Romania is in the final stages of closing its old orphanages, a process which began in the 1990s, when more than 100,000 children were living in such institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At this moment, there are only 7 such centers still operating in the country, housing 165 children, after nearly three decades of reforms in the child protection system. The authorities and organizations involved in the process said that by the end of 2027, no child will grow up in such an institution.<\/p>\n
The president of the National Authority for the Protection of Children\u2019s Rights and Adoption, Helena Omna Raicu, stated that the benefits of deinstitutionalization directly concern children. \u201cFirst of all, deinstitutionalization at this moment concerns the child\u2019s priority and the best interests of the child. We look at each child individually and, depending on their needs, that is where we go,\u201d she said, cited by G4Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Roughly 39,000 children are currently in the Romanian child protection system. The adoption process is fast, but some children are difficult to adopt, according to Raicu.<\/p>\n The official also said that the number of young children placed for adoption is declining, thanks to \u201clocal methods through which families facing financial difficulties are supported.\u201d Nevertheless, children with disabilities are still among the last to be adopted in Romania.\u00a0<\/p>\n Helena Omna Raicu also stated that Romania has \u201cthe fastest deinstitutionalization process in Europe.\u201d The entire process has been structured into four stages. The first step of deinstitutionalisation took place between 1997 and 2001, a period which the ANPDCA president describes as lacking major financial resources, limiting the stage to placement within the extended family, foster care, and adoption.<\/p>\n The second stage of reforms took place between 2002 and 2007 and is, from Helena Omna Raicu\u2019s perspective, an \u201caccelerated stage of deinstitutionalization\u201d because it \u201cbenefited from intense political and financial support from the European Union,\u201d increasing public awareness campaigns and the prioritisation of family-type homes.<\/p>\n The third stage began immediately after 2007 and had a slower pace. \u201cBy 2014, approximately one third of the children in the public protection system were placed in residential services, of which approximately half were in the residential centres mentioned previously,\u201d Omna Raicu stated.<\/p>\n The final stage of the process involves building the last family homes to replace the old centers.<\/p>\n The deinstitutionalization project is carried out by the Hope and Homes for Children foundation with the support of Kaufland Romania and the National Authority for the Protection of Children\u2019s Rights and Adoption (ANPDCA). The partners involved in this initiative announced on Thursday, 25 June, during the \u201c#NeverOrphanages\u201d event, that they aim to close the last old-style centres by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n radu@romania-insider.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n (Photo source:\u00a0Raycan<\/a>|Dreamstime.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Romania is in the final stages of closing its old orphanages, a process which began in the 1990s, when more than 100,000 children were living in such institutions.\u00a0 At this moment, there are only 7 such centers still operating in the country, housing 165 children, after nearly three decades of reforms in the child protection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}