A brotherhood of blood (A Last Christmas Story)

( a story about birth, life and death)
Even if the sound of Christmas carols has died out I think it is time I told you about the great moment marking the birth of Jesus Christ from a somewhat different perspective.

They put up a big Christmas tree in the hallway, and decorated it in great style. It has ornaments and a lighting installation that plays "Jingle Bells" in five different tones. The children also decorated their rooms the best way they could. The most beautiful room belongs to the youngest girls: they have drawn toys and Christmas trees and set up an exhibition on the windows. They have cut out stars from corrugated paper and glued them to the ceiling. They lined up several flower pots on the window sill and adorned them with tinsel and ribbons from old flower bouquets. The boys’ rooms are also in good order but they don’t have a starry ceiling. Some of the children are endlessly playing with remote-control cars. They will soon start a hell of a race. It’s three days before Christmas but for these children Santa has come every morning since mid-December.

17 year-old George, the eldest of the children is now guarding the door of the protocol room. His mission is to keep things quiet while I talk to Marcel who strikes the note for carol singing and leads the fashion too. The Christmas celebration dedicated to Santa sent by various Foundations is over. Marcel tells me a few things about the their performance: "We danced, we told stories, we sang, we played the one -act play about the birth of Jesus…I was a magi, Gaspar…We had to go to Mary and Joseph, bring gifts and find out where their child was born. He was born in Bethlehem. Santa came right after the show. He was dressed in red and had a big bag on his back…we all stood in line and he gave us presents. I got this watch, a tetris game, a walk-man, a remote-control car - that was what I wanted him to bring me. He also brought us clothes, jeans, sportswear, underwear and lots of sweets. We must have tricked Santa because he comes here every day and the children still don’t have enough of him and the presents…"

In the Vidra foster home, a village located near Bucharest, there are 94 children. Only some of them will go home for Christmas. Most of them have nowhere to go to, although their parents are alive, helpless witnesses to the passing of time. Marcel will stay in the foster home on Christmas: "I have nowhere to go to. One of our mothers here, mother Florica, wants to take me home with her but she has to talk to the manager today. Who is mother Florica? She’s one of our mothers, our nurse. We have several mothers not just one. I love them equally, I don’t make any difference between them. Their names are Ioana, Doinita, Florica, and then there’s Ioana Radu and Monica and Tudora Mioara Ruse, and wait I have more…
Rep: "And how do you manage with all these mothers?
Marcel: "I manage…I give them cards on Christmas and even on Mother’s Day that I make myself…
The foster home in Vidra village has quite a few mothers and even more children. The youngest is 11 and the oldest is 17. Dr. Angelica Paun will tell us how the children came here: "These are children who were born between 1988-1989 with physical problems and needed blood transfusions right away. At that time, blood was not tested in our country. We did not have single- use syringes at that time, so we used the classic ones and the sterilization was probably faulty because there were numerous power cuts during Ceausescu’s time so the infestation was obviously related to medical reasons. The children who come to us are usually children coming from various foster homes in Bucharest but we have also received children from all over the country. We have set up an educational programme: children have a kindergarten and a school. We now have 94 children. All these children are at various stages of illness, this is not an HIV infection, but the actual AIDS disease, at various stages of evolution: with chronic hepatitis, tuberculosis, or low immunity."
To see those endearing small ones you can’t imagine they too are victims of the terrible disease. They are visibly sick, but most of them are so small they don’t even know what to call that "sickness". From time to time one of them is taken away from the others, behind a partition where a "mother" will take permanent care of him or her. In a quiet corner, an oxygen mask will help the small one breathe for some more time, a short while though. And then he or she will just disappear, nobody knows where. If the "mothers" at the centre never talk about that, the kids will certainly think of it a lot. Dr Paun remembers each and every one of them: "The one we lost this year was particularly clever, shall I say bright. We suffered a lot. When he was brought here from Hunedoara, he was just like a little pumpkin. By the end of it, his situation had become so critical he could hardly stand. And yet he knew what was going on…when he saw we wanted to separate him from the others, he started crying. He was barely 12…These children are perfectly aware that he died, they know they have to go one by one, disappear somehow, but they don’t know the meaning of death. Some of them realize they suffer from some kind of disease, but they can’t know what is actually happening to them , nor that the disease can be done nothing about. And we can’t be said to make special efforts to tell them the truth either. You can never know, their evolution is pretty good, maybe somebody comes up with a cure, maybe they do have a chance."
The literature says that after the disease has taken off, life expectancy ranges anywhere from 2 to 4 years. Following an anti-retroviral treatment and a diet rich in proteins, fruit and vitamins, the survival rate of children at Vidra centre has increased. While some 10 to 12 children died at the centre every year in the early 90’s, in 2002 only one child was lost. Dr Paun tells more about the miraculous turn of the situation: "The anti-retrovirals, specific to this disease, reach us through the AIDS programme of the Health Ministry, through the national Insurance Fund. The rest of the needed medicines are bought from the drugstore in the commune and are paid for by Child Protection. The food is also paid by Child Protection and some NGOs that help us with extra aid chiefly brought by the Trust of Princess Margaret of Romania. They are taken good care of here; they receive medical visits before leaving for school, and we keep very strict records of their condition. Our staff are very careful indeed, and caring because you never know how much longer they will live."
The children at Vidra live every day of their life fighting an unconscious battle with death. They complete two years of school in one. They write to Santa Claus well in advance to make sure Santa will not come with their favorite toy too late. For the rest, they are like "normal" children in each and every respect. They fight and make up, and would not stop at any prank or shenanigan. They play football and break down windows, and decorate their ceilings with clipped paper stars. Except their friends are Italian, Irish, French, kings, ministers, doctors, presidents, PR directors, journalists, cameramen, football players. They have 5 mothers and if asked, they will most probably tell you they are brothers. Which they are actually, tied up by a bond you might call a brotherhood of blood.
(jan 2003)
I wish to thank the Trust of Princess Margaret of Romania for their help.

A Demonstration of Beauty

A Romanian magazine was planning to present its readers the faces that are ubiquitous in the pages of newspapers or can be seen on TV screens with novel looks . That is also perhaps meant to emphasise that a change of looks can refresh even the images too worn out by the flash guns of the cameras. A real army of magicians of colours got involved in this game. Radu Serban is the stars’ hair stylist . I asked him what qualities a good hair stylist should have: "You have got to have a vision , to listen to his or her problems , to give him or her all your attention .. First a good hair stylist should have a three -dimensional perspective, natural talent, should be able to handle his tools well, just like learning the alphabet. But the secret of a beautiful hair is to be healthy , to shine , to have a special slick. It is quite important to analyse the hair, and the shampoo and hair conditioner should be applied correctly. That is why the manufacturers should do their best to educate their employees and business partners : to teach them how to apply the products correctly . The manufacturers organise seminars , contests and stage shows . They establish the trends ; if they could not sell the perm solution, then wavy hair is fashionable this year."
Dana Dinca is the director of the hair style Department of a great manufacturer of hair products . She maintains that the latest trends in hair style , fashion and make -up can not be conceived separately but they should be harmonized: "It should define a woman’s personality, matching hair style, colours, make up and clothes. Most of young girls prefer long hair . I would like to follow the example of Europe and dare have our hair cut in more adventurous ways. "

The latest trends in hair style are launched just like the big fashion collections shortly before the end of the year . Volker Schuler has been in Bucharest for five years now . Every year , the galas organised by his company are a real show of beauty and mastery . I asked him to give us his opinion about the level of the demonstration: "I think that here in Bucharest we have reached a level that is comparable to many other European countries . I am glad that people are involved in all sorts of events . Romanian hair stylists are highly skilled and are well-regarded internationally. I was able to find this out four months ago in Paris where we put on a good show. This event was organised for all the hairdressers in Romania, in order to start a new year with our clients and to launch the latest trends in hair style . Every year the best hair stylists meet for inspiration and propose new styles . There will be three trends in 2003 : ‘timeless beauty "and " the Romantic eccentric" , two hair styles between fantasy and reality, and " sensuality and discretion " . I am glad that we are the first to introduce these trends to the Romanian market. "
The end of last year’s gala held at the Palace Hall in Bucharest saw some 1,000 people gathered in the audience with just as many on stage and backstage. Special guests for a 30 minute show, were the Italian stylists from the famous group founded by Gigi Gandini, whose models paraded some of the most spectacular hair-dos you’ve ever seen. Gianni Sancasani is member of the group and member of the jury that awarded the Romanian hair-stylists. Just before the show I asked him for his expert opinion on the work of the contestants.
"We could see again that this is such a small world, and there was really nothing new we could teach any of the Romanian hairstylists. I must say I’ve just seen an extraordinary level of professionalism. We’ve seen some absolutely exquisite work, and that determined us to give our best in tonight’s show. This world is so small the differences are minimal. Thanks to cable TV, breakthroughs and new ideas travel so fast. We didn’t notice any significant differences between other countries and Romania. But we did see very careful preparations which made us hopeful that the future of hairstyling belongs to the truly professional. We are very enthusiastic about what we’ve seen in Romania.’

Having been riveted by the debutante contest and the masters’ demonstrations, we gave the winners of the gala a standing ovation. Alina Stoian from western city of Timisoara won the most important award in her career, coming 3rd in the junior section. I asked her how much time it took her to create the awarded hairstyle.
"It took me one day just to bleach the hair, then I died it brown and added the red, pink, blond and chestnut streaks. The dying took some 8 hours. Cutting the hair for the contest took 40 minutes, but a change of look takes a lot of time.This award was a major achievement in my career; it’s the first contest I’ve been in and I had to sacrifice a lot.’

