Letter to editor: Financial Times

Dear Sir,

We would like to address some of the sweeping and untrue statements made by MEP Emma Nicholson and Bogdan Panait, Romania's Secretary of State, National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights, concerning the current situation of abandoned children in Romania and international adoption.

It is, indeed, true that Romania's current child welfare legislation was drafted and signed into law due to a need for a massive overhaul in their previous legislation. It's also true that corruption was rampant in all aspects of the child welfare system. Corruption was - and on some levels, still is - pervasive throughout every level of society in Romania. However, no one in the European Union called for a shut-down of the government and a halt to Romania's accession due to corruption. Nor should inter-country adoption be banned for the same reason. If Romania cannot find a way to resolve corruption on the much smaller scale of inter-country adoption, then they certainly are unable to do so within the higher levels of government and day to day living. We find it both shocking and dismaying that allegations of corruption and "baby selling" continue to be made, and yet, to date, no one has ever been formally charged and prosecuted In a Romanian court of law for these despicable crimes involving children. A first step would be to investigate the assets and bank accounts of individual Romanians who were once involved with inter-country adoptions, including government employees. Should the Romanian government want a "starter list", we are happy to provide one.

We have no idea who the child's rights experts are that MEP NIcholson cites in her letter. However, any credible, professional working with abandoned children and innumerable professional studies will agree that every child needs and deserves a permanent family and that institutionalization and long-term foster care are not in the best interests of the child. The USAID report that MEP Nicholson frequently cites did not advocate banning inter-country adoption, only ending practices and policies that were wide-open for corruption.

Finally, we have some misgivings that Mr. Panait would even be the appropriate person to address any issues involving the welfare and protection of children and recommendations as to their care. When recently presented with the case of 2 year old who is spending 20 hours a day in a cage so her guardian could work, Mr. Panait said,: "From what I have seen she is a healthy child, she has enough food and has had all her vacinnes. She seems to be developing perfectly normally. Her home needs to be tidied up, but as she spends most of the time in the cage anyway it's not a problem." (Daily Telegraph 4/16/06)

Signed by For the Children SOS and adoptive parent groups in France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain

ROMANIA’S CONCEALED CHILDCARE CRISIS

Dear MEPs,

See the attached June 12th, 2006 Financial Times full page joint statement issued by 33 charities critical of EU MEP leadership and the Romanian Government. Also copied as text below.

Have you ever held a baby in your arms that didn’t exist?

Welcome to Romania, where we invite you to tour the “Real Romania” (don’t take the guided tour).

Here, you can hold an abandoned baby who has spent more than a year in a hospital cot, where, according to government statistics, this baby doesn’t exist on two counts: a) it is not listed on the official statistics of those abandoned, and b) it is not listed on the statistics of those that are institutionalised.

Additionally, EUR 30 Billion in EU aid for Romania was announced last week. Only large infrastructure projects were mentioned. We implore you, in light of the reality in Romania today, to designate some small fraction of this amount to eradicate the horrible legacy of a woefully inadequate childcare system.

As seen in the Financial Times, June 12th 2006 (without photo):

ROMANIA’S CONCEALED CHILDCARE CRISIS


A final vote on Romania’s entry in to the EU is scheduled for October 2006. We, the undersigned 33 charities, work with children in need in Romania. While we support Romania’s admission, the citizens of the EU should be aware of the current crisis in Romania’s childcare system – a system certain EU officials are wrongly presenting as “model.”

Many Romanian officials continue to disregard the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Parliament report of December 2005.

Most EU citizens and MEPs don’t know the truth. EU officials and celebrities are given carefully guided tours of “new and improved” children’s facilities wholly unrepresentative of the real Romania. Thousands of abandoned children still endure appalling conditions. Tragically, there are many “no cost” solutions to stop the suffering that could be implemented today, but aren’t.

There has been some positive change. We have witnessed extraordinary acts of kindness and bravery from many Romanian doctors, police, government officials, nurses, teachers, carers and social workers who are striving to improve the lives of these children. However, these admirable efforts should not serve as an excuse to allow the suffering of so many to continue.

The Problems:

Guantanamo for Babies

Thousands of children a year are abandoned. The Romanians typically adopt a small fraction of these. Many then enter a legal “no man’s land” where, because they do not have birth certificates or consent from the abandoning parent, they cannot be fostered or adopted, and often are not eligible for medical treatment or education.

Crammed into hospitals, these “unofficial” (not included in government statistics) abandoned babies are often confined to steel cribs 23+ hours a day for months or years. Without normal stimuli, without the ability to crawl, play, interact or be loved, they suffer immense, often irreversible psychological and physical damage.

The Impotence of Law

Olli Rehn, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, takes comfort in recent legislation, stating it is "fully in line with EU standards and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child". In fact, the childcare legislation contains serious flaws. Enforcement is sporadic, interpretation opportunistic, and punishment rare. Current childcare legislation is little more than a book of fiction collecting dust on a bedside table.

Failure of Funding

As part of the plan to join the EU, Romania agreed to grant funding for charities providing childcare. Funding for most has been inaccessible or grossly inadequate. Many homes remain under-staffed and under-equipped, especially for children with disabilities. Financing for foster care is drastically underfunded in many regions. Once funding runs out, if the charities don’t pay, the child remains institutionalised. Shockingly, the state has even refused to pay for funeral expenses for many children that it infected with HIV due to unsanitary medical practices.

Disregard for Child Rights

Romanian parents are free to abandon and reclaim their children at will. An abused child may be removed from the family, but the parent is rarely punished. “Forced” reintegration occurs, where a baby is returned to a family with a history of abuse or abandonment.

Teens on the Street

With few “transitional” homes or program for teens, many resort to crime, drugs and prostitution. Girls are particularly vulnerable.
……

Some Romanian government officials and a few EU MEPs will deny the above claims, as they have denied every critical report issued by any external entity, including those by UNICEF and other charities.

When will the EU stop accepting denials and empty promises, and demand concrete actions ?



What can be done today:

1. Establish a Childs Rights Compliance Office (CRCO)

Staffed for a transitional period by Romanian and EU Representatives, CRCO would investigate and report on a) implementation of childcare legislation, b) violation of child rights, c) harassment against those who lodge complaints, d) police and judiciary response, d) use of Romanian and EU childcare funding.


2. Open “Controlled” Inter-country Adoption:

Inter-country adoption was halted in 2001, then fully closed in 2004. The result is that many thousands of children languish in institutions with no hope of domestic adoption, especially Roma children.

If after a suitable period (eg. four months) domestic adoption has not proved possible, the Government should allow inter-country adoption in order to stop the developmental damage caused by institutionalisation.

We also feel that it is cruel to deny more than 1,000 adoptions that have been pending since 2001, where for some of these children the adoptive parents are the only parents they have ever known.

3. Establish an Independent Children’s Policy Group

A children’s “High Level Group” is influencing childcare policy in Romania and Bulgaria. It is jointly headed by MEP Emma Nicholson, who holds opposing views to many childcare specialists, the majority of charities working in Romania, and an ever-increasing number of MEPs. Her continuing demands for complete, unconditional closure of Inter-country adoption are deemed “radical” by other MEPs. And her recent description of Romania as a “model” for childcare is incomprehensible to those living with the reality.

We support the establishment of a genuinely independent, balanced body concerned with Romanian children’s rights and policy. As a diverse group of professionals who have worked with Romanian children over many years, we respectfully request a seat on such a body.

