Caroline Swartz
The aftermath of the 1989 Romanian Revolution has been compared to the "Wild West" period of United States frontier expansion between 1850 and 1890. Immediately following the Revolution the influx of foreigners and foreign aid proved impossible to coordinate or control. As the London Sunday Times put it, "New charities sprung up like dandelions in wet grass" (Carol Sarler, "Shame About The Babies," 20 January 1991, 18-30). Well-meaning people with little or no experience in Central and Eastern Europe came to Romania prepared to do anything they could to help. The free-for-all in aid distribution caused confusion and an overlap of efforts. Consequently, orphanages in the northern and western parts of Romania received more aid than they could handle, while many orphanages in other parts of the country received very little.
The popular view that "some help is better than no help at all," spurred an inestimable number of Westerners to travel to Romania with loaded cars and trucks. Material goods flooded through the doors of orphanages with the natural assumption that the children would be relieved of some of their suffering. As more and more foreigners were exposed to the orphanages, stories spread of the vast numbers of institutions and widespread abuse of children. The conditions were appalling, and the response was to provide better equipment, more supplies, and volunteers to lighten the workload of the small number of staff in each facility. Some groups addressing these needs believed that the best solution was for the children to be adopted by foreign families. They assumed that Romanians could not manage adoptions because of their poverty and political instability.
The "AIDS epidemic" further raised the plight of Romania's orphans to the world. Doctors fanned across the country, bringing with them disposable syringes and other AIDS-prevention techniques. People sought to bring any comfort possible to these suffering children as they attempted to understand how such an atrocity could have been overlooked or ignored under Ceausescu's regime.
Now, more than three years later, many still assume that this type of crisis relief and care is what is needed. Yet experience has shown that the roots of the problems lie much deeper than emergency relief can penetrate. Immediate needs are, in most cases, being met with medical supplies, building equipment, and personnel. However, the increasing concern now is that emergency aid progress to a strategy of development.