At the end of the contest, Alina’s model, Despina Carstici had her hair cut in varying lengths and dyed in 8 distinct colours. I asked her how she felt about this new experience: "I thought it would be a wonderful idea and I decided to have a shot at it. It was something completely new for me. Although I’ve always been a great admirer of fashion and hairstyling, I’d never had much to do with it. I trusted Alina the very first moment I saw her. It was both interesting and enjoyable. Hadn’t I met Alina I would have never had the courage to go out looking like this’.

It does take some courage indeed to undergo a total change of look. You also need patience and confidence in your hairstylist, but then you also need a strong personality. Without a little madness, you won’t probably dare dye your hair black and white or in 8 distinct colours. But it is precisely that bit of madness, the reaction of the others that is worth the patience and the money you’ll pay the hairstylist. Basically it’s all about having the guts to look in the mirror and accept to be the star of your own beauty show.
(february 2003)

Indifference equals complicity

Have you ever happened to walk in the street and pass by a couple quarrelling and to discreetly avoid to look at them? Have you ever heard a noise, like a heavy object falling on the ground in the flat above? Have you ever seen a woman wearing sunglasses even when it is raining ? What do all these three cases have in common? Here is one story, as it was told by an annonimous: "Quarrelling is his favorite habit. Whatever I do it is wrong . When there is food, he says it is not good enough, if there is no food, he starts yelling and is always finding fault with the food.. either it is not warm enough or it is too hot. I no longer know what to do. He keeps misleading me . One night he came home drunk and he dragged me out of bed pulling me by the hair , undressed me by force and threw me on the staircase in the cold, it was winter, and locked me out . It was 3 am . I knocked at the door and I begged him to let me in . He told me I deserved to stay there. Eventually he opened the door and let me in after I had been shivering with cold for an hour. He wants me to jump out of the window , he often takes me there and tells me to jump , I ask him why and he tells me that I am crazy and I should jump out of the window to die and he pushes me to the edge of the window but I don’t want to die, how could I do that and leave my children alone . I have two children to raise "
That was the story of a woman. You will not be able to guess the terror in the souls of those who still keep silent .

Six NGO "s and an advertising company launched in Bucharest a new national campaign against violence on women . For one month and a half , five national TV stations will broadcast a video whose slogan is " indifference makes you an accomplice ". The Community Mediation and Security Centre of Iasi county is the main fund-provider of this campaign. Laura Albu, executive president of the Centre, said that the message of the campaign is targeted at those people who see, hear or know the problems of women who are victims of violence, people who choose indifference as a daily attitude. Psychologist Diana Munteanu explains us the origin of this attitude: "We tend to avoid and not admit the existence of this violent attitude. Because we consider the family as an inviolable nucleus, a private space in which we can not intervene and what happens there is their business. We are insensitive when these things happen next to us, in the street, in school or at work. Men tend to join the group they belong to and thus to find excuses . As a matter of fact, the victim also finds excuses for abusive behaviors and considers that she has not enough power or justification to intervene. The result is the perpetuation , encouragement and continuation of this phenomenon "

We want to believe that only those women coming from poor backgrounds are victims to domestic violence. Actually, women coming from all backgrounds irrespective of their living standards, of their professional or economic status are victims to domestic violence. Over the past two years, the Community Mediation and Security Centre offered psychological counseling, legal support and shelter to about 600 women . Diana Muntean says that more often than not , most women depend on their aggressors and are afraid of having that violence repeated if they report the abuse. " 40 % of the women who came to our shelter had no job , no qualification to find a job and did not have any other place to live. Most of them say ‘I won "t part with him but I wish he would no longer beat me. I love him, I won’t leave him but I don "t know what else I can do . I am scared , I am afraid". When they come to me, they expect to be listened to and to be believed .They are often accused of exaggerating certain facts that happened . And they are told that what they say is not true .. I encourage them to identify the problem , I try to see what behaviors they consider abusive and to convince them that it’s not normal that this should happen to them. I believe that nobody has the right to hit somebody else. I make them feel they are supported, I offer them certain services and then convince them that they are not alone and they are able to do certain things. Our counselors assisted in court 160 abused women who divorced their husbands and started anew. About 20-30 % of them are able to break with their past and start a new life. The rest of them, for various reasons, are not able to do that. They go back to their husbands and come back to us even often. We can not force anyone to do a certain thing; the victim must feel she is ready to cope up with a radical change in her life ".

Almost every day we can read in newspapers about such crimes. Some women are hit, offended and terrorized even in front of their children or in public. Starting last week , a law against domestic violence came into force in Romania.

How does the law define domestic violence ? It is " any physical or verbal action done on purpose by a member of the family, against another member of the same family inducing a physical , psychological , sexual suffering or causing any material damage " The people living out of wedlock establishing relations similar to those between husband and wife can benefit from the provisions of the law . If any physical violence occurred , the victim should go to the Forensics within at least 48 hours after the aggression had been committed to ascertain the facts . Apart from that, the nearest police section should be notified two months since the aggression at the most . If the danger persists, police can send the victim to a shelter where he would be accommodated on a certain period of time and would have his meal , psychological, legal and medical assistance even if in court. Mention should be made that until November 2002 no reference to that phenomenon has been provided in the legislation, the Penal code incriminating violence cases as a whole.

Renate Weber, the president of the Foundation for an Open Society said that the mere existence of a law and of services for victims would not stop the phenomenon: " Of course we wish to have shelters for women , but our wish is not to see the victims in shelters but to put an end to violence in the family or in the street. However the female population accounts for about half of the total population in Romania, so we could day that half of this country’s population is a victim of these abuses. Actually, no matter the number of laws , unless we count on the contribution of each of us to stop this phenomenon , we won ‘t do much ".
(january 2003)

In Real Life, Actors Do Die, Too

Recently, when the curtain rose, just one actress stepped onto the stage of the National Theatre in Craiova, South-Western Romania.Tears in her eyes, she announced that the performance would not take place.One of the protagonists of the show had suffered a heart attack, while preparing to enter the stage.The actress said, quote " unfortunately we die in real life too, not only on the stage."end of quote.Beyond the natural pang you feel when hearing such news, you can’t help wondering what happens with the actors when they can no longer play.What is left to them when nobody asks for their autograph any more, when they no longer give interviews, when no director gives them any more roles?

There are over 4,000 theatre people in Romania.Only half of them are actors, the rest being technicians, usherettes, ticket collectors or people sticking posters in the streets.The actors’pensions range from 2.5 to 4 million lei.Those who can still play have contracts, thus completing their monthly incomes.But what happens with the borderline cases?From time to time, theatres in Romania put up special tickets for sale.The money obtained from such sales go into a fund for pensioners, for those servants of Thalia who no longer enjoy the acclaim of the audiences. Last year, a sum of 350 million lei was thus raised, 49 retired artists being each given 8-10 million lei.The mastermind of the campaign is Ion Caramitru, president of the Theatre Union in Romania, UNITER, former minister of culture.The programme called "Artists for Artists " is aimed at helping artists in difficulty. Ion Caramitru says:"Our colleagues play for their older colleagues, there are theatres where collaborators who were supposed to be paid per show played for free so that the money raised might go into the fund.Certain actors and actresses have donated their own incomes.We’ve got a partnership with the Evenimentul zilei paper that has accepted our proposal and carries ads for sponsors who provide funds for our programme.Under a contract we have signed, the paper pledges to raise one and a half billion lei for our programme.So, we could ultimately have over two billion lei, which would be a real success."

Over 40 doctors have offered their services to retired actors for free.A few private pharmacies are willing to give free medicines to those sent by UNITER. An optics shop has cut its prices for the actors’glasses by 50%. Even two miracles have occurred:two actors have recovered their sight after being subject to sponsored surgery under this programme. Here is one of the beneficiaries of the programme: Zoe Stefan-Caraman has been a pensioner since 1975. She was an actress at the National Theatre in Iasi, North-Eastern Romania and then at the theatre in Constanta, on the Black Sea coast. .She made her debut playing Joan of Arc, then she played Desdemona in "Othello" by Shakespeare and many other roles in a nearly 40 year long career. Now she lives alone with the wonderful memories of a life in the limelight. (banda )Since I fell seriously ill two years ago, I’ve been looked after by a great doctor at the Military Hospital in Bucharest, thanks to UNITER.Mircea Filip is a wonderful doctor, a distinguished man who has offered to help the artists for free.A cornea transplant costs 5,000 dollars and of course I could never have this money. UNITER sent me quite a large amount of money that helped me live in peace and quiet these past few months and cope with the high cost of living.The UNITER board is the great salvation of artists in Romania, it is our hope, our comfort.It is good to know there is somebody you can apply to and you are not alone in this world."

12 years ago, Gheorghe Tudorica, an actor at the National Theatre in Cluj Napoca, central Romania had a stroke and consequently he had to retire. A man who had always found it easy to utter a line on the stage, Gheorghe Tudorica is still trying to express his thoughts.Although he is at a loss for words, he still has a lot to say:

"In 1991 when I had a stroke, I retired because I could no longer do my profession.This handicap has got worse and I have developed speech disorders. I can’t speak very clearly. The aid I’ve received from UNITER has made me understand that artists have a great deal of kindness, which has not happened so far. The money I had received helped me a lot at a time when I had a nervous and moral breakdown. We don’t have to judge things only rationally but emotionally too. I remember a line in a play saying:"Man, how proud this word sounds…You have to respect man and not humiliate him, you have to honour man and love him" just as UNITER did , which made me very happy. May God help us to apply these humane principles throughout the country"

Dr.Sandu Mihail Cociasu is president of the commission studying the files of applicants to UNITER.He believes that apart from the ailments specific to the elderly, actors find it more difficult to bear their isolation, their inability to remember or express their thoughts and feelings: "People believe it’s something easy, but the effort the artist makes every day, every time he gets onto the stage, whatever his state of mind is huge.His emotions are intense.Owing to their sensitiveness, artists are very vulnerable.A lot of research is conducted about the athletes’ diseases, why isn’t any research work carried out about the artists’ disorders too?If there is a special network for athletes, I wonder why there is no special network for artists.And when I say artists, I’m also referring to the members of creation unions, composers, fine artists and writers.They form a world in its own right, given the sensitiveness which their work involves, a work people don’t know…"

Under a government resolution, a site on the bank of lake Floreasca in Bucharest has been made available to artists, where a home for actors will be raised before long.The Seniors’Club will be a meeting place for healthy artists and a refuge for artists with no family of their own.This way, artists show they can take care of one another and can keep their dignity and imposing appearance.

