When Romanian orphan Alex Kuch was adopted at age two, his new family was told he would never finish high school or lead a normal life.

This week, Alex finished his final semester of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and International Relations with a minor in Sociology at the University of Auckland.

Now 23-years-old, Alex is an established children’s rights advocate and is invited to speak around the world. Next month, he will co-present research into the experiences of adoptees at a major international conference in Canada.

“My parents weren’t going to let a prediction determine who I was going to become,” Alex says. “While never pushing me, they always encouraged me to give my best in everything I did. My family is really proud, especially as I’m the first person in my family to go to university. I’m really looking forward to using my degree in the real world.”

Alex will be one of the youngest presenters at the sixth International Conference on Adoption Research in Montreal and has received a grant from the University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor’s Student Support Fund to attend.

His research, completed with Dr Rhoda Scherman from AUT, analyses the stories of other adoptees shared on the New Zealand-based I’m Adopted website.

“The stories have helped us to pull together the common themes of what adopted children go through. It’s valuable knowledge for agencies and families, for example knowing when to intervene or what to expect, and to provide better support.”

Alex was adopted in 1997 from an orphanage in Cluj- Napoca, Romania by a German couple. He also has a younger brother adopted by the same family. The family moved to New Zealand in 2006.

At the time of his adoption, a German psychologist advised Alex’s family that the emotional damage from spending his formative years in an orphanage meant he would never lead a normal life, complete high school, or have the social skills to integrate into society.

“The conditions weren’t the greatest. My parents were told that I had started to rock backwards and forward due to a lack of emotional and physical stimulation and I could not look people directly in the eyes.”

Alex received specialist support such as speech and fine motor therapy, and against all odds, has now completed high school and university.

“It was challenging, however the University of Auckland has been very supportive. I had a writer for exams as I still have some fine motor challenges. Also many of my assignments were tailored to reflect my advocacy work.”

Alex is passionate about lobbying the Romanian Government to re-open international adoptions, which were closed in 2001.

In an unusual twist, Alex met his birth mother on live television during a lobbying trip to his birth country. While speaking on a talk show about his adoption experience, producers blindsided him by bringing his birth mother and half siblings onto the stage.

Alex is now concentrating on his long-term aspiration is to establish a children’s rights consultancy that collaborates with different sectors to have a positive impact on the wellbeing of children.

In October Alex will speak in Brussels at the third Asia-Europe Foundation Young Leaders Summit on children’s rights and international adoptions.

Danelle Clayton | Media Adviser
Communications Office
Email: d.clayton@auckland.ac.nz

Photo credit; Francine Aubry

EPIC publishes policy memo on using EU funding sources to tackle child poverty

08/05/2018

The European Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC) has published a policy memo on the use of EU funding mechanisms to tackle child poverty and social exclusion in the EU. This memo is the first in a series of short policy memos aimed at policymakers, researchers and practitioners and focusing on topics relevant to child welfare.

Making use of structural funds and other funding sources to support investment in children

This EPIC policy memo, Tackling child poverty and social exclusion in the EU: How EU funding mechanisms can help, provides an overview of the various funding mechanisms available at EU level and how they can be used by Member States and NGOs to fund initiatives to help all children reach their potential.

Child poverty still remains a challenge across many EU countries. The latest Eurostat figures show that 26.4% of children in the EU were at risk of or experiencing poverty or social exclusion, ranging from 13.8% of young people aged 17 years or younger in Denmark, to 49.2 % of the same age group in Romania.

The European Commission Recommendation of February 2013 on ‘Investing in Children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage’ sets out expectations for the provision of services to children and recommends that Member States ‘mobilise relevant EU financial instruments’ in order to maximise available funding for child-centred initiatives.

Nonetheless, in 2015 the European Parliament noted that ‘the majority of Member States so far have given little attention to using EU structural funds to fight the alarming and still growing rates of poverty among children in the EU and promote their social inclusion and general well-being’, and recommended greater emphasis on the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) to support implementation of the Recommendation.

In addition to providing an overview of the main funding sources, the memo also provides examples of the use of funding streams in different Member States and links to the managing authorities for Member States.

EPIC supports Member States to invest in children

EPIC also provides a wide range of content focused on tackling childhood disadvantage, including a collection of Evidence-Based Practices from across Member States.

EPIC’s Country Profiles, available in English, French and German, also provide an overview of measures taken in each Member State to support investment in children, including key data on childhood poverty and disadvantage and innovative policy initiatives.

Future policy memos in this series will cover the provision of education for migrant and refugee children in Europe, and the current provision of paternal and parental leave in EU Member State

Country profiles – Romania: Policies and progress towards investing in children

Providing access to social benefits and introducing new legal structures to protect children’s rights

In Romania, support is provided to parents who return to work earlier than the allotted leave. There are several day care centres for their children; however, there are not enough places available. Children have access to health and education services, and they are involved in decisions that can affect their lives, as outlined in Romanian legislation. The National Strategy on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights 2014–2020 has policies relating to vulnerable children, such as Roma, children with disabilities, abused or exploted children and children separated by their families.

