Florentina Ban Story

By Florentina Ban (her personal story)

There are many people who consider our attacks on the Romanian system to be politically motivated. This is not the case. I have decided to publish a problem which appears to be a personal one, but which demonstrates with a vengeance how Romania violates the rights of people as a common and regular practice.

I said to some friends the other day that I am ready offer 1,000 euros to anyone who can show me one single, solid, unemotional argument which would convince me to NOT hate Romania. But to this point, I have found no one who has picked up the gauntlet and I will probably have to find the answer within me in order to get past all the filth.

To: The Government of Romania, the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, and the Arges County Office for Child Protection

To the attention of: Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, State Secretary Bogdan Panait, and Arges County Director, Adrian Macovei

I am a Romanian citizen with residence in Holland because I am married to a citizen of Holland. My chosen domicile is in Romania and I am the parent of a little girl who was born on April 24, 1995. She has a severe handicap and was entrusted to me for raising and education via a definitive and irrevocable judicial decision which was handed down more than three years ago. I want to bring to your attention the inexcusable and intolerable abuses suffered by us at the hands of the Services for Children with Disabilities in Arges County and specifically the Director of this service. I am asking for these things to be considered with all due urgency and measures taken so that such situations will not be repeated.

Here is the situation: My little girl whom I adopted at the age of 3 days, has a congenital handicap, and at the age of 18 months was entered into the system for children with handicaps Arges County. Even though this handicap is irrecouperable, nevertheless, we must go before the Evaluation Service for Children with Disabilities Arges County every year, though nothing can really change with regard to the medical situation of the child. Year after year those responsible for following up on children with disabilities pretend to be interested in the fate of the child but ONLY in the time period when they must do the necessary home studies which need to be added to the file. Otherwise, INDIFFERENCE is the one thing that characterizes these services (an attitude which is accepted as normal in Romania; in fact, indifference IS Romania). In September, 2006, we once again had to go before the evaluation commission in order for my daughter to be "re-entered" into the system for children with disabilities. The commission approved a certificate which certified my daughter's disability. I have not yet received this certificate (Feb. 11, 2007).

Here in Holland, my daughter benefits from the care of numerous specialists to whom I presented her medical file. But because I live in Holland, I decided to get a notarized power of attorney for my mother so that she could pick up the paper certifying my daughter's disability and send it to me here in Holland. Unfortunately, the Evaluation Service which has the OBLIGATION to give me this certificate "forgot" that Romania is a "democratic" country and is "part of" the European Union. The Arges County Evaluation Services behaved themselves as though the communist regime was still in power. Practically speaking, my mother was subjected to much mistreatment by a secretary, as well as having to endure a barrage of questions. This person commanded my mother to: 1.) Prove that my daughter is in a hospital in Holland, 2.) To explain why I was getting treatment for the child by foreign doctors and not Romanian doctors [but all of these treatments are paid for out of our own pockets and not by the Romanian government], 3.) To tell her when we were going to come back to Romania, 4.) To prove that the power of attorney was not falsified, 5.) Affirmed that she (the secretary) would contact the Romanian embassy in Holland in order to get clarification regarding the legality of our living in Holland. In these and many other ways, this secretary went way beyond her authority. This secretary committed a whole chain of abuses since she denied our right to freedom of movement, she denied our right to freely choose where we wish to live, and she attacked our right to privacy. It is the right of every Romanian citizen to decide where he wishes to live within the European Union, while the administrative reglementation of this residence is something that belongs to the private and personal lives of everyone.

Her affirmation that she will check up on things through the Embassy is proof of a "police state" mentality because she threatened to take "appropriate measures". This attitude represents the general policy of the National Authority for the Protection (??) of the Rights of the Child. Consequently, I will put in a complaint to the European Commission against the Romanian government.

I believe that this relevant example, among many others, demonstrates the deficient way in which the National Authority of the Protection of the Rights of the Child operates. It also demonstrates how unprepared Romania was for entry into the EU and especially to the rights of Romanian citizens. In all these years of fighting for the rights of my child, I was NEVER helped by any "representative" from the Child Protection Services. The care of my child falls entirely to me and those who have claimed that they want to help, actually only "protect" (??) the child, but I am the one who must fight for the child so that she can live and grow as normally as possible. The handing over of the certificate regarding my child's disability is a debt and obligation that the local authorities have. It is not optional. And next year, the suffocating bureaucracy in the area of child protection (??) in Romania will require us to completely re-do the file.

Therefore, I am asking the authorities to take appropriate action to respect the rights of my child and that these measures would, in fact, fulfill the declarations of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. I know the law and I know the rights that are ours. I will make the appropriate appeals, not only with regard to the flagrant abuses in my situation, but also to those in similar situations. I will not delay putting in my appeal to the European Commission for more than 48 hours, and I expect that the Child Protection Services in Arges County will resolve my situation, the situation involving my child's certificate of disability, and the administrative measures taken to rectify past mistakes and prevent future ones.