Monday, October 31, 2005

Five out of every hundred children forced to work

Comments from my source A: I thought the GOR and EU were so afraid that FOREIGNERS would do these sorts of things that they outlawed international adoptions. Maybe they should have looked a little closer at the log in their own eye. And I'm personally certain that the figures are low. How that "isn't a serious problem" is beyond me and is so typical of the denial of reality that goes on here. Haven't seen much done about prostitution and begging either.

Five out of every hundred children forced to work

Denisa Maruntoiu

Approximately five percent of Romania children between five and 17 years are forced to work, according to a statistical report presented yesterday by the Ministry of Work and the International Work Bureau (BIM).

Several NGOs along with territorial work inspectorates discovered that about 141,000 out of 3,866,438 children need to work to earn money for their families. The report also states that only one percent of the working children are tracked down by the authorities.

The children saved by authorities are usually sent back to school and benefit from training and counseling programs to help them resume normal life. However, the authorities consider the problem of working children is not very serious, as due to several government programs, the number of such children has significantly decreased.

The BIM feels proper laws are needed to prevent child exploitation. In addition, the NGOs said that the authorities should get more involved in combating child prostitution and begging, as these are the most serious threats.

The report's presentation took place in an unusual venue, at the ruins of the Hungers' Circus building in Rahova, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Bucharest. The authorities also screened a film that showed several children cleaning windscreens, making bricks and sweeping floors. In the film, several pediatricians, psychologists and teachers talked about the negative consequences of this phenomena and offered advice on how to deal with it.

Copyright C 2004 Bucharest Daily News

CHILD PROTECTION--A SOAP BUBBLE

Here is a story of kids being sent to an orphanage and their own famly members cannot rescue them.

It is from Oct. 28, 2005 Ziua newspaper and the authors are Corina Scarlat and Voichita
Rascanu.

CHILD PROTECTION--A SOAP BUBBLE

The children of the stuntman Marculescu, who was brutally murdered in 1998, are now the victims of a bureaucratic system and the incompetence of the authorities. For seven months they have had no one as their legal guardian. Their aunt has tried with all her power to defeat the system and obtain legal guardianship of these two children.

These children are in a situation which is difficult to imagine. Their mother died in March of this year because of a serious illness. From April until the present the aunt of these two children, Steliana Ragalie, has been fighting with all the state authorities who are supposed to be able to help her efficiently resolve this problem. More specifically, Steliana, after the death of her sister, had asked the CPS for guardianship of her nephews who were now orphans. She declared to us that she began this procedure to obtain legal guardianship at the beginning of April of 2005. She is desperate because she did not receive, even until this very day, the legal guardianship for her nephews. She has gone to the courts in Bucharest, but received no help. Now she is soliciting our help. The case is complicated because of the uncaring attitude and actions of public servants and could have been resolved very simply in 48 hours. This is all due to the incompetence and apathy of the CPS.

The mayor's office, but more precisely the CPS, could have resolved this problem in 48 hours if the courts had been solicited to have the children given to Steliana Ragalie under the emergency care provisions of the law. However, this did not happen. But the files of these two minors were sent to the commission without ever mentioning emergency placement. These files have been bounce around from one court to another. But according to article 66 of law 272/2004, if CPS would have sent the files to the Bucharest court, with request for emergency placement, these children would not have needed to go through one drama after another. According to the law, the Bucharest court would have been obligated to resolve this case in a maximum of 48 hours. However, their aunt has not managed up until now to receive their father's and mother's pensions (money due to them until they turn at least 18) nor their social assistance because she is not their legal guardian. In the end, after hearing the children speak, the judges from the Bucharest court decided to decline to rule on the case and sent the case to the court in Sector I in Bucharest. When the two cases got to the Sector I court, which is in fact qualified to grant guardianship under article 40 from law 272/2004 because these minors are living in that court's jurisdiction, one would have thought that the cases were near to being resolved. However, it didn't happen. This is because the judge, Georgian Davidoiu, decided that the Sector I court is not qualified. He sent the case to the appeals court in Bucharest via decision number 10247/Oct. 19, 2005. When contacted, he refused to speak to us. Until a court decides to resolve the problem of jurisdiction, as well as the two cases, these two children will remain orphans without the benefit of a legal guardian nor the financial support that is due them.

Sources at the national CPS say that until family courts are established, something that is supposed to take place before 2008, the files will probably be bounced back and forth from one court to another and the resolution of these situations will be very difficult. There are only two family courts that have been established at this time; one in Brasov and one in Iasi. The others have not been established for various reasons, "lack of space, lack of people, etc..."

