a message from David Livianu in NY, to the adoption community at large, Sat.Oct.27,2001

10-27-2001, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted By David Livianu faar@micronetix.net

----- Original Message -----
From: faar@micronetix.net
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 10:19 AM
Subject: 33 a message from David Livianu in NY, to the adoption community at large, Sat.Oct.27,2001

Hello dear friends,

This message is intended for adoptive families in general, prospective families with current adoption cases in progress in Romania and adoption agencies working in Romania (including Romanian Foundations).

As most of you already know, Romania has announced on Oct.8 yet another 1 year long suspension of adoptions, without any exception made to cases that have been officially assigned and for which foreign families have been identified & the files submitted to Romanian authorities.

As I represent several US adoption agencies and their families in Romania, we have formed an ad-hoc group to petition Romania's Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who will be visiting the US next week, to review all adoption cases in progress (and not just ours) and to exempt them from the full moratorium. Many families are distraught and have asked me to help. I have received very many letters, phone calls and e-mails requesting aid in the matter.

To date I have personally met with officials at both the Embassy of Romania in DC and the Consulate General of Romania in NY; the response has been very encouraging and supportive, worthy of praise. I have been told that both places will forward any and all petitions directly to the Prime Minister upon his visit, but chances for a face to face meeting with a delegation of families/adoption professionals looks very slim, because of the very tight schedule already in place, but it is not totally out of the question.

I am informing you of all this also that in case you or other families, or agency colleagues have pending cases in progress, with legitimate repartiii/assignments, then you can either send the attached suggested & revised petition directly to the Embassy in DC or to the Consulate in NY. If you wish you can also forward your letters to my address in NY (see below) & I will personally hand them to the Consul General in NY.

I would suggest that any cases that you might have, you list in an Excel format and include the following: full name of the adoptive family, address + tel#, full name of adoptable child + DOB, the date & # of the assignment/repartitia issued by the Romanian Gov't, name of US agency & Romanian Foundation.

The goal of this effort is to bring to the attention of the PM that a number of cases for which assignments have been issued, are in progress, the families are expecting their children home for Christmas and would appreciate a review of the situation and hope for a correction of the oversight. The purpose of this action is not to antagonize or embarrass the PM and pressure him (again) on the lifting of the moratorium; my understanding is that the intention of the Romanian Government is to improve their legal and methodological adoption proceedings ASAP and reopen the channels for international adoption assistance as quickly as possible, in order to help the needy orphans of Romania.

Please feel free to pass this information to any and all concerned parties, posted, translated and forwarded to any one that might benefit from this information.

I am including FYI info 2 virus-free attachments that contain the suggested petition letter (which you are free to adapt and change to your personal needs) and 2nd an update that I wrote up earlier today and has been posted on several adoption chat groups (Yahoo?!).

I remain optimistic that united we can serve the loving families and needy/waiting orphans of Romania and elsewhere. I wish to thank the many adoption professionals and adoptive parents who have called me and helped me develop this entire project.

If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me either by phone or e-mail. If you received this message in error and/or wish to be taken off this list, please let us know.

My best,
David Livianu, CEO
Human Rights & Adoption Advocate

American Assistance for Romania
1530, East 19th Street, Suite 1H
Brooklyn, NY 11230
718-627-4049 tel/fax NYC
718-809-5403 cellular NYC
faar@micronetix.net

Asistenta Americana pentru Romania
PO Box 13-64
Bucharest, Romania
011-401-668-7157 tel/fax
011-4093-386-314 cellular
faar@canad.ro

et/DL

From: David B. Livianu, CEO, American Assistance for Romania
To: The American adoption community at large on the upcoming meeting with Romania's Prime Minister Adrian Nastase in NY, on Friday, November 2, 2001.
Date: Thursday, October, 25, 2001, Brooklyn, NY

In light of the recent events in Romania, I would like to inform those concerned and affected by the June 21 and October 8 moratoriums of some of the extraordinary ongoing diplomatic efforts to assist and reverse the situation and to better help the needy orphans. I have been deluged by messages from current and older adoptive families and adoption professionals. Before I bring you up to date I would like to present myself and make several points on Romania and adoptions in general.

Background:. My work started in early 1990, inspired by the chilling 20/20 documentary on Romania, Nobody's Children; the reportage unveiled the terrible conditions under which more than 200,000 children were warehoused in Auschwitz like conditions. Like many of you, I was deeply affected and got involved in researching the causes, conditions and ways to alleviate the problem. The work culminated in 1994 with the writing and publication of the first encyclopedic treatise in 3 volumes (2,800 pages), The Official
Guide to Adoptions in Eastern Europe (still available). Later on I started consulting for several organizations in the US and Eastern Europe.