At the recent UNITER awards Gala, actress Irina Petrescu and set designer Dragos Buhagiar said they donated their prizes to the "Artists for Artists" programme. After the festivity, actress Daniela Nane donated a fairly large sum of money to UNITER. Last year, actors Ion Caramitru and Victor Rebengiuc did the same upon receiving prizes for the films they had played in. And I can’t conclude without repeating actor Gheorghe Tudorica’s line "Man, how proud this word sounds…you have to respect man, not humiliate him, you have to honour man and love him."

The actors deserve our applause even if they are no longer in the limelight.

Wales, away from home

Maria and Florin Spiridon are professional chefs. They have been working at The Manor Hotel in Wales for 2 years now, along with an entirely -Romanian team, who have persuaded their employers of their efficiency. On her arrival, Maria did not speak any English and you may say that there is no need for foreign languages when working in a kitchen, but believe me, you are quite wrong…One must be able to understand many things, because tastes and habits differ, and, if you do not understand what the boss tells you, you may make mistakes that you would not usually make. During the week I spent in Wales, I saw Maria smile, laugh out loud, bite her lips, throw aside her kitchen apron, I saw her cry, repress her frustration and I saw her mute with anger. She works around 12 hours a day with only a short break. She begins work very early, as she gets prepares breakfast for the hotel guests and then carries on with lunch and dinner finishing by cleaning up the kitchen. Only when everything is sparkling clean, does she walk into her small room next to the restaurant, lights a cigarette, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

She desperately misses home and intently listened to all the details I could give her, welcoming any information on faraway Romania. This is not due to an interest in politics and gossip, it is due to the fact that her little boy, Mihai is there, at home waiting for her. A month before, she had posted a parcel of toys for him, but they hadn’t reached him yet. The airport newspapers bought minutes before the flight had long been read and reread. Maria and Florin bought satellite dishes for Romanian channels, and had carried them all the way from Romania; they patiently explained to customs officials the aim of those huge dishes, namely the need to hear spoken Romanian from time to time and to see images from home. As seen from there, Romania is weird and it becomes somehow alien. Maria’s thoughts evolve around her son: ‘is Mihai safe? They said there was a flu epidemic in Romania on TV. Florin, let’s go and buy a phone card, to call home…Listen to this, They report-10 degrees Celsius, what would my little boy be doing?’

“He is very proud of us. He knows that mummy and daddy are away in order to ensure a good future for him, so that he will not be forced to work as hard as we do. We want to make his future easier, and provide him with all of the things other children lack. You cannot achieve anything without putting in an effort. It is tough, but we try to live through it.“He asked me to buy him a small robot and a Spiderman. I searched through all the shops until I found what he had seen on Cartoon Network. He had specifically told me not to buy Batman, but Spiderman…Of course Batman was everywhere. I’ve grown to know them all by heart.”

Maria puffs on her cigarette and tells of Spiderman’s odyssey..It took us several hours to search for toys for Mihai. She sprayed her perfume all over the teddy bear that we eventually bought. I wrapped it in a paper bag, to make sure it preserved the scent, because Mihai knows that this is what Mother smells like. I took out the small robot from the box and I put it in my luggage. Maria smiles: “Wait, don’t put them in the suitcase. Wait until I show them to Florin.” I try to picture them in their room, as they sit on the rug, facing each other, weighing and feeling the toys. They are excited because at least they can send this to Mihai. Whenever they think about him, they smile at each other to boost their courage. But, I noticed that Maria is having a hard time. I could feel this, because I witnessed her carefully assessing her options, concluding that it was useless to spend 7 pounds on an English lesson and better to use the money to buy something for the little boy. Living among strangers is tough, but it is much more difficult for Mihai: ”Mihai is the apple of my eye. He knows this and every time I go home, he gives me a Welcome back banner, although he’s only in the first grade. He tries so hard to write and draw so as to make the card as appealing as possible, but for the first few moments the poor child cannot help but feel that we are strangers to him. Then he gets used to us again…When I came home in September, on our first day together he asked me: „Mummy, is this for real or am I just dreaming? Are you really home? I started to pinch and tickling him, to show him that I was his mummy in flesh and blood.. and eventually, he said „Yes, this is for real”. All I want is for things to go well and to fall into place at home. I want to work in my own country and be close to my child, not far away in a distant land. Why work for others when we could very well work for ourselves?”

Flori and Toni Florescu have been married for more than 30 years. In Romania, Toni Florescu worked at the Intercontinental restaurant and other elegant restaurants. Flori was a housewife and took care of their child. They are an easy-going couple who are very willing to work. But, for people over 45 it is very hard to become employed in Romania, even in the restaurant business. Young people are favoured as it is believed that they have more stamina. Last year, Toni Florescu joined the Romanians working in The Manor Hotel in Wales. A few months afterwards, his wife joined him. He had managed to find her a job with the hotel cleaning staff. Although she didn’t speak much English, nor had she ever travelled by plane before or for that matter had worked for years, Mrs Florescu braced herself and left Romania. She is now working between 6 and 8 hours a day and has settled into the tiny community which is beginning to take shape. Although her boy is all grown up now and can take care of himself, she still longs for her home sweet home, her flower pots and the life she left behind. ”My boy, like any young man, wanted to start a family, he had a girlfriend and was planning to getting married. He couldn’t pack up and leave her, for she wants to graduate from college so that she will be able to make a living in Romania. And so, it fell upon us to go and work abroad. But, we said to ourselves: we’re not only doing this for them, but for us as well. We’re at that age – my husband is 55 and I’m 54 -where it would be difficult for most people to start over from scratch, but we couldn’t find a job in Romania so it became impossible to make a living, to pay the bills or to be able to go on a holiday, to the mountains or to the coast, I haven’t been on a holiday with my husband for 14 years.”

I asked Mrs Florescu what the toughest moment in her life had been? "When I left, my father said: I won’t be here when you come back. Myself and my husband didn’t want to believe that. Two months later, we were told my father had passed away. That was the toughest moment in my life, for I loved my father very much and I was unable to be there, by his side, when he died."

If you should find yourself in the market of Abergavenny (the largest town in the area where the people I was telling you about work) on a Tuesday, you will definitely hear people speaking Romanian. This is one of the few occasions when they get the chance to meet up, for they do not have time to socialise. Maria and Florin Spiridon, Flori and Toni Florescu are but four of the thousands of Romanians working abroad. Despite their sorrows, longing or tears, the affect of their labour starts to be felt by the living standards of the people back home. They are perhaps the most European of Romanians, for they are already learning what it means to live in a EU country.
(oct 2004)

WOMEN IN THE ACADEMIA

Daniela Frumusani, a university professor and a prominent member of civil society, says that women have to play three roles every day: that of super-worker (who needs to demonstrate daily that she is very good at her job), of super-mother (who looks after the entire family - old parents, sick husband and children alike) and super-woman (who embraces the fashion industry and aesthetic surgery because consumer’s society tells her to do so). According to professor Daniela Frumusani there is quite a dramatic difference between men and women, stemming from the way people are labelled according to what they are and how they are, while constantly disregarding the expertise of women who have past the age of being able to be top models.

Coralia Cartis is one of the few women in the department of Applied Mathematics at Oxford University in Great Britain. When she left the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca, central western Romania, she knew she would have to face a double challenge: that of being an immigrant and a woman at one of the most prestigious schools of mathematics in the world. “When you come from outside and notice that you’re about to enter such a competitive, male-dominated environment, you are bound to be a little apprehensive. In the field of science there is a large discrepancy between the number of men and that of women – the latter are greatly outnumbered, not only at the level of PhD applicants or lecturers but also at the level of undergraduate students. Compared to Romania, the proportion of students majoring in mathematics at Cambridge or Oxford is significantly lower. In my department for instance, out of 40 lecturers and professors, only one is a woman.”

It was only two years ago that the first woman professor in applied mathematics at Cambridge received tenure, says Coralia Cartis. “Many people say that there aren’t any women to apply for those jobs…There is an imbalance and everybody can see it. That is why, when the choice is between a man and a woman, the tendency is to favour the woman because of this very imbalance.”

Although discrimination, positive or otherwise, is forbidden in Great Britain, the principle is that of equal opportunities. However, they say women develop slower in the academic environment, because many of them find it difficult to give up a family life, and try to combine career with private life.

I asked Lia Stanciu how is it for a Romanian woman to be an assistant lecturer at the University of Indiana in the US. “Traditionally, the American academic environment is a men’s world, and it is very difficult for them to accept women as teachers, especially in engineering. Maybe it’s understandable, considering that there is always this fear that a woman might want children and, therefore, she is unlikely to devote herself to research and teaching; consequently, she becomes less competent or desirable. However, there is this national policy that encourages the family and women in general, and this will help prejudiced people to accept women, so they can have a real chance to succeed in the academic environment. It is very difficult for a woman, because she has to carry out several jobs at the same time, to work 60-80 hours per week. Besides teaching, you have to publish articles in international magazines and to find money for the researchers that work for you. Moreover, you have to have your own PhD students and pay them too. So it’s not only research or science you’re involved in. You have to also teach and find money, and that takes a lot of time and effort.”

