Orphanages, communist ghettos
Ceausescu's dictatorship killed thousands of children in orphanages. Post-communist samsars made fortunes by selling souls abroad under the authority of the authorities.
In the first days after the fall of communism and then for years in a row, the local but especially the international press made shocking reports about children in Romania suffering from AIDS, about children in orphanages and about the so-called "street children". All of them had in common Ceausescu's camps populated with the souls of the innocent. According to UNICEF, 700 orphanages housed about 100,000 children. The foreign press published hundreds of reports from orphanages in which 60% of children abandoned in maternity hospitals and hospitalized in these ghettos, with very serious disabilities, died after two or three years. Malnutrition and poor health care, lack of drugs or the interest of doctors were the main causes of childhood morbidity. Those who escaped until they became adults and were thrown into the streets from those establishments were left with lifelong sequelae. Some of them managed to find a job and integrate socially, but most were expelled or discriminated against by society, as is still the case today to a large extent with any minority: ethnic, religious, sexual and more. . Others, on the periphery of society, became criminals, victims of the demographic policy of the communist dictatorship that banned abortions. Thousands of children died, thousands of women died who tried to get rid of pregnancy by old methods, some of them downright barbaric. as is still the case today to a large extent with any minority: ethnic, religious, sexual and more. Others, on the periphery of society, became criminals, victims of the demographic policy of the communist dictatorship that banned abortions. Thousands of children died, thousands of women died who tried to get rid of pregnancy by old methods, some of them downright barbaric. as is still the case today to a large extent with any minority: ethnic, religious, sexual and more. Others, on the periphery of society, became criminals, victims of the demographic policy of the communist dictatorship that banned abortions. Thousands of children died, thousands of women died who tried to get rid of pregnancy by old methods, some of them downright barbaric.
In 1990 I went with a colleague from the magazine where I was working at an orphanage in Bucharest on Christmas Eve. The children camped on sweets and clothes bought with the help of colleagues, pulled on sweaters, pants, socks, those who managed to get their hands on an item of clothing ran away and hid under the rusty iron beds. And they never left. Many of them were naked, naked, with only skin and bone. When we wanted to leave, they encamped us in bunches, they held our clothes, they prayed for us to stay. "Take me in your arms, take me home with you," they prayed. Some swayed in one on rusty beds, suffered from autism, behavioral disorders or other mental illnesses. Inside, he smelled of urine, unwashed laundry, and baby sweat.
The orphanages were littered with rats, the children were starving, cold, washed with a cold water hose. But the caregivers took it well, took the food from the children's mouths, and so as not to be interrupted by crocheting, they beat them like animals. After December ’89, trucks with food and clothing from the West began to arrive. Many stopped at the gates of the orphanages. But the children were still starving and naked, because humanitarian aid was being handed over and taken home by the staff of those ghettos, from the director to the caregivers and doctors.
Children in orphanages, a commodity for soul mates
Since 1990, international adoptions of children from orphanages or from poor families have become a business for some lawyers, ad-hoc agencies, officials or "civilians". In the absence of clear legislation, institutionalized children were a commodity for these intermediaries who placed families in Western countries for tens of thousands of dollars. The rapporteur for Romania of the European Union, Baroness Emma Nicholson, declared in the early 2000s, in the foreign press, that in ten years over 30,000 children had been adopted by families from the West. The Sunday Times quoted her at the time as "estimating that selling children, in which they were auctioned off, generated $ 1 billion for officials and intermediaries who acted as facilitators for international adoption agencies."
In 2004, international adoptions were banned by law, following a media scandal caused by child trafficking. However, the decision of the N?stase government led to the situation in which out of the almost 60,000 thousand abandoned or orphaned children, institutionalized or given to foster care, only a tiny percentage were adopted. Romanian families who want to adopt a child have to wait 5-6 years, many of them giving up in the meantime.
Symby for parents against affection for children
Most experts in the field argue that adoption legislation needs to be relaxed, including or especially with regard to international adoptions. Currently, the law stipulates that foreign citizens can adopt a child from Romania only if they are relatives up to the fourth degree with him or if one of the spouses is a Romanian citizen. Those restrictions make international adoptions almost impossible, and legislatures are reluctant to make the conditions for a traumatized child living in an orphanage more likely to be adopted by a family in a European country where they receive what they receive. most absent, namely the condition.
On the other hand, the same experts fear that an uncontrolled, too permissive relaxation of international adoption legislation could lead again, in a poor and corrupt country like Romania, to child trafficking in the 1990s.
An extremely complicated problem, but which could be addressed by the legislative forums, is to find solutions through which the children from the orphanages can be recovered by the family. That is, to be brought home. Of course, many families will never "claim" their children, just as they have not wanted to see them since they left them in the maternity ward. Or since they were admitted to the orphanage. Should poor families be given a symmetry by the state against affectivity? Yes, that's in line with a government decision in early January. In the context in which by the end of the year the deinstitutionalization of children and the abolition of orphanages will be completed, according to the Government Decision, the placement in family or relatives will be encouraged by granting a support allowance of 400 lei per month. How will these families behave with the children for whom they will receive money for the care of their souls? A rhetorical question, of course.