4. Link EU Aid to Child Care

EUR 30 billion is budgeted by the EU for Romania, designated for large projects such as highways and infrastructure. An effective amount of this funding should be directed to ending the legacy of a woefully inadequate child welfare system, audited by the EU to ensure the funds are spent as intended.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

We, the undersigned charities, have years of experience dealing with these issues, working without profit. We include doctors, nurses, lawyers, police chiefs, psychologists, teachers, and social workers. We are principally EU and Romanian citizens. We respect the Romanian people and culture. Above all, we care deeply about the children of this country.





YOU Can Help

Any citizen of the EU can help. Please go to our website at www.romanianchild.org for more information, including e-mails and other contact details of your constituent EU representatives. At the end of September, we will report back to the public via our website and the international press on concrete actions taken by MEPs and the Romanian Government. Subsequent six-monthly updates can be viewed at www.romanianchild.org
Contact details: info@romanianchild.org



Signed,

Amici dei Bambini Reach Romania Lancashire
Blythswood Banat Relief Fund for Romania
Bridge of Chritian Relief Romanafectus
Cry in the Dark (UK) Romanian Aid Distribution
Everyone’s Child Romania Romanian Orphan Support Effort
FARA Foundation Romanian Relief
Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans Save Eastern Europe's Kids
Fundatatia Casa Sperantei Spurgeon’s Child Care
Fundatia Casa Mea Ungureni Trust
Fundatia Forget-me-not Foundation Viata Noua Pentru Copii
Fundatia in Brate Anonymous Charity A
Fundaþia Speranþa Familiei Anonymous Charity B
Link Romania Anonymous Charity C
Livada Orphan Care Anonymous Charity D
O Noua Viata Anonymous Charity E
Prientenii Copiilor Anonymous Charity F
Primavara Copiilor

* You will note a number of groups have signed “Anonymous Charity”. This is due to the fact that previous attempts to speak out on children’s rights have resulted in certain local authorities then hindering charities’ in their vital work. In the future, we will report on our website and to the EU on reprisals of this nature.

USAID has never recommended ban on adoptions

By Rodger Garner
Published: June 19 2006 03:00 Last updated: June 19 2006 03:00
From Mr Rodger D. Garner.

Sir, I am writing to clarify the position of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on intercountry adoption in Romania.

Emma Nicholson MEP, in her letter of June 13, claims that her views "are in line with the child-rights experts who have consulted extensively in Romania on behalf of the European Union, the United Nations and USAID".

Neither USAID nor its consultants have ever recommended a ban on intercountry adoption. For 15 years, USAID has supported programmes in Romania that have helped prevent child abandonment, trained foster parents, closed large state-run orphanages and encouraged Romanian families to adopt Romanian children.

USAID's work in Romania supports the US government policy that intercountry adoption offers an additional opportunity for many of Romania's abandoned and orphaned children to be raised by loving families.

Rodger D. Garner,
Director,
US Agency for International Development,
Bucharest, Romania
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

International adoption campaign stirs new controversy

By Denisa Maruntoiu

Following the publication in Monday's edition of British daily Financial Times of a full-page advertisement entitled "Romania's concealed childcare crisis" completed by 33 NGOs which denounced the child protection system in Romania as ignoring the Romanian orphans and pointed out that EU officials have no idea about the traumas the orphans are subjected to in the Romanian institutions, the former EP's rapporteur on Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson, rejected all the allegations. She pointed out that the non-governmental organizations that have signed the document have a strong financial interest in the resumption of the highly profitable international adoptions business.

In a letter to the editor entitled "Romania banned international adoptions as an evil trade in children" published yesterday by Financial Times, Nicholson said that Romania banned international adoptions in 2001 because it had turned into a trade.

"Adoptive parents were taken for a ride by unscrupulous adoption agencies; children were illegally selected based on photo and video presentations and the social services were bypassed," said the MEP, adding that the ban was a brave decision and has been upheld by successive Romanian governments that have done well reforming their child welfare system and stopping children being institutionalized.

"It would be madness to re-introduce international adoptions now," said Nicholson, pointing out that in her opinion the pro-adoption lobby is continually "peddling false information" about the number of children abandoned in Romania. The baroness said that all the information in the advertisement sounds very dramatic and terrible but is not true."

Unless these abandoned children are hidden away in some secret location (perhaps the "secret CIA prisons"), the pro-adoption lobby should inform us where these tens of thousands of abandoned children are kept. To find out the truth of the situation, one just has to make a random visit to any child hospital in Romania," stressed Nicholson.

The former EP rapporteur on Romania also said that her name is often used by the pro-adoption lobby as the bete noire who has a peculiar obsession with international adoptions as it makes for good lobby practice to blame all these ills on one person. "The lobby consistently fails to mention the fact that my views are in line with the child rights experts who have consulted extensively in Romania on behalf of the European Union, the United Nations agencies and USAID," concluded Nicholson.

As the advertisement in Financial Times also stated that the authorities do not protect the children abused by their families and do not punish those guilty of molesting the children and compared the Romanian orphanages with the Guantanamo detention facility, the head of the Child Protection Authority (ANPDC), State Secretary Bogdan Panait, said the advert in the British newspaper represents a new attack against Romania.

"The organizations that signed that document are some small NGOs operating in Romania as well. Some of them used to intermediate international adoptions and this makes me think the attack is part of the campaign meant to force us to resume the international adoptions," said Panait yesterday. In addition, an ANPDC press release noted that all the pressures coming from both Europe and the U.S. aim at resuming the "export of children" and that the attacks against the child protection system prove all these actions are "orchestrated by foreign interest groups."

The head of the Romanian Office for Adoptions, State Secretary Theodora Bertiz, also said yesterday she is outraged by the strong pressure coming from lobby groups that are trying to convince the EU lawmakers to call on Romania to resume international adoptions.

"It seems those groups are behind an international media campaign that is being financed with huge amounts of money. They should have used the money to help the orphans instead of using them to ruin Romania's image," said Bertzi, adding that it is unacceptable for the progress achieved in the child protection field not to be acknowledged.

"We still have lots of things to improve, but this does not mean we should erase everything we did by now," said Bertzi.

Sent by MEP Tannock to all 737 MEPs

Colleagues,

This open letter in the Financial Times fully vindicates the work of Madame Gibault, M Cavada and myself and a few other brave MEPs who questioned the assertions of Commissioner Rehn, Baroness Nicholson, Mrs Ana Gomes and others who were adamant that all was well with child protection in Romania. I thanks those MEPs who cosigned our Writen Declaration and hope that the Romanian government will now reconsider its current inflexible position.

best wishes

Charles

Dr Charles Tannock MEP
VP Human Rights Subcommittee
Deputy Coordinator AFET EPP-ED
UK Conservative Foreign Affairs Spokesman

"STEP"-MOTHERS FOR MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT

Article from Cotidianul Monday, June 12, 2006

"STEP"-MOTHERS FOR MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT
Author: Seila Dumitrescu and Oana Craciun

At the present, there are over 18,000 abandoned children who are being cared for by approximately14,000 maternal assistants. Maternal assistants who don't take care of the children who are with them, can be dismissed from their jobs. About 1,000 of these maternal assistants over the last three years have been found guilty of negligence in caring for children who were with them and their authorization was withdrawn.

Last month, two children who were in the care of maternal assistants, died in Buzau county. These two 'step' mothers were paid $220 per month by the government to care for a child. Because of their negligence, they now risk up to 20 years in prison. And these are not isolated incidents. According to Bogdan Panait, State Secretary and head of the National Authority for the Protection of theRights of the Child, said that there were problems in many counties. In the last two years, more than 100 maternal assistants had their authorization withdrawn in 4 counties (Vaslui, Botosani, Suceava, and Olt) and two sectors in Bucharest (sectors 2 and 3).

