Translation 10 – Another recourse to a hidden reality. It is absolutely heinous what has happened in the Romanian child protection system over the last ten years. The following story is, in a way, the story of all the children who’ve been mocked by the Romanian state government. The character in our story was born with a congenital malformation of his left femur, which left that leg almost two inches shorter than his right leg. He was abandoned immediately after he was born. His mother had another nine children at home, and this tenth one had come unexpectedly. From the maternity hospital where he was born, this little one ended up in an orphanage. For two and a half years he limped around in the sight of all, under the uncaring glances of those who represented the Romanian government. If they would have operated on him then, when he was little, today he wouldn’t have any reason cry day and night about this, sometimes with tears and sometimes without tears. But because he didn’t have the operation, and because of the deadly neglect experienced in the orphanage, today his leg is eight inches shorter than the other one. This is a very sad story. But it’s a true story, even though it’s hard to tell it. It seems even harder to accept it. This is a story which directly accuses the authorities in Romania of violating the rights of these children via absurd laws. It directly accuses the authorities of neglecting the children and then trying to hide and cover up the truth. When he got tired from walking, he looked up to heaven and prayed to God. God heard his prayer and God “lent a hand” to help. At age two and a half, he was put in the home of a foster family. There he enjoyed the love and warmth of his foster parents. For ten years he called them “Mom” and “Dad”. They loved him as their own child. He was baptized and they prayed to God regarding his life. They took him to hospitals for examination and to try to find a treatment. While he was in this foster family, he underwent five operations. Three of them were in his pelvic/hip region because the ball end of his femur had become gangrenous. The other two operations were: one on his good knee, because they decided to try to get that leg to stop growing. Instead of using all the tools to lengthen his short leg, they decided to try to stop the good leg from growing!! The physical and psychological suffering at the hands of the authorities have mutilated his childhood, his soul, and his very life. These are traumas that are hard to heal. These sufferings took on cosmic proportions on the day when he was taken from his foster family and taken away. [It should be noted that foster situations in Romania are always viewed as “temporary”, and the child can be moved/removed at any time, even after forming bonds of attachment. – POH] He was taken far, far away from those who were his only parents, far more than his biological ones ever were. The bonding which took place with his foster parents, bonding which was developed and strengthened over ten years [!], was suddenly interrupted by what amounts to a criminal decision. He was taken away from the only family that he had ever known and placed in an institution – a “family-type” children’s home. Once again, we see that in Romania the “protection” of abandoned children begins with institutionalization and ends in reinstitutionalization! He wore a boot similar to tank tracks, and the poor kid had to walk over a mile to school. This went on for over two years. He walked and cried, trying bravely to carry his cross through this life. How torturous this must have been for this child to put forth that kind of physical effort! And of course to all this must be added the additional verbal abuse and mocking looks from his classmates. He felt helpless, and resigned himself to accepting his humiliation. Alienated, isolated from any kind of normal childhood, he really didn’t understand anything that was going on around him. He anxiously awaited the nighttime when he could quietly pray to God, with his head under his pillow, for the Lord to take him out of the hell on earth into which he had been thrown. His only moments of joy were when he was visited by his foster family. His right to a permanent family via adoption, a right guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child and by the Hague convention, as well as the Strasbourg convention and its revisions in 2008, was violated by the Romanian Government over a period of ten long years. This right was trampled on by the authorities, in spite of the fact that these treaties were signed and ratified by Romania and the Romanian Parliament. This child has remained abandoned now for fifteen years. He clearly has this disability. There is no chance for him to be integrated into his birth family, nor is there a chance for him to be adopted nationally. He was neglected just like tens of thousands of other abandoned children in Romania. And very few of them even have a procedure begun to even get them declared adoptable, even for an internal adoption. The best interests of the children have never been a priority for legislators, nor for those who are paid with public monies to guarantee that the rights of the child are respected and protected. The current legislation has condemned these children to life without a permanent family. The government of Romania prefers institutionalization and state “care” over a permanent adoptive family. I learned to know this child some years ago when he was going to be operated on for the fifth time. I wanted to send him to Italy to the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna. I found sponsors to cover the costs (particularly the Association Geto-Dacic Standard/Banner from Parma – a group of Romanians who have established themselves in Italy). I asked the Child Protection services for a copy of the latest x-rays and for the documents necessary for the child to go to Italy for the operation. To this day I have received no response! I looked for the child last year on his birthday and I found him in his “new residence”. He cried and cried. He held onto me tightly. He begged me to get him out of the hell he was living in there. I was his last chance. I didn’t wait around. I found a private clinic run by some Swiss folks and their director willingly accepted the case. But she was advised on the side by the social worker responsible for the child’s case to NOT receive the child because the child was “very retarded”. What a ridiculous statement. It left me speechless. Nevertheless, I kept on insisting. I continued my battle for even one innocent child, one prisoner of the stinking, rotten child “protection” system in Romania. With God’s help, the child was saved from the poisonous claws of the mafia from the Child Protection Services. The fight with that mafia was long and hard. But, we overcame them and won due to the cooperation of two NGO’s whose purpose is to fight for the protection of the rights of the child. This child was neglected, tormented, and despised by people from the Child Protection Services who, incidentally, have no business being there. But in the end he has obtained some quietness in his life as well as joy, trust, and hope. He is enjoying the respect of those around him in his new situation in life. His path to school is much shorter as well as the distance between himself and the people with whom he has formed bonds of attachment. I hope that one blessed day, the hero of this sad story will miraculously arrive at the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna and will come into the hands of a renowned surgeon named Onofrio Donzelli. God help us all!
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 08:23:42 +0000
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