Between 1994-2001, 26,293 children were adopted, of which 15,112 (57.5%) were adopted internationally

In 2015, Romania still had 4,060 adoptable children

In 2018, Romania had 50,608 children in the special protection system, of which only 3,123 children were adoptable

Marion Le Roy Dagen is 45 years old and has been living in France since she was six, when she was adopted. Since the early 1990s, he has come to Romania several times to help the country's orphans. And since 2014 he has been trying to help those adopted by families abroad.

She co-founded, together with two other women, the Romanian Orphans Association. I receive hundreds of requests, from all over the world, to help adopted children in Romania to find their families of origin. The chances are extremely small.

The Hague, 02 June 2021

Donor children and their mothers who litigate about the disclosure of the identity of their sperm donor are largely in the right by the court in The Hague. The donor data foundation for artificial insemination (SDKB) and the clinic must assess whether the donor's reasons for wishing to remain anonymous are compelling enough. If not, they must disclose the donor's identity to the children. The court therefore does not rule that that identity should already be disclosed.

Donor identity

The children were born after artificial inseminations in the years 1997-2000. During this time, seed donations were usually made anonymously. However, the mothers consciously opted for the sperm of a donor who had agreed with the clinic that his identity would be allowed to be disclosed. Later he was only allowed to refrain from doing so if there were serious reasons for doing so.

Artificial Fertilization Donor Data Act

Marion grew up in an orphanage in Romania for two years.

The girl was adopted and taken to France by a couple of foreigners.

In time, Marion realized that Romania was a market for adoptions.

Mariuca left an orphanage in Romania, after two French women adopted her. Today her name is Marion and she is the founder of an association that helps offenders find their origins.

Mariuca has pressing memories from the Children's Home in Alba Iulia. She still doesn't forget the screams of the children she heard at night. She stayed there between 1976 and 1980. She was brought by her mother, who was 17 when she gave birth to her.

In Alba County, since the beginning of the year, DGASPC has certified 12 persons / families able to adopt, three families are being evaluated and another 23 are waiting to adopt.

In total, there are 123 children, aged between 3 and 14, in the records of the Adoptions and Post-Adoptions Bureau, for which the competent court has decided that they are adoptable.

Also, by court decision, for 16 children the adoption for adoption was approved, and for another 16 children it was decided to approve the adoption.

On June 2, the National Day for Adoption is celebrated, a moment that brings to attention the fact that every child needs a family, in which to feel loved, protected and accepted, in which to have stability and to develop.

According to the DGASPC, if, for various reasons, a child cannot be cared for by his or her parents or biological relatives, then adoption may be a solution.

Nina Lopez points to adoptions occurring against the wishes of birth families, while one reader recalls how their sister was forced to give up her baby. And John Peniket says it was the prevailing social attitudes to sex and childbirth that were to blame

Gaby Hinsliff (The UK’s forced adoption scandal was state-sanctioned abuse, 27 May) draws an important parallel between the adoptions forced on single mothers between the 1950s and 1970s, the Rochdale, Windrush and Grenfell scandals, and preventable Covid-19 deaths. She points to “state-sanctioned abuse” of people “dehumanised in the eyes of officialdom”.

But she seems unaware that forced adoptions have not stopped. Of about 3,500 adoptions a year, 90% are against the will of the birth family. They are hidden by a closed family court system that was found to be ridden with sexism, racism and classism by the government’s review of harm in the family courts’ treatment of domestic violence.

One grandmother in our network who lost her grandchild to adoption describes the process: “If you are poor, working class, in need of support, services, housing, or have been in care, it can be used as proof that you are not fit to be a parent. They had all the power. We had only our pain and anger. And our fear for her. She had no choice, no voice, no comprehension.”

We recently celebrated the reunion of a family whose children had been destined for adoption after their single mother, an asylum seeker who spoke hardly any English, was accused of having lied to the authorities. Social workers and the police had been parked outside the hospital waiting for the court order to take the newborn. This time we were able to stop it. The Movement for an Adoption Apology is well aware that the past is in the present – that’s why it is part of our coalition.

A 31-year-old woman living in Washington has been charged with assault and domestic violence after it was revealed that she allegedly put her adopted six-year-old daughter through 473 “unnecessary” surgeries.

Sophie Hartman, a white woman, adopted two Black daughters in May 2019 from Zambia. On 17 March this year, the two children were taken away from her. Doctors at a hospital where Ms Hartman had taken one daughter, alerted authorities of the suspicious medical history of the child.

Court documents reviewed by Business Insider say that Ms Hartman admitted her six-year-old daughter to the Seattle Children’s Hospital in February for a 16-day stay. However, doctors found the child to be healthy and alerted the state’s department of children, youth and families.

Dr Rebecca Wiester, the director of the Seattle Children's Hospital, in her letter to the authorities said that the child was facing “profound risk” at the hands of her caretaker. She also asked the authorities to dig deeper in investigating Ms Hartman.