PROBLEMS WITH MONITORING

The minimum legal standards for dealing with these 18,000 plus children who are in the care of professional mothers require that home visits be made at least once per month. Panait says, "The social workers are supposed to make these visits and to counsel and help the maternal assistants." The problem is that there are far too few social workers to accomplish this. Cecilia Manolescu fromBuzau says, "In Buzau county, there are 9 social workers who are supposed to monitor 281 maternal assistants who have 797 children." The selection of maternal assistants is not very strict. Diana Nistorescu, executive director of a group of NGO's who work in the child protection field, says that, "There is no system of parental education in Romania, not for biological parents, to say nothing of a program for maternal assistants."

PARENTS FOR MONEY IN 40 HOURS

The job of a paid 'parent' appeared in Romania in 2003 as a response to the problem of more than 40,000 children who were abandoned in maternity hospitals. Minimal requirements (no job, parenta laptitude, a decent house, and the agreement of the rest of the family) caused many Romanians to take a look at this occupation. Once they had fulfilled the preliminary formalities, they had to take a 40 hour course which culminated in a test of their knowledge. The local CPS offices approved these maternal assistants based on the tests, and evaluation by a social worker, and where deemed necessary by a psychologist. Florin Stefan Vasile, director CPS in Sector 3 of Bucharest says, "Most of the maternal assistants have graduated from high school. Some are former nurses or seamstresses who have wanted to change jobs. Most of them (maternal assistants) have chosen this job because they want the salary." This opinion is also shared by Cecilia Manolescu, director of CPS Buzau.

THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO CHANGE THE LAW CONCERNING MATERNAL ASSISTANTS

From Cotidianul Monday, June 12, 2006

Page 6

THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO CHANGE THE LAW CONCERNING MATERNAL ASSISTANTS

Bogdan Panait, State Secretary for the National Authority for the Protection of the Child's Rights, recognizes that the system of maternal assistants has problems in the area of monitoring and in the area of the selection of personnel. These exist, he says, because the choice of maternal assistants is "made hastily".

The solution suggested by the National Authority for the Protection of the Child's Rights is to increase the preparation time for the maternal assistants from 40 hours to 300 hours. They will also be more rigorous in the selection of maternal assistants and they want to involve NGO's a well. Panait assured us that, "This new law will come into force on Jan. 1, 2007."

From Jurnalul National May 29, 2006

By Adriana Popescu, Ionela Gavriliu 2nd Installment

Second half of Atrophied Adolescents

ISOLATION UNIT

"Isolation Unit" is what is written on a plaque mounted above the door of the last room. It is here that children with severe disabilities are kept. There are seven of them now. Not one of them is a paraplegic or affected by some form of muscular dystrophy. Six of the seven are in cribs with metal bars, but white sheets are hung around the crib to camouflage the bars. When they see us they begin to make a lot of noise. Mamaia is a 20 year old girl who is the most recent arrival here and is also the most agitated. We were told, "She has not yet become used to this place." Next to her is Bogdan. He is 16 years old and his skin is transparent. He reaches toward you with long and translucent fingers and he smiles. Also in the room is a 14 year old girl named Princesa; she looks to be about 4 years of age. She is dressed in a white blouse made of lace. She doesn't weigh even 30 pounds. Next to her is a 13 year old girl Narcisa. She is lying in a twisted position across the bed. Her spine is at a 30 degree angle to the mattress and her legs are straddling the bars of the crib. "That's how she likes to sleep," said one caregiver. However, after a few minutes another caregiver gave us a different explanation, "If we put her another way, she hits herself on the bed and injures herself." On the right side of her face near her temple are bruises from where she recently hit herself, but now in the area of her head are numerous pillows. The muscles of all the children are atrophied. The director told us that, "We have a fulltime physical therapist." The fact is that this physical therapist is a nurse who is on two years leave of absence from her job because she had a baby and is staying home to raise him.

PLANS

Children never leave this isolation unit. The director of the center maintains otherwise, but when we asked him to show us the wheelchairs with which these children are taken outside he forgets to answer. However, later he did say, "We will soon receive 7 of them from Odobesti." Once children have entered the doors of this institution, they will never again leave the center except on their way to the cemetery. Several years ago, a child in this unit died and was buried in the village cemetery, due to the kindness of the priest.

Local officials are optimistic, however. It was told us that these children will be moved into a center which will be constructed especially for them in Focsani through the sponsorship of the SERA (Solidarite Enfants Roumains Abandonnes) foundation. It's just that the project will take a long time. Ground must be bought and the building constructed. Even in the most optimistic case, this isolation unit in Cotesti will remain occupied till the end of the year.

Also, on the level of 'plans', is the moving of 16 of the children who have mild deficiencies into a building next to the main center. This location has been renovated and has blue tile on the floor and thermopane windows. This is where Mariana and Ramona, for example, will live. However, they have to wait as well. The beds which are supposed to come from Odobesti still aren't finished yet. After a lightening visit on May 11 by Bogdan Panait, head of the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights and by Toader Ghetu, director of Child Protection Services Vrancea it was determined that, "In a maximum of 5 days, at least 15 children will be moved."

On May 10, the international organization "Mental Disability Rights International" published a report which described the inhuman conditions in which children with disabilities live in Romania. On May 22, a working group constituted at the request of Prime Minister Tariceanu, went about to verify the data from the MDRI report. This group made public their own report which negated the information and image presented by the Americans. However, we will present the situations that we met with in centers from Vrancea, Ialomita, Iasi, Maramures and the Buzau. We will omit personal impressions and commentaries. We will allow you to tell your point of view and in the end together we will draw some conclusions.

THE SERA REPORT

The orphanage in Cotesti also appears in the report of the French organization SERA which was published in October of 2005. This document which was not distributed to the media is available at www.carefrance.org .

At this orphanage the French were accompanied by Romeo Postelnicu, the General Secretary of Vrancea county and by Toader Ghetu, director of CPS Vrancea county. At that time, there were 49 children in the center: 24 recuperable, and 25 "severely retarded". The report says, "We began our visit in the section for recuperable children. The children were all in one room, both boys and girls, and they were indistinguishable from one another, reduced to the status of animals. They rocked back and forth, they hit themselves and they howled. Not one of them are schooled. The director Mr. Zisu, excuses the situation because of the lack of personnel. Of the 45 employees of the orphanage, there are only two educators and the psychologist comes only twice a week. The conditions in the orphanage are deplorable. There are 18 beds for 24 children and there are no nightstands. The conditions are even worse in the building where 25 children with severe retardation are housed. There are only 14 beds for them, wood heat and one sink. In a small room at the end of the hall, we found five small beds with metal bars where 7 children were crowded together and some of them who were of larger stature are curled up in fetal position. Both Postelnicu and Ghetu are conscious of the fact that this center needs to be closed. Their proposal for resolving the problem consists in placing the 24 'recuperable' in foster care with 'maternal assistants' and the transfer of the other 25 to the orphanage in Focsani where they are supposed to be put in groups of six in small apartments. These are supposed to be apartments which will serve as day care centers for children with disabilities. Unfortunately, Vrancea county has not included any of this in their budget for 2006, but Postelnicu is not afraid to ask whether we can help financially."