It is in this capacity that I am organizing and leading, with the help of the Romanian Consulate General in NY, a group of families and adoption professionals, whose Romanian adoptions are in progress and have been caught in the middle of the adoption reform and renewed moratorium. The primary purpose of this action is to petition the Romanian Government to review the
situation and exempt all cases in progress. The response is promising, supportive of the cause and worthy of praise The details of the gathering are still being worked on and more clear info will be available towards the end of this week. I need to mention that there are many and more able adoption professionals both in the US & Romania with far more experience and activity behind them; I invite all concerned and affected to unite & speak in one clear voice, and show support for all the children that need a home.
Every child is special & every child deserves a good, loving family.

Important facts on adoptions in Romania: Romania has one of the most advanced and visionary adoption legislation in the world; what is being revised at this point is the Methodology for Standards and Practices. Due to the zealous media attention, Romania has been singled out and made the poster child for bad adoption practices. The reality is that 99% of all adoptions in Romania are legitimate. Those few cases that have received wide spread coverage have tarnished the country's overall image and also
diminished considerably the chances for the country to function normally and to allow outside support for their neediest of needy children, the orphans. It is clear that the few unscrupulous and heartless individuals that perpetrate these acts of cruelty towards the children and take advantage of gullible families, can be found in our own backyard. These few individuals take advantage of an imperfect legislation in Romania, and loopholes in international family law, and play with the emotions of adoptive parents.
The same pattern of problems is present in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Central and South America, etc. I have received numerous e-mails and calls from distraught families that claim to have cases assigned but in fact there seem to be no official assignments (Repartitii). Personally I do not have the expertise to become involved in clarifying these cases. I believe this matter needs to be taken with authorities in Romania and the US. I will certainly support the cause for good adoption practices which most US & Romanian adoption professionals adhere to. What is also true is that there are certain politicians that do not believe in inter-country adoptions, and use the negative media propaganda to generalize and pressure Romania to completely disallow international adoptions, thus affecting indiscriminately all the orphans and taking away a last chance for normalcy; this type of irresponsible action puts in jeopardy the work of numerous dedicated professionals, injects animosity and distrust between Romanian officials and American families; even more it tries to cancel the great love families, from around the world, have for the orphans. These are some of the facts. But there is hope!

I believe that in order to affect positive change we must be united and communicate better; we need to support the Romanian Government in their effort to stamp out the corruptive & illicit practices. By the same token Romanian officials need to better understand the sincerity of foreign families and support their goodwill. We as Americans can help by sharing our country's experience with child welfare practices and especially foster care (by and large disastrous), and to clarify that foster care is a temporary solutions that cannot replace the permanency and full family integration adoption. I am encouraged, after meeting several top Romanian
officials, that the intentions of Romania's current administration are sincere and heartfelt. Romania wants and appreciates our help, but we do need to give them a chance and let them make the necessary changes, and offer our assistance with honey rather than vinegar. This might shorten the 1 year moratorium and thus help the waiting children of all ages. I recognize that every child has rights including the right to a loving permanent family; we should not forget that these children are Romanian nationals and as such, are in the care and trust of the Romanian Government; Romania still has a difficult road ahead of itself to eliminate the inherited problems of communism. The Nastase Administration has made a firm, honest and courageous commitment to clean up its act and disallow
anymore baby buying schemes. Unfortunately, they have inherited a lot of problems which I am convinced they will do their best to solve.