Despite all this, it was neither the PhD examination nor the professional competition itself that presented the most difficult challenge for Lia. When asked about the biggest challenge in her career she answered – my child: “I decided to have a child when I was a PhD student, because I thought it would be much more difficult later, when I became a professor. I worked up to the day before I delivered. My pregnancy wasn’t difficult, so I was lucky. I also had a friend who helped me a lot and I will always be grateful to her. A Romanian lady, a former medical nurse, started taking care of my baby 2 weeks after I gave birth. I also wanted to breast feed, and I was lucky that my house was not far from school and I had time to ride my bicycle home, breast feed my child and then run back to school. It wasn’t easy, but I’m lucky, I have a good child.”

Although they appear to have found a middle way, the Stanciu family members are spread across all the corners of the world: “Because of our jobs and visa problems (I couldn’t find a job where I wanted so I had to go to California for that purpose) we had to take the child to Romania until 2006 when our family was reunited. That was the most difficult period we experienced: my husband was in California, I was in Texas and our child was in Romania. It was a huge effort but it was worth it, especially for the child. We hope he’ll have an easier life. We have to see if we manage to strike a balance in our lives and have stable careers. This is an intellectually challenging job...Deadlines mean additional work for a specialist journal or a conference. To hone down an idea you need time, and peace and quiet, because form without substance is not acceptable. Financially it’s a reasonable job, the wage is average. PhD positions are very badly paid because you are still considered a student in many countries”.

What does motivate these extraordinary women to be Wonder-Women day in, day out?Andreea Calin, a university lecturer in France, has recently written about careers in the academic environment. “What makes a PhD position so desirable is that besides the joy of teaching, you are paid to let your mind ‘create’... In a world in which almost everybody does what others choose, this could be considered a ‘luxury freedom’. But before being free, you must prove that you deserve this position, since no one is automatically favoured.”

After 4 years of sustained effort and at the beginning of her academic career, Lia Stanciu believes women can break their colleagues’ prejudices: “I think mentalities will gradually change, especially with the wave of women entering the academic world and obtaining success....We have to prove that such preconceived ideas are not grounded”.

Welcome to Holland!

When you expect a child, it is as if you were planning a holiday in Italy. You buy tourist guidebooks and start making plans. The Colosseum…The gondolas of Venice…You learn a few useful sentences in Italian. After months of expectation, you set out on your journey. When the plane is landing, the stewardess tells you: ” Welcome to Holland!” Holland? You say… Why Holland? I boarded the plane for Italy! But you’ve landed in Holland. You’ve got to get some new guidebooks. You need to learn a completely new language. You meet people whom otherwise you would never have met.. You catch your breath and cast a glance around, start noticing that Holland boasts wind mills, tulips and… Rembrandt. If you spend your life complaining about the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you might not learn to enjoy the unique and pleasant things that you can find in Holland… (mother of a DS child)

”Though doctors in Romania consider autism to be incurable, that is only partially true. Autistic children can recover if they are diagnosed when they are between 2 and 7 years-old and if they are not physically disabled. The degree of recovery depends on the child. There are also cases of total recovery. I’m the parent of a five year-old autistic boy whose name is Radu. Over the last few years, I’ve experienced the greatest despair and I’ve understood how bad lack of information can be. I for one have found the resources and the way to help my child.”

That was Damian, the father of Radu, who today is a child like any other, maybe with some minor problems in terms of concentration, but with an IQ much above the average level for his age. The person who has been not only Radu’s father but also his tutor, physician and companion, told me how he managed to turn his son from a child registered as disabled, into a normal, healthy child: “Radu was four years-old and he didn’t speak… he was practically a kind of vegetable that would walk and smile now and then. We started collecting information about what was going on overseas, about the therapies that were being used and about the stage reached in the treatment of autism. That’s how we found out about ABA (applied behavioural analysis), a behavioural therapy, the only one which, from a scientific point of view, gives an autistic child the chance to recover.”

Damian and his wife Cristina bought books and started learning. When Radu was nearly 5 years-old, they brought over a consultant from London, who ran an ABA workshop for the two parents and for the 10 tutors, graduates or students of psychology, hired by Damian: “That is how the saga started. They worked with my son for 12 hours a day, actually while he was awake. I don’t know if he saw these as lessons, or rather as fun. 12 adults would look after him every day, working with him for each thing that he could do and little by little, from a child who could only do purely mechanical things, after two years, Radu ended up being a perfectly normal child, who goes to an ordinary kindergarten. From a child who wouldn’t speak and who wore nappies at the age of five, who wouldn’t reply to any questions - we had long thought that he was deaf - Radu is now a child who can speak English, ski, swim and draw; he recites poems during the winter celebrations, he enjoys life... he is a normal child.”

When Radu finished the stage during which he underwent behavioural therapy, Damian decided it was time for the little boy to be reassessed. Two teams of psychologists who did not have any information about the child’s medical record, put him through a series of 8 tests. Their verdict was the same: quote “Radu is a perfectly normal child, with above average intelligence, with minor problems in terms of concentration, but with no clinical problems.” Unquote. Damian and Cristina could have been relieved as their child was OK. But they didn’t stop, they didn’t turn their back on a community which they themselves had put together on the Internet. Here is Damian again. “At that time we said, OK, we can do it, we can afford it, we have certain abilities, experience, the necessary money and the determination to do it. But what’s going on with the hundreds of parents we had got in touch with over the two years, while we were facing the Golgotha of the Romanian system? What are they doing? Let’s do something, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to Radu. That’s how the site autism.ro and the Horia Motoi Centre came into being, that’s how it all appeared, out of the wish to help others too.”

The Horia Motoi Centre is actually a house where children can spend 9 hours a day. Every child works with a tutor in two sessions, four hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon. They learn everything from tiny gestures to complex actions, and they continue to do so until they are able to go to a normal kindergarten, without a companion. At the moment, there are 3 children in the centre. Two others have completed the therapy and are considered graduates. But the Horia Motoi Centre is just at the beginning. The most efficient way to start the process of recovery is to resort to a foreign consultant. Working with such a consultant costs between 12,000-15,000 euros a year. In addition, ABA is also expensive because of the people involved in the therapy. You need at least 3-4 tutors for every child and you have to pay each of them 800 euros a month. Bringing over a consultant alone costs 2000-2500 euros. What can you do if you are not from Bucharest, when you can’t afford to hire a councillor and 4 tutors, but you want to break the glass wall separating you from your child?

Milena and Dorin have managed to draw their daughter Mara out of the world of silence she was living in, by giving her a lot of love and attention and adjusting to her needs and abilities. The only way they could communicate with Mara was through music. Music drew her attention, calmed her, soothed her. “She showed great interest in songs and rhythm; and the only way to catch her attention was by singing to her: (singing) “Mara look at mamma, here’s the toy, look at us”. Once contact had been established she started to get to know us and love us and we could then communicate normally. It was very difficult, she had trouble sleeping, she woke up about 20 times a night or slept for 20 minutes, only to lie awake for another hour, and so on... for an entire day.”

Dorin taught himself to play the piano so that he could teach Mara. Milena has allowed Mara to draw on the walls and always keeps a paint brush at hand to offer Mara new canvases. And there was an explanation behind everything she drew: "Straight lines were called domestic lines... referring to the direction that she knew. Zigzagging lines were wild lines. You can tell that wasps grow old when the black line on their back turns grey... Frogs grow old when they get wrinkles. There’s an explanation for everything and she thinks about everything that goes on around her.”

For two years, 3 of the neighbours’ children played every day in the next room. Milena would take Mara there for a minute and a half for her to get used to it; she would quickly have to get her out of the room to calm her down. Now Mara and the three little girls are best friends. She goes to kindergarten, she takes riding lessons, piano lessons, she loves to draw and play, she is finally playing with dolls... What can Milena dare to hope for Mara, now that she is well on her way to normality? “She often says that at 16 she will throw a concert in England... she loves English and that’s what she wants to do... I recently received the most wonderful compliment: I was walking with her in the park, when a lady said she wished she had a little girl just like mine.”

Damian, Cristina, Milena and Dorin are just some of the parents in Romania who have managed to save their children from the fate doctors had predicted. They simply said "go home, buy the medicine and get used to the idea that one day your child may have to be hospitalised." According to the metaphor suggested at the beginning of the programme, although they were heading for Italy, they ended up in the Netherlands, and after a while started working as guides. Mariana, the mother of Vladut, one of the Horia Motoi centre graduates, says that without them and without the autism.ro forum, she would have been lost. “I was very lucky. When I arrived in the Netherlands, a Dutch man greeted me, took me to a hotel, helped me learn the language...I dread to think about those who arrived on a dark night and had nobody to wait for them. I can’t imagine why I was so lucky. It was maybe because I was so weak that I wouldn’t have made it without the help of those people on the forum. I have only one thing to say to those in such a dire situation: there will always be a friendly Dutch person to help guide you, at least on the forum.”