WE HAVE A PERSONNEL CRISIS

After the publication of MDRI's report, the first reaction of state secretary Bodgan Panait from National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights was to say that the data presented by the Americans isn't valid anymore. He said, "We can no longer say that in our country children with disabilities live like in Auschwitz." Panait declared that at the moment Romania's fighting a mentality which believes that children with disabilities should be kept hidden. Thus many children and especially those in rural areas do not have access to different services. He says that the solution is for these children to be kept in rehabilitation centers in the County Seats. With regard to a program for reintegrating children with disabilities, Panait described the construction of a campus costing $480,000 consisting of 3 family type houses and a rehabilitation center. Asked whether he thought it was sufficient for these children to merely have their primary needs met (like food and shelter) Panait replied that this was not sufficient. "But at this moment the institution which I lead is confronted with the crisis of a lack of qualified personnel," he said. According to official statistics, in the Romanian system, there are approximately 4,000 children with disabilities.

Article from Jurnalul National from May 29, 2006

Authors: Adriana Oprea Popescu and Ionela Gavriliu
1st Installment

AN ATROPHIED ADOLESCENT

In Cotesti, the children who have serious disabilities are kept night and day in an isolation unit in cribs with bars. They are 14, 16 and even 20 years of age, but physically they look like pre-school children. Others who are a bit more mobile, sleep two per bed but the beds are too small. We saw this on Tuesday, May 23, 2006, at the center for recuperation and rehabilitation for children with severe handicaps in the town of Cotesti, Brancea county. We had announced our visit about 20 hours before it was to take place, but the personnel of the institution were prepared to meet us in an appropriately. All 27 children with mild or medium retardation were in the courtyard of the institution crowded together on the swings whimpering. Some of them were rocking back and forth, the land of Communist orphanages. Dressed identically and impeccably clean with uniforms conformed of a green tee shirt with a white stripe on the arm and a pair of camouflage Bermuda shorts. We were then invited into the office of the director of the orphanage Mihai Zisu where we were introduced one by one to these "model patients". The children were sitting on their chairs and were not surprised at the presence of strangers. Afterward, being extremely sociable, they waited to be interviewed. And while their stories were flowing, between friendly gestures and giggling, the voice of a female supervisor was heard outside, singing to the children, "What a wonderful world it is in Which you Find Only Children". She was the only one who knew the verse.

PRESS-BOOK

Mariana was the first one invited to meet the press. She is 24 years old and the whole time of her institutionalization she has been a fan of variety TV show Andreea Marin. She is preparing to go on Andreea Marin's show Surpriza Surpriza on Saturday. "Do you have a pretty dress that you can wear?" "They will give me one from storage," she assures us while looking at the floor. "They will also give me new shoes." She has on eye makeup and she has two necklaces as well as a silver cross around her neck. Mariana has well manicured nails and she wants to have children. She's the only one at the orphanage that you can tell is a girl. All the other girls have their hair cut very short. "It's more hygienic that way. We have a clipper and an employee cuts their hair," Zisu explained to us.

The second one to meet us was Ramona (22 years old). She is the "assistant" director of the orphanage. She follows the director everywhere. She follows him like a shadow and doesn't take a nap until after 4:00PM, that is, at the end of the workday. Ramona has a family -- "my gypsies" is what she cries out whenever she sees a wagon full of Roma go by on the street. Several times a day she asks the director to call her parents. She tells them to come for her and take her home, however, she speak is actually only speaking with an employee of the orphanage. The girls have never seen a sanitary napkin in their lives; they use cotton batting. Those with severe disabilities use disposable diapers. The changing of these things falls to the employees.

Marian is 20 years old and was brought here in 2001 by his family. He is insulin dependent and has behavior problems. He is more timid than the girls and tells us that he never went to school and that at home he was forced to work in the forest or in the vineyard. His dream is to leave this place and be employed.

Nita is one of four autistic children in the orphanage. He came here five years ago from and institution in Siret. He has been institutionalized since age 7 when his parents abandoned him in the orphanage in Focsani. The family had triplets, although Nita was the firstborn, the second was born healthy and the third, Nita's sister who is also at Cotesti was also diagnosed with autism. The girl whom we met in one of the dormitory rooms, is not able to speak except one syllable--ma. She repeats this interminably when someone approaches her to comfort her; nor can her brother speak. But he can work. His palms are calloused and full of scratches and dirt is under his fingernails. The director told us that he likes to work. "He likes to be outside and works hard at his jobs." As a reward, Nita is taken for a walk, sometimes in a car or wagon, on the streets of the village. He is not able to say what pleases him. "He doesn't interact," Mihai Zisu tells us. He is an autistic child. He would not have been condemned to this situation if he would live in another country. In many cases autistic children can be helped through special therapy which consists of 40 hours a week of intensive treatment, during which time the child is dealt with by four psycho-therapists. At Cotesti, however, the psychologist has only a cooperative agreement with the institution and comes only one time per week. However, Nita does his therapy "with the garbage can". The director yells, "Nita, take the garbage can outside!" He explains to us that, "Nita likes this; if he doesn't want to he won't do it."

In this center for children with severe handicaps, there are actually 46 patients. There are 38 employees who care for them. Forty percent of these employees live in the village of Cotesti, while the rest come in from Focsani which is about 10 miles away. Among the total number of employees, there are two teachers, nine practical nurses (LPN's), two care givers, and seven nurses. Their boss is the wife of the director. At night, the 46 children are cared for by one nurse, one LPN and a night watchman.

Twenty two of the patients are over 18. Forty of them have been abandoned by their families; not one of them goes to school. The director told us, "Their medical condition does not permit them to go to school because they have IQ's of below 20." For their entire lives, these "chronically ill" (that's what the director calls them) they will need to live on state support. The director, Mihai Zisu, maintains that, "Everyday they receive milk, meat and eggs." On the day of our visit the children had cornmeal mush with cheese and sour cream for lunch. Ten of them were eating sunflower seeds.

When they exit the dining hall, some of them have handfuls of bread. They go to the dormitory and they rebel when the caregivers want to take the bread from them. "We're bulimic," they explained to us. After they eat if they are thirsty, the patients can get water from the sink next to the dormitory room. They turn on the water, put their mouth under the stream from the faucet and lap with their tongue. These are routine gestures. One of the children, a little girl we found out later, cannot let go of a piece of rusty wire that she has with her in the bed. "This is her fixation. If I take the wire she throws a fit." The employees haven't managed to change the wire except with a piece a little smaller. The little girl climbs up on the bunk bed and sleeps with the wire on her pillow like a child next to his toy.

In a few of the nearby beds, there are two children sleeping per bed. They are crowded together because the mattresses are 70" x 31". Not one of the children has any personal possessions; there are no nightstands and no pictures pasted on the walls. The wardrobes are filled with the same clothes in different sizes. The only toys we ever saw in the orphanage were: a ball in the courtyard and a little stuffed bear setting on a bed, but no one played with them. In the recreation hall, the only accessories were a television, several wing chairs and a locked cabinet. All of the rooms have wood stoves for heat.

In the summer, the children are taken to a camp in Tulici which belongs to the CPS Vrancea. They have not seen the Black Sea except on television or in soap operas or in video clips from MTV which show the palm trees in Mamaia. "Because of the problems that they have, the sea shore is not recommended for them," the director told us.

SERIOUS CASES

Children with a severe handicap are kept in a neighboring building. There are 19 there now, but the director of 'migration' explained to us that, "Their number varies depending on their condition. If they are calm, we move them to the other building. If they throw a fit, we bring them here." All 19 of these children in incontinent, this is obvious. In the first room there are 7 beds. They stay two to a bed, one with his feet at the other's head. The room was probably used as a kitchen in the past, the floors and the walls have tile. The bed at the end of the room is made from a slab of wood that has a mattress put on it. One of the "occupants" Vasilica, is 18 years old. This is what we are told, we cannot even approximate the biological age of the children. All of them have diapers (clean). When we get close to one of the girl's beds she takes our hand, puts it on her forehead, moving it in a petting motion. In the room across the hall, there are 5 beds. In one of them, a child is sitting obsessed with the smell of newspapers. "He recognizes the day's newspaper by the smell of the ink," the director tells us.