The CPS stated that part of the reason the case was not resolved was because the police report on Steliana Ragalie was not in the file. However, she complained that CPS never indicated either verbally or in writing, that such a thing was necessary. After she got the police report it was placed in the file. But because the case was not resolved in timely fashion, and the police report expired, she was required to get yet another one. She also said that if she had not gone to CPS and taken the initiative, no one would have even come to do a home study. The people from the CPS maintain that the only alternative measure of child protection, until the courts resolve a problem of guardianship, is for the children to be taken to an orphanage, where "they are given everything they need". They said that until then, they can't do anything. In other words, they reneged on their responsibility and gave it to the judges. They did tell us that these kinds of problems can possible be decided more easily, via decisions by the local commission for child protection.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Enthusiasm blinds expats involved in helping Romania's Orphans

Enthusiasm blinds expats involved in helping Romania's orphans

Laura Lica

Enthusiasm blinds expats involved in helping Romania's orphans

Discussing Romanian orphans has become one of the most sensitive and difficult topics of conversation one can start. My advice: do not do it without taking very careful and extensive measures to be politically correct, to be fair to all parties involved and be sure to be prepared to face severe criticism whatever your point of view may be.

Even if you think you're one of those with a balanced point of view. I only realized this after talking to several expats whose work aims to improve the situation of orphans in Romania.

I should underline at the outset that I consider these people to be very laudable and worthy of admiration. There are not so many who care so much about children and people in general whom they are not related to in any way: they are not family, they are not their friends' family, they are not their people.

But these expats care enough to be ready to change their lives, come to Romania and fight for a better life for these children who belong to no one and are too often either a reason for political disputes, or a reason for national embarrassment. One can imagine such selfless and caring people are quite passionate about what they do. But after talking with several of them, I was surprised to see that while some listened and looked for potential solutions, others developed some sort of unusual extreme thinking, an enthusiasm that sustains a noble cause, but leaves them blind to elements that would make their fabulous progress less spectacular, even though still positive.

It's as if they have taken their mission of improving Romania's image so seriously that they are not ready to admit there are any flaws left. Romania has been making significant progress in child protection, but not as much as the numbers show. And because these numbers are actually children, I do consider it is imperative we should all be aware of the imperfections, so we can make it as good as we wish it was.

One of the central issues debated right now is the deinstitutionalization of orphans across the country following the European Union's directives. Romania impressed Europe with how quickly it closed down a lot of its institutions and reintegrated children back into their families, foster parents or homes.

But I have seen and talked to several children who were returned to their families after their orphanage or special schools (for children with disablities) were closed down and I can say, they were not happy: they were dirty, they had lice, they barely had anything to eat, and they told me with their own tiny voices:" I miss being at the orphanage. They gave us biscuits there and we could watch cartoons once a week".

This particular little story made quite a few people blast: "Aaaa! So you think it's better for these children to live in orphanages!", "You think Romania has a problem with alcoholism?! I'll show you alcoholism problems in Ireland!", "Well, You're saying they had bad mothers? So you think Romanian women are different from other women in other countries?! You think Romanian women are bad mothers and they abandon their children!"

No. No. No. No one says they were better off in orphanages. But I believe some of the impressive numbers were not obtained because of the mesmerizing efficiency of the system, but because of superficial measures taken in a hurry at the cost of some children's future. And this is a good enough reason for me to think one should look less at the numbers, and see these children for the human beings they are. They are not a list of names in some orphanage's EU criteria. I do not want to minimize Romania's accomplishments in any way.

We locals are also sick of hearing people abroad talking only about our orphans and our misery. It is a fact that Romania has come a long way since the world's magazines and TV stations broadcast the terrifying images of communist orphanages. But we must also all make a stand against covering up and artificially embellishing the reality, exaggerating our progress, at the cost of children's lives. I can say I have seen enough unhappy children, barely surviving poverty, in families who were in no way ready to take them back.

I can say the state and NGOs involved in helping orphans in Romania should look carefully at how these children are doing. How many of the tens of thousands who were taken from the orphanages are actually doing better. Alternative solutions can be found. We can stop making them another sacrificial generation.

Monday, October 17, 2005

The Forgotten Children

The Forgotten Children

Sunday October 9th 2005

IN THE grim hospital room in Paediatrics I, an 18-month-old boy is lifted out of his cot and placed on the floor. He leans forward on his chubby fists and casts an inquisitive eye over the strange adults gazing down on him. He cranes his neck, looking to theleft and right, but his limbs remain immobile.

