orphans had of escaping the hell they were born into, but it also stopped those adoptions that had already been approved, leaving those children in political limbo. There are more than 200 families in this country alone, including families in North Carolina, who had completed the process to adopt a Romanian child, but are now left desperate for answers.

I believe that the policy Romania has adopted is unwise and ill-informed and will do nothing but hurt those whom the law is intended to protect. This law is a gross overreaction to a few scattered, though horrible, instances of Romanian orphans' being exploited and mistreated. It is being enforced by some misguided and powerful individuals. One person in particular, Baroness Emma Nicholson, has done more to halt the process of international adoption of Romanian orphans than any other. The baroness, a British official with the European Parliament, has made it her goal to halt all out-of-country adoptions in Romania.

She has offered various arguments for her actions, including the theory that it is not wise to place a child from one culture with a family from a foreign culture. Yet we have seen the success of such adoptions in this and other countries for decades. She has tried to promote intra-country adoptions. I agree that that is a worthy goal, yet at the same time it is extremely impracticable and naive.

Many of these children come from Gypsy backgrounds and have almost no chance of being adopted. In this country that sounds laughable, but in Romania, this is a fact of life. Logically, then, when adoptions within Romania prove impossible, is it not better for these children to have the opportunity to find a loving home in some other corner of the world?

I am a member of Aid for Romanian Children (ARC), a student-led organization at Wake Forest University. Our mission is to bring light to this important issue, as well as to raise funds for the many private aid organizations doing their best to bring hope and save the lives of Romanian orphans caught up in this controversy.

There are many ways that people can make a difference: Call their congressman, write a letter to the president, or get involved with one of the many organizations nationwide that are trying to draw attention to this atrocious policy. Attempting to alleviate the suffering of these orphans by challenging a shortsighted moratorium is a cause worthy of our attention and support.

Matthew Kiernan is a student at Wake Forest University and a member of Aid for Romanian Children.