Romania struggles with adoption dilemmas

BUCHAREST – Theodor’s mother abandoned him in hospital soon after giving birth.Three years later, the dark-haired boy with a shy smile is living with a foster mother in a bare apartment in Bucharest, still waiting to be adopted.

Theodor’s story, and the tales of tens of thousands of other Romanian orphans, pull at the heart-strings in a country where adoption and child care were crippled and corrupted by years of dictatorship and the graft-tainted society it spawned. Romania, which hopes to join the European Union next year, has taken radical steps to clean up its act, eager to banish the haunting images of vast, filthy orphanages that were exposed to the world after the 1989 fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.But a 2005 ban on foreign adoptions has drawn criticism as well as praise.More heartache ensued as hopeful couples found their efforts to adopt cut off during a three-year moratorium that preceded last year’s ban.And while Theodor faces no risk of being sold to the highest bidder as was the case in the adoption industry for years after Ceausescu’s fall, he is unlikely to find a permanent home.Many Romanians are too poor to adopt a child, and Theodor is also a Gypsy, who often face discrimination.”I would prefer for him to be adopted by a good family, and if he isn’t, I will raise him as my own,” says Maria Moise, Theodor’s foster mother who is paid around US$130 a month to look after him, plus money for food and toiletries.”But I can’t adopt him, I can’t afford it.”Romania introduced the ban in an effort to quash EU concerns that the country was too corrupt to prevent baby trafficking during foreign adoptions.The country says the decision has encouraged more Romanians to adopt, with families queuing up.Critics say cumbersome bureaucracy and poverty in the former Soviet bloc state hobble the process – leaving children like Theodor with little hope of a permanent home.- Nampa-ReutersRomania, which hopes to join the European Union next year, has taken radical steps to clean up its act, eager to banish the haunting images of vast, filthy orphanages that were exposed to the world after the 1989 fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.But a 2005 ban on foreign adoptions has drawn criticism as well as praise.More heartache ensued as hopeful couples found their efforts to adopt cut off during a three-year moratorium that preceded last year’s ban.And while Theodor faces no risk of being sold to the highest bidder as was the case in the adoption industry for years after Ceausescu’s fall, he is unlikely to find a permanent home.Many Romanians are too poor to adopt a child, and Theodor is also a Gypsy, who often face discrimination.”I would prefer for him to be adopted by a good family, and if he isn’t, I will raise him as my own,” says Maria Moise, Theodor’s foster mother who is paid around US$130 a month to look after him, plus money for food and toiletries.”But I can’t adopt him, I can’t afford it.”Romania introduced the ban in an effort to quash EU concerns that the country was too corrupt to prevent baby trafficking during foreign adoptions.The country says the decision has encouraged more Romanians to adopt, with families queuing up.Critics say cumbersome bureaucracy and poverty in the former Soviet bloc state hobble the process – leaving children like Theodor with little hope of a permanent home.- Nampa-Reuters