After much encouragement, he pushes one tentative fist in front of the other. More minutes pass, and he manages a minuscule advance by shuffling one knee ahead of the other. It's a movement that most normal children would have mastered by that age, but this child's movements are awkward and uncertain. An otherwise vibrant toddler, he's apparently not used to feeling an expanse of floor beneath his limbs. But then, Maxoum Mustafa is enjoying a rare moment of freedom. This perfectly healthy baby has spent the bulk of his short life in the confines of a cot in a small room on the ninth floor of the concrete hospital in Constanta, a once-grand city on the Black Sea in eastern Romania.

He has never been outside. On occasion, during the summer, a nurse with a spare moment might bring him to the balcony. Otherwise, his daily routine starts with a shower, followed by a change of nappies, and for the rest of the day he is confined to his cot.

There is not a toy in sight. His hours are punctuated by mealtimes - he is fed a largely milk-based diet of rice, sometimes egg, occasionally a piece of meat.

He is one of 40 abandoned babies who live in the hospital, and one of 10 on Dr Adriana Apostol's ward on the ninth floor. He shares a room with four other babies in battered-looking cots crammed together into the small room, but Maxoum has been here longest. They lie on bedclothes that have seen better days.

Dr Apostol checks Maxoum's records: "Three days with his mother and after that only here," she says wearily.

The nursing staff know little about the babies' backgrounds: some, like Maxoum, appear to have been totally abandoned. Others have been temporarily left behind by mothers struggling with poverty or psychological problems.

Rashim, a beautiful dark-haired baby who shared a room with Maxoum, was referred to Constanta from another hospital. The medical staff know nothing much about him because he has no birth papers. They do not even know how old he is. "His name will be put on the list and we will wait."

Another baby, Demirel, is one of 11 children. He has been in the hospital for less than one month. Nurses are hopeful that his mother will take him home. She has already visited her baby son at the hospital. They say that's a good sign - at least she has not abandoned him entirely.

Other children have disabilities: Shaban Atisha, a dark-curly-haired baby, has a cleft palate and heart problems. The baby's mother could not cope. "It is a very, very social problem," said Dr Apostol.

Maxoum is one of an estimated 700 abandoned babies who live in hospital wards across Romania. They are forgotten children who have fallen between the cracks as Romania rushes to shed its notorious childcare record to win coveted membership of the EU.

Nicolae Ceausescu's regime banned both contraception and abortion and turned State orphanages into dumping grounds for 100,000 unwanted children, many of them disabled. Intent on adhering to best practice to satisfy Europe, more than a decade later the Romanian government has promised to tear the orphanages down.

Children can no longer be adopted by foreigners, after the adoption process was found to be corrupt. Older children are being fostered or kept in smaller institutions. Since January, babies under the age of two have been banned by law from living in institutions. Instead, they are placed in foster care with families who receive the equivalent of a monthly wage and food allowance. On paper, it seems an ideal solution. But, as with much in Romania, there is a big disparity between theory and practice. The culture of abandonment continues.

In a country as abjectly poor as this, local authorities run out of money. Foster families cannot be paid. Abandoned babies cannot be adopted because they have no identity papers or because their parents cannot be found. Many are Roma babies, spurned because of their gypsy pedigree. With nowhere else to go, they are piling up in Romania's hospitals.

John Mulligan, Mairie Cregan and Joan Tuthill first came across the babies' plight in June 1990. The three Irish aid workers were among the first wave of volunteers in Romania after the collapse of Ceausescu's regime. The dictatorship's edifice crumbled to reveal 100,000 abandoned children and adults with disabilities or developmental problems, living in filth in decrepit institutions, eating their own vomit, crippled with "cot legs" and stunted, malnourished frames.

The images that unfolded on our TV screens in the aftermath truly shocked the world. Thousands of hungry children were living in squalor, with shaven heads and misshapen bodies, and many were infected with Aids. Ireland responded with a huge humanitarian effort. Convoys of food, toys, medicines and clothes set off for the poverty-stricken country. Many who helped ended up trying to rescue broken children: more than 700 Romanian children were adopted by Irish parents up until 2000.

Now, five years on, the world's media has moved on - but John, Mairie and Joan continue to return at least twice a year. They put pressure on the government to improve the lot of disabled and mentally retarded adults, through their charities Aurelia Trust and Focus on Romania (FOR).

Mr Mulligan is a former property manager for the ESB; Mairie Cregan is a psychiatric social worker and foster mother for 22 years; Joan Tuthill is a business woman in Dublin.

Their aim is to speed up the closure of Romania's infamous institutions in which 20,000 adult mentally and physically handicapped still live. They have had some success: Negro Voda, a once-notorious institution outside Constanta, and highlighted by Mr Mulligan in the media, will be closed - probably in January - and its inmates moved to supervised community homes and a pilot, state-of-the-art residential centre; FOR and Aurelia Trust are funding two of the homes, the Romanian authorities will fund the remainder.

