RESOLVING THE ORPHAN PROBLEM??????

Article From Gardianul Oct. 9, 2006
Also in Gardialul on Sept. 22, 2006
Also on www.phg.ro on Oct. 8, 2006

BOGDAN PANAIT ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE IS INCABABLE OF RESOLVING THE ORPHAN PROBLEM
By: A.D.

"There is no institution, no matter how large or how much money it has, that is able to resolve the problems with the children if the whole of society is not available to help," declared Bogdan Panait, director of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. His declaration was made after warnings given by the international organization "Freedom House", in their campaign "Unseen Children". This foundation sounded a powerful alarm concerning the fact that Romania is confronted with huge problems with regard to the situation of institutionalized children, street children, and those who come from poor families. This is true even though they have signed the declaration on the rights of the child. This organization also believes that children who come from families who are better off also violate the rights of the children because many of these children are abused by their parents. Dispite these problems, Panait thinks that his organization is the best prepared institution for entry into the EU.

NGO'S ARE USED AS SPIES

This is an amazing lie!!!!

Article from Gardianul

VOLUNTEERS FROM NGO'S ARE USED AS SPIES FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLEGAL ADOPTIONS
BY: Andreea Dancu

After she had declared repeatedly that approximately 1,300 internationally adopted Romanian children had disappeared without a trace, Theodora Bertzi, head of the Romania Office for Adoptions, stated that volunteers from non profit foundations are involved in spying for adoptions. According to her affirmations, these volunteers are spies in the maternity and pediatric hospitals as well as in the orphanages in order to find abandoned children who would be suitable for illegal adoptions. She explained, "Certain NGO's have volunteers in the hospitals in order to find out which children could possibly be adopted. They are a kind of under cover informers."

STEALERS OF CHILDREN

From Gardianul (Oct 06, 2006)

THE AUTHORITIES MAINTAIN THAT THERE ARE STEALERS OF CHILDREN IN THE MATERNITY HOSPITALS

Although it has been demonstrated that volunteers from charitable organizations have been involved in trafficking children and have profitted from the fact that they are allowed to work in maternity and pediatric hospitals, Bogdan Panait, head of the National Authority for Child Protection, has indicated that he does not want them to withdraw their services. Panait affirmed, "I haven't even thought about removing the volunteers from these hospitals. Many of them will be the social workers of the future here in Romania." Standing in contradiction of him, however, is Theodora Bertzi who is the head of the Romanian Office for Adoption, and Zita Vatnai the head of the Social Assistance Directorate in Bihor county. These two believe that these volunteers actually hinder the work of the hospitals. Bertzi declared, "I don't understand what role these volunteers play in a maternity hospital. Why do they need to work with newborns? There are cases where children have had operations or are in casts and have need of care. Why are these people not over there?" Zita Vatnai said, "Under the cover of saying that they want to help, these volunteers try to do unorthodox things." This is also the opinion of Theodora Bertzi who declared that she suspects that these volunteers are spying. She explained, "From the information that they hold, the volunteers from these foundations are involved in spying regarding adoptions. More precisely, they are spying in these maternity and pediatric hospitals as well as orphanages in order to find abandoned children who could possibly be adopted illegally. They are in fact undercover informers." She also declared that Bogdan Panait is not the one who decides whether the volunteers will be allowed in hospitals or not. Theodora Bertzi stated, "Panait doesn't put them in the hospitals nor can he take them out. It is the Ministry of Health who will decide the destiny of these volunteers. For example, the Health Department in Oradea decided that volunteers from foundations can no longer go into maternity hospitals." At the beginning of August, CPS Bihor discovered that one of the volunteers from the Hope House Foundation stole an 18 month old child from the hospital. The volunteer had been sent by the NGO for the purpose of helping the medical personnel with the children who were in that institution. Representatives of the CPS System said that the child was then sold to a family from Romania who badly wanted to adopt a young child.