To the many of you that have written and called me to assist, I thank you & have the following thoughts:
The #1 goal of this petition drive is to request an exemption from the 1 year additional wait for all adoption cases in progress (read cases with official Government assignment for which families have been confirmed and the adoption file is in progress in Romania).
Though I empathize with families that claim to have cases assigned but without an official assignment, it is not the intention of this action to get involved directly in this matter on the visit of the Prime Minister in the US. If you have an unfortunate situation you may wish to send in your own petitions on this matter directly to the Romanian Government or to your
State's adoption authority.
For those of you that have in progress cases in Romania, or wish to support this cause, please send in your petitions to my NY address ASAP, or if you prefer to the Consulate General of Romania in NY, even if you have
adopted from Romania or elsewhere; include if you will a personal letter of your story (+ pix) and experience (hopefully good).
Feel free to write up a list of suggested changes to improve adoption practices, both in the US and elsewhere; I encourage you to describe the kind of things you feel could be made better in our country, in the adoption field.
If you would like to attend, you are gladly invited with your children, but please do not come without confirming the date & time; also for security reasons, I have been asked by Consular officials to submit a list of the delegation members. We will be requesting the Consular General to allow us to have a meeting of 1 hour amongst ourselves so we can prepare for future events and also discuss strategies to support American adoptive parents and professionals in general.
Let me remind you again, that the main purpose of this delegation is to request the Romanian Government to review all adoption cases in-progress and exempt them from the 1 year moratorium; we will bring up the moratorium issue and adoption practices as well, but more importantly I will try to impress on the Prime Minister & his colleagues that we are not meeting with
them to tell them how to run their country and what to do, but rather that we are a group of concerned and caring Americans that wish to lend a hand both to the Government of Romania and for their children, and that we hope they will understand this and accept our sincere offer.
Please stay in touch and by the end of this week we will know if and when exactly we will be able to meet the Prime Minister; no matter, the petition will be forwarded directly to the PM courtesy of the Romanian Consul General in NY and the Romanian Ambassador in Washington.
I am including for everyone benefit a suggested new and improved petition for all to use; the changes are the result of valuable input that I received from several top notch adoption specialists and adoptive parents. I have inadvertently focused only on cases of older and special needs children that were caught in the middle, thus leaving out a large number of younger
orphans that have also been assigned and for whom families have been identified. For this I apologize and hope that my enlargement of the petition statement does not come too late. All children have the right to a good home with loving parents.
If you are a family in trouble or your agency has pending cases, make sure you include in your petition the family's full name + address, the child's full name & dob and the Romanian Government's official assignment date & #.
Feel free to transmit, translate and forward this memo to other chat sites or media and political outlets.
Your feed-back is greatly appreciated, and remember "If 2 people always
agree, one becomes unnecessary".

My best,
David Livianu, CEO
Human Rights & Adoption Advocate

American Assistance for Romania
1530, East 19th Street, Suite 1H
Brooklyn, NY 11230
718-627-4049 tel/fax NYC
718-809-5403 cellular NYC
faar@micronetix.net

Asistenta Americana pentru Romania
PO Box 13-64
Bucharest, Romania
011-401-668-7157 tel/fax
011-4093-386-314 cellular
faar@canad.ro

et/DL

Petition

To the Honorable Prime Minister of Romania, Adrian Nastase
Wednesday, October 17, 2001, USA

Mr. Prime Minister,

We are a group of concerned and caring individuals writing to you with regard to the latest developments of international adoption restrictions/moratorium in your country. A couple of thoughts and facts concerning our American friends and coworkers who are in the process of adopting children from Romania:

We believe every child has the right to a loving family, starting with their own biological parents.
Americans adopt from over 70 countries, including Romania and in the US; Americans adopt only legally internationally adoptable orphans. The goal is to give a loving home and secure future, where perhaps they can later return to Romania and help it prosper.
Though the US has not yet ratified the 1989 UN Convention on Children’s Rights, US laws insure the rights and welfare of every child, including those adopted domestically or internationally; this means that the families are thoroughly screened and verified, and also there is rigorous post-adoption follow-up for 2 years after the child is adopted, all in the spirit of the 1993 Hague Convention on Children’s Rights.
We totally agree with you and your Government’s view that adoption should not be a conduit for baby selling, and tighter regulation should be in place to eliminate those unscrupulous organizations and individuals; we agree that Romanian families should have priority in helping the orphans and should not have to compete with foreign families.
To date we have (our American friends) have committed to and fallen in love with several of your legally adoptable orphans; all these children have officially been made available through assignments issued by the Romanian Adoption Committee, prior to December 2000. All of our/their US & INS approvals have been issued, and adoption petitions and files have been transmitted and registered with the appropriate Romanian foundations and the local counties where the respective children reside.
We are all in this together, and our/your children will grow up in a rich multi-lingual and cultural environment, taught to love and respect both their country of origin, Romania, and their new land, America.
We are vigorously committed to supporting your very dedicated efforts and indefatigable passion to bring Romania in line with the standards of European-American democracies and bring the fruits of economic success to your beautiful country and its wonderful people.
We wish wholeheartedly Romania to be part of the EU, and we will fully support this through our political representatives.
We also wish to support in practical terms and further strengthen, develop and improve the cultural, social and especially the economic ties between the US and Romania.
Your Excellency, we kindly ask you to exempt all these ready-to-go home children, and not delay them for 1 more year.
Mr. Prime Minister, please let the children go home and let them enjoy their God given right to a happy childhood; together we can achieve more, better and faster!
With our highest consideration to your office, the Romanian Government and the people of Romania!
(print & sign your name David B. Livianu, CEO
add your address, tel & e-mail Human Rights & Adoption Advocate
& send it ASAP to my NY address) American Assistance for Romania
1530, East 19th Street, Suite 1H
Brooklyn, NY 11230
Tel. 718-627-4049 & 718-809-5403
faar@micronetix.net