While working on this project, the Irish trio began to wonder what happened to the babies abandoned since the orphanages shut down. "A Unicef report said that 1.8 per cent of all newborn babies in Romania were being abandoned," said Mairie Cregan. "We asked, 'Where are they?' We wanted to know where the abandoned babies were going. The government said that no baby under two was in an institution. But we knew there weren't enough foster parents to go around. We wanted to know: where were the abandoned babies?"

They asked the question routinely of Romanian officials, and received an unexpected answer at a council meeting in Constanta last June. Petru Dinica, the head of social protection, admitted that 50 babies were abandoned in maternity units in Constanta. Asked why, Mr Dinica said that it was difficult to find adoptive parents for gypsy or handicapped children.

LAST MONTH saw Mr Mulligan, Mairie Cregan and Joan Tuthill return to Constanta with Mairead McGuinness, the Fine Gael MEP, and the press in tow. The frustrated staff of the local hospital threw open their doors to display the latest problem besetting Romania's efforts to get its childcare in order.

Standing amid cots of gurgling babies, Dr Apostol is happy toelaborate on the difficulties encountered by her nursing staff in trying to juggle tending to sick babies while also caring for 10 healthy ones.

The nurses can only do so much. "Most of them [the babies] have never been outside. You can't go with them. You have one nurse. You try to feed them. You start there; everyone cries here. When you finished feeding, they are pee pee and ca ca and you have to change them. And when you finish, the other meal is coming," saysDr Apostol.

"In the past, when babies were abandoned in the hospital, we would keep them here and they would go to an orphanage. When a place was free in an orphanage they'd call us and we send them. We don't have any orphanages any more. No foster mother, no foster care, no orphanage. The hospital is the only solution for them."

Mairie Cregan holds up a little baby in a pink babygrow who is clearly ill. The baby makes no sound, her head lolls on her neck and her eyes struggle to focus.

"It's this little one that worries me," she says. The baby has neurological problems, but at 14 months old, she does not qualify for treatment because she has no identity papers. Abandoned by her mother, she was briefly in foster care but was returned because ofher illness.

"When you make any procedure for the child, they ask for certificate, you know. If not, they are actually not paid by the insurance. So they prefer not to do anything," says Dr Apostol. "Officially, she exists only for us."

Mairie cradles the baby, saying: "She's beautiful really. I don't think she is going to live."

On the floor below is Paediatrics II, where Professor Dr Valeria Stroia cares for 17 babies on her ward. She spoke in halting French and English: "Chaque enfant, pour chaque enfant, il y a une histoire." For every child, there is a story. But most stories were similar.

One baby, aged a year and one month, had never been outside the hospital. There once was a playroom, now closed. Another baby, Shaban Atisha, has a cleft palate. She cannot be adopted because her mother cannot be found. As a result, she cannot be declared officially abandoned. She is on a long list for foster care.

Eleven more babies are found in the maternity section on the seventh floor. The stories are similar: unexpected babies, unwanted babies born to teenage mothers, babies born into poverty. Some have been there since April. Another baby, Memet Tarcan, was hospitalised after his birth on June 26. He is now well, according to the nurse, but "since then nobody has come for him".

Mairie Cregan leaves the wards with serious concerns for the babies' welfare. She believes their liquid diet could delay their language development. The muscle tone of some is weak because they're not getting out of their cots to crawl. She suspects that some babies are being prop-fed in their cots rather than held properly in the arms of a nurse.

"They were wet: but that won't kill them as long as they are cleaned properly in between. They don't have nappies, they [the staff] told us that. They were using rags and anything they could get their hands on," she said.

"For every three months a child spends in an environment like that, they lose a month of development. They are getting the best care physically that they can. But the fact that they are being fed through bottles is going to cause problems.

"The other thing is, they are getting no stimulation whatsoever. The nurses are doing their best but they are totally overwhelmed. These babies are not getting anything like the kind of stimulation they need."

NO ONE is happy with the situation. In his ground-floor offices, Dr Nicolae Grasa, the hospital's director, appears to be at the end of his tether. "The problem is, they modified the legislation. Before this modification there were some social buildings [for babies]. The possibility to take the children to these buildings is not possible anymore."

And so the babies mount up in his hospital wards. He tots up the numbers in the various paediatric and maternity departments to 40. He complains that apart from living in a totally unsuitable environment, the babies clog up much-needed bed space in the overcrowded 1,100 bed hospital; they eat into his nursing staff and his budgets. He claims that most of them are Roma babies.