Jurnalul National Article

Article from Jurnalul National Monday, June 5, 2006.
Author: Alex Nedea

BABIES KEPT ILLEGALLY IN ORPHANAGES

In spite of the fact that the law forbids the institutionalization of children under two years of age, in Buzau babies are kept in orphanages because of the lack of maternal assistants (fosterparents). Psychologically healthy children are kept with those who have disabilities and who mutilate themselves. Psychologists have called attention to the fact that these little ones will imitate the behavior of those around them. One little one who is here was beaten from the time that she was in her mother's womb. She got used to being kicked and beaten and only after that did she get used to air and light. This torture remained somehow in her blood and if she wasn't beaten by someone she mutilated herself. Therefore, she was kept tied at all times in an orphanage in Focsani. Until she was 12, she was tied with ropes. Last year she was transferred to the Complex for Children with Severe Handicaps Number 8 in Buzau. The County Council invested over six billion lei ($200,000) between 2001 and 2003. The girl could have participated much earlier in a series of treatments that for most orphanages for children with disabilities in this country seem to be the fantasies of science fiction: hydrotherapy, aroma therapy, music therapy, light therapy, kinetic therapy, motorskills therapy. Last year (2005) the girl learned to take her first steps.

Thirty six children between the age of 0 and 18 years live at "Number 8". In a large room with many toys, children of various ages play together. Stefan, age 16, draws on the blackboard. Stefan has huge scars on his hands, he bites himself. When one wound is not quite healed, he makes another. Next to him, a six year old girl, Andreea, write numbers from 1 to 10. She is mentally healthy. It is only the fact that she has some birth defects at her hips that causes her to learn next to this boy who abuses himself and who repeats himself obsessively. Children with slight and mild retardation play together with those who are severely retarded. A psychologist for the organization Save the Children, Andrea Biji, calls attention to the fact that, "It is contra-indicated that these psychologically healthy children should be together with those who have severe mental retardation. The healthy children have a tendency to adopt the behavior of the mentally retarded ones." The directress of orphanage Number 8, says however, opinions are divided on this matter. She said, "I believe that these children who are severely mentally retarded can be associated without problems together with those who are more developed psychologically. If we isolate those with severe mental deficiencies, they don't gain as much."

ILLEGAL

Although law 272/2004 forbids the institutionalization of children under 2 years of age who have no severe handicap, at orphanage Number 8, there are six babies kept there only because there are a lack of professional mothers (maternal assistants/foster parents). The directress, Anca Bistriceanu, says, "The majority of these children could be placed with maternal assistants, but there are no maternal assistants available in Buzau county." In this county, the number of maternal assistants is so small that each one has on average three children in foster care.

We managed to get into a large room where the children were having their nap time. However, only one of the seven was sleeping. One little boy was so ill that all his skin was blue. The veins on his face could be seen more clearly than the veins on a leaf. He is here merely in order to "put on weight". At the age of one year, he managed to pass 6.5 pounds in weight. He has a heart problem that necessitates surgical intervention, which will be possible only when he weighs at least 13 pounds. His parents brought him here because they didn't think they could take care of him. They said they would take him home after the operation.

Next to this little boy, in another bed, is a little girl Cristina, age 5, whose eyes are fixed on the ceiling. She suffers from a congenital disease which is characterized by the failure of the bones of her extremities to continue to grow in contrast to those of her head and trunk. But her disease shouldn't have stopped her from growing up in a normal family. There is also another boy whose only problem is a hydrocele (an easily operable condition). Marilena and Gabi, both two years old, are also here and they are only mildly retarded.

In this orphanage of 36 children, there are 57 people employed; a physical therapist, a kinetic therapist, a tutor, a neuropsychiatry specialist, 16 teachers and 10 supervisors. These people work 5 to a shift and the directress says that this is sufficient. She added, "We also have a security guard who helps the employees when the children become aggressive."

WE WON'T SEE MUCH PROGRESS UNTIL AT LEAST THE SUMMER

At Orphanage Number 1 in Buzau, an orphanage for social and medical recuperation for children ages 0 - 3 years, we found 27 children. All of them are over 2 years of age because in 2004, this orphanage came to be funded by the PHARE program which forbids this orphanage from receiving anymore children. Thus, all babies who would have come here, are redirected to orphanage Number 8. Sorina, age 3, has Downs Syndrome. In these cases, physical therapy is vital. Proper treatment of children with Downs Syndrome can help them live a relatively normal life and to even have a job. Pediatrician Constanta Popescu Murgoci, specialist in the treatment of Downs Syndrome children says,"If these children do not get the proper therapies and especially physical therapy, they will rapidly become obese, isolated, and their isolation will remove them from a normal social life. Many of them also suffer from spinal problems which can lead to paralysis. This is because their musculature is poorly developed. However, in Orphanage Number 1 where Sorina stays, there is no physical therapist, and Orphanage Number 1 must appeal to Orphanage Number 8 for help. Veronica Draghici, the head of this center, told us, "It is very difficult for one person to handle both orphanages. Each should have its own physical therapist." She sighed and added, "We're not going to see much progress until at least the summer." She further told us that, "In the summer, this orphanage is to closed and the children will be moved to two apartments. CPS told us they received314,000 Euros for this project from PHARE." The assistant director for CPS Buzau, Carmen Nutulescu, enthusiastically told us, "We will come up to European standards." In these apartments there will be1 employee for every 2 patients and the children will stay three to a room instead of six to a room.

BEGGING FOR FOOD

At the time of our visit to "Number 1", some of the children were outside with some supervisors. Others were playing inside. We did find one child in a dormitory room. A little girl with hydroencephalitis was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. The directress told us that she also was taken outside from time to time. Her mother does come to visit on weekends. The greatest problem at Orphanage Number 1, is that the allocation of food is very small for these children. The head of the orphanage admitted, "One third of these children have need of special diet, which of course is more costly. They also need a special kind of milk." Two dollars per day is all the money the state allots for food per child, no matter what the needs of the child are. The last increase was in 2005, but in that year alone the price of butter doubled. Finding themselves completely broke, the employees of CPS Buzau now have a new obligation on their job description. The directress added, "We now have to beg. We mostly beg from the Swiss who have given us several hundred dollars, and even so striving as hard as we do in begging, foreign subsidies only cover about 10% of our expenses."

VISITS ARE INSPECTIONS

It seemed like we had wrung the nose of the directress of CPS Buzau, Cecilia Manolescu, when we told her we wanted to visit Orphanage Number 14 in Ramnicu Sarat, an orphanage for handicapped children. She replied, "Do you really want to visit Number 14? There are many orphanages in Ramnicu Sarat, whyNumber 14?" "Why not," we replied. "Is it a little uglier?" "It's a little uglier," she replied sarcastically, repeating our words. After about an hour, we arrived in the courtyard of the institution. The children were in school. We went to the second grade class. It's hard to determine which of the 14 students are boys and which are girls since they all look alike and their hair is all cut short. The children gathered around the directress and stood in line in order to hug her.The woman smiled from ear to ear at the camera that was pointed at her. From time to time you suddenly wake up with one or two of these children stuck to you as if they have known you their whole life. One of them, Dan, an eleven year old boy, came close to me and said, "You're handsome, Mr. Will you give me your pen?" He is dressed in dirty clothes. His sneakers are split at the toe but the liner stops his toes from poking through. "Take your and off of me," Florentina said to him. Florentina is a beautiful little girl and the only one in the class who has long hair. Florentina and Dan were a couple for a short time, but they split up because she's 13 and he's only 11. "It's not good when the girl is older than the boy," she told us. She now has a boyfriend who is 16. Dan appears to be unaffected by her decision. With all the vanity of a man, he tells us in a loud voice so that she can hear, "I have another girl friend and Florentina is just jealous." We asked him,"How do you know what jealousy is?" After shrugging his shoulders several times, he responded that the older boys taught him. The children in second grade only have morning classes. However, in the afternoon they also meet at school. The teacher plays all kinds of games with them. She has become like an older sister to the children and they tell her all of their complaints. In this way one finds out who has argued with whom. Or they exchange roles and drag the teacher to the blackboard. You ought to see either satisfaction at this.