ONE ABANDONED CHILD WAS ADOPTED IN BIHOR COUNTY

ONE ABANDONED CHILD WAS ADOPTED IN BIHOR COUNTY
by: Ana Minziu

Everyday in 2006, scores of newborns are forgotten by their mothers in different hospitals. The reasons for this are many, including poverty and unwanted pregnancies. In hospitals in Bihor county in the course of this year, so far approximately 150 newborns have been abandoned. Over 160 children have been abandoned so far in 2006. According to a statistical report from CPS Bihor, from Jan. through June of 2006, 158 children were abandoned in different hospitals. Ciprian Novac, spokesman for CPS Bihor, said, "Approximately 160 children were abandoned in different hospitals in Bihor county. At the Obstetrical and Gynecological hospital in Oradea, 59 children were abandoned. At the Children's Hospital "Gavril Curteanu" 64 children were abandoned, at the Municipal Hospital in Solonta 23 were abandoned, at the Municipal Hospital in Marghita 13 abandonments took place." According to a statistical report from Census Bureau, 26 of the abandoned children were placed in the care of maternal assistants, 2 were taken in by substitute families and 8 were transferred to the Children's Hospital 'Gavril Corteanu'. At the Obstetrical and Gynecological Hospital, there are still 13 abandoned children. All the others have been reintegrated into their natural families. According to specialists from CPS Bihor, at the Children's Hospital Gavril Curteanu 64 children have been abandoned since the beginning of the year. Novac further declared, "CPS Bihor decided to constitute a commission which will go to the Children's Hospital in Oradea in order to get a clear picture regarding the situation of abandoned children in this hospital. After examining the situation, this commission found 31 cases of abandonment, 8 cases of repeated readmissions and 31 cases in which the situation could not be determined exactly. These will be monitored by specialists from Bihor. We believe that some of them will go back to their families." At the moment, in the children's hospital Gavril Curteanu, there are 38 abandoned children.

A VERY POOR YEAR FOR ADOPTIONS

In 2005, CPS Bihor saw 95 children reintegrated with their natural families or extended families and 36 children adopted by different families in Romania. However, in the course of this year, there was only 1 adoption case registered so far. Ciprian Novac said, "At the moment there are 25 families who have been approved to adopt. Twelve of these have identified an adoptable child and only one of these has actually been adopted. In the other eleven cases, the adoptions are in different phases." In 2005, 33 children were given in foster care under emergency situations. Novac stated that, "We have 24 maternal assistants who are available for emergency placements. In 2006, we have had 25 children placed in emergency situations. In Bihor county, there are 365 maternal assistants who have a total of 459 children in their care. There are an additional 132 maternal assistants prepared to receive children."

THEY DON'T WANT TO GO TO ORPHANAGES

THEY DON'T WANT TO GO TO ORPHANAGES
from Realitate.net

Seventy percent of children begging on the street refuse to go into orphanages. One reason is that the law permits them to go into these shelters for a limited number of hours and to leave whenever they want.

On the streets in the summer, there are approximately 2,000 children begging, most of them can be found in Bucharest, Constanta and Timisoara.

The procedure is simple; when the social worker finds a child who has no shelter and who is living by begging, the social worker can guide the child to an orphanage. But in the case where the child does not want to go to the orphanage, the police can intervene. The current law, however, forbids the keeping of that child there against his will. The only solution is that of dialog, but very few of the children are convinced. In any case, the number of vacancies in the orphanages are insufficient for the number of children who have need of such shelter. Child protection services who are responsible for these children and for convincing them to go to the orphanages are under the authority of the local mayor's offices. In other words, the child protection authorities have no legal grounds to give sanctions but rather merely recommendations. This fall programs will be launched to integrate the children into institutions with the financing of these programs coming from abroad

ABANDONED CHILDREN

ABANDONED CHILDREN--JURNALUL NATIONAL WANTS A DEBATE
By: Luminita Gurita

Every year thousands of children are abandoned in hospitals in Romania. Most of them are relatively healthy and they all need to grow up in a family. However, they remain in the hospitals because the orphanages have been closed before the state has been able to provide an alternative system of protection.

Consequently, they are condemned from birth to a life without affection, to alienation and to infections from their stay in the hospital. They are not vaccinated (something that is required and is free for children who have identity documents) against childhood diseases. Those who are born with problems often end up in the pauper's cemetery.

The salvation of these children is the responsibility of every Romanian. Jurnalul National has made the first step, via a press campaign through which they wish to mobilize the state authorities.

We are debtors to these children who wait on a bed in the hospital to help them further

CHILDREN ABANDONED IN HOSPITALS

Article by Rompres

CHILDREN ABANDONED IN HOSPITALS MISS OUT ON THEIR RIGHTS AS ROMANIAN CITIZENS

Children who are abandoned in hospitals and who have no documents regarding their identity do not have any rights as Romanian citizens under the current law of child protection because their existence is not officially recognized. The situation of these children resulted in the organizing of a public debate at the Caritas hospital. The initiator of this debate is the director of Caritas hospital, Bogdan Jansean, who raised the problem regarding the impossibility of being reimbursed by the national health insurance for medical services performed with regards to these abandoned newborns. The reason why the children have no rights is because there was no personal ID code assigned to them, no do they have family names and surnames.

The representative of the National Institute of Personnel Records, Paraschiv Petu, declared that the obtaining of a personal numeric code (ID number) is strictly related to a person's name. The only way a situation can be resolved, is to modify law nr.272/2004 regarding the protection of the rights of the child.