"These children - many are not identified. They have no vaccination and are coming in contact with other children. And it is possible to spread disease. Economically, we must spend money for food. We don't have enough places here," he says.

At the Constanta County's council offices the following day, Marianna Belu, the secretary general, is equally frustrated.

The government had done much to overturn Romania's appalling child welfare record, she says. Social workers encourage new mothers at risk of abandoning their children; foster parents are offered five million lei (€140) per month - the equivalent of an average salary - for taking in abandoned children; of about 4,600 children abandoned last year, more than half were returned to their extended families. But now the policies were floundering on a shortage of cash. The babies were the responsibility of the council's Child Protection department, she says.

According to Mrs Belu, the babies left behind in hospitals belong in foster care; foster families have to be paid, and her council has run out of money.

A translator speaking on her behalf says: "She wants to make clear that kids would not stay in the hospital if they have the money to cover all the costs for the foster families to take them, but they don't have the money at the moment. That's why they are there."

Mrs Belu disputes the Constanta doctors' complaints that babies have been living for up to a year and a half on their hospital wards. She insists that they'd normally spend no more than a month or two there.

Even if the money did materialise, Mrs Belu has other priorities to juggle: hundreds of families are homeless after the floods that devastated huge tracts of Romania during the summer. Others live in abject poverty. And 20,000 physically and mentally handicapped adults remain in 50 institutions that are earmarked for closure.

Mairiead McGuinness is preparing a report for the European Union on the findings of her trip to Romania. It is likely to be considered by the EU for its next report, due this month, on Romania's progress towards accession. She believes Europe must work closely with Romania to effect change.

John Mulligan takes a less tolerant view: he looks at the plight of the babies as more evidence of what he views as the Romanian government's obfuscation of figures to satisfy its craving for EU membership. He wants Romania's EU membership to be conditional on a whole slew of reforms, with its target date for entry pushed back another year if necessary.

"The European Commission's contention that there are no more children under the age of two in institutions in Romania is not strictly true - they are actually piling up in maternity hospitals again," he said.

"While the commission is technically correct that they are not in institutions, they are allowing a serious deception to be perpetrated by allowing these children to stay off the radar."

www.focusonromania.net

Aurelia Trust, Sutherland Centre, North Street, Skibbereen, Co Cork

Maeve Sheehan

© Irish Independent

Romania - Accelerated Reform Needed - McGuinness

Romania - Accelerated Reform Needed - McGuinness - 26/09/2005

Monday 26th September 2005.

“The EU must work closely with the Romanian authorities to address the care of children and young adults held in institutions and provide the necessary financial and other back up required to shut down the institutions,” Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness said today on her return from a fact-finding mission to Romania.

The Ireland East MEP, a member of the EU Parliament’s Romanian delegation, said that while improvements have been made in the care of children and young adults held in institutions, the situation is far from satisfactory.

“These institutions should have no place in today’s world,” she said. “The country’s accession to the EU must be accompanied by accelerated reform of the institutions but Romania needs greater assistance from the EU to achieve the necessary reforms. “It emerged during my visit that one of the key problems in the effort to reform the situation is a lack of funding for staff and for the provision of new facilities to accommodate these people. “One county council had slashed its budget for the institutions, resulting in the laying off of over 40pc of the staff in the institutions, leading to an impossible situation. “This has a terrible impact on those living in the institutions and is unacceptable,” she said Over 30,000 children in Romania are held in “placement centers” which accommodate from 8 to over 100 children.

Some 20,000 young adults with a disability are also in institutional care, some in very large institutions. In addition 4,600 babies were abandoned by their mothers in maternity hospitals last year.

“The scale of the problem facing Romania is very large,” said Ms McGuinness. “Since the start of the year significant measures to improve the welfare of children have been implemented. No child under the age of two can be placed in institutional care. Of the 4,600 children abandoned by their mothers/family in 2004, half were reunited with their natural mother, while many returned to extended family. “However, several hundred children remain in maternity hospitals or placement centers for months longer than is acceptable. “On Saturday we visited a busy maternity hospital where 15 children remain in the care of the hospital staff because of abandonment. “One of the children was 18 months old and had never been outside the confines of the hospital - a situation which is not acceptable. Others aged from one month upwards await the provision of foster care.”

The plight of young adults with a disability is of particular concern, Ms McGuinness said. “These are the children of the Ceausceuera, who have remained in institutions. “While the strategy is to close down these institutions and build proper sheltered accommodation for these adults, the scale of the problem is such that on current trends it will take a very long time to move these adults to suitable accommodation.

