Romania Without Orphans Alliance (ARFO) organized, in partnership with the Equal Opportunities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, the “Family Imprint” event – a day of awareness on the need for abandoned children to live in a family and the effect that a family has on children and society.

Lawmakers talked to adopted children and their families in childhood rhythms and in the presence of cartoon characters. Some of them even played with them on Parliament’s halls and signed canvases with imprints of adoptive families as a sign of support for adoption and family care of children in the protection system.

“The Romania Without Orphans Alliance enjoys the whole appreciation of the Equal Opportunities Commission for both this initiative and the whole activity to support the improvement of the situation of adoption in Romania,” said Commission President Cristina Iurişniţi.

Currently, there is a proposal to amend the law on the legal status of adoption, under debate in the Senate. The law would allow bureaucracy to be reduced and would provide greater opportunities for adoption for disabled children.

There are 57,000 children in Romania on whom a protection measure has been instituted. Unfortunately, only 5.7% of them are adoptable and only 1.3% have been adopted last year. The Romania Without Orphans Alliance is campaigning for every child in Romania to live protected by a permanent family dedicated to his welfare. The ARFO target is by 2020 to double the number of adoptions in our country.