Another proposal which was put forth was the creation of special funds by the government for these children in order to help cover the costs of taking care of these abandoned newborns until they obtain their identity documents and can come under the care of the state.

According to the general director of the Ministry of Health, Ioan Buraga, there were 4,500 children abandoned in maternity hospitals and pediatric hospitals in 2005. This is 700 fewer than in 2004. Of these 4,500, 150 still do not have any identity documents. Thus, from a legal point of view, these children cannot benefit from any rights that are available to Romanian citizens.

STREET CHILDREN

From Adevarul Dec. 6, 2005
By: Marcel

STREET CHILDREN, A BIG PROBLEM

Hungry, covered in filth and frozen by the cold, thousands of children live on the street. Theydon't know the joy that comes from a visit by Santa Claus. In 1998-1999, the number of streetchildren was said to be 2,100. But the latest statistics from the organization "Save the Children"shows the number of children has gone over 2,500. The majority of them are found in Bucharest,Brasov, Iasi, Craiova, Galati, Bacau, Buzau and Ploiesti. More than 30% of the street children havebeen on the streets longer than 5 years, while 25% of them have lived this life style for less thana year.

FOUR CATEGORIES OF STREET CHILDREN

On the streets of the larger cities in Romania, there are four categories of street children:children who only live on the street and have no ties to their family or to any institution,children work on the street but who generally return daily to their families, young people who liveon the street (usually these are the group leaders of the street children and those who make therules for the group and who offer 'protection' and support for the other members), children who livewith their parents on the streets.

I'M HUNGRY FOR CHOCOLATE

Full of foam and froth from the soap, yet still black from filth, and sopping wet from head to foot,Marian Iosif washes windshields at an intersection in Piata Regie. He looks askance at us with anevil glance "What do you want with me? Are you one of those who buys children and after that killsthem so you can take their liver?" He's gone through all kinds of trickery and knows about people.He is 10 years old but he has a furrowed face which is soiled with something shiny and silver:Aurolac (glue). From time to time he inhales from a bag on which are written the words, "Agfa ColorFilm".

It's become cold outside, but Marian is only wearing flip-flops. His feet are cyanotic and swollen.However, he doesn't feel the cold. He says he's used to it. He knows how to read and write. He knowsmoney, learns quickly, and he's not stupid. "Winter's coming," he says with an air of maturity. "Idon't know what I'm gonna do this winter. All the sewers are full of water from the rains andfloods. The dampness goes all the way to your bones. You know how it is? You can't sleep even ifyou're warm. There are swarms and swarms of mosquitoes and they eat you alive." Marian told us thatlast winter he slept in a sewer which ran along the bank of the Dimbovita River. It was warm and quiet and he heard only the running water in the hot water pipes which were as big around as his body. He made it nice there. He put up some ads from the Billa grocery store and from Carrefour, he had an icon with the Virgin Mary, and a pocket-knife to protect himself. He doesn't remember whether he ever received a gift in his life or not. "Two years ago I ran away from home with my brother, but he separated from me and now he stays over by the railroad station. From that time until now we've lived only in the sewers. We are barely away from Craiova. We left because our mother married a guy who beat us with a whip. We haven't seen her since then nor do we remember what her face looks like. It's better on the street. I get up when I want. I eat if I have something. And then I go off to beg. I wash windshields, I sweep the floors of small shops, carry goods, etc. I manage. And I haven't starved yet from hunger." At the moment, these children are sleeping under a large block of cement which was thrown into a waste area near a major intersection. That's Marian's house and others' house as well. Marian says that Santa has never brought him any gifts. I've never had a Christmas tree or a new toy. When workers decorated a center where he stayed he shouted for joy. Bucharest is his -- from one end to the other. "If I had the chance, I'd write Santa Claus and beg him: Dear Santa, I have a big craving for chocolate. I haven't had any to eat since I was little. And I have one more request: please get the cats and the mosquitoes out of this sewer so that I have some place to sleep this winter. Thank you."

BEATEN AND STARVING

The majority of street children are beaten, insulted, threatened, starving and under-developed for their age and they do not get enough nourishment nor sufficient sleep. They usually do not have a roof over their heads. These are the conclusions of a study entitled "A Rapid Evaluation of Street Children Who Work" which was done by the organization "Save the Children". According to this study, the most common activities of these little ones are begging, loading and unloading goods, washing windshields or cars, selling newspapers, or collecting garbage. On average the children work six hours on the street everyday all year. Their educational level is very low. Approximately 20% have never been to school, 30% are illiterate, 40% know how to read and write a little bit. Of those who left school, 18% left around the age of 12. The street boys are three times as numerous as girls. 70.4% of the street children are between the age of 14 and 18. These results come from a study by the organization "Save the Children". Of those questioned, more than 90% are permanently on the streets. The boys are more numerous than the girls because the girls are more vulnerable on the streets, they cannot do hard work and usually their families prefer to use them in housework. More than 60% of street children come from families with a lot of children, usually more than 4. According to the study, 57% are Romanian and 40% are Gypsies. The data show that the risk of ending up on the street, whether accompanies by a family or not, are in fact greater for Gypsy children.