“In Techirghiol over 450 adults are living in sub-standard conditions, with three and four adults cramped into very small bedrooms and only the basic facilities provided. The older part of the building appeared unsafe. “The EU has a unique opportunity to make a real difference to the lives and wellbeing of thousands and thousands of children and young adults in institutional care.”

Following her visit, Ms McGuinness will write to the Commission urging it to hone in on the situation of abandoned children and young adults in care in Romania.

“This must form part of the EU report on progress to accession which is due out in late October,” she added. Ms McGuinness travelled to Romania with Focus on Romania, a group working for many years to assist young people in Romanian institutions.

Observers from Romania and Bulgaria will attend the European Parliament this week.

End Note: Population: 21.7 million Romania, a slower developer than other former communist countries of Eastern Europe, is still suffering the legacy of Nicolae Ceausescu who was executed in an uprising on Christmas Day 1989. In April 2005 Romania signed the EU Accession Treaty and is set to join the EU in 2007, depending on the pace of reforms. Corruption is one of the key stumbling blocks to membership. In a surprise result, Traian Basescu, the popular Mayor of Bucharest became Prime Minister in December 2004. He has said that his priority is to focus on the rapid acceleration of reforms and he has promised to be tougher in the fight against poverty and corruption.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY Tue Oct 11, 7:05 AM

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY Tue Oct 11, 7:05 AM ET

Infants ignored for long periods in foreign orphanages may miss the social interplay needed to "prime" brains for normal development, but adoptive parents say most kids who spend less than two years in an orphanage are mentally healthy, researchers reported Monday.

"The longer you live without a stable, supportive family, the more the risk for emotional and conduct problems," says University of Minnesota psychologist Megan Gunnar. She and neonatologist Dana Johnson are following about 2,300 children from other countries adopted by U.S. families in the 1990s. They spoke at the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting here.

PET scans show that the brain's emotional centers are already functioning in 1-week-old babies, says pediatric neurologist Harry Chugani of Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Those brain regions specialize in recognizing faces and picking up emotional cues.

Chugani also used scans to compare connective fibers in the brains of children never in orphanages with the brains of those adopted from Romanian orphanages where they received little attention. Adoptees from Romania had fewer fibers with weaker connections in their frontal cortexes, he says. The adopted kids are being treated for attachment problems, and he will re-scan them to see whether behavioral improvement changes their brains.

"It looks like the brain is wired for emotional bonding at birth," he says. "If that doesn't happen, the system goes awry."

Gunnar's study used a behavior problem checklist filled out by parents of kids adopted an average of six years earlier. Parents of children adopted before age 2 reported fewer emotional and behavior problems in their kids than reported by American parents overall.

But the adoptees were somewhat more likely than others to have trouble paying attention, according to parents. And the older the child when adopted, the greater the risk of problems, Gunnar says. Parents' views might differ from those of child development experts, she adds.

Johnson's study compared the children adopted internationally by married couples with those whose adoptive parents are single or living with a partner of either sex. The non-married received older kids who suffered more deprivation because married couples often get priority in adoptions, Johnson says. After taking into account how long kids were in institutions and quality of care, children cared for by the unmarried were just as well-adjusted as married couples' kids, he says.

Those most likely to suffer long-term problems were much shorter than average when adopted, probably a sign of deprivation. And they had sensory problems such as impaired hearing or sight, or being ultra-sensitive to touch or noises, Johnson says.

It's unknown how much genes or prenatal environment might influence recovery from early brain disturbance, Gunnar says. "Many of these kids have a remarkable capacity to turn around when they're adopted," she says. "The quality of the institutional care seems to matter most."

THE BUCHAREST DAILY NEWS

Orphans adopted abroad never left Romania

Alecs Iancu

In 27 cases of international adoptions approved by the courts, the children never left Romania, according to a report on inter-country adoptions which has been written as part of Romania's EU accession preparations.

The Romanian Office for Adoptions (ORA) has started procedures to clarify why these children never left, even if their adoption had been approved. Out of the 27 couples who filed requests to adopt a Romanian orphan, 12 are from the U.S., ten are from Italy, two from Spain and one each from Canada, Cyprus and Greece. In some other cases, ORA has evidence that the adoptions were canceled by child protection departments for various reasons. However, there is no knowledge of a similar decision in the case of these 27 adoptions. ORA consequently informed the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which will transmit the information to Romania's embassies in the countries where the 27 couples are located. The diplomatic personnel will contact the prospective adoptive parents and try to establish why the children were never entrusted to them.

