The ARFO Summit is an annual event, open to everyone, that brings together all kinds of people involved in the adoption process in Romania!

Adoptive families

Specialists from DGASPC (child protective services)

Psychologists

Social workers

Maternal assistants

Foster families

Politicians

Volunteers


Other people interested in adoption or the care of children without families
The Summit aims to inspire, encourage, and train people in Romania who work with children at risk.
The Summit provides information, testimonies, moral support, and challenges for those who care for children that have gone through, or are going through abandonment, loss, and the healing of soul wounds.
Date and time
This year the ARFO 2020 Summit will be ONLINE,
Thursday, October 29th, from 17:00-21:00.
The Summit will begin at 17:00 with a plenary session and will continue with 2 workshop options that you will choose when you sign up for the event.
*Details about participation (link, platform, etc) will be sent to you on October 28th (one day before the event).
Timetable
Plenary Session
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Cost
Workshop 1 description
1. Attachment: practical applications (part 1) – Dr. Mandy Howard & Alina Muntean (English)
2. Parenting in an Age of Anxiety: Dr. Curt Thompson (English)
Anxiety isn’t new. It’s as old as humanity. But each generation gets to live through its own particular version of it, and we have ours. What do you worry about? What do your children worry about? How do we navigate anxiety—our own and our children’s—while living in the real world at the same time? This workshop will explore the nature of anxiety, how we can respond to it in helpful ways, and so mimic Jesus, who isn’t worried about anything.
3. Protection System or Injury? (part 1) – Mădălina Turza & Liviu Mihăileanu
The special protective system was started with the intention to be a support for children without the care of a parent. However, the philosophy of intervention and effective practice can lead to the trauma of a child. What are the things that we should follow during the intervention to make sure that we respect the best interests of the child? What are the things that are wrongly applied or were started from a system centered philosophy and not a child centered one? These questions will be answered by Liviu Mihăileanu, ARFO President, together with his guests: Dr. Amanda Howards, Samford University and Dr. Krish Kandiah, Founder of Home for Good, Oxford University professor and Dr. Judith Rycus, Director of the The Institute for Human Resources USA.
4. Adoption through the eyes of the biological child – Jurje Alex
We will explore the layers of adoption through the eyes of the biological children of families that have adopted. What are the benefits, joys, and challenges of having a sibling come into your family through the blessing of adoption?
Workshop 2 description
1. Attachment: practical applications (part 2) – Dr. Mandy Howard & Alina Muntean
2. Caring for our Teams in Times of Anxiety: – Dr. Curt Thompson & Jedd Medefind, CAFO (English)
Let’s put it straight: the world seems to have turned upside-down. Many of us have felt anxiety creep in as never before. How can we best care for the teams we lead amidst it all? Join Dr. Curt Thompson along with Jedd Medefind for an exploration at the intersection of neuroscience, Scripture, and practical advice for how.
3. Protection System or injury? (part 2) – Mădălina Turza & Liviu Mihăileanu
The special protective system was started with the intention to be a support for children without the care of a parent. However, the philosophy of intervention and effective practice can lead to the trauma of a child. What are the things that we should follow during the intervention to make sure that we respect the best interests of the child? What are the things that are wrongly applied or were started from a system centered philosophy and not a child centered one? These questions will be answered by Liviu Mihăileanu, ARFO President, together with his guests: Dr. Amanda Howards, Samford University and Dr. Krish Kandiah, Founder of Home for Good, Oxford University professor and Dr. Judith Rycus, Director of the The Institute for Human Resources USA.
4. Stories, Experiences, Procedures, Motivations INTERACTIVE – Ștefan Coman
If you are interested in adoption, there are many resources already available. However, we often learn and remember the best lessons through stories.
This workshop will be interactive, live, and authentic. Three adoptive parents will share their experiences, stories, lessons learned, and will respond to questions from the participants.
You will be able to hear stories about the first days after adoption, the relationship with biological children and relatives, the adaptation of adopted children to school, difficult nights, and when your heart grows with joy.
Speakers

Maria Mădălina Turza
President ANDPDCA (National Authority for the Rights of People with Disabilities, Children and Adoption)

Curt Thompson, M.D
Psychiatrist, author and speaker
He has specific expertise in the field of interpersonal neurobiology and how it reflects important tenants of Christian faith, providing opportunities to comprehend and experience that same faith in fresh trustworthy ways. Much of his work is now committed to training other professionals across cultures and in multiple vocational domains in the same material. He and his wife Phyllis are the parents of two children and reside in Arlington, Virginia. He serves as an elder at Washington Community Fellowship, a congregation of the Mennonite church, in Washington, D.C. His duties there have included preaching, teaching, and involvement in the fellowship’s healing prayer ministry.

Dr Krish Kandiah
Director Home For Good
Dr Kandiah is the founding director of Home For Good, a charity seeking to find loving homes for children in the foster care system. He is a passionate advocate for family reunification, fostering and adoption, in order to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable children worldwide.
https://www.homeforgood.org.uk/ http://www.krishk.com/