According to the study done by the Save the Children organization, the average age at which a street child begins sexual relations is 12.5 years, which is well below the national average of 17 years for boys and 19 years for girls. Of those questioned, more than 42% said that they began sexual relations at ages between 6 and 12 years, while another 58% at 14 years. Thus the risk of various diseases is very great.

WHY DO CHILDREN END UP ON THE STREET?

The majority of children say they ended up on the street by their own initiative and only 12% of them were thrown out by their parents. The usual causes for ending up in the street are alcoholic parents, negligence, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional distress. Many of the children are sent to beg by their parents while approximately 10% come from orphanages.BEGGING IS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOMEBegging is the primary source of income for street children. More than 55% of them get their money through this practice. About 20% do day work, while 9% wash cars. 7.4% said that they obtained their money from stealing and 1.5% said that they obtained their money from prostitution. Because they want to get money, the children do not relax very much. For 11.9% of them, free time is synonymous with drugs or stealing. The usual place for such relaxation is on the street. Only 5.9% of the street children go to an orphanage for rest.

WE ARE PRESIDENT BASESCU'S NEIGHBORS

Some of these children are spending their ninth Christmas in the open air only a few meters from the fence of the Presidential Palace in Bucharest. At this location there are 8 people. There are 6 children who are between the ages of 3 months and 11 years who are shivering because of the cold. Their parents, Catita Afrim and Constantin Bobi Flueras have made this "house" and covered it with plastic and old clothes. It's a hut. Instead of a door, the hut has rags. On a nearby tree, wet clothes are hanging. They were washed yesterday by the children's mother in a trough with holes. For 9 years they have been on the street and some of the children were even born there in the field. Only later did Catita get to the hospital. The woman is 34 years old and is crazy with worry. Only her man, to whom she is not legally married, works. They live on his salary. At 6 in the morning when he leaves for work, it is so cold that it freezes the tears his eyes. He doesn't want to get out from under the blanket. But when he looks at the small hunched forms, his heart throbs painfully. He goes out hungry and comes back in the evening broken. All that awaits him is a potato broth in a beat up pot. He wolfs down the broth with the rest of them. Catita told us with moist eyes, "We stayed for a while in a park. It was summer. After that we moved to a ghetto in Ferental. For 2 years we slept in the field near Bolentin. Several months we rented, we had a television, my, how the children watched it. We were no longer able to pay the rent so we returned here. My soul is black with anger that no one looks at us! See, Christmas is coming and we find ourselves under the stars!" Catita says that every year when Saint Nicholas is to come, she teaches the children to clean their shoes and put them outside in front of the door. Before lying down, the six little ones arrange their misshapen and mismatched shoes in front of the hovel, still hoping that St. Nicholas will pass their neighborhood. But St. Nicholas keeps forgetting to stop there. In the morning, Catita's children find little shoes frozen solid and made wet by stray dogs seeking shelter in the area. Then she smiled and told them that they weren't good and that's why St. Nicholas passed them by. They believed it. And at Christmas, as miserable as they were, they wouldn't give up until they got a little Christmas tree which they decorated with whatever they had -- the foil from chocolate that they received from charity, little colored papers found in the garbage, a little doll without a leg, three buttons, a few plastic flowers. When it rains, their clothes are all wet and the palace of rags gets wet like cardboard. Three of the little girls go to school daily, helped by the organization Save the Children. The ones who stay home loaf around all day begging from cars at intersections, to the desperation of Catita who by no means wants to see them there. In one second the little children all go out of the tent in a row, like ants, some with no shirt and barefoot, some with slippers put on backwards. Carmenuta, the 3 month old girl, laughs and punches with her little hands. The boys pull a gray tomcat by the tail and then scuttle away to some bushes. They appear with a moth eaten stuffed fox, thrown away in the garbage by who knows who. They ride it, pull its tail and kiss its snout. Sometimes Catita messes up their names because there's alot of them; "Well, there's Lavinia, ahhh...Adelina, Camelia, Mihaita, Carmenuta (the little one) and .......oh brother, there's one more." She looks around the 'house' and realizes that a little girl is missing. "Hey, where in the world is that little rascal?!" screams the woman. Toward the evening the little one shows up too, barefoot, full of snot but happy, licking a lollipop victoriously. She holds it in her little dirty hands like a trophy. Catita puts her hands on her head: "You crossed the road again, you little rebel! How many times have I told you that I better not catch you doing that, because I'll crack you!"

