Romania Pledges Renewed Commitment to Children, Looks to Colorado Child Welfare Experts for Guidance

American Humane Association
Thursday, 12 September 2002

With acceptance into the European Union at stake, the improvement of Romania's child welfare system has become a national priority, prompting some of the system's top administrators and policy makers to turn to their American colleagues for guidance.

Once called the "bread basket of Europe" and admired for its cutting-edge medical system, Romania is better known today as the "land of orphans" -- a reputation often blamed on former dictator Nicole Ceausescu, whose policies placed more than 150,000 children in orphanages. Now, 12 years after Ceausescu's reign, the Romanian government, under the leadership of President Ion Illiescu, has pledged a renewed commitment to helping Romania's children, and with good reason.

Twelve years ago, Romania, under the leadership of Ceausescu, had more than 170,000 children in residential care. Thanks to years of child welfare reform that created new professions and services to address the complex needs of Romania's orphans, that number dropped to less than 50,000. But while Romania's child welfare system is in much better shape, there is still much that needs to be done. With the support of the Romanian authorities, Romanian and American child welfare professionals are hopeful they can continue the momentum to better the lives of Romania's children.

The burden of success falls on a five-year Romanian-American partnership called ChildNet -- a joint project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Government of Romania's National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption (NACPA), World Learning, and American Humane. The goals are to 1) reduce the number of children living in state institutions, 2) reduce the number of state institutions, 3) increase the number of community child welfare services, and 4) increase standards for child welfare services.

To support these goals, eight Romanian professionals from ChildNet were recently welcomed to Colorado by Denver-based American Humane. While in Colorado, the Romanians participated in an intense six-day program designed to give them hands-on experience with the American child welfare system. The training included visits to the Denver Department of Humane Services, El Paso County Department of Human Services, and Colorado Christian Home. The training focused on practice skills and program models for effective services to at-risk children and families. This was a topic the Romanian trainees readily identified with as more than one-half of the children with AIDS in Europe call Romania their home.

"Our visit to the United States was, above all, an experience in lessons learned from colleagues who have much more experience than Romanian child welfare professionals," said Dana Buzducea, child welfare and program specialist for USAID. "Working with them as a team was incredibly rewarding, enabling us to learn from their mistakes and successes and also to identify many strengths and weaknesses of the Romanian system. We came away with many successful models that can be adapted and replicated in our own country."

For more information, or to contact American Humane Association, see their website at: www.americanhumane.org