Providing parents with incentives to return to work

Eurostat data for 2015 indicate that 9.4% of Romanian children under 3 years old accessed formal childcare, which is much lower than the EU average (30.3%). Of children aged between 3 years old and minimum compulsory school age, 58.2% accessed formal childcare (EU average is 83.3%).

A large percentage of Romanian women are employed (60.3%); however, this percentage is still smaller than the EU average of 71.4%. The employment rate of parents with children is 68%; 81.4% of fathers (aged 15 –64 years old) with children under 6 years old are employed, while only 54.3% of mothers are employed (EU averages are 88.2% for males and 61.4% for females respectively). The estimated gender pay gap for 2015 is 5.8%. (EU average is 16.3%)

According to a report from 2017 on parental leave, up to 24 months can be taken as paid parental leave and a minimum 1063 RON per month (around €231) is available. If a parent has a child with a disability, up to 3 years can be taken. It is mandatory for parents to share 1 month of parental leave from the total period of parental leave allowed. It means that if the mother has taken parental leave, it is mandatory for the father to take one month of parental leave. The Government gives an incentive (531 RON, around €115 per month up to when the child is 3 years old, or up to 4 years old for children with a disability) to parents who return to work earlier than the full parental leave.

Several early care and education centres exist in Bucharest for children (aged 0–3 years old) of parents who return to work. This is due to a project of Bucharest General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection and is co-financed by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007–2013. However, the number of such centres that exist in other parts of Romania is small or non-existent.

Integrating vulnerable children

Romanian children have access to free health services and children younger than 1 year old can receive home visits from doctors. This is also the case for children aged 0–18 years old with contagious diseases, according to the Health Reform Law 95/2006. The Ministry of Health offers preventive medical care that is available to children via school doctors or GPs (Law No 95 from 14 April 2006).

In 2014, social protection benefits for families and children were 1.2% of the country’s GDP. The child protection services offer day care, family services and residential services. Institutions responsible for children’s rights function at three levels, namely the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and Adoption governed by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly (central level), General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection (county level) and Public Services for Social Assistance (local level).

The Romanian Law of education allows for free education for every child. Parents receive monthly allowances for each child (Law no. 61/1993): for children aged 0–2 years they receive 200 lei/month (€43) and for children aged 2–18 years old receive 84 lei/month (€18).

The National Strategy on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction 2015–2020 aims to improve the education and health system for children and vulnerable groups.

The existing legislation also takes into account the children of parents who migrated to work in other countries (Decision No. 691/2015). In this case, if one or both parents of a child have migrated to work in another country, the child is identified and representatives of Social assistance services visit them once every 2 months for the first 6 months and then regularly each trimester in order to assess their school performance, health and social adjustment. Children whose parents work abroad have access to a school counsellor in case they have difficulties with their academic achievements, or to mental health services (as required by an agent from the public service of social assistance). In Romania, the Government integrates children without parental care into foster care in family settings, instead of institutions.

Educating children on their rights

In 2016, 49.2% of Romanian children and adolescents under 18 years old were at risk of poverty. Children are involved in decisions regarding their education via the National Students Council, which has 45 members representing each county from Romania according to the National Education Law no.1 / 2011 of the Ministry of National Education and Research. According to the National Strategy on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights 2014–2020, efforts are being made in order to improve children’s and teachers’ knowledge regarding children’s rights. Furthermore, the charity Save the Children launched the campaign ‘We also have rights’, where children (kindergarten, schools and high schools) and teachers are informed about children’s rights and responsibilities. In this project, children have a Children’s National forum where children can express their opinions regarding the manner in which their rights are understood and respected and they also meet with representatives from the authorities.

Conclusion/outlook

Children dropping out of school is a major problem in Romania. The National Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of Child Rights for 2014–2020 contains several measures for those who have abandoned school (’The second chance program’). Other financial support comes from campaigns such as the National program for social protection ‘High school money’ (180 lei/month, around €39) or money for writing materials. In order to stimulate children’s access to education at an early age, parents of vulnerable children receive social vouchers to buy food, clothes and writing materials if their children go to the kindergarten on a daily basis (Law no. 248/2015).

The information in the country profile was last updated in November 2017.

Innovative approaches

According to the National Strategy for 2014–2020, the Health Ministry aims to develop more community-based health services for vulnerable people, for example community medical nurses. Sanitary mediators that were developed for Roma communities to community centres focused on primary, secondary and tertiary prevention will be correlated with national strategies that aim to reduce poverty. The strategy is also focused on the development of telemedicine for people from rural areas.

The Doctors’ Caravan is a project implemented by NGOs that provides medical services to vulnerable adults and children from rural communities. Other programs implemented by NGOs include a mobile dental treatment for vulnerable children and a non-stop medical advice phone line ‘PEDITEL’.

Recently, UNICEF implemented the project Minimum Package of Services, which aims to offer high quality services (health, social protection, education) to vulnerable children.

In 2017 the Romanian Government approved the Children’s Advocate as a distinct structure of People’s Advocate, which focuses on protecting children’s rights (modifying Law no.35/1997).

Month: July 2018

Romanian Adoptee Defies The Odds To Complete A Degree