Denied a family

In the world, according to UNICEF data, 145 million children are living in an institution, deprived of the love and warmth of a family. Of these, one and a half million are in Eastern Europe. The figures emerged from an international conference on orphans organized by the association Friends of Children/Amici dei Bambini, and recently held in Rimini (Italy). ABANDONMENT IN EUROPE. The most critical situations of child abandonment are found in those countries still suffering from the after-effects of war, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina , where some 3,500 juveniles are living without their own parents, and Kosovo, where 56% of youths interviewed by “Save the Children” denounce cases of maltreatment by adults. In Bulgaria , according to data of the national Agency for Child Protection, children living in orphanages total 12,793, while Moldova has some 13,000 children in care (some orphanages house up to 650). In Ukraine over 22,000 orphaned children were registered in 2005, of whom 3,575 adopted and 1,416 institutionalised after running away from home due to maltreatment. In the Russian Federation , 133,000 abandoned children were registered in 2005, while Romania despite the fact that it has one of the highest numbers of abandoned children in Eastern Europe (80,287 in care) has prohibited international adoption with its law 273/2004. “It’s a law that fills us with fear”, says the President of ‘Friends of Children’ Marco Griffini, who adds with regard to Romania’s possible entry into the EU: “We don’t want Romania to bring into Europe the negation of a fundamental right: the ban on any chance of adopting a child already abandoned twice over – both by his/her family and by other potential parents from Romania itself – it’s a sign of cruelty”. The conference also gave rise to the first network of family associations and formerly institutionalised youths from 16 countries in the world, including Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine and Romania. The proposals include the creation of a database of families wishing to adopt children. MOLDOVA, CHILDREN OF SIGNATURES. Even more that the figures, it is the experiences of abandonment that give some idea of how precarious is the right of each child to have a family of his own. In Moldova the status of “abandoned child” is conditioned at the end of six months within which the minor has no need to receive visits from the parents or relations who have institutionalised him. It’s enough for a member of the child’s family to go to see him every six months and simply sign a document, to prevent the child being declared in a state of abandonment and, hence, open to adoption. Sometimes, however, the institutionalisation of a minor occurs by necessity, not by choice, of the parent, as explained by Natalia Popa, a mother originally from Gratiesti who says she was forced to place her two children in care after the death of her husband in 1998, in order to ensure them of proper schooling. Hers however is a story with a happy ending: “Within the boarding school where my sons were studying, the Friends of the Family had opened a project called ‘Towards the Family’ for the de-institutionalization of children in care. I was able to benefit from this and have my sons entered in another school. They were then reintegrated in the family”. BULGARIA, CHILDREN WITHOUT DEFINITION. “One of the biggest problems in Bulgaria is that people are unaware of the existence of orphanages”, says Ivaylo Hristov, president of “Luminous Childhood”, an association active in the country. “There are now three institutes in Bulgaria: one for children aged from 0 to 3 which houses 256, many of them with physical and psychological problems; one for the age group from 3 to 4 which houses 56; lastly the orphanage for minors over the age of 4, which houses 110”. Many of these very young children live constantly in an orphanage; “60 of them have never ever left it”, explains Ivaylo, pointing out that the collection of data on their living conditions is extremely difficult. “45% of minors institutionalised are waiting to return, within three years, to their family of origin, but their actual reintegration only happens in 20% of cases, and even then the re-institutionalization of the child is very frequent”. The situation of orphans is further complicated by the lack of the definition of “abandoned child” in the legal documents used for orphanages. That of “child at risk” is preferred instead”. UKRAINE, A YEAR’S WAITING PERIOD BEFORE ADOPTION. “In spite of everything I am very lucky to have been placed in an institute”, says Iryna Hilnichenko, 17 years old, who has just left the boarding school of Bucha, near Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Her years in an orphanage ended with completing her secondary education. Next year, in fact, Iryna will begin her first year of Motory Sciences (physiotherapy) at the University of Kiev. Though considering herself fortunate for having received a good education, she admits she felt “the lack of the love of a family”. It was just when she was in boarding school that she discovered, thanks to volunteers of a nearby parish, that she could be a resource for other institutionalised children like her: “I wish to help them – she concludes – because many children in orphanages think they have no future”.