We asked the directress why so many of the children were dressed in clothes that are not even allowed to be sold in second hand stores. She gave us a typically Romanian explanation. "This is the afternoon program. It's like at home--house clothes." She is also ready to show us their good clothes. The children's clothing is obtained via public auction and is given out proportionately. In this way, throughout the year, a child is supposed to receive two pairs of pajamas, five pairs of underwear, a pair of shoes and a jacket every two years. The total value of these clothes is not allowed to be more than $90. Sponsors are not lining up to help the children who have health problems. One of the doctors at CPS observed, "Our sponsors are for soccer."

The building where the children stay is next to the special school. Inside, the tile shines like a mirror and the carpets are cleaner than those in the Parliament. But there is a bizarre "order" in the dormitories. You'd think that no one lives there. But in fact there are 12 children in each room who sleep in bunk beds. And Directress Manolescu wants to tell us about "EU standards"? They want to make it appear as if there are fewer children per room because that's what the EU wants. The walls were recently painted and are decorated with hand-made objects. They have gathered so many objects that they had an exposition in Buzau. They sold many items there, having established their own prices and then were able to pocket the money. Unfortunately, on the day of the exposition, there was an electrical blackout. In one dorm room, however, we found the unsupportable odor of urine. Despite the open window, the air was heavy and impossible to breathe. But the children refused to leave. It seems they were stuck to the walls. The children here have severe handicaps. They are separated from those who can take care of themselves. Although the bunk beds are high, the workers maintain that the children only sleep on the lower ones. However we saw several stretched out on the upper ones. There are 17 children with severe disabilities in this orphanage. The directress reminded us that these children had been kept in the middle of the courtyard in a "stable" made of soldered re-bar. The image of a well-kept orphanage is further shattered when you go into the bathroom. It's chaos in there. The common showers are continually dripping and the toilets date from the 70's. The directress did inform us that, "Next week we will organize an auction for modernizing the bathrooms."

In one of the dormitories a group of boys and girls are practicing for a show that they want to give at the theater in Buzau. A cassette player blares hoarsely Gypsy songs that are in style. The girls go from one boy to the other and one by one they get to Vivian (a boy) who is dark skinned with his hair cut short with long bangs dyed red, and they also get to another young lad who smiles alot. He has AIDS. He is blind in one eye because of a cataract. Petrica also participates in this dance. He is very healthy, but he lives in an orphanage for children with handicaps. He is there because his slightly retarded brother was taken there and CPS decided not to separate them. Their mother died ofcancer when Petrica was 4 years old. He has a vivid memory of his mother. He wants to become an actor. He admits in a serious tone, "I like to make others laugh more than to have others laugh at me." Petrica is waiting to eat his evening meal together with his teammates from the school soccer team. More recently he has been eating more beef and pork, ever since the avian flu epidemic began the cook has been avoiding chicken. Another boy came up to them and asked, "Hey, do we have another inspection?" "Heh, heh," came the response. At that point we spoke up and said we'd merely come to visit. "I know, but that's what we say when people visit. We call them inspections." At orphanage Number 14, not even Santa Clause comes to visit, he comes rather 'to inspect'.

BUZAU

Veronica Draghici, head of Orphanage Number 1 in Buzau said, "The $2 per day per child are not sufficient because the children have need of a special diet." In Buzau county as of December of last ear there were 525 children with disabilities who were in residential institutions. There are twice as many of these cases than cases of children who are merely in "social difficulties", that is abandoned children or children who come from families who cannot take care of them. In 2005, 75 children with handicaps came into the system, the majority of them coming from outside the county. All of these are cared for in 8 orphanages in Buzau and in Ramnicu Sarat.

A Refined Auschwitz

A Refined Auschwitz

07 Iunie 2006 de Adriana Oprea Popescu

A parent that treats his child badly could have his child taken away, according to the law. For years in a row, the children with disabilities in the special institutions in Romania are bereaved of their elementary constitutional rights: the right to medical care, to education, to a decent life. The state, the custodian of these children, is above the law.

The Jurnalul National reporters visited 15 special institutions and didn’t find the Auscwitz described in the MDRI report. The wounds are hidden and much deeper. Self-sufficiency and indolence could prove lethal in time.

THE CHILDREN-PILE

The situation we met in the visited institutions could be generalized for the entire country. The heroic measures taken by the authorities when the media shows irregularities in certain places have the same effect as aspirin does when used to treat sepsis. The pus gathering goes from one part of the system to the other. The mammoth orphanages have been disaffected (a good part in the eyes of the EU), but the children in them have been moved to areas that didn’t get in the way of the Brussels investigation. They got to the special boarding schools.

Most of the centers visited by the Jurnalul National reporters hosted children with severe disabilities as well as healthy children. Coming from separated families, raised in the orphanages and affected by the prolonged institutionalization, the “kind of normal” children, as the director of the centers describe them, stay in the same room as the self-mutilating children day and night.

The special schools are part of the professional schools where “the child at least learns about a job”. The fact that they don’t learn a thing about every day life is no one’s business. The institutions that host the institutionalized minors form a Procust bed in which souls, minds and destinies get together…

“THE INSPECTION”

In many of these centers, representatives of the Directorates for the Child Protection have accompanied the Jurnalul National reporters - because we are not allowed to get inside these institutions without the approval of the local authorities. Every time, we announced our visit 24 hours before the visit. We have seen an amazing reaction! In Cotesti, the children were wearing new clothes and were playing in the yard of the center. In Maicanesti, the halls were being perfumed, in Mihalceni the children had picked the grass off and got inside to clean as well; there were new clothes and new soaps in the bathrooms at Movila… We are the World Champions at hushing up. Someone told us that, in the past, at the St. Ecaterina center, when there used to be even 500 children, the personnel was moving so fast that, when they heard “inspection”, they could bathe and change the clothes of all the children in less than two hours…

ETIQUETTES

Under the propagandistic name of “recovery and rehabilitation”, the centers in which the children with disabilities in Romania live their lives are the umbrella of the former communist orphanages. The bodies of the unhappy children that got here all balance in the same rhythm and have the same old and grayish clothes. How can one talk about recovery in a center that didn’t hire no psychologist, no kinetic-therapist, no speech therapist, no educator with a diploma? What is the meaning of the word “rehabilitation” for these children? Rehabilitation after what or because of which conviction? The only changes in their lives brought by the Revolution 17 years ago: gipsy songs and soap operas.