ORA is also developing a National Adoption Register in electronic format, for which it has asked for post adoption reports on children entrusted to families living in other countries from those country's diplomatic missions to Romania. The institution will also gather information about international adoptions signed between 1997 and October 2001, as it has no data about these cases. The electronic system will insure security and confidentiality of information, according to EU standards. ORA has stated that over 1,000 adoption requests are currently included in its database, along with nearly 200 court decisions to allow internal adoptions.

Foreign citizens or families who live in Romania and were entrusted with taking care of an orphan should be able to obtain permanent Romanian residence, according to a request sent by ORA to the Authority for Foreigners.

Inter-country adoptions were banned recently after new laws came into effect at the beginning of the year. The new legislation, allowing inter-country adoptions only if the adoptive parents are related to the child, came after EU criticism of "too permissive" laws on adoption. The U.S. and other countries whose citizens had started adoption procedures in Romania opposed the laws. Recently, the Helsinki Commission interviewed a number of specialists from Romania on the situation of inter-country adoption cases which remained blocked when the new legislation came in effect.

Copyright © 2004 Bucharest Daily News

Portion from "Pinstripes and Reds"

It is my personal experience regarding U.S. policy toward Romania which would expose the naïveté of this misguided policy and should force a serious reevaluation of the U.S. position vis-a-vis Romania. One might think that someone who knew the language and history of the country would be welcomed as ambassador or at least one whose input would be strongly considered. Not so. American foreign policy toward Romania is usually carried out by persons whose knowledge is usually greatly limited. There is a real need for long-term, on-the-ground, in-the-trenches specialists on Romania who actually weigh in on U.S. policy decisions. Alas, the DOS is bereft of specific expertise on Romania. Thus these misguided policies are in large part due to the accommodating attitude of an elite group of State Department personnel who run their own agenda regarding U.S. policy toward Romania irrespective of the realities of the situation.

Perhaps most disheartening is the DOS policy which seems to help perpetuate the misery. The GOR, [and not the children], remains the chief beneficiary of the U.S. policy. It seems as though it is business as usual in U.S.-Romanian relations. Human rights groups have expressed frustration that the DOS and the embassy in Bucharest are showing little practical concern and interest in pursuing reports of corruption [and abuse with respect to the children]. Why not do what was done in 1986 -- pass a Senate resolution denouncing the GOR's hostility to resolving the registered cases honorably and quickly. It is all well and good to "warn" Romania to keep its promise to process the cases. But the damage has been done and continues to be done. Romania has taken everything -- and given nothing.

Abandoned Romanian children have less and less basis for hope for support from those in the American government because it is those very people who are betraying them by allying themselves with and rewarding their oppressors. One embassy official [from the more distant past] said that if we are wimps in the matter, Romania will crap all over us. We must put the interests of the children first. We must keep in mind our obligations to seek improved conditions for the children of Romania. This will help counter the institutional tendency at State to emphasize the concerns of the country in which Foreign Service officers are serving and help to counter the excessive and unhealthy loyalty to the DOS system and its elite. We must do more to consider the historical, linguistic, cultural, and other differences which impinge on decisions.

U.S. policy should not extend loans, grants, aid or any other forms of assistance through the World Bank, IMF, etc. And individual American banks should not be permitted to do this either. Basic human rights [including those of abandoned children to a permanent family] are of paramount importance because they reflect how the GOR respects it's own citizens [children]. Time and time again the U.S. has chosen to overlook violations of these rights and have accorded Romania hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. They have cited Romanian "assurances" that progress would be made. Time and time again, these assurances turn out to be tragically empty promises [read "lies"]. Yet the U.S. government declines to speak out forcefully or do anything practical about it.

The U.S. should take the lead by withdrawing aid from Romania. Instead the "pinstripers" of Washington work behind the scenes with the GOR and its representatives to tie together aid for Romania; but only on Romania's terms. The comments of many Romanians [now made as a voice for the abandoned children] emphasize: "Never forget what the GOR is doing to destroy us. And never forget what the U.S. government is doing to help the GOR regime keep us in this situation." I for one shall not forget.

Adapted from "Pinstripes and Reds" by David B. Funderburk, former Ambassador to Romania

Children accuse orphanage of mistreatment

Bucharest Daily News

Children accuse orphanage of mistreatment

Andreea Pocotila

The leadership of the Casa Copilului(Children's House) in Brasov said yesterday in a press conference that a little girl who disappeared a few days ago from the center, Ana Finichiu, was not mistreated, as the central newspaper Adevarul had reported.

The foundation's vice president, Nicolae Mindrila, said the 13-year-old did not run away from the facility, as she was taken from school by two women, one from an international adoption organization, and the other one from the Social Assistance and Child Protection Department (DASCP) in Brasov.

