CHILDREN WITHOUT A CHILDHOOD

Translated from Cotidianul Oct. 24, 2006

CHILDREN WITHOUT A CHILDHOOD

By: Radu Calin Cristea

Romania will not be able to put up for very long with a total embargo in international adoptions. The subject demands at least a very serious debate.

International adoptions from Romania were a well justified idea, but the idea was applied in a catastrophic way. Thousands of children were sold like merchandise through the intermediaries called NGO's who were motivated merely by the money they could get from this business; and then they refused to present the Romanian authorities with post adoption reports. Baroness Emma Nicholson, former rapporteur for Romania from the European Parliament, spoke about the interests of certain dubious politicians as well as about the international adoption of certain children for the criminal purpose of using their organs. The moratorium of Oct. 2001, suspended international adoptions, but left the door open for exceptional situations. In Feb. of 2004, international adoptions were completely stopped. The EU says they are thankful, but the United States is pleading for the re-opening of international adoptions. The presence of various lobbying groups has also been felt. The National Authority for the Protection of the Child and Adoption does not have funds to deal with the situation of children in difficult situations. We have seen plenty of reports about families with five or six children who live in wild conditions and who survive for the most part on gifts or on what they can find in the field. About 400 Europarliamentarians are lobbying for the unblocking of international adoptions. The investigations which were recently made by Europaliamentarians Cavada and Gibault have stirred up rumors in almost all of the press with articles resonating the following idea "We will not sell out children".

My opinion is that international adoptions should be re-opened because there are perhaps tens of thousands of children who have no parents that will assure them of a decent life. National adoptions are extremely difficult, and they will not ultimately catch up with the huge number of children that need to be adopted. A new system of international adoptions needs to be put into place which avoids the errors of the past. I believe that the best guarantee would be to give the agreement on an intergovernmental level. Governments would be required to periodically verify the situations and then communicate this to the Romanian government as well as to families who gave up their children for adoption. Communication between the adopted child and his family in Romania would be regular and diverse. Any deviation from the requirements would immediately cause the child to be brought back to Romania and given to the biological family. The time for international adoptions will come for Romania. It would be good to initiate some public discussions on this theme so we don't wake up one day in a situation which demands a hasty response and which will be dependent on political convergences.

Below is a comment to this article:

By: Ioana Apopei--Unfortunately, and especially for the children, no one has wanted to defuse the bomb which has been put at the doors of orphanages by the Baroness and big Mr. Tiriac, who praises himself for the fact that he gives children from the orphanage work to do (but what does he do, make them his slaves?).

How did these children get lost? Give us some names. Why has no one ever mention the name of a child who has been adopted after 1997? Hasn't anyone ever been able to find even one newspaper to pay 2 or 3 million euros to grab an adoption file at random, to get the address of some adoptive parents and go there? Go to the country where the child is and find the adoptive parents. They should ask to see the child and compare it to any pictures which are found in the adoption file at the court. Ladies and Gentlemen, the judges are not as has been said. Don't you think that the judges read every jot and tittle from every page of the adoption file? Do you know how many documents were required from adoptive parents? You will be flabbergasted. Do you know how many people read these documents? Do you know how many they approved? A huge amount. There is something I don't understand: it is curious to me that not one functionary from the Romanian Adoption Committee gave the right to free thinking in the press when the Baroness lorded herself over all the TV channels, etc. 'Look, man, she's from the EU'! Adoptive parents needed to have a background check from their police department which was no older than one month before the court hearing for the adoption. There were psychological studies, home studies, plus the adoption had to take place through an agency authorized by the receiving state. But also authorized by the Romanian Adoption Committee, which involved many, many formal procedures.

In addition, each adoptive family was flanked by other families from their area when they arrived at the airport and were received in adopters clubs and everybody knew about this adopted child. They met with people, they visited with people, they had all kinds of outings; and curious thing, they gathered funds for the orphanages in Romania. Do you know how many donations were made to support the orphanages during the years when international adoptions were open? Oh how easy it is to cast blame. With all the hysteria, I am amazed that Mr. Radu Calin Cristea was able to publish such an article. Involved with their own concerns, the leaders of our country omitted important aspects of this problem and left the destiny of the children to the whims of them EU. But what will happen when they turn 18? What awaits them? Will Mr. Tiriac take them all to work for him? Nobody wanted the truth. It's more trendy to sling mud. That's what we've done--like the Romanian saying, "we've thrown the whole shepherd's coat into the fire because of one louse" which in fact, was not a louse but a flea which no one actually saw. However, merely because someone had an itch, and scratched, a hubbub erupted that the shepherd's coat was full of fleas. And the children have not been hammered by this fate. It happened when they were abandoned in the hospitals, when they were left by the government, and most of them are without parents when they could have been sent to any civilized place in the world. Do you realize that these adopted children are treated like little Princes? Why doesn't anyone go where these adopted children are and write an article? Do you know what principle should govern the art of journalism and especially the government? "Sine ira et studio"--it demands that what is said should not be for self-serving purposes (for favors from the present ruler by studium for him and ira for the previous). I am disgusted with writers who write what is 'in vogue' in order that sales will increase due to the scandals. Perhaps the children who could have been adopted will grow up and will ask us, "Why did you keep quiet? Now we have no chance for a family and we have no home to which we can go back at holidays.

I didn't really want to get into this dispute, but I recently read an article in which a child from the U.S. kept running away from the children's home or from the family who had him in foster care ("family type placement", as we say here). When the psychologist asked him why, he said, "I want a stable family, people that I can call momma and daddy and where I can return for the holidays and know that people are there waiting for me." The child was a girl. If we are parents, then we ought to think like parents. The 1997 law said clearly 'adoptions are done in the best interest of the child'. I believe that it seemed good for the new government in 2000, to use the matter of international adoptions as a way to show how corrupt the former government was. An adoption, however, was eventually signed by a judge (from among 3 judges) and in the presence of the prosecutor. But nobody really wants to know how adoptions are done. For 2 years after a child has been adopted, the adoption agency from the area of residence of the adoptive parents, would send a report every 6 months with photographs of the child to Romania. The Romanian foundation which did the adoption, was obligated to make sufficient copies and give them to the CPS of the county, to the orphanage from which the child had been adopted, as well as to the Romanian Adoptions Committee. The foundation was also required to keep one copy in their files. Many foundations visited the children at home in their new families. But why was no foundation allowed to give its point of view but rather only the Baroness was allowed to speak and right of reply was killed? There are many foundations which intermediated hundreds of adoptions and have hundreds of files in their archives.

Unfortunately, the destiny of innocent children has been politicized. These children were abandoned and then beaten again by the government because that's what the government thought would be good for them politically. It's shameful. How will these leaders be able to look these children in the eye? It has been said that a child is a gift from God, but the government has made him political pawns. Sin! Yes, it's true that different fates came about when the lots were cast. But the one who doesn't know is not the one who is being accused, rather, the one who doesn't want to know.