In Romania there
\nare over 200 child protection institutions caring for several tens of thousands
\nof children, teenagers and youth. Millions of euros are spent every year on
\nrunning these centres, and the length of adoption procedures, of up to several
\nyears, is unfavourable to the children. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Many kids have
\nended up in care centres because of the demographic policy of the communist
\nyears, others have been abandoned in maternity hospitals, while others were found
\nabandoned in the street. The fact is that, as soon as they leave these
\nfacilities, the lives of most of these children take a downward turn, because
\nthey have no direction to follow. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Some have moved
\non however and launched an unexpected challenge for the Romanian society. They
\nhave set up the Association of Adults from Childcare Centres called Federeii,
\nwhich has filed for the investigation of abuses committed in such facilities
\nfor the past five decades. The president of this Association is Daniel Rucareanu,
\nwho lived in two childcare centres and survived the system. He is now 37, has
\ngraduated from university and wants to help abandoned children:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I think the
\nnumber of people who lived in such facilities is very large and they have no
\none to represent them. We have a number of objectives. The first is to showcase
\nthe history of childcare facilities. So far there has not been such a project,
\nregarding the establishment of a museum of care facilities, and the publication
\nof the stories of the people who have lived this kind of experiences. We also
\nwant to set up a network of adults who have grown up in such centres, to enable
\nthem to become the partners of the public child protection authorities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The effects of
\nchild institutionalisation are devastating, as Daniel Rucareanu remembers:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Living in those
\nmammoth institutions was by no means easy, especially if we keep in mind that
\nthe kids who got there already came with a severe trauma caused by the
\nseparation from their families. Over the years, new traumas would build up,
\nwhich were related to the lack of emotional attachment, the trauma of
\ninstitutionalisation as such, and which many of the children who grew up there
\nnever managed to get over. I lived in this kind of institution for seven years,
\none in Ploiesti and another in Busteni. I was lucky, because when I was quite
\nyoung, at 8 or 9, I met a family from Buftea, an older couple who grew to love
\nme and gave me the guidance I needed. They never adopted me. They would take me
\nto their home during school holidays, and this is how I managed to get over
\nthat institutionalisation trauma and to avoid failure. Few institutionalised
\nchildren manage to graduate from high school and to go to college. The
\npercentage is around 2 or 3 per cent… I only knew my mother, I have never met
\nmy dad. I was taken to a childcare centre because of domestic abuse, and before
\nthat I used to live in the street for a long time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to the
\ngoals laid down in the 2014-2020 Strategy for Child Protection, Romania is to
\nclose down its old care facilities and to find solutions to have children
\nreintegrated with families. The Hope and Homes for Children Romania Foundation
\nhas been working in Romania since 2000, and ever since it has been giving hope
\nto orphan, abandoned or vulnerable children, helping them to grow up in foster
\nfamilies and homes. Here is Otto Sestak, the manager of the training programmes
\nof Hope and Homes for Children Romania:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After the 1989 Revolution, both the Romanian and the international
\ncommunity began to realise the scope of the problem of institutionalised
\nchildren and the terrible conditions in which they lived. That is when the
\nfirst images and televised reports on these children were made public. The
\nreform of the system of child services started at some point in 1996 in
\nRomania. This reform does not mean
\njust replacing previous institutions with foster homes. Instead, it is about
\nchanging the paradigm of social services and their offer. Before, when noting
\nthat children were at risk in their own families, the authorities could only
\nseparate children from their families and to put them in foster care. Many
\nbelieve that Romania’s 100,000 institutionalised children in the early 2000s
\nwere in fact orphans. In reality, some 80 to 90% of them did have parents. They
\nwere not orphans. It’s just that there was no coherent alternative at the time
\nallowing them to stay with their families. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Since 2000, when
\nthe Hope and Homes for Children Foundation started operating in Romania, over
\n6,000 children were taken from institutions. 21,000 children were saved from
\nbeing abandoned, while 47 foster homes were shut down forever. Overall, some
\n30,000 children are now enjoying a better life. Some were reunited with their
\nfamilies or were placed with a foster family. Others were integrated into
\nfamily-like homes. Otto Sestak told us more: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Our plan is for every child to have a home
\nand a family. We want to give a home and a family to every child, we don’t want
\nto build foster homes, because then we are essentially doing little to change
\nthe type of care. We want to bring children closer to their families and to
\nintegrate them into a family-like environment. We will do this by shutting down
\nold institutions and developing community and family oriented services. Indeed,
\npart of our activity is linked to building these types of family-like homes.
\nThey offer a temporary alternative to children who cannot return to their
\nfamilies. On the one hand, there are children whose families are bad for them,
\nwho abuse their children. Other children are in need of long-term specialised
\ncare. For them, it’s more useful to have access to a set of residential
\nservices. These are designed as a temporary solution and aimed at solving the
\nchildren’s problem, so that they may be able to return to their families later
\nor be placed with a foster family. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Hope and
\nHomes for Children Foundation also takes an active role in the social
\nintegration of young people who are no longer in the state’s care. So far, the
\nFoundation has helped 456 such youngsters to find a purpose in their lives. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Romania there are over 200 child protection institutions caring for several tens of thousands of children, teenagers and youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43491],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-141496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-institutionalised-children"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n