Adoption - or how to love children, without limits

If giving birth to a child is a natural act, then adopting a child is a divine one. Today we will bring you three successful stories about adoptions in Romania.
In order to adopt a child, the prospective parents-to-be should attend a training course. They should be healthy and produce letters of recommendation, bearing the name and signature of the relative, neighbor or friend who makes the recommendation. They should also provide a paper to certify that they are able to adopt a child, and to prove that they can afford taking care of a child. The training course lasts two weeks, and the certificate is issued within 60 days. When all legal and technical conditions are met, the future parents can choose either to wait to be contacted by the Child Protection Directorate or to start searching for a child on their own. The old, large-scale foster centers in Romania have been shut down, and consequently one can find children who can be adopted, (and who have been legally declared “abandoned”) only in the homes of foster parents - most of them people in the lower income bracket, who are paid by the state to take care of children, until they are adopted. There are also family-type homes and charity organisations that bring up children until they are adopted by a family.
In the town of Campina, in the Prahova Valley, there is a house where catholic nuns take care of 40 children, starting from infants up to children of 4 to 5 years old. The home itself is a square-shaped hall with two rooms on each side. The children are very well taken care of and have everything they need from a material point of view: clean clothes, toys and food. Additionally, they are under the constant care and attention of the nuns. The center is called “The House of Hope”, and it is run by nuns from the order of St Joseph of Aosta. Liliana Csaki is a prospective parent who went to the care-center , in the hope that she will find a girl to adopt: ”In one of the rooms housing the infants, I saw a fair-haired, perfectly round little head. I told myself: look, this is a child I would like to take home with me. We were invited to another room, where we met nun Marissa, who seemed harsh and cold to me, in the beginning… She asked questions about us: who we were, what we wanted and why we wanted to adopt a child. I was overwhelmed by emotion, I was already crying and I said we wanted a child, any child, provided that he or she was healthy. She asked somebody to bring Laura in. When Laura was brought into the room, I realized she was the baby I had just seen. They gave her to me, I held her tight in my arms and the child instantly clung on to me. She was 8 and a half months old at the time and we were allowed to take her home, in only 4 days’ time. “
We don’t choose our parents, this is true. But let’s how parents choose their children, when they have the opportunity to do so? Liliana says she simply knew that baby would be her child. It was love at first-sight. Three years later, when she adopted a second child, Liliana had to ask not only for her husband’s but also for Laura’s opinion: ”I first saw David when he was only 4 days old. He was a very small baby, born prematurely and weighing only 2 kilos. My first impression was that he was very small. I held him in my arms. In both cases when I wanted to adopt a child, I told myself that I would only hold in my arms the child I would take home. Otherwise, it would have been an unfair gesture to the others, as if I would have given them hope in vain. I was alone when they gave me David to hold. The next day, I went there with my husband, and the same thing happened. We made a decision on the spot. We were asked if we needed time to think about it and we replied that we had already made a decision. David was our child, since the very first moment, when I took him in my arms.”
The first meeting between Mihai and his parents took place in a much colder place than the House of Hope. Irina Enache met her son in an office of the Bucharest Child Protection Directorate. “The foster mother brought him, a little infant of 2 and a half months, swaddled in a blanket, just having woken up. He was looking at us, saying nothing, with not so much as a frown on his face. I took him in my arms and asked myself : God, what is there in store for this child? And I asked him, in my mind, I told him “you are so wonderful, what will happen to you, what will the fate of a child be whose mother does not want him, or who maybe did not have the means to bring him up? I‘m talking to you! I told him. I had the impression then that then baby started to look at me differently . Then I gave him to my husband to hold, but he had no idea how to hold such a little infant. In fact, we didn’t need too many visits there. In a couple of days, it was the baby’s name day, according to Orthodox tradition, so we brought him a present, a little outfit for a boy, because the foster mother previously had a girl and he was always dressed like a girl. The day he turned three months old, we took the baby home.”
It is not always so easy. Oana Melinte said that the day when she could not take Eric home, was the most difficult in her life.: “We were promised that the day when we took the adoptive parents certificate, we would be allowed to take the baby home. We found Eric in a foster home two weeks ago. We went to take him, we were so happy, we had prepared everything, the milk, the little baby chair for the car, baby clothes. We went there to have our papers signed but we were told : “what do you think, that we can give you the child immediately?“ That’s when we thought we had lost him. But he was our child . We had no idea what to do to bring our child home. We went back to the Child Protection Directorate and we talked as calmly as we could, because at that moment, I was so upset and frightened, because I thought they did not want to give me the child; I could not even hear the explanations they gave me. There were some legal procedures to comply with and I simply wanted to take my baby home without any other formalities. I was blind, I could not understand anything else. I am sure that if you want something good to happen to you, you have to work hard for it. We worked hard and suffered, but now we have the most beautiful child - he is a real treasure!”
The efforts some couples go to in order to have a child are difficult to describe, and especially difficult to understand for those couples who have no problems having a child naturally. Parents usually only have to wait for nine months before they are able to take their child in their arms. They do not have to attend special courses and are not questioned by the authorities regarding their financial situation regarding raising a child. Choosing to adopt is not something that you should do out of charity, out of pity or on a whim. “Love for children is unconditional - either you want a child and then you forget you did not give birth to him or her, or you simply want to perform an act of charity - and then it would be better to donate some money towards a humanitarian case”, says Cristina, a new adoptive mother.
Liliana Csaki shares the same opinion :
“These children are born for us. In a way, they are predestined, this is my opinion. Many times we were told that we are extraordinary people, that we are doing such a fantastic thing; other people tell us: “You were so charitable!” I do not feel different as compared to other mothers. For me, the fact that I was not the bearer of my child is just a technical detail because these have been my children since the moment I took them in my arms. I do not think that if I had given birth to my children, I would have behaved differently towards them. I love them just like any mother loves her child.”

ROMANIANS LIVING IN GREAT BRITAIN TAKE A STAND

For several weeks now, the British mass media obsessively brings up the same topic: should we allow Romanians and Bulgarians to enter the labor market in Great Britain? In 2004, the British government estimated that approximately 15 thousand immigrants coming from new EU member states would settle in Great Britain. But over the last 2 years alone, over 400 thousand work permit requests have been approved, most of them signed by Polish citizens aged between 18 and 34. Those in favor of the “open doors” policy say that immigrants take jobs which British citizens are not willing to accept (in fields like administration, business and management, but especially in constructions, hotel industry and health). More over, they are qualified workers, whose experience is more than welcome. The opposite side says that cheap work force only makes life difficult for the British having to support their families, obliging them to take less paying jobs, under the immigrants’ pressure. One of the arguments against the opening of the labor market is that Polish workers brought along their wives and children. The British government approved over 27 thousand requests of social assistance for immigrants’ kids.

When there are no more social-economic arguments left, some other clichés were brought to the surface: the title “Romanian women and their children” was published under photographs of women of Rroma origin, holding their half naked kids. Then, it’s been said that Romanians infected with HIV/AIDS are going to spread the virus all over Great Britain, tendentious articles depicting a “typical” day in the daily life of a Romanian family: an alcoholic and unemployed father, a mother burdened with keeping house and carrying after their 4 kids, both adults hardly waiting to leave and work in Great Britain.

These continuous attacks published by British tabloids have mobilized the Romanian community in Great Britain. “It is disappointing to see how the Western media is kicking up all this fuss, and we can’t stand by helplessly while we are being put to the corner, as the sick which Europe does not need or the suffering which should be marked every time they leave their houses, carrying around the burden of all these humilities. We kept hoping and waiting all these years, feeling deep within our souls that we belonged to this world. But Europe fears us. If we chose not to take a stand, tomorrow it will probably be another European country’s turn to humiliate us. Europe must not fear us, but just to look at this in an objective and constructive way, to compare the statistics, which all kinds of commissions have been long working on, and to accept what has been obvious for a long time now.”
This e-mail, signed by members of the Internet site Romanians-Online.co.uk, was sent to over 700 addresses: Romania’s President, Prime Minister, to all MPs, to all central newspapers, news agencies and national radio stations. Find out more on this from Adrian Cherciu, initiator of this protest: ”Lack of reaction from the part of Romanian authorities, both in Romania and in Great Britain, against this denigration campaign started up by the British mass media made us feel alone, misunderstood and abandoned… The reaction that representatives of some British industries had, also in the British media, about keeping the open doors policy, gave us the courage and motivation to call on the Romanian authorities to take a stand in order to represent and defend us! Upon meetings we had with Romanian authorities from Romania’s Embassy in London, we decided that all Romanian associations, foundations and organizations should get together at the end of this week and come up with a response. We plan to address several letters, one to British governmental bodies, in which to explain how preoccupied the Romanian community is with this media campaign against Romania and Romanians, because the way in which we are presented, as a danger to the British society, affects the credibility of Romanians living in Great Britain. A thanking letter would be addressed to those members of the British press who chose to present this matter objectively, depicting the real situation in these two countries, Romania and Bulgaria and the impact which the work force flow from these countries would have on the British economy. A third letter would be addressed to several leaders of British industries who support the idea that the Open Doors policy should be maintained for Romania and Bulgaria too.”

Following the protest signed by the Romanian community in Great Britain, the Romanian mass media started publishing articles pointing to the bad image which British tabloids were depicting of Romania. The campaign lead by the pressure group Business for New Europe (BNE) pleads in favor of the idea that the hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming from Poland and other eastern European states which join the EU in 2004 have increased Great Britain’s productivity, have compensated for shortages on the labor market and have contributed to the overall economic growth.

Then came the reaction of Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu, at the meeting held with Romanian ambassadors: “There is no reason that we should be put to a corner or humiliated in populist or demagogic speeches. This mentality of a besieged citadel which the British are trying to promote is damaging to the entire future of the European project itself”, said Premier Tariceanu. Last, but not least, President Traian Basescu said that, if Romanians were forbidden free access on the European labor market, Romania too would impose its own restrictions. Still, debates on this topic continue. We asked Adrian Cherciu what he believes truly motivates the British to fear Romanians:“I believe we are mere collateral victims within a domestic policy war in Great Britain, on the one hand between Conservatories and Labours, and on the other between the two different factions within Tony Blair’s party. I, for one, do not believe the British actually fear Romanians. An editorial was recently published in the British press, saying that they should not fear Romanians, because Romanians are not the ones wanting to introduce the Sharia Muslim law, that Romanians, Bulgarians or Polish are not the one designing terrorist attacks in Great Britain.”

On September 1st, the British Embassy in Bucharest inaugurated the on line visa applications service for traveling to Great Britain. On this occasion, Robin Burnett, the current British Ambassador and former head of the visa bureau, said there was no connection between the new system and lifting entry visas for Romanian citizens. As for all the media fuss in London, His Excellency said that a public debate on this topic was only natural: “Workers’ freedom of movement is a delicate issue for all EU member states. No one should be surprised at the fact that there is a public debate on this topic. Great Britain will take a decision concerning freedom of movement for workers from Romania and Bulgaria, as soon as we will know a definite date of accession. This decision will be taken considering a number of relevant factors concerning our national economy, including an assessment of the need of work force in Great Britain, concerning the impact which the other wave of countries which joined the EU in 2004 has had on the labor market and also workers’ freedom of movement policies which will be adopted by other EU countries. European laws guarantee Romania the same rights as to all the other member states, once it joins the Union. If it chooses to impose restrictions on worker’s freedom of movement, it is free to do so.”
Of all the EU member states, the only one which has already allowed Romanians full access on its labor market is Finland.

