case studies
Media relations
Child protection is a very sensitive subject. Adoption is a scandal prone subject. Working as a communication consultant, and having to deal with such topics, can be quite the challenge.
In the early 90s and for almost a decade since, Romania was a black market for international adoptions. While most of the foreign families who wanted to adopt Romanian babies were honest and just wanted a child (even though they paid bribes to get it), some of them were apparently child traffickers. To prevent corruption and trafficking, Romania, under heavy scrutiny from MEP Baroness Nicholson, took a very brave decision and in 2002 banned international adoptions. Simultaneously, our country also started a very complex and in the end successful process of reforming the child protection system, in which it became illegal to institutionalise babies (problem cases were to be sent to foster families). At a stroke the international adoption business was closed down in Romania.
While many problems still exist, progress is visible: the horrid residential centers were closed and children were placed with foster families or given social apartments to share with other children, many day centers were open for young mothers in threat of abandoning their babies, efforts were made for abandoned babies to be placed as soon as possible with their close relatives, or with a foster family.
We know all these, because we worked on two Phare child protection programmes (You too can be a better parent and Child rights are law, and also with a British NGO, called the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG). You can see one of our films about child protections here. You can learn more about the reform in a brochure written and designed by our very own Rupert Wolfe Murray and Horia Marusca. Click here to download it.
We had an unusual job with the Phare project -- international media promotion. This was the first time a Phare project or government institution required "international" PR and as a former British journalist, Rupert Wolfe Murray was well placed to work on it. But it was a tough call and he worked for 6 months before any foreign papers were willing to publicise the fact that things had changed in Romania. The first paper to "break the ice" was the New York Times and then AP, the Guardian, AFT and others followed. The collaboration with Baroness Nicholson also proved fruitful as she then set up an the CHLG NGO with J.K. Rowling and this led to more articles about Romania as a source of child welfare reform.
And now it is clear that the message ("the child welfare system in Romania has changed") has succeeded. It is now rare that you see stories about Romanian children in institutions, as most have been closed down. Of course there are still lots of social problems with child protection, particularly in the countryside and in rroma communities, where poverty is endemic, but the big institutions have been closed.
Links
MEP Baroness Nicholson
Phare child protection programmes: You too can be a better parent (this is a link to the latest PAC run by the National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights, it is in Romanian) and Child rights are law
Britsh NGO Children’s High Level Group (CHLG)
Child rights brochure
Child protection is a very sensitive subject. Adoption is a scandal prone subject. Working as a communication consultant, and having to deal with such topics, can be quite the challenge.
In the early 90s and for almost a decade since, Romania was a black market for international adoptions. While most of the foreign families who wanted to adopt Romanian babies were honest and just wanted a child (even though they paid bribes to get it), some of them were apparently child traffickers. To prevent corruption and trafficking, Romania, under heavy scrutiny from MEP Baroness Nicholson, took a very brave decision and in 2002 banned international adoptions. Simultaneously, our country also started a very complex and in the end successful process of reforming the child protection system, in which it became illegal to institutionalise babies (problem cases were to be sent to foster families). At a stroke the international adoption business was closed down in Romania.
While many problems still exist, progress is visible: the horrid residential centers were closed and children were placed with foster families or given social apartments to share with other children, many day centers were open for young mothers in threat of abandoning their babies, efforts were made for abandoned babies to be placed as soon as possible with their close relatives, or with a foster family.
We know all these, because we worked on two Phare child protection programmes (You too can be a better parent and Child rights are law, and also with a British NGO, called the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG). You can see one of our films about child protections here. You can learn more about the reform in a brochure written and designed by our very own Rupert Wolfe Murray and Horia Marusca. Click here to download it.
We had an unusual job with the Phare project -- international media promotion. This was the first time a Phare project or government institution required "international" PR and as a former British journalist, Rupert Wolfe Murray was well placed to work on it. But it was a tough call and he worked for 6 months before any foreign papers were willing to publicise the fact that things had changed in Romania. The first paper to "break the ice" was the New York Times and then AP, the Guardian, AFT and others followed. The collaboration with Baroness Nicholson also proved fruitful as she then set up an the CHLG NGO with J.K. Rowling and this led to more articles about Romania as a source of child welfare reform.
And now it is clear that the message ("the child welfare system in Romania has changed") has succeeded. It is now rare that you see stories about Romanian children in institutions, as most have been closed down. Of course there are still lots of social problems with child protection, particularly in the countryside and in rroma communities, where poverty is endemic, but the big institutions have been closed.
Links
MEP Baroness Nicholson
Phare child protection programmes: You too can be a better parent (this is a link to the latest PAC run by the National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights, it is in Romanian) and Child rights are law
Britsh NGO Children’s High Level Group (CHLG)
Child rights brochure
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