{"id":26075,"date":"2016-04-22T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/?p=26075"},"modified":"2016-04-22T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T19:17:10","slug":"hundreds-rally-in-phoenix-for-norwegian-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/2016\/04\/22\/hundreds-rally-in-phoenix-for-norwegian-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds rally in Phoenix for Norwegian family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26076\" title=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/1.jpg 534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>(Photo: Lucas Robbins)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hundreds gathered Saturday for a\u00a0rally in Phoenix supporting\u00a0a Romanian-Norwegian couple half a world away who are\u00a0trying to reunite with their five children.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chants and prayers in both English and Romanian echoed through the streets of downtown Phoenix\u00a0as a\u00a0crowd of protesters descended upon Cesar Chavez Plaza. The demonstration\u00a0began at\u00a0the steps of Maricopa County\u00a0Superior Court\u00a0and continued with a march down Jefferson, Third and\u00a0Washington\u00a0streets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The demonstration was one of\u00a0more than 50\u00a0rallies held April 16\u00a0in major cities across the U.S. and\u00a0around the globe\u00a0in\u00a0support of\u00a0Marius and Ruth Bodnariu, whose five children &#8212; ranging in age from three months to nine years &#8212; were seized in November.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Protesters\u00a0and leading Norwegian professionals\u00a0say social workers there are often too quick to separate children from their families\u00a0with too little justification, particularly when parents are immigrants, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/magazine-36026458\">according to a BBC report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26077\" title=\"2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Rep. Trent Franks spoke at a rally for the Bodnariu family on Saturday in downtown Phoenix.\u00a0(Photo: Lucas Robbins)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Marius Bodnariu\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0Romanian\u00a0citizen. His wife, Ruth, is\u00a0Norwegian.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-O_m6dEBx8wQ\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<aside itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">Rep. Trent Franks spoke at a rally for the Bodnariu family on Saturday in downtown Phoenix.\u00a0(Photo: Lucas Robbins) <\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;It was heartbreaking to imagine what they&#8217;re going through,&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0Ema Hasna,\u00a0a mother of two who\u00a0attended the rally in Phoenix. Hasna is a native of Romania living in Glendale.\u00a0&#8220;Just knowing we are parents too\u00a0and having your kids taken away from you is just unimaginable, there&#8217;s no words to describe the pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">U.S. Rep. Trent Franks spoke at the demonstration\u00a0organized by a group of Romanian-American religious and civic leaders. He thinks what happened\u00a0to the Bodnariu family also happens in Arizona\u00a0and\u00a0affirmed\u00a0the importance of having\u00a0regulations to hold\u00a0child services accountable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;So many of the people who are in (Arizona&#8217;s) system are truly\u00a0dedicated to doing the right thing on behalf of children,&#8221; said Franks, who is the former director of the Arizona Governor&#8217;s Office for Children.\u00a0&#8220;Yet, I&#8217;ve also seen isolated\u00a0instances where I don&#8217;t believe that\u00a0occurred.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26078\" title=\"3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/3-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/3.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Glendale residents Ema Hasna and her husband Cornel protested with their children Sarah, 6, and David, 2, for the Bodnariu family in downtown Phoenix on Saturday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u00a0(Photo: Lucas Robbins)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-O_m6dEAPj_k\">\n<aside itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Glendale residents Ema Hasna and her husband Cornel protested with their children Sarah, 6, and David, 2, for the Bodnariu family in downtown Phoenix on Saturday.\u00a0(Photo: Lucas Robbins)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Frank believes families, in most cases, provide\u00a0the best environment for a child&#8217;s care and development. He, along with demonstrators, stressed the importance of\u00a0children staying\u00a0with their families\u00a0and how removal was an unnecessary\u00a0option in\u00a0most\u00a0situations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;If someone came into my home and wanted to arrest me for murder, that would be far less traumatizing\u00a0to me\u00a0than someone coming in and taking my 7-year-old twins,&#8221; Franks said.\u00a0&#8220;Ultimately, in every case, the best interest of the children must\u00a0prevail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hasna said immigrant families with similar experiences have been emboldened to speak out against the Barnevernet,\u00a0Norway&#8217;s social services.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;They\u00a0were afraid to come out because they (Barnevernet) threatened if they say something they would never see the kids again,&#8221; she said.\u00a0&#8220;So they got the wrong family\u00a0to mess with. And the Romanian community, when we all heard\u00a0about it, it was like,\u00a0&#8216;We all are one.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">More information about the Bodnariu family&#8217;s plight\u00a0can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bodnariufamily.org\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sursa:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/phoenix\/2016\/04\/17\/hundreds-rally-phoenix-norwegian-family\/83130308\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/<wbr>story\/news\/local\/phoenix\/2016\/<wbr>04\/17\/hundreds-rally-phoenix-<wbr>norwegian-family\/83130308\/<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Photo: Lucas Robbins) &nbsp; Hundreds gathered Saturday for a\u00a0rally in Phoenix supporting\u00a0a Romanian-Norwegian couple half a world away who are\u00a0trying [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articole","category-linkuri-externe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26075"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26081,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075\/revisions\/26081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marianagurza.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}