HOW MUCH DOES A CHILD COST?

From Adevarul Oct. 5, 2006

HOW MUCH DOES A CHILD COST?
By: Val Valcu

Among seven children who were born in Cluj and Constanta, only 2 are still holding onto life. For doctors this is a simple statistic. Babies born prematurely in Romania have a 15% chance to survive. If they live for a week, their chances of survival are 20%. For the authorities, these statistics do not seem to have any importance. Confronted with an infant mortality rate which is as high as many African states, Romania is, nevertheless, under pressure to report an infant mortality rate which is more in line with European levels. It needs to be known that infant mortality numbers are not influenced by extreme cases nor by occasional situations which may happen once per year. Thousands of children have died, many anonymously, because the midwives from the villages did not have anything with which to wash their hands. Also, many times, the ambulance didn't arrive at the top of the mountain while other times parents fed their newborns bread and water which were poisoned with nitrates. Beyond the drama of individual cases, what has Romanian society lost in its war against its smallest citizens? In other words, what really is the value of the life of a child? Monetarily speaking, one could begin with the sums which are necessary for bringing the child into this world. Blood tests during the pregnancy cost between 100 and 500 euros ($130-650). The birth itself in a private clinic will cost between $1900 and $2500. Those who choose the classic system, that is with bribe money in an envelope, will find that they will pay approximately the same amount. Why is it that only half of all mothers are seen for the first time by a doctor on the day they give birth? Why is it that 80% have not had a sonogram which in Romania only costs $1? Many Romanian families have sold their houses and cars in order for their child to have an operation abroad. Others, and probably many more, have put their children to work at hard labor at the age of 10 years so that the parents can have money for alcohol.

What value are Romanian children given by the state in which they are born? Demographic experts point out that the population will grow older and smaller. In 2050 there will be only 16 million Romanians in the country, and a working adult will be working to support 9 people. In order to prevent a crisis, these Romanian demographic experts say that birth rates must be increased. Salaries for mothers and babies which are supposed to be introduced in 2007, have been shown to be efficient in Western Europe, but is this the solution to the problem? Are we interested in the number of Romanians or in their quality of life? If the state would invest in the health and education of Romanian children, perhaps a Romanian worker in 2050 will be able to support 9 people. If not, then the retirees of tomorrow will not have a very good life. Romanians depart for Italy because there they can earn money to buy a house. After Jan. 1, 2007, the local authorities will strive to construct kindergartens for children and to give them medical insurance. If the state does not take measures which view society as a whole, and if Romanians don't sense that things are going better, they will depart. People will go to the business owner to work abroad, and the little ones will be stolen from maternity hospitals and sold on the internet for adoption.

IN CONSTANTA COUNTY ONLY 18 ABANDONED CHILDREN FOUND A FAMILY IN 2006

Translated from Telegraph on line--May 27, 2006

IN CONSTANTA COUNTY ONLY 18 ABANDONED CHILDREN FOUND A FAMILY IN 2006
By: Paula Anghel

Institutionalized children are hard to adopt. Hundreds of children from Constanta county live in orphanages or with foster parents. Many of them have never seen their biological parents, while others only have a vague remembrance of them. Although over 95% of the children who are under the care of CPS Constanta are abandoned, from the strictly legal point of view, they cannot be considered abandoned or considered for adoption because someone has not shown up in court to sign a paper declaring agreement with this. According to the director of CPS Constanta, Mirela Gene, only 18 of the children in the whole child protection system have been declared abandoned and have a chance to find a family. Of these 18, four have been entrusted for adoption. This means that they will spend 3 months with a family to see if they can be integrated in this adoptive family. Another four were placed in families as emergency placements. Mirela Gene said, "We have 10 children who, although they have legal abandonment were not given for adoption because they are more than 5 years old and not one family from among the 22 who are interested in adopting a child wants a child this old." Additionally, from the beginning of this year to the present, there were 18 families which were able to adopt a child.

EVERY CHILD NEEDS A FAMILY

In order to adopt a child, a family must go through many, many stages. This begins with the submission of a file and then a social and psychological evaluation as well as receiving authorization to adopt. Only after this can an adoption finally take place. This process lasts between 6 and 18 months. After an adoption has taken place, the family is monitored for 2 years with quarterly post adoption reports. According to the law, adoption is a form of protection which responds to the needs of a child to grow up in a family. But who can become an adoptive parent? Persons or families who fulfill and provide moral guarantees and the necessary material conditions for the full and harmonious development of the child. Adopters must be at least 18 years older than the child they wish to adopt.