Dr Wiester said: “All the available evidence obtained during the course of her admission suggests [the child] is a healthy young six-year-old who would continue to benefit from a de-escalation of medical support and normalisation of her childhood experience.”

Mette Bach has lived with her foster mother since she was three years old. Now she is 27 years old and would like to be adopted, but she can only stay if she is also adopted by her foster mother's boyfriend.

In the kitchen in Korup by Hadsund, Mette Bach and Kirsten Bach sit and look at Mette's childhood pictures. There are holiday photos, confirmation photos, family portraits and the like, and they go back to when Mette was three years old.

You may be in doubt when you see them sitting at the dining table and talking about childhood memories, but Mette and Kirsten are not biologically related. Mette Bach came into the care of Kirsten Bach when she was three years old because her biological parents had substance abuse problems.

- I do not remember that I did not live with Kirsten. She is the one who has been there all the way from start to finish. And she is still here, even now that I am an adult and 27 years old, says Mette Bach.

Therefore, she is no longer in doubt either. She would like to be adopted by Kirsten, and Kirsten would very much like to adopt Mette:

For the first time, in Sibiu County , on the National Adoption Day, on Wednesday, June 2, the Campaign to promote adoption is launched. Sibiu residents are expected on Tuesday, at 13.30, in Tineretului Park to send to the sky the greatest desire of any child, to have a family, by launching helium balloons for every adoptable child in Sibiu County, hoping that soon the dream their will be fulfilled.

"'Saved through adoption' is the message of the campaign which shows that, YES, adoption is for the child but it also saves everyone around it, gives the child the opportunity to enjoy childhood, gives meaning to adoptive parents and gives communities the opportunity to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable of their members. We want to emphasize, thus, the positive impact of adoption on all factors involved in the process: parents, siblings, grandparents, family, school, community ", say the representatives of DGASPC Sibiu.

This campaign aims to make information about adoption accessible to the public, no longer a taboo subject, to dispel myths or preconceived ideas about this subject, emphasizing that all that matters is to raise a happy child, to enjoy the love that you receive it and you can offer it. In it, stories of adoption, love and altruism of wonderful people who gave hope and a family to children who wanted it most will be presented.

"It is a campaign in which we invite the whole community to contribute because everyone can do something. So far, we have been joined by public authorities with responsibilities in the field of child protection, artists, actors, journalists, priests, NGOs, etc. so that together we can find a family for each child ", explains the deputy director of DGASPC Sibiu, Olimpia Indrie?.

The campaign is organized by DGASPC Sibiu together with the Romania Without Orphans Alliance with the support of the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions.

The father is not only the one who gives life, but the one who offers unconditional care and love; "And by adoption you can become a father"

Weak hands caressing you every morning, evening and at any time of the day, sweet eyes looking at you with love and a warm voice whispering to you: mommy, daddy, I love you - that's what a parent needs to feel really happy. Not even all the money raised around the world is worth as much as the smile and love of our children.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the blessing of having children, a drama that many couples experience and which for this reason often separates. But parents are not the only ones who give life, but who are involved non-stop in the education, raising the little ones and offering them unconditional love.

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Those who have children do not know the bitter taste and the pain that hides in the depths of the hearts of those who want a soul running around the house, but it is not possible. And then, after dozens of trials, tears and despair, adoption comes into their lives as a light of hope. However, not everyone has the courage and strength to decide at this stage, which involves many steps.

Two public interest litigations (PIL) have been moved in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking protection and various reliefs to over 1,450 children orphaned after their parents succumbed to the Covid-19 infection and setting up of special Covid wards in Covid care centres with specially trained medical staff to attend to visually-impaired patients and special vaccination facilities for them

The first PIL filed by Gayatri Patwardhan, a social worker from Pune through advocates Asim Sarode and Ajinkya Udane has claimed that while the state has announced various reliefs and gave assurances of taking care of children orphaned due to Covid, there was no guarantee of the authorities keeping their word, hence the PIL sought various directions for the benefit of such children.

The petition has sought to increase the grant of ?1,100 per month for children up to the age of 18 years under the Child Care Scheme and Foster Care Policy to ?5,000 per month. The petition also seeks free education for orphaned children and to start and implement Education Sponsorship Programme (ESP) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) guidelines.

The PIL also seeks directions to authorities to properly identify and prepare documents pertaining to caste certificate, birth certificate, property documents and identification records of orphaned children.

The second PIL filed by Swagat Thorat, editor of a Braille Magazine, has raised concerns over the lack of healthcare facilities for visually impaired people and seeks reliefs including special Covid-19 wards, ‘barrier-free’ hospitals with specially trained medical staff to attend them and special vaccination facilities for them. The PIL also seeks direction to the state Disability Commissioner to provide data of visually impaired people who succumbed to Covid-19 infection, so that their families can be compensated through various government schemes.