Abandonments at the National Level in Romania - Part 5

Throwing milk powder in the eyes of abandoned children

The only possibility for some children whose parents flee from them is foster care. Arriving in substitute families, if such exist, these children remain there year after year. Will we become a land of foster parents?

At the beginning of June, the governmental authorities assured us that within a month the situation with regard to abandoned children in the hospitals would be improved. But the time-out has expired! The abandoned children in the hospitals are now equally abandoned by both their parents and the state. We rightfully request that the government fulfill its obligations, not with mere phrases, but with actions. We have overlooked the inexactness of the Prime Minister's letter to us long enough. We must fulfill our obligation to the children and to our readers to continue to publish the facts.

The system of child protection is in collapse. Neither the Prime Minister nor the minister of Health seem particularly interested in solving the problem of abandoned children. We believed that these responsible people, sensitized by the articles published in our paper, would decide to do something for these children. But low and behold, in more than a month and a half we have not seen one concrete measure put into practice and absolutely nothing has happened to resolve the problem. In their own turn, the authorities were also waiting..for the subject to be forgotten and for vacation time to come. It's interesting that not one governmental representative was curious enough to read our articles published in Jurnalul National. In this we find the most frightening news in the life of a journalist. It's more frightening than a kidnapping in Iraq or armed robbery.

In fact, after we buried an abandoned child which we could not save, the drama of this child's life became the daily promotional tool for our paper. The cross which Dirla Tudor Florin, a child born by happenstance and buried out of pity, still burdens our shoulders. In his name and for the sake of others like him who still remain in hospitals we are debtors to continue this series.

What is the price of EU integration? Our campaign for these children has continued without being noticed. We ask, "What is the purpose of trying to hide the truth?" What will be the price of entry into the EU? We know already.

The new law is not just any kind of law, but a special one. It is a law which does not allow any modifications, not even to a comma, if we wish to greet our entry into the EU. But with what price? There are multitudes of children who are in hospitals without any medical diagnosis. If a price must be paid, there are four children from Constanta on whose medical charts is written, "delay in psychological development because of a lengthy hospitalization." These are our exchange money for entering the EU. Are the healthy children in another hospital in Tulcea, who have not even reached the age of two years and who are still institutionalized, our tribute money to enter the EU? We don't believe that there exists even one Romanian, at least one of sound mind, who would accept such a trade. Oh, we're fainting with joy and thankfulness that Emma has said we are a great example to the region with regard to child protection laws (with song!).

Bogdan Panait, president of the National Authority for protecting the rights of the Child, said, "As a government, we have accepted the responsibility of not modifying this law. We will see how good it is and how much it corresponds to the Romanian reality." We ask, "But when??" Teodora Bertzi, president of the National Authority for Adoption, maintains that, "Our country would demonstrate a lack of seriousness if we change this law. We cannot do this." We ask, "Would we demonstrate a lack of seriousness if we change the law where it is obviously not viable?? Furthermore, do we demonstrate our seriousness in allowing healthy children to become retarded in hospitals or even to die because of infections received in the hospital?"

Who leads us? What we really need is not merely an examination of the law, but an examination of people's mentality. O.K., let's begin with the workers at the CPS. The social workers are burdened many times with 300 cases instead of the maximum of 30 allowed by the law. And these are people with salaries of between $150 and $300 a month. They have such a great passion for their vocation that every Friday at 2:00 p.m. (at least in Bucharest) rip off the doors of their office so they can get to their weekend activities. Whose mentality should we examine? How about examining the medical realm where on children's charts there's not a place for recording cycle motor stimulation of abandoned children? How about examining the police who don't even have a body of legislation which allows them to intervene more rapidly in these cases? And until when must the Romanian people wait for these people to be renewed in their mentality? And what shall we do with the children who remain in the hospitals? In the end, we're not sure who's leading us. We have one certainty. God who governs the souls of those who believe, is over all. And we write as if He, as distinct from those in the government, would find time to look at our paper. We believe He will set things in order among men. But until we get to heaven, will we hear anything with respect to the drama of these children? (from the government? Jonathan Scheele? Emma Nicholson?)

If the EU wants reintegration in the extended family, even though the law does not describe any limits as to the time in which this action can be taken, then how long shall we persevere in this? In Valcea, one case reached the 8 year mark. A 14 year old girl was finally reintegrated with her step father. The law states that every CPS has to employ one person who will maintain a direct relationship with the hospitals and the abandoned children there. Well, more than a month has gone by and the miracle hasn't happened. Are we being too impatient? A recent study which followed the development of the brain of children between 0 and 36 months, showed that three months in an institution without adequate stimulation has catastrophic effects on the later development of the child as well as on all areas of brain development.

Here's the problem. There are 512 children abandoned and let's not forget that, under the old law, if they weren't visited in six months they could be declared adoptable. Let's say there are 800 families who are approved to adopt. Why is it that there are only 41 adoptable children and in the first half of this year only 4 internal adoptions have been done under the new law? And of course no one international adoption. Why? Because genetic grandparents who are domiciled outside of Romania and who want to adopt are about as common as dogs with pretzels in their tails. There is one case which was filed almost two years ago by a family established in the U.S. who, although they are citizens with domicile in Romania and who could go the way of internal adoptions, preferred to adopt as an international adoption so that later on they would not have problems... with the Romanian government.