Nobody's children

There has been a lot of talk about institutionalized children in Romania who have been given special coverage by foreign newspapers.Ten-years old photos offered as fresh news throughout the world have featured Romania as a hell of institutionalized children. Faces disfigured by disease, prison cell like rooms, the sullen looks of the supervisers fed up with life. How many of these photos are for real? How many of them are still topical? This is a story of the about 78,000 Romanian children “in difficulty”.

We are in the suburbs of Bucharest.A long street with small houses and yards full of the overpowering scent of the lilac bushes.Somewhere,at the far end of the world,a high building breaks the rhythm of the tile roofs- a white,grand three-storey house with arched windows and a porch. It looks as if a VIP had hidden in the slums far from curious people’s sight. A blue little plate says: ”The St.Nicholas Assessment Centre nr.12,”. 77 children live in that building, nobody’s children, some of them abandoned by their parents, others visited by poor mothers every now and then.There are four of five of them in a room which they clean themselves.They have colour TV, their own closets, a library where they can do their homework, study and even work on the computer.The food allocation given by the Romanian state to the children in orphanages for three meals a day amounts less than one dollar. The director of the centre, Mrs.Rafila Sasca spends a great part of her time writing letters and looking for charitable people willing to make donations. I asked her if anything had happened in the orphanages in ten years. ”Around 500 children have lived here in the last 20 years.Great changes have only occurred in the last couple of years. However,the assessment centres are still overcrowded.And with a crowd you can never obtain good results.Good things do happen though:we have ongoing projects with various NGOs.The orphanages are no longer prisons,our children are free to go out;of course,we keep record of those going out.The little ones have companions when going out for a walk, to the theatre,or to the pictures.We are keen on socializing.We have problems with those who finish school.Protection is only given to teenagers up to l8.We have older youngsters who try by all possible means to be further enrolled in one form of education or another.Some of them graduated a vocational school,others attend high school which they finnish when they are 23 and then enroll in a post high school lest they should leave the Centre.”
One and half month ago,The Assessment Centre nr.12 hired a psychologist to take care of the children”s mental health.Luminita Vespe spends 10 hours a day listening to their problems. ”The greatest problems in an orphanage are the behaviour disorders such as homosexuality,juvenile deliquency and a lot of other behaviour disorders.In an assessment centre as it is conceived at the moment,,kids have a slightly deviant personality.They feel victimized even when they are 21,22 believing that they have more rights than the other people in society.In exchange,they think they have no obligations dreaming that the state is going to give them a house although the others do not enjoy such favours.They overestimate their skills and refuse to work and this is a generalized phenomenon.They wish to be grown-ups all of a sudden,to be celebrities, which would make up for what life didn’t offer them,but they refuse to accept the idea that you have to start from bottom.”
Valerica Popa is one of those older than 18,but he hasn’t finished high school yet.We asked him what he had in mind to do after the baccalureate. ”For the time being,I’m struggling to get a house. After the baccalaureate, I will go to France. I have a chance to work there and after making some money, I will come back home and buy an apartment,not in grand style. As I know several trades, I can arrange it to my liking,depending on the money I will have.And then,I will get married and have a family and I will see how things stand.”
A couple of months ago, the National Agency for Child Rights was set up in Romania under an emergency ordinance.The role of the agency is to coordinate all institutions in charge of children in difficulty,be they children in orphanages,learning in special schools or children undergoing treatment for AIDS,to prevent abuses as far as adoptions are concerned and to have a more rigorous control of the funds allocated to those children.Recently,in Brussels,Romanian education minister Andrei Marga presented a report on the measures taken by the governement to resolve the issue of the institutionalized children.He told us that in a near future,society would have to get actively involved in the life of those children: ”This is the way you can make changes:the family be it a foster one is to be preferred to the institution,which means that we are starting the process of deinstitutionalizing the children in this category.Adoptions are kept under a rigorous legal control,so that any abuses may be prevented.With a view to deinstitutionalization action is also taken for decentralization:local communities become the main forces working to resolve the issue of institutionalized children.It is obvious,there is a lot of work to do to change the outlook of people in the network,but also the realities children live in.In another development,the Rapporteur of the European Commission for Romania,barronness Nicholson said that unfortunately,there were such difficult situations of institutionalized children in other countries too and that in Romania solving the issues related to that situation might be indicative of what is to be done and can be done for the institutionalized children at the moment.”
According to the National Agency for Child rights,13,000 children annually leave the orphanages joining their own families or foster families.Unfortunately,the other children,nobody’s children remain in the assessment centres in the suburbs of the towns, dreaming to become grown-ups overnight…

Together against drugs

The number of high school students in Bucharest who take drugs has doubled in the past five years . If we also take into account potential drug consumers, we can say that the number of drug addicts in high schools has increased four times , as shown in a study conducted by the ‘Save the children’ organisation and the Public Health Department of the Bucharest City hall. According to that study, the temptation of consuming drugs is in direct proportion with age , so high school pupils in the last years of studies are much more vulnerable However, the authorities estimate that more and more underage pupils have started taking drugs, and primary schools have become points of maximum interest for drug dealers - said Gabriela Alexandrescu the president of the Save The children organisation . Recently under a government ordinance , five ministries have set up a commission in charge of implementing the national anti -drug programme . More than 300 policemen , psychologists and physicians will go to schools and high schools to make the children aware of the dangers posed by the so-called white death. Dan Licsandru the coordinator of the inter - ministerial commission, will give us details about the program: “ Our target this year is teenagers because , unfortunately , the statistics show a considerable increase in the number of drug consumers in this age group . On the other hand , we are planning to create a national network of local centers, which can adapt their strategy to local needs. We are in Iasi now and the seventh training meeting of local representatives is in full swing : we have here representatives from the counties of Iasi, Suceava , Botosani and Neamt ( north - eastern Romania ) . Also, on March 15th we launched probably the most important media campaign dealing with social issues. Part of that campaign over 1,500 commercials will be broadcast by the major TV stations over a period of three months and we have already got the approval of local television stations that wish to back our initiative . An impressive amount of materials are already printed and will be distributed to centres all over the country, so that we can draw the attention to the risks posed by drugs “
Concurrently with the national anti - drug programme , the civil society organizes its own prevention centres . The Spiru Haret National College of Bucharest has recently hosted the opening of the Centre for drug consuption prevention. Toma Mares, the president of the International Federation of educational communities said that drug consumption in high schools is a reality we cannot ignore: ‘It is no longer a secret that this phenomenon does exist . We place special emphasis on raising families’ awareness, on making them get involved through discussions, exchange of information, because if a parent does not know what drug consumption entails and does not work with us, the result is a total failure. Brochures and other materials have been issued for some time now. Only getting as many people as possible involved in this campaign we will be able to do something. School alone can not prevent drug consumption .
We talked to four students of the “Spiru Haret” College and asked them why, in their opinion, do teen-agers take drugs. Claudia thinks family problems is the main reason: “Some take drugs just to show off but most of them do that because something goes wrong in their families: many kids have too much money and probably parents that don’t pay enough attention to them. Many do it out of curiosity, they want to try something new… They think taking drugs is fun, it makes you feel great…” The authors of the afore-mentioned study say the main dealers and initiators in drug taking are in most cases friends or acquaintances. The young drug addicts get their drugs from near the high-school, from bars, clubs or from terrace-bars. Marijuana, heroine, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, methadone, solvents, steroids and even hallucinogenic mushrooms – everything is available for sometimes very good money. We asked Alex which are the most popular drugs among teen-agers: “Grass is quite frequent, then there is the ‘powder’, heroine, but I haven’t seen it in our high-school… Also, pills, like Ecstasy… I hear a pot is between 150 and 200 thousand lei (less than 10 Euros). After a while, the pot has no effect and so they resort to to powders, injectable drugs…
The “media shock” that Dan Lixandru talked about is real. Romanian newspapers print almost every day alarming stories that seem like cut from movies: students excusing themselves from classes in order to get their daily dose in the school toilets, used syringes on restroom’s floors, “friendly” dealers ready to lend money or even drugs to their clients. The papers carry interviews with teen-agers that weaned themselves from drugs for the second time. There are talks on drugs and on how we should react when one of our close acquaintances shows signs of addiction. Information campaigns already seem to have an effect on those who haven’t been trapped yet. We asked some teenagers how they would react if they were offered drugs for free, Here are some of the answers we got: “No, thank you, I’m not interested, I don’t think this is good for me”; ”I’d beat his guts off, of course the first dose is for free, everybody knows that. If I don’t want it, he can’t make me do it.” “We know the risks and we wouldn’t do it”.
Sociologist Mariana Nica pulls another alarm signal: “We must be careful how we treat drug consumers, we most not blame them or point fingers, making them feel they’re special cases. We must get closer to them and try to understand their personal drama, we must listen to the SOS the young send to all those around them. We want to write everywhere in capital letters: take care, parents, even if you don’t have these problems now, take care, teachers, even if you don’t have such cases in your classes now; nobody, no child is immune to drugs”.
This topic is painful and so present-day, regardless of the language it is spoken in. We therefore feel compelled to repeat: no one is immune to drugs. Help those who took the way to suicide to come back on the road of life. It depends on us too.