Mindrila said the two women took the girl without notifying school representatives and drove away with her. The foundation announced the prosecutors office and the police about the possible abduction. The vice president said the girl was never mistreated by employees.

On the other hand, the DASPC leadership said the girl is under their protection because she came to them and complained she was being terrorized by the center's employees. On Saturday, Adevarul published an article about this case, saying the orphanage belongs to famous businessman Ion Tiriac and that dozens of children asked department to take them away from the center because they are being mistreated by employees.

Romanian Adoption Policy as Human Rights Issue

Romanian Adoption Policy as Human Rights Issue Thursday, 15 September 2005, 8:45 pm Press Release: US State Department Romanian Adoption Policy Examined as Human Rights Issue Congressional panel criticizes EU adoption ban pressure on Bucharest

By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Contemporary child development research shows unequivocally that placing infants in hospital or orphanage care for longer than 4-6 months permanently damages them in terms of their cognitive, emotional and behavioral development, an expert witness told a congressional hearing September 14.

"A reasonable estimate is that an infant loses 1-2 IQ points per month and sustains predictable losses in growth as well as motor and language development between 4 and 24 months of age while living in an institutional environment," said the witness, Dr. Dana Johnson, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and director of the International Adoption Clinic.

Dr. Johnson's testimony underscored why the United States Helsinki Commission – a body that monitors human rights issues – was holding a hearing on the impact of Romania's newly implemented ban on intercountry adoptions, a ban characterized by the commission's chairman as "undeniably a human rights abuse."

The European Union (EU) also came in for heavy criticism by commission members because of the role it has played in pressuring Romania to adopt the new law.

Commission Co-chairman Christopher Smith opened the hearing by providing a brief overview of the problem. As a legacy of Nicolae Ceaucescu's dictatorial rule, the abandonment of children has been a serious problem in Romania for decades.

Smith cited UNICEF statistics that 9,000 children each year are abandoned in Romania's maternity wards or pediatric hospitals, 66 percent of them minority Roma children. "Each year, 1,000 children are adopted domestically while 8,000 children in Romania are being sentenced to a life without knowing family or a parent's love," he said.

In 2001, under pressure from the European Union, Romania declared a moratorium on international adoptions, Smith said. In 2004, Romania enacted a new law on adoptions that effectively bans international adoptions. "This law is based on the misguided proposition that a foster family, or even an institution, is preferable to an adoptive family outside the child's country of birth," said Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey.

Since the declaration of the moratorium in 2001 and the enactment of the new law in 2004, approximately 1,700 international adoptions were registered with the Romanian government but left hanging, including more than 200 with American families, some of whom were in the hearing room.

Maura Harty, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, said the United States is "committed to fostering an international environment for intercountry adoptions that protects the interests of orphaned and abandoned children, their birth parents, and American families."

The assistant secretary expressed "great disappointment" that the United States has failed to make any real progress on the adoption cases filed during the moratorium despite the fact that President Bush raised the issue with Romanian President Traian Basescu in March and other American officials have raised it at every opportunity.

"Romanian officials have offered many promises, but there has been little or no follow-through," Harty said.

"The Romanian Government has asserted that its adoption law and its failure to proceed with pending cases are being driven by concerns over Romanian accession to the European Union," she said, adding that the State Department has sought clarification from the EU on its stance toward Romania's adoption legislation.

"You can be sympathetic with Romania's need to join the European Union and still recognize that these adoption laws are deeply damaging to the lives of thousands of children," said Helsinki Commission Co-chair Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas. "There has to be a better and more humane way to deal with this problem, and I urge the EU and Romania to sit down and take seriously the fate of thousands of innocent children and loving families."

The European Commission was invited to send a representative to testify at the hearing but declined to attend, according to Co-chairman Smith.

"This is a humanitarian issue, a child welfare issue," Harty concluded. She said she was flying to Europe in just a few hours to seek clarity on this issue.

Sorin Ducaru, Romania's ambassador to the United States, read a statement on the issue that he said had been carefully drafted by his government. According to his statement, the new law effectively banning international adoption "was drafted together with a group of European Commission experts that provided permanent consultancy, taking into consideration the provisions of UN Convention on the child's rights, the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and … European practices in the field."

Chairman Smith disputed that Romania's new adoption law "comports in any way" with the Hague Convention. "The best interest of the child is to find a loving home," he said.

"Romania needs the backbone to say to the EU we care more about our children than about accession," he added.

The other panelists included Thomas Atwood, President & CEO, National Council for Adoption; Debra Murphy-Scheumann, President of the Board of Directors, Joint Council on International Children's Services; and Elliot Forsyth, who is waiting to adopt a Romanian child.