SCORES OF CHILDREN ARE ABANDONED IN HOSPITALS

From Adevarul Sept. 6, 2006
Author: Dana Timofticiuc

SCORES OF CHILDREN ARE ABANDONED IN HOSPITALS

The number of children abandoned in hospitals and maternity wards in Vaslui county has risen alarmingly, compared with last year. The abandonment of children demonstrates that a society is sick and this is true of Romania as it traverses these years of transition.

Ionel Armeanu Stefanica, director of CPS of Vaslui county said, "The phenomenon of children abandoned in hospitals has increased alarmingly." Compared with last year, when a total of 80 abandonments were registered, through August of 2006, there were already this many children abandoned. It is anticipated that by the end of the year the number of children abandoned will be twice as large as it was in 2005. According to authorities, the main reason these mother abandon their children is poverty. Abandonments are continuing in spite of the fact that abortions are easily available, as are contraceptives. Statistics from UNICEF show that at the end of 2005, more than 9,000 newborns were abandoned in maternity hospitals in Romania. According to these sources, the rate of abandonment of children has remained the same for the last 30 years.

SIX HUNDRED FAMILIES FORSOOK THEIR CHILDREN

Six hundred families from Vaslui county left Romania to work abroad. They usually left their children in the care of relatives. The authorities are saying, however, that these families have made a grave error. Armeanu declared, "Children should live in a family with a mother and father. Otherwise their lives will be severely marked by the departure of the parents during childhood. The child has need of parents all the time. The departure of both parents abroad will probably affect these children for the rest of their lives." Cumulatively, abandonments and the departure of parents to work abroad will ravage the mentality and perceptions of families in society.

ION TIRIAC'S ORPHANAGE RUINS ROMANIA'S IMAGE!

From Atac-Online
September 13, 2006
by Adrian Militaru

ION TIRIAC'S ORPHANAGE RUINS ROMANIA'S IMAGE!

The abuses at Poiana Soarelui [Sunny Glade], the "Educational Complex" shepherded by Ion Tiriac via his sister Rodica, have gotten to the ears of the European Parliament and are ruining Romania's image just a few months before its entry into the EU. Six institutionalized children have notified the European Parliament concerning the abuses to which they were subjected by the personnel who were supposed to be caring for them. To top it all off, the whole scandal will make it to the European press because last week two British journalists from the celebrated newspaper, The Sunday Times, came especially to make a report about the abuses at Poiana Soarelui [Sunny Glade].

RAPED BY A SUPERVISOR

Two of the girls who are at the complex declared to journalists that they were raped by one of the caregivers from the orphanage while attending a camp in Bacau. This camp was organized by Poiana Soarelui in order to demonstrate the great conditions which exist for children institutionalized at the complex. This case was swept under the rug and the perpetrator was let go from the institution. Traumatized and forced to not say a word, the victims suffered in silence.

THE OFFICIAL VERSION

The current leadership of Poiana Soarelui has a different version, however. The leadership said the two girls had disappeared during that week and that the institution needed to contact the police to look for them. After they were found, they were taken to the institution and put in isolation. Thus affirms the leadership of the institution. However, this is not the only case of sexual abuse which the children at Poiana Soarelui was subjected. A few years ago, the baker at Poiana Soarelui was sentenced by the Brasov court to 7 years in prison after it was proven that he raped a young boy. The young boy was taken by the perpetrator to a garage where he proposed that they play a game called ride the horse. The victim was forced to his knees while the pervert rubbed the genital organs of the boy. In the end, the silence of the victim was bought with candy. Just like in the case of the two girls, this case also was swept under the rug. The institution's lawyer, Nicolaie Mandrila, affirms "I don't know about such cases in which children were mistreated."

THE MYSTERY BEHIND THE FENCE

The children have come to the end of their rope with regard to the harsh treatment to which they are subjected by Tiriac's employees. The institutionalized children are bringing grave accusations against the psychologist, maternal assistants, care givers as well as the leadership of the institution. The children primarily blame the center's psychologists and maternal assistants for inadequate and severe behavior. The children said that "the psychologists don't take care of us and the leadership has abandoned us. In general, the language used by the psychologists is very harsh and they no longer care about our problems." It appears that the situation has not changed. The children maintain that when they make a mistake, they are put in isolation, usually for 3 days. One of the children said, "They bring us food, but isolation is terrible."

IMPRESSIVE MEASURES

Larisa Z. ran away from Tiriac's center last year because of the way she was treated. Because of the scandal this created, she was moved to Bucharest where she is studying piano at the Dinu Lipatti. The girl returned to Brasov to pick up her identity documents, however, the doorman at the gate refused to let her in without the approval of the director. According to request no.31021 from August 9, 2005, the CPS Brasov demanded that the leadership of Poiana Soarelui give the girl her identity papers. The leadership maintains that they sent the documents to CPS Brasov as requested. The problem is that only her identity card arrived, together with her birth certificate and medical records. Her passport was not sent and thus she lost the opportunity to visit the United States, for which she had a visa.