Every day comes with the same barrack schedule, the same exemplary mobilization at every inspection in the center. The children have learned to hide and to be part of the system. From time to time, they have the courage to shout. “Lady, please take me away from here! Take me somewhere, at number, but take me away from here!” Bratu Florin is 14 years old and is one of the institutionalized children in Maicanesti (Vrancea). His tears are as big as the peas. His head, with almost no hair, shows many tracks of the past. He is small, and the pants with the fly open and with a rope instead of belt are falling down. He throws his arms around his body and asks me: “Lady, why do people have to suffer?”. His greatest regret is that his mom won’t take him back home. He only welcomes his brother, who is in the same institution. Bratu’s mother is not treated in any way, even though she suffers deeply from destroying souls. Every child has a similar tragic story. However, they are not the ones we will talk about today. We will look at the ones responsible for their lives.

ILLEGAL

By far, the most serious situation is at the Services Complex for the Severely Handicapped Children No. 8 in Buzau, where we met six children under the age of two with no severe handicap, who are held here illegally due to lack of maternal nurses - a disability of the Romanian child protection system. Some of the babies suffer from a heart disease and have to gain weight for the surgery. Another has his members growing disproportional in comparison to his body, and the third has a hole in the palate, one has liquid accumulated in his scrotum, two suffer from moderate neuro-psychiatric retard. Due to the institutionalization, their state will get more serious. The information we have show the situation in Braila is not a singular case!
Law no. 272/2004 forbids the institutionalization of these children. However, the laws that any Romanian citizen has to know and obey by are optional for the authorities.

Order no. 27/2004, published in the Official Gazette released on the 8th of June 2004 is another decree that’s being mocked of. It regulates the simplest compulsory standards for the residential child protection for the children with disabilities. It says that “every child benefits from a personalized service plan and from a specific intervention program (…) Every child benefits from quality services of habilitation/rehabilitation under the care of a trained personnel: physiotherapy, kinetic-therapy and massage; speech therapy etc.” Most of the special centers don’t even have one person trained in this field, nor a general practitioner.

OFFICIALLY

“The children in SRD have access to telephone and to other communication means, the Order no. 27 also shows (…) Taking into account the age of the children, their growing up status and type disabilities and/or handicap, the children have to be encouraged to start up a group of representation called the Children’s Council, the opinions of which will be listened and regarded at periodically or every time this is necessary for taking the decisions regarding the children in SRD”. The democratic principles are real utopia as compared to the real life in the centers. Furthermore… “the unit gives the children the opportunity of taking part in the choosing of daily supplies and menus. (…) The meals are well administered, organized in spaces with family-like atmosphere and are an opportunity for the children to socialize. (…) Every child can have a little snack if he asks to. SRD organizes festive meals at least for the birthdays of the children and, in this case, the respective child’s preferences have to be taken into consideration. The meal can be served with the family or with other people close to the child in an intimate space inside SRD or outside it”. “Happy Birthday” is a very rare song in Mihalceni or in Maicanesti (Vrancea).

UNIFORM

The same Order says: “The children are encouraged to express their tastes regarding the clothes, the shoes and their personal image and are supported in doing that. (…) It is forbidden any kind of uniform by buying identical products for all the children in SRD or in a group.” Without exception, in all the 15 centers visited by the Jurnalul National reporters, all the children, boys and girls, had their haircut short, and they are all dressed in the same way, with the same kind of rags. “SRD has to ensure the needed support for each child, including the necessary material resources for him to have access, to integrate and to attend regularly the recommended education unit”. SRD also “has to ensure at least one week of camping during the vacations of a school year. This has to take place outside SRD and has to be accompanied by at least 4 more trips.”

WC

“Each child has his own space in a bedroom. There can be at most 4 children of the same sex in one bedroom.” Actually, the bedrooms have 10 or 14 beds. In Cotesti, the children sleep in pairs and boys and girls share the same room. “In the bedroom, there has to be minimum surface of 6 square meters per child and 8 square meters per child in the case of the ones with locomotive disabilities.” In fact, every child has approximately three-square meters (the mattress and the space between the beds); the ones with locomotive disabilities occupy even less space on the ground…

“Children are encouraged to decorate their rooms in accordance to their preferences”. The only decorations we saw in the bedrooms in the centers are ads for food or pictures with little babies from the magazines.

“SRD guarantees a WC booth and a sink for every four children at most. There are enough bathrooms and/or showers, which are organized depending on the sex: a bathroom/shower for maximum 6 children”. In real life, in Mihalceni, the 54 girls have eight showers and five Turkish WCs. The 46 children in Cotesti have four sinks and two normal WCs.

According to the Order no. 27/2004, the minimum ratio between adults (caretaking personnel) and the children in SRD should be 1:4 for the children between seven and 12 years old and 1:6 for the ones with ages over 13. In all the centers we visited, the number of the ones that really take care of the children is insufficient, not trained as it should and it is no way near the minimum allowed limit.

Translated by Sorin Balan

Castoffs Give Nashville Man Direction For Life

Castoffs give Nashville man direction for life
Troubled early years were training for working with Romanian orphans

By TIM GHIANNI
Senior Writer
Faith in Action

Corey Burba's conquest of his demons — the whisky, drugs and hatred of God that stole his Nashville youth — makes it easy for him to relate to the orphans who are cast onto Romania's streets, selling their bodies and huffing glue.

The fact that he spent 9/11 comforting many of them amid Manhattan's smoky terror drew him even closer to the fragile outcasts.

"They were scared," says Corey, who had gone to New York as a volunteer with Mt. Juliet-based Small World, an agency that deals with international orphans and adoptions. "Their first day in America and everything is supposed to be wonderful and all of the sudden buildings are on fire and it's a war zone."

Now 29, Corey has expanded beyond comforting the orphans. He and his wife, Diana, a native Romanian, use the Bible to deliver direction to lost children in that tragic land.

The 9/11 experience sparked a passion, a direction Corey had been missing. The 20 kids from Bucharest were in the U.S. for temporary reprieves from life sentences in a land where 100,000 orphans are warehoused in squalid facilities before being cast out to fend for themselves.

Corey's mother, Susan Ruby, at the time a Small World employee, had enlisted her son to go with her to New York to pick up the kids and take them to a three-week camp in South Carolina.

Bucharest has the dark distinction of being the pedophiles' capital of Europe, where male and female orphanage "graduates" sell their bodies and lose their souls in glue-inhaled hazes. "Many orphans are taken away to other countries and become part of pedophilia rings, the sex slave trade and are heavily involved in prostitution," Corey says.

Children usually are abandoned because of dirt-floored poverty. International adoption was an "out" until Romania ended such programs for political reasons.

Now, remedies must be found within the nation's borders. That's where Corey and his wife come in. "We are working to prevent people from abandoning their children so that a child never winds up on the streets using drugs and prostituting themselves."

They seek out Romanian families for abandoned babies. They also work with orphanage children, providing spiritual and material reinforcement through Bible study and school supplies.

Corey also works the streets, guiding the sewer-dwelling discards from the darkness. "Because of my past, I am able to very closely connect to the orphans," he says, reflecting on his teenage years. "I did a lot of illegal things and somehow, by the grace of God, I was never caught. "I had serious problems with alcohol and drug dependency. I tried all kinds of things, but I always preferred alcohol and marijuana.... I was quite fond of whisky."

Stoned or absent, he "never passed a single class" while attending McGavock High School, later getting his GED. "Because my mother raised us in the church... I always believed in God. I hated him, however, because I felt that everything bad that had happened in my life was his fault.… By the time I was 18, I was a mess and knew if I didn't get some help, I would probably kill myself."

Along came Jesus: "I was saved when I was 18." But his woes didn't end. Injuries from an auto accident when he was 23 made it difficult for him to work, leading to a depression his mom was trying to combat by inviting him on that New York mission.