Romanian WEDDINGS BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERN BUSINESS

A mere 1 minute and a half. That is what the ceremony prefacing a life-long marriage will take to complete. Today we’ll give you a vista of modern weddings and how they unfold, such as Romanian young people see and dream about it. Let’s start with the ceremony at the City hall, led by the registry officer:
“Agapi Remus Fanica, do you, of your own free will, marry Jinga Claudia Mihaela?”
“I do.”
“Jinga Claudia Mihaela Do you of your own free will marry Agapi Remus Fanica?”
“I do.”
“I see all the legal conditions for concluding a wedding contract have been fulfilled and I will now read to you what Romanian Family Law provides: the Romanian state defends the lawful marriage and family life. Family is based on the consensual union of spouses. The spouses are equal before the law, both in the relations with each other and in regard of their rights over their children. Parenting rights can only be exercised in the best interests of the children. Family ties are based on mutual friendship and affection among the family’s members who are duty-bound to lend each other mutual moral and financial support. The spouses must be agreed on every aspect of their marriage. Given your willfully expressed consent I hereby declare your husband and wife. Mr Agapi you may now kiss the bride.”

It really is just as simple as that. The complicated things will only start hereafter, because everything costs money. From invitations to the lap flowers, the booking for the marriage ceremony in church and the choir, hiring the cameraman, the dj or the band , the reservation for the restaurant and finding a menu that wouldn’t cost too much because it is usually the guests who pay for what they consume, all that has got to be dealt with as carefully as possible. In most cases, the two families involved have different views on how to organize the whole thing. This is why perhaps it is very much en vogue to hire a catering company to deal with the whole organisation. We asked Carmen Ionita, already a professional in this line of business, about the cost of such a professionally organized wedding: “We have complete packages ranging from 5000 to 50 000 dollars, for 100 people. What we offer is the decoration of the hall, the menu, the limousine, we pay the taxes for wedding service in church. I take the new-weds everywhere and I’m in charge of the whole protocol scenario; I teach the guests how to hold the flowers because the new weds must pass underneath a vault of flowers … there’s some degree of acting directing about the whole thing, so everything will come out perfect; we don’t want any sort of problems and complications.”
It is the godfather who pays for the wedding candles, the bouquets of flowers for the bride and the church fees. The ceremony in church lasts some 30 to 40 minutes and it is usually delivered by at least 2 priests. People say the service should be delivered by as many priests as possible, because the more priests the greater the opening to God’s blessing. In the orthodox church the tradition is that the priest crowns the future spouses with gilded tiaras; next comes the exchange of wedding rings. Burning candles in their hands, the new weds, the god parents and the priests walk around the altar three times. At the end of the ceremony, the new weds are congratulated by the guests. Carmen Ionita will now tell us what happens later on at the restaurant. “The guests are given a champagne reception; the bride and groom and their best maid and man welcome the guests. When the bride and groom enter the ball room, everyone stands up and applauds, they take their seats and here we go, the party is ready to start. The first course is brought in, the cold snacks, followed by a break, and then the dj announces the bride’s waltz. The groom invites the bride to dance and the ball is now officially opened. When they dance they have all the floor to themselves and hundreds of balloons fly around them. Every hour any variety of courses keep coming in: the fish, the minced meat in sauerkraut, the steak and then the cake. A summer menu also includes ice cream. The bride’s cake is usually brought in at 3 in the morning; it is brought in on a huge tray surrounded by fireworks. That is a moment to remember. Then the bride throws back the bouquet. There is this new transatlantic thing that we’ve just imported: the bride takes away one of her garters and throws it to the male guests in attendance. Afterward the godmother takes the bride’s veil and covers her head with a scarf. The veil will be given to the best maid or the girl who grabbed the bouquet - the next most likely bride, as tradition has it. And then the fiddlers start playing Romanian music, folklore music or just the usual stuff that is played at parties, and around 5 in the morning the party draws to a close.
But what will your wedding party look like if you don’t have 5000 dollars. The answer is quite simple as well: it’s either the new weds or their families who will have to take care of every detail. And who knows, sometimes luck comes their way: they may win some promotion competition organized now and then by radio stations or wedding fairs. Alexandra and Cosmin are two of the lucky winners of one such contest: what they won? A wedding party package inclusive of a honey moon trip to the Greek islands. Alexandra will tell us the whole story. “We did want to have a wedding party, but we had no money to do it. So we decided to answer a quiz organized by a private radio station in town. I never really believed I had a chance, but I wrote a letter telling them how I met my husband, about our plans to go to our wedding party in my tiny Volkswagen 500. The editors received some 150 letters, they short-listed 10, took a vote and …we won the contest.”
Because they didn’t want their parents involved in the whole business, Cosmin says they were prepared to go all the length to do it their own way. Their dream was a small party for a private attendance, for parents and best friends alone.
: “The way we saw it at the time, maybe our parents would have been the last to find out about it, and they would only have been invited to attend the party. We had come to think of the cheapest version: find a restaurant where we could hire a room, and bring food and drinks from home, so we would keep some of the money the guests would bring. Winning this competition spared us all the hassle and we were left with the beautiful side of things: looking for the clothes. Alexandra had also won a wedding dress. We also had to buy the rings. Everything was so beautiful. The secret of a successful wedding party is: don’t get your parents involved in the business. The best thing is to have somebody deal with the hassle.”
Just like everywhere in this world, on their wedding, the new spouses receive gifts or money. The tradition in the past was for the god father to cry out the present, of money , certainly, which involved crying out loud just how much each of the guest gave as present. At present, after the cake has been served, the waiters distribute inconspicuous white envelopes where the guests are supposed to put the money for the menu served, and if and where possible, some money for the happy family. A wedding party can turn into a profitable business both for the new weds and the catering company. There are only too few Romanians who can afford a wedding party without gift giving. Stefan, the first of our interviewees, dreams of a large scale wedding party, for 150 guests, at the best restaurant in Bucharest. He wishes to take his bride to church in a chariot with white horses and have white and red roses on all of the tables. For their wedding party, Stefan and Claudia are planning to work abroad for 2 years. Although he will be far from home, Stefan does not want anyone to get involved in his party:
“ I would like to organize the whole thing on my own, because I like to be in charge. I know I’m contemplating a major task, but I really want to take it seriously and I want everything to come out as dreamed. I don’t expect to make a fortune out of the money received as a gift from the guests. I’ll only do that so my friends and my family will be together with me on that very unique day in my life.”

GYPSIES BETWEEN DISREGARD AND CONCERN

Last week we presented the case of the Romany beggars who put the British authorities on the alert. Under the pretext of seeking political asylum, the Romanies coming from Romania are begging, are accosting ladies walking by themselves, and are receiving welfare from the British tax payers. The reasons invoked by the Romanies in their asylum applications are mainly two: the precarious economic situation and the discrimination they are subject to in Romania. Today we’ll try to find out what the real situation of the ethnic Romanies in the Romanian society is.
Until ten years ago, the ethnic Romanies were hardly visible on the social scene. The Communist regime did not care about ethnic origin. The social levelling pushed to the absurd took the Romanies in its grip,a situation they could hardly overcome. Nevertheless, the RomAnies did not give up their customs and traditional social organisation forms. Then, just as now, for the majority population, the Romanies are divided into two categories. The first is that of the Bohemians, those with a gift for music, fortune telling and tinning, who are considered harmless. The second category, much more visible in the eyes of society, is that of those who are not on good terms with the law. Until 1990, the majority and minority conflicts, even if they existed, were solved at the level of the community, without too much fuss in the media.
After the revolution,there emerged a movement of ethnic emancipation of the Romanies, who wanted equal rights to a dignified existence and social esteem. In the last few years, special Romany classes have been set up, Romani language textbooks have been printed, and Romani language departments have been set up in universities. However, the number of drop outs from primary education is very large for economic reasons. Romany families have four children on the average, which makes the parents’ situation quite difficult. The Romany elite of young intellectuals is conducting a sustained campaign for equal opportunities and for the eradication of ethnic discrimination. Our guest today is Vasile Ionescu,a counsellor for Romany problems with the Ministry of Culture. We asked him to tell us about the areas in which young ethnic Romanies are training, and how that helped the community:
‘Many are social welfare students, but we also have students who study philology, law, history, and on the other hand most Romany intellectuals are involved in what we call ‘Civic Associations’, meaning associations that work in the field, that have good relationships with the community. Sometimes I regret not spending more time in a university environment, in libraries, in archives, because we are forced to work in the communities more, to carry out health-care programs, or programs of inter-cultural education. Many of our intellectuals are now going back to the roots . This phenomenon is gratifying and understandable. Until 1990, the Romanies were not recognised as an ethnic or national minority. After the revolution, we can assert our own values and culture, and many return to them gladly, so the number of intellectuals is likely to increase in the future. If in 1990 there were 3 or 4 of us who set up the Romany movement, now there are a few thousand. I don’t know any cases of abandoning the movement, and I know that there are many intellectuals of Romany origin, but being a Romany means to affirm your own culture.’
Deputy Madalin Voicu, the representative of the Romany Party in the Romanian Parliament upholds that the problems raised by the Romany elite are often false perceptions of an economic situation that is bad for everyone:
‘I represent all who understand that the Romanies must adapt themselves,measure up to certain standards and not to be protected. We should rather think of a way to accept our fellow human being with his good parts and this tolerant attitude might ultimately make us forget about the bad parts of each and every one of us. I don’t think that there is a political discrimination of the Romanies in Romania, and I don’t think that there is racism in Romania, except for isolated cases, for people who should be put on downers. I don’t think that there is xenophobia either. There are certain discriminatory attitudes, but I think that they are the effect of hard life in Romania in general. I agree that a lot of gypsies are thieves, robbers, beggars, and so forth, but I have never heard of a gypsy embezzling from a bank or destabilising the national economy. I hear that they stole a wallet, a gas tank or a chicken. I feel dutybound to say that the gypsies’ social misbehaviour is due to their lack of education or civic awareness. I won’t have the member of the majority community chide me for not doing what I’m supposed to. I would rather have the member of the majority show me what he is offering or how he thinks to support the best of us, so that we can jointly convince the worst of us and attract them into leading a civilised life.’
At this time, the ethnic Romanies are confronted with a split. Those who cannot adapt to the market economy live in dire poverty. One of the major problems of the community is that of vaccination against epidemics.Some of those who comply with the social norms would rather forget their ethnic origin. Madalin Voicu told us that the emancipated Romanies repudiated those turning the term gypsy into a derogatory term:
‘There are many politicians and dignitaries, and men of art and culture of Romany origin, who simply refuse to admit it, because of that category of people who have a negative image of our ethnic group. No one can force anyone else to admit their ethnic origin. If a great artist or a politician or a great engineer, or any other personality is of Romany origin, it is needless to say that he is a gypsy, because he is the property of this nation, he is part of the Romanian people, he is part of our heritage. Of course, if you want to speculate this and want to destroy him, you call him a gypsy. Unfortunately, this name has only negative connotations. I am trying to represent both categories. I can’t help it, I have to bear the slaps because of those who steal and have an anti-social attitude, but I have the equal obligation to raise those that want to emancipate. I cannot say that I agree to what the thieves are doing, but I cannot repudiate them either. Many of those who steal do it for survival. Of course that is unacceptable, but it is the reason. I want people to understand that I don’t need to separate the Romanian nation into minorities, I have overcome that stage.’
Deputy Madalin Voicu said that tolerance was the characteristic of a mature nation. The Romanies are not just picturesque characters any more, migrating in colourful waggons from place to place. In Romania in the year 2000 there are isolated cases of racism and xenophobia, rather a football stadium manifestation than one in campuses or institutions. Romanians or Romanies, we are equally responsible for the visiting card that we present to the world. Maybe the proof of maturity must be given by both sides.

