"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three years have been found guilty of negligence in caring for children who were with them and their authorization was withdrawn.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 In the last two years, more than 100 maternal assistants had their authorization withdrawn in 4 counties (Vaslui, Botosani, Suceava, and Olt) and two sectors in Bucharest (sectors 2 and 3).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.