EMMA NICHOLSON IS ALSO ACCUSED BY THE CHILDREN

The adolescents are determined to expose the fact that the institution tried to hide the truth. The children did not hide the fact that they are very mad at Baroness Emma Nicholson who was responsible for stopping international adoptions. One of the children said, "Tiriac brought her here two times with his helicopter and buttered her up, thus making us suffer." The children also declared their anger at the fact that the representatives of the orphanage did not even tell them that their names were on a list to be adopted abroad. Many of them found out later that families from the U.S. and Italy had tried everything possible in order to adopt them. CPS Brasov wants to open an investigation. If the things stated by the children are confirmed, it is possible that the authorization of this institution will be withdrawn. Though we don't need these kinds of scandals just a few months prior to Romania's entry into the EU, unfortunately the repeated alarms signaled by ATAC Newspaper have not been heard by the authorities and they have closed their eyes to the facts.

Letter from MDRI to Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner

September 22, 2006

Commissioner Ollie Rehn
European Union
Brussels , Belgium

Dear Mr. Rehn,

I am writing to urge the EU to take steps to ensure that the government of Romania is held accountable for human rights violations of children and adults with disabilities and that incentives be used to bring about meaningful reforms. If and when Romania is accepted for accession to the EU, the accession agreement should include a “safeguards” clause to ensure future monitoring of rights and to link the use of structural adjustment funds to specific safeguards for the protection of rights and community integration of people with disabilities.

Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) is a human rights organization dedicated to the protection of people with mental disabilities worldwide. We have investigated human rights conditions of people with mental disabilities in 23 countries of Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East . The human rights abuses against children and adults with disabilities in Romania are among the most extreme and pervasive that we have observed in any country of the world.

Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) documented these abuses with regard to children in our May 2006 report, Hidden Suffering: Romania ’s Segregation and Abuse of Infants and Children with Disabilities. Since the release of MDRI’s report, our findings have been widely and independently corroborated – including findings from investigative reports at ITV News in Britain , ABC News in the United States , and Jornalul National in Romania . Human Rights Watch has issued a report Life Doesn’t Wait: Romania’s Failure to Protect and Support Children and Youth Living with HIV that documents abuses against a particularly vulnerable population of children with disabilities. The broader abuses against adults with disabilities – including large numbers of deaths by exposure – have been documented in recent years by the Center for Legal Resources and Amnesty International. As part of MDRI’s investigation in 2005 and 2006, we also found serious and widespread abuses of thous and s of individuals in adult institutions. These included freezing temperatures in institutions, lack of protection against sexual abuse, the improper use of physical and chemical restraints, unhygienic conditions, and arbitrary detention without due process.

We recommend the inclusion of a safeguard clause to require future international monitoring and national reporting of rights protections for this vulnerable population. It should establish clear benchmarks, including significant penalties if they are not met according to a clear time schedule. Benchmarks within one year should include:

Establishment of an independent monitoring body to report publicly on conditions in all institutions for children and adults. This report would include a comprehensive human rights assessment of conditions in all institutions under all national and local authorities. Such a survey and report will only be credible if non-governmental human rights and disability rights organizations are also guaranteed access to all institutions to produce independent reports. The monitoring body and NGO’s should be given a 24 hour right of access without notification and should be given the right to obtain and submit photographic and video evidence of their findings to the government.

Removal and prosecution of abusive staff – Where specific abuses are identified, the government must take action to remove the staff who are responsible for the abuse from positions where they can endanger other people. Abusers should be held accountable and prosecuted where criminal laws are violated.

Expansion of the maternal assistance and family support programs to prevent the ab and onment of babies and the breakup of families, particularly including children with disabilities. Romania should demonstrate a significant decline in the number of ab and oned babies below the current level of 9,000 per year.

Establishment and expansion of supported foster care programs and adoption to ensure that children with all levels of mental and physical disabilities now ab and oned in maternal wards of hospitals, placement centers, and other institutions have an opportunity to grow up with a family. An independent mechanism for monitoring human rights protection and quality of care in community programs must also be established. Children with disabilities should have the same right to services as all other children. Protections against any institutionalization of infants under law 272 should be extended to all children with disabilities.

Significant decline in the institutional population of children and adults with disabilities. The transfer of children or adults from large institutions to small institutions shall not be considered deinstitutionalization. To assess future progress, Romania must show that it is moving children to stable families or substitute families. Children in small institutions, even so-called “family-like” environments should be considered children in institutions for the purpose of this assessment.