Bin Laden provided a terrifying introduction to the U.S. for the orphans, but Corey was struck by their more terrified departures. "When we took them back to the airport, they were crying and begging us not to send them back. I had to find out what was so bad in Romania, what it was that they didn't want to go back to. "I began learning all I could about Romania and the problem with the orphans…. It became clear that I had to go to Romania."

After visiting the country, he returned to Nashville to establish Romanian Orphan Ministries Inc., a non-profit to fund his programs. Then he returned "home" to the Balkan land and a life that belongs to the kids he and Diana try to save daily.

He realizes the haze and hate of his youth all was a part of God's training for him. "This was his plan for me all along."

Quote Being Sent to Members of the European Parliament

“Many things we need can wait, the child cannot. To him we cannot say tomorrow. His name is today.”

Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet and 1945 Nobel Prize winner in Literature

Article from Cotidianul

Romanian officials come out to deny the MDRI Report:

Article from Cotidianul
Part I: By Valenina Pop
Article from Monday, May 29, 2006

THE SCANDAL REGARDING THE CHILDREN AND THE LOBBY FOR INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS

The American press once again took up the issue of institutionalized children in Romania in order tolobby for the opening of international adoptions. The reopening of international adoptions byRomania seems to be the motivating factor in the media campaign launched via the publication of thereport from the American NGO Mental Disability Rights International with regards toinstitutionalized children. Jean Marie Cavada, French parliamentarian for the EU said, "Thesituation regarding the orphans in Romania remains worrisome. The new law forbidding international adoptions has blocked the adoption of approximately 40,000 children who have no family to take them in Romania." The NGO (MDRI) made an appeal to the European Commission to "recognize and to take a stand concerning the violation of the rights of the children in Romania".

MANIPULATION BY THE MEDIA

The declarations by the Romanian authorities who have confirmed the existence of the situation in Braila in the past, did nothing but throw gasoline on the fire. The Washington Post published an article entitled "A Report with Proofs concerning Abuses in Romania" in which the MDRI report isdescribed as presenting something from the present. But the Romanian authorities reaction says that this actually presents a confusion. It has to be remembered that the European Commission report will confirm 2007 as the date of accession to the EU. The New York Times presented an article on the front page with material from the Associated Press in which is absent the exact description of the location in Timisoara. Only Bogdan Panait was sited and he declared that he was shocked at what he saw in 2005.

THE AMERICAN LOBBY AT THE EU

The most militant Congressman for the reopening of international adoptions is Jeb Bradley who came to Brussels and Strasbourg in order to lobby the European Commission and the European Parliament. He is also supporting a concrete case, that of the Schaafer family, who want to adopt a child from Romania and who had also earlier adopted one in 2000. As a result of the law which forbids international adoption from Romania (January 2005) approximately 200 files for adoption by Americans were rejected by the authorities in Bucharest. The American Congressman promoted a resolution regarding consultations with respect to the relaxing of this drastic measure which forbids international adoptions from Romania. The initiator of this resolution is Republican Charles Smith, co-president of the Helsinki Commission.

BARONESS EMMA NICHOLSON SAYS 'THE REPORT IS VERY POORLY DOCUMENTED'

She was asked a series of questions: Is this media campaign by the U.S. destined to unblock international adoptions from Romania? "I can't speculate. I didn't author the article. However, I am very confused as to why this report was so poorly documented. For example, the recommendation to not create any more new institutions is senseless. We are waiting for the evaluation by the experts from the Ministry of Health. What really matters is the condition of these people. If there are places where practices are not correct, then we need to improve them. On this in clear concerning this American report: a large part of it speaks about things that no longer exist. That is what is so surprising.... We can't overlook the timing of this issue in that only a week before the decision of the Commission with respect to Romania's accession, is when the report came out. Romania is European. Her laws are European. It must be understood that the European Union and the United States are in a profound state of disagreement about many issues. Our laws and history are not the same as theirs. We have a great deal of respect for the United States and democracies should cooperate. But this does not mean that we must agree. Assisting children is one area where there are profound differences. We do things differently. TheUnited States wants something with which Europe cannot agree. "Why does Romania have this image in which children are mistreated?" Unfortunately, Romania is one of the top countries with regards to human trafficking. This same effort which was made in Romania, including with regards to the rights of the child, must also be done in Bulgaria. Romania is a model and must remain so. This position must be consolidated even further. These couples who want to adopt a child must understand that their countries also have many institutionalized children. In the U.S. there are 250,000 institutionalized children. Why do these people come to Romania? It is a question that must be asked. The same situation exists in France. There are approximately 3,000 children under 3 years of age in institutions. Each one of them onaverage, spends 13 months in an institution in France. Every country has a system of child protection which involves institutions. What is important is that we must be sure that it is appropriate for each child and that these institutions are of high quality. This has happened inRomania. Congratulations, Romania. You should continue just like this."

Part II:
by Oana Craciun, Radu C. Munteanu, and Sergiu Balascau

OLD AND ERROR-FILLED INFORMATION IS NOW BROUGHT OUT INTO THE OPEN

In four of the six counties mentioned in the report, the authorities have already denied the information published by the Americans. These authorities believe that the report has come from theAmerican lobby which is lobbying for the unblocking of international adoptions.

GLARING FALSEHOODS AND HUGE LIES

The president of the County Commission in Suceava, Orest Onofrei, declared that the results of the report with regards to the orphanages in Siret and Sasca Mica, represent glaring falsehoods and lies. He maintains that these two institutions that were included in the MDRI report were verified by the EU inspectors who said that there was an evident improvement made to the conditions fordisabled children. He said, "I believe that this report has a different motive. First, it may be anattempt to force the Romania government to open international adoptions, or it may be an attempt to give a black mark to Romania just before the EU report on Romania."

CONFUSION OR BAD FAITH

Mihai Gafencu, vice president of the organization Save Romanian Children and director of the Louis Turcanu Children's Hospital in Timisoara, expressed his doubt with regard to the "good intentions"behind this MDRI report. Gafencu said, "On February 18, MDRI representatives arrived in Timisoara and entered into this section of the hospital. The confusion is that they thought this was a center for children with mental disabilities, but it is a section for nutritional recuperation. What was written is nothing more than either a great confusion or ill-will." This section of the hospital has 59 children who were born below normal birth weight and are between the ages of one month and one year. None are considered to be abandoned. Gafencu maintains that these little ones are well cared for and have sufficient medical personnel available to care for them. Gafencu further remarked that,"The presentation of the situation in our country and in Timisoara in such an unfavorable light is nothing more than an attempt to force the Romanian authorities to open international adoptions and at the same time to put Romania in a bad light before the European Union."

AN O.K. FROM THE EU REGARDING BOTOSANI

The Podriga Sanitarium in Botosani was checked out by a commission of specialists from the EU who did not find any particularly grave problems. Dr. Nicolae Vlad, director of the psychiatric hospitals and coordinator of activities for the sanatoriums in Botosani county affirmed, "Onlysomeone with ill-will could say that Podriga did not make progress."

Part III:
by A. Luca

ADOPTIONS BY GANGSTERS STOPPED AT THE REQUEST OF EUROPEAN FORUMS

In October of 2001, a moratorium was introduced which suspended all international adoptions. This measure was taken following solicitations by the European Parliament because the old law contained many grave gaps which favored crime and corruption. The Romanian Government, however, reserved the right in exception situations, to approve international adoptions. On February 6, 2004, the Romanian Government completely stopped all international adoptions. This was a response to the grave accusations which Baroness Emma Nicholson made concerning adoptions from Romania.