Ion Irimescu - a beautiful mind

The “Ion Irimescu” Arts Museum in Falticeni, eastern Romania, is shelter for 300 sculptures, 1000 drawings, and an arts library. But above all it is home to an immortal spirit. Ion Irimescu was born in 1903. His life spans over the entire 20th century. Shortly before he celebrated the venerable age of 100, the sculptor granted us an interview in which we have tried to trace the outstanding life of a man and an artist. In a century long life he has received innumerable awards and distinctions; at their mention he gives an affable smile. He says all his sculptures are nothing but translations of thoughts, memories and imagination into solid matter: “ I’ve always walked about with a notebook in my pocket in which I would put down my impressions and my feelings about the things and the places I saw. I would make sketches of all the wonderful places I have visited in Romania and abroad. I’ve never travelled with a photo camera on me as most people do. I have tried to collect my personal impressions and to turn them into drawings, paintings or sculptures in the light of my understanding of that time. I’ve always thought of my works as very well anchored in reality, as things that last. “
Most of Ion Irimescu’s works are gathered at the museum in Falticeni, but some of them are in private collections or scattered in museums around the world. The sculptor has returned to Falticeni guided by the principle that the first love is the greatest. And Ion Irimescu’s first love is his prime youth: “ As a young man I had the first insights into nature and I was driven by the desire to put those feelings in drawings. I felt the need to make sketches of people and places. It was my first contact with life in the full meaning of the word. Then I entered the school of arts and my life took yet another turn. If until then I had sought to put on paper what I thought, after I entered the school of arts I felt the need to put on paper what I saw. Our teaching material was the human body in its full beauty. I tried to stick to reality, to search for it and not to put a make up on it. I tried to avoid representing an embellished reality as depicted by lots of artists who sought to capture the utmost joy and beatitude in it. I wanted to represent man as a human being born on earth, a being who unlike other creatures made by God, is endowed with reason, has the power to project its own future and doesn’t take everything for granted. “
Music and maternity are two themes recurring almost obsessively in Ion Irimescu’s sculptures and drawing. Perhaps because he has never been content with ways to express these two themes: “ My work springs from a passion that I needed to quell... I passion with which I was born, the passion to inscribe everything I see deep in my memory, to elude oblivion. For this it takes an inborn instinct. If you something is displayed before your eyes for the first time, try to understand what’s behind the manifest, to see beyond what’s apparent: don’t rush to give verdicts, because everything is transforming. You must have the visual capacity to capture an interesting movement of the body, an unusual face, an interesting social aspect to be starting point for your drawings. Any idea can be captured instantly in a sketch. Then comes the processing part in which you can dive deep into certain aspects. Not everybody is able to complete nature, to change certain aspects of nature; only those who are endowed with a creative spirit can do that. It takes more than a mere imitator to do that.”
When I left Ion Irimescu I had a big smile on my face. He told me: “ You see, soon I’ll be 100 years old. You are just a kid. I regret it awfully that I won’t be here when you are 100 years old... I would love to see the world then.” I have realised that behind those apparently light or flattering words, curiosity and passion loom large. The passion of the artist to see the world, to turn thoughts, memories and ideas into art.

A Life Parade

PARADE

“Give it to me! I won’t take it away from you. Give it to me. I won’t throw it away. Here’s the deal: I’ll leave it to you but you won’t sniff it while I’m here. Better give it to me and I’ll give it back to you before I leave. Let me see if you can resist without it. I won’t tear it apart. If you want to give it to me it’s OK, if not… big deal!”
The kid dropped the glue bag but he wasn’t sure he would see it again. He was lured with a tin cup full of Brussels sprouts soup brought down from the kitchen of the Hilton palace. This is Bucharest, July 2001. It’s 20 past 8 in the evening and the caravan of the Parade foundation reaches the Baba Novac square. Here in one of the gutters there are 15 glue sniffers, aged between 14 and 24 years. Let’s meet some of them.
“My parents are divorced. My mother lives here in Bucharest in a rented room. She has no resources to raise me. She can hardly take care of herself. I’ve been living in the streets for the last 10 years.”
“I left home at the age of 7, when my parents told me they would beat me up for having torn the school bag to pieces. And they beat me, so I left home.”
“My father is a glover and made me sell gloves. Had I failed to sell all the gloves he would have beat me with a cable. So I left home because I had had enough of that life.”
All their stories seem to be episodes of cheap soap operas. You have to believe them as there isn’t anyone able to confirm or infirm their stories. For them each day is worst than the previous and a bit better than the next one.
Romanians have often been pointed at by the big powers on this issue. However there are over 250 NGOs in Bucharest alone having as main activity the protection of disadvantaged children and families. Many of them were established by dioceses others are branches of foreign foundations. Children know about them and some even visit them. They have understood that some adults fight for their lives. Here is what one of the glue sniffers in Bucharest told us.
“During the day I go to the Open House foundation. We starts our classes at 9:30 and now we have some extra courses because we are rehearsing for a theatre performance. I play in Hansel and Grettel.”
“We go and wash ourselves in the morning, then we prepare breakfast, we wash our clothes, then we go to school, watch TV, play table tennis. After that we prepare lunch, watch TV again and in the evening we return to the gutters.”





If it weren’t for these foundations, they would probably die of cold, hunger or of an overdose with glue. Their only job is begging. Nevertheless some have had chances for a better life. One day, this man appeared. With a red nose, white make up, dressed in rags, bright yes.. He somehow resembled them, just that he knew how to smile.
Miloud Oukili, a French clown with Annie Fratelinni’s circus school, discovered the street children in 1992 when he came to Romania to perform in shows organised by the Handicap International organisation, in orphanages, hospitals and centres for disabled persons. His red nose and his rucksack were his passport for approaching street children who had forgotten what smile means.
“I had my make up on, the red nose, I was surrounded by flying torches. I was able to show them the magic of entertainment. All children were either pleased, surprised or joyful. It was love at first sight. I was the French clown, the weirdo, for one year and a half. Children managed to see another kind of adult. I wasn’t the doctor, the educator, I was merely the clown. That is how I got close to them. It was easier than showing up and saying “Hello, I’m Bob, I am you tutor.” I realised that a smile could be a pretext for gathering together, an educational starting point, aimed at restoring self dignity. I was shocked by what I saw here at that time but instead of criticising I tried to do something, to get myself involved. True, in 1992 it wasn’t big deal, I only had the enthusiasm of doing something. So I decided to stay here.”
In the evening he used to accompany them to their shelters, at the northern station or in the gutters. He started teaching them some of his tricks, on condition they would go to the primary school. In August 1994 those children participated in the Sighisoara mediaeval festival. “The Parade” was a real success among children and also among the audiences, as all of them were re-discovering smile. The fact of being rewarded with applause, the joy of fulfilling something made some of those children wish for a change in their lives, for not living in the street any longer. So, some of them have made tours of France, Germany and even participated in the Venice carnival.
From January 1996, the abandoned children have an alternative to the street and stray life and to drugs: a day time centre where a social worker, a psychologist, a physician, educators and trainers supervise the various workshops. The visits of the permanent workers of PARADA to the places where these children lead their lives - stations, gutters, blocks’ entrances - are frequent. Thus, the places of refuge can be registered. The truck CARAVAN for emergency cases works day and night on the street to offer emergency assistance to the children. The social flats are shelters for the children and young people who have a real capacity for a complete social integration. At the moment, there are seven social flats, four rooms in student’s hostels and seven rooms in singles’ houses in Bucharest. The flats are kept by the young people who live there under the supervision of a social worker. The groups living together in the apartments are formed by seven to ten members. Up to now, 130 children and teenagers have benefited from these facilities. Another several thousands are still in the street. Milloud Oukili continues: “The homeless children phenomenon is not only a Romanian one, the social handicap of the streets is a disease spread in every society of the world. We can speak of the street of Paris, Rome, Paris, London and Barcelona in the same manner that we speak of the streets of Bucharest. “The Street” has its culture: they have no money, they lack affection and dignity. By protecting the dignity of a homeless child we give him a chance to exist and to integrate himself in society”.