We recognize that the government of Romania has made progress in recent years in reducing the number of children in institutions. A similar move toward community integration is needed for children and adults with disabilities. We are concerned that, under the guise of reform, scarce resources have been used to build new institutions rather than promoting true community integration. The “trans-institutionalization” of children to nearly 200 new institutions in the last three years has been documented by UNICEF and is described in Hidden Suffering. A similar pattern of misdirected reform is now taking place for adults. In his testimony to the United States Congress on September 13, the representative of the National Authority for Persons with H and icap, Adrian Mindroiu, reported that the government of Romania was building 10 new psychiatric institutions. The creation of new institutions will consign a new generation of people with disabilities to segregation from society. The EU should insist that any new funds for structural adjustment or assistance be used to support community integration and not new institutions.

Please contact me if you have any questions about these matters. MDRI would be pleased to provide the EU with assistance in further defining appropriate safeguards and /or creating a program for human rights oversight .You may reach me at 1-202-296-6550 or at erosenthal@mdri.org .

Thank you for your urgent attention to the human rights of children and adults with disabilities.

Sincerely,

Eric Rosenthal
Executive Director, MDRI

Romania’s orphans claim years of abuse

Bob Graham, Brasov, Romania

A GROUP of Romanian orphans who were approved for adoption by western families have claimed that their lives were devastated by the Romanian government’s ban on overseas adoption. Instead of growing up in the West, they remained in an orphanage where, they allege, they were sexually abused and beaten.

The disturbing testimony of 11 teenagers centres on a private institution in the town of Brasov. The claims are being investigated by police and Romania’s National Authority for the Protection of Children’s Rights.

The children’s complaints were sent last week to members of the European parliament to coincide with an imminent decision on Romania’s entry to the European Union. Child protection has become a key issue for Romania’s entry, although it is expected to learn this week that it will be able to join in January under strict conditions.

The complaints have shocked those who have read them, including child protection workers in Brasov, where the £2.5m Poiana Soarelui education complex, home to 66 children, opened in 1994.

In a series of interviews with The Sunday Times, Romanian ministers, orphanage directors and other officials all acknowledged serious failings in the country’s childcare system more than 16 years after appalling conditions were discovered during the collapse of communism.

While progress has been made to meet demands from Brussels for EU entry — such as the closure of large state-run orphanages — many problems remain, including the care of handicapped and abandoned children. There is also the issue of adoption by foreigners, a practice banned by Romanian governments for the past five years.

The latest allegations, sent in two letters detailing shocking abuse, were made by residents and former residents of the Brasov orphanage aged between 14 and 20.

One letter from a group of four children said: “We, the senders of this letter, are a group of teenagers institutionalised since 1994 . . . we are frustrated, punished, beaten and humiliated.”

The second letter, from a group of seven youngsters, said: “We had the unluck [sic] to grow 12 years in the private orphanage . . . No one loves us . . . That is the reason we write to you today.”
The letters contain harrowing accounts by two sisters aged 17 and 16, who claimed they were raped by a member of their orphanage’s staff two years ago at a summer camp. The sisters, who were abandoned at an early age by their mother, confirmed the details last week.

The accounts have helped to reopen a debate about inter-country adoption which has been pivotal to Romania’s childcare policies. After the 1989 revolution, when the plight of an estimated 200,000 orphaned and abandoned children emerged, thousands of western families were eager to adopt. More than 600 Romanian children were taken by British families until the process was halted in 2001.

The moratorium was urged by Baroness Nicholson, the Liberal Democrat MEP for southeast England, who insisted Romania’s entry into the EU be linked to its treatment of children.

Nicholson claimed foreign adoptions had created a lucrative black market trade in baby and child trafficking.

Opponents denied many of her assertions and claimed the moratorium “denied children a good home” in the West.

More than 1,000 children who had been approved for foreign adoption when the ban was introduced have been caught between the two camps, including those whose details have gone to Brussels.

Those children interviewed by The Sunday Times said they were pleased that their stories were being told. One of the alleged rape victims said: “It is true this is what happened to us.” The letters incorporated details of how the children had been approved for adoption with families in Italy, France and the United States before the ban on foreign adoption was imposed.

The one containing the rape victims’ account revealed that they had been selected six years ago for adoption by a family near Paris. When it was read to them by a child psychologist last week, both girls broke down and wept.

The 16-year-old grasped the hand of her sister and whispered quietly: “Paris . . . a family in France wanted us . . . this is the first we knew about this.” She added: “For the first time people outside Romania will know about us and how we have been kept prisoner when we wanted to leave.”

When Bogdan Hampu read how he had been identified for adoption with an American family, he smiled ruefully. “Wow, America . . . I never knew. To think I could have been in America instead of here, incredible.”

The Brasov orphanage is owned by the country’s richest man, Ion Tiriac, the former tennis star. A former manager to Boris Becker, Tiriac is acknowledged as the country’s leading philanthropist.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part.