Ana Rădulescu
CEO & Founder la CFCECAS Conf.univ.dr. la UNIBUC

Alex Ilie
Executive Director of the Romania Without Orphans Alliance (ARFO)
During high school, he was involved in different things: with orphaned children, with the elderly in a nursing home in Piteşti, and people in the hospital. The passion for people continues to energize him; unfortunately, the lack of focus made that period mediocre.
During college, meetings with the Organization of Evangelical Chrisitan Students in Romania (OSCER) represented a defining moment: understanding the principles of focus and the value of the process are at least as important as the result. He was part of the team that started the Christian work for students in Piteşti, a movement that he coordinated until 2006.
Between the years of 2002-2004, he taught at the Elim Theological High School in Pitești, the last part of that period he was the director.
Since January 2005, he has been joining the OSCER team on the national level: in the first years he did pioneering work in the central area of the country, then in the south and center, and in 2007 until 2011, he served as a national coordinator.
From 2003-2008, together with others, he saw a great need for a new, relevant church in Pitești. Since January 2008, he’s been coordinating the management of Petra Church.
Alex has been married to Nati since 2004, working together to be a blessing for the whole town of Pitești and beyond.
Together with Nati in 2009, they adopted two twins, a boy and a girl, who were 7 years old. After two years they adopted again, two siblings, a boy and a girl, 4 years old and 3 years old. In 2019, their family added another 14 year old girl and this year, they extended their hospitality again to a 15 month old boy.
The verse that speaks to Alex in a special way and inspires him is from John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.”
Beginning in March 2015, Alex joined the ARFO team, coordinating the alliance’s actions as the Executive Director.

Alina Muntean
Psychologist, TBRI

Dr. Cătălin Cîrstoveanu
Șeful secţiei de Terapie Intensivă Nou Născuţi de la Spitalul „Marie Curie”
“To be a good doctor”, he thinks, “you need to imagine yourself in the place of the person you’re treating, mom, dad, sister, wife, or the child.” He has practical and emotional support from his family and his biggest motivation are his children and wife.
His conviction is: “To know what a child is for you, I can’t tell you that it’s mandatory to have children at home, but I think that you lose something if you don’t have a child at home. I have a personal, intimate conviction that as long as you do things in line with the God you trust, things can’t go wrong.”

Jason Johnson
National Director of Church Ministry Initiatives
After growing up in a ministry home Jason began working at a church in college and spent nearly 14 years in pastoral ministry. In 2008 Jason planted a church in North Houston through which he helped co-found The Orphan Care Network, a non-profit committed to serving, supporting and equipping foster and adoptive families.
In 2013, with the combined church ministry and foster and adoptive experience, Jason began working for an organization helping church leaders implement structure, strategy and sustainable mechanisms of OVC ministry within their churches. This ultimately led him to his current role as the Director of the National Church Ministry Initiative with Christian Alliance for Orphans, where he spends most of his time consulting with church and organizational leaders on best practices and strategies for sustainable ministries. Jason also spends a lot of time traveling and speaking at conferences to current and potential foster and adoptive families.
While serving on staff at CAFO, Jason is also the author of the newly released books, ReFraming Foster Care and Everyone Can Do Something as well as ALL IN Orphan Care and you can find him blogging regularly at www.jasonjohnsonblog.com. Jason has a passion to equip churches and encourage families no matter where they are in their foster care and adoption journey.
Jason and his wife, Emily, live in Texas with their four daughters and enjoy whatever it is they’re doing, as long as it’s together.

Liviu Mihaileanu
President, ARFO
He is the co-author of the first book in Romania about lobbying (2009) as well as the first study that mirrors perceptions of lobbyists, politicians, and public opinion (2012).
He currently coordinates knowledge management services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa within the largest consulting company in the world and is the cofounder of “Tzuby’s Kids” Association, a body authorized to provide services in the field of internal adoption. Accredited counselor and trainer, Liviu is a member of the Trauma Consortium of the Romania Without Orphans Alliance (ARFO) and has opened a Training Academy for the competent care of children with a history of trauma within the “Tzuby’s Kids” Association.

Dr. Mandy Howard
Assistant Profesor, Samford University

Adela Șetet
Social Worker, manager CFCECAS

Jedd Medefind
President, Christian Alliance For Orphans
Jedd believes that love for orphans transforms. Both personally and through the example of countless others, he’s seen that lives are turned upside-down when Christians reflect God’s heart for orphans through adoption, foster care and global orphan care. This kind of love transforms not only orphans, but also those who open hearts and homes to them. Churches can be transformed as well, moving the entire community beyond self-focused religion to self-giving faith. Finally, when a watching world sees the Gospel embodied in this way, onlookers are transformed as well. Desiring to spur this kind of transformation through the Church, Jedd serves as President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.
Prior to his this role, Jedd served in the White House as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, leading the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. In this post, he oversaw reform efforts across the government to make community- and faith-based groups central partners in all Federal efforts to aid the needy, from prisoner reentry to global AIDS. As described by the Harvard Political Review, these reforms “fundamentally changed the government’s strategy for improving the lives of the downtrodden…”
Previously, Jedd held a range of posts in the California State Legislature. He also helped establish the California Community Renewal Project, which strengthens nonprofits in some of the state’s most challenged communities. He has worked, studied and served in more than thirty countries, with organizations ranging from Price-Waterhouse in Moscow to Christian Life Bangladesh.
Jedd has written many articles and four books, including Upended and Four Souls. His most recent book, Becoming Home, offers a short yet meaningful exploration of how families and communities can embrace vulnerable children with wisdom and love through adoption, foster care, mentoring and more. Jedd is frequently interviewed for insight on effective care for vulnerable children, as well as other national and global issues, in outlets ranging from Christianity Today and The Gospel Coalition to the Wall Street Journal, NPR and Al Jazeera.
Jedd Medefind and his wife, Rachel, live near Washington, DC. They’ve welcomed children through birth, foster care and adoption.

Alexandru Jurje
Pastor

Bogdan Marin - Bodo (Proconsul)
Musician

Ștefan Coman
Strategic Coordinator ARFO
