Publicity Closing Some Doors

Stories and photographs that opened Spokane’s eyes to the lives of Romanian orphans may have also closed orphanage doors to further scrutiny.

At least one adoptive American family who wanted to videotape the Romanian orphanage their child was living in has been denied access since Spanish newspaper versions of The Spokesman-Review stories circulated in Romania.

Conditions at an orphanage outside Targoviste, Romania, were reported in an Oct. 20 special section “Into the Heart of Darkness.” Visitors say the Ministry of Education has since banned journalists or people with cameras. Humanitarian workers are apparently still allowed.

But any limits make child welfare workers nervous.

Janice Neilson, executive director of the World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP) in Renton, Wash., said the doors - and relationships - must remain open in order for programs to benefit children.

“It’s a delicate balance,” said Neilson. “These children don’t have a voice, someone has to speak for them, but we can only work there if we develop trust with the Romanian government. We have to understand Romania is making progress and view that progress through the lens of the developing world.”

Working in 12 countries for more than two decades has convinced her that children institutionalized anywhere are at great risk. If Romanians are sensitive, it’s because they have been working hard to change.

“It’s easy for us to fly over to Romania and pop in and throw our hands in the air and say, ‘How can you let children live like this,”’ said Ed Bates, a semi-retired professor of social work living in Spokane. “Most Romanians knew no more about those places than the West knew.”

Bates and his wife, Patricia, spent last year training Romanian social workers on how to prevent the abandonment of children and reunite Romanian families.

Schools for social work, psychology and even nursing were shut down by the former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1960s, leaving Romania 30 years behind the Western world. Poverty is so crippling that families truly believe children are better off in institutions, where at least they have food and a roof overhead.

“It’s easy for us to be critical, to be the Americans jumping on white horses, but we’ve had 200 years of democracy in this country. They haven’t had 10.”

Bates knows at least 20 babies went home with their mothers who otherwise would have gone to an orphanage because of a U.S. AID program administered by WACAP in Renton. Romanians have continued the program, even after U.S. spending was cut in January.

The country needs economic development, aid workers say. Orphanage repair, adoptions and WACAP’s efforts to reunite families all are critical as well. Bates said he was so impressed by Spokane’s generosity and the work of Norwegian, German and British humanitarians.

But he is also impressed by Romanians.

Social worker Maria Volinturu watched one young couple grieve as they came to relinquish their child. They were living with in-laws who forbade more children in the house. In a single morning, the social worker, trained by Americans, found the couple separate housing, a new job and two weeks later, sent the child home.

“To me, that was some of the best social work I’d ever seen, all done in three or four hours,” Bates said.

, DataTimes