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Dictatura lui Ceau?escu a omorît mii de copii din orfelinate. Samsarii postcomuni?ti au f?cut averi vînzînd suflete în str?in?tate sub obl?duirea autorit??ilor.
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În primele zile dup? c?derea comunismului ?i apoi ani la rînd, presa autohton? dar mai ales cea interna?ional? a realizat reportaje cutremur?toare despre copiii din România bolnavi de SIDA, despre copiii din orfelinate ?i despre a?a numi?ii „copii ai str?zii“. To?i ace?tia aveau în comun lag?rele lui Ceau?escu populate cu sufletele inocen?ilor. Potrivit UNICEF, 700 de orfelinate ad?posteau în jur de 100.000 de copii. Presa str?in? a publicat sute de reportaje din orfelinatele în care 60% dintre copiii abandona?i în maternit??i ?i interna?i în aceste ghetouri, cu handicapuri foarte grave, mureau dup? doi-trei ani. Subnutri?ia ?i asisten?a medical? precar?, lipsa medicamentelor sau a interesului medicilor erau principalele cauze ale morbidit??ii infantile. Cei care sc?pau pîn? la a deveni majori ?i a fi arunca?i în strad? din acele stabilimente r?mîneau cu sechele pe via??. Unii dintre ei reu?eau s?-?i g?seasc? un loc de munc? ?i s? se integreze social, dar cei mai mul?i erau expulza?i sau discrimina?i de societate, a?a cum se întîmpl? ?i acum în bun? m?sur? cu orice minoritate: etnic?, religioas?, sexual? ?i înc? altele. Al?ii, ajun?i la periferia societ??ii, deveneau infractori, victime ale politicii demografice a dictaturii comuniste care interzicea avorturile. Au murit mii de copii, au murit mii de femei care au încercat s? scape de sarcin? prin metode b?be?ti, unele dintre ele de-a dreptul barbare.
În 1990 am mers cu un coleg de la revista la care lucram la un orfelinat din Bucure?ti în ajunul Cr?ciunului. Copiii au t?b?rît pe dulciurile ?i hainele cump?rate cu sprijinul colegilor, tr?geau de pulovere, de pantaloni, de ciorapi, cei care reu?eau s? pun? mîna pe un obiect de îmbr?c?minte fugeau ?i se ascundeau sub paturile de fier roase de rugin?. ?i nu mai ie?eau de acolo. Mul?i dintre ei erau dezbr?ca?i, goi-pu?c?, numai piele ?i os. Cînd am vrut s? plec?m, au t?b?rît pe noi ciorchine, ne ?ineau de haine, se rugau s? mai st?m. „Ia-m? în bra?e, ia-m? cu tine acas?“, se rugau. Unii se leg?nau într-una pe paturile ruginite, sufereau de autism, de tulbur?ri de comportament sau de alte boli psihice. În?untru mirosea a urin?, a rufe nesp?late ?i a transpira?ie de copil.
Orfelinatele erau împînzite de ?obolani, copiii sufereau de foame, de frig, erau sp?la?i cu furtunul cu ap? rece. Îngrijitoarele îns? o duceau bine, luau mîncarea de la gura copiilor, iar ca s? nu fie întrerupte din cro?etat îi b?teau ca pe animale. Dup? decembrie ’89, au început s? soseasc? tiruri cu alimente ?i haine din Occident. Multe opreau la por?ile orfelinatelor. Dar copiii tot înfometa?i ?i dezbr?ca?i r?mîneau, pentru c? ajutoarele umanitare erau dosite ?i duse acas? de personalul acelor ghetouri, de la director la îngrijitoare ?i medici.
Copiii din orfelinate, o marf? pentru samsarii de suflete
Înc? din 1990 adop?iile interna?ionale ale copiilor din orfelinate sau provenind din familii s?race au devenit o afacere pentru unii avoca?i, agen?ii înfiin?ate ad-hoc, oficialit??i sau persoane „civile“. În lipsa unei legisla?ii clare, copiii institu?ionaliza?i erau o marf? pentru ace?ti intermediari care îi plasau familiilor din ??rile occidentale contra a zeci de mii de dolari. Raportorul pentru România al Uniunii Europene, baroana Emma Nicholson, declara la începutul anilor 2000, în presa str?in?, c? în zece ani peste 30.000 de copii au fost înfia?i de familii din Occident. Publica?ia „Sunday Times“ o cita la vremea respectiv? c? „a estimat c? vînzarea de copii, în care ace?tia erau sco?i la licita?ie, a generat un miliard de dolari pentru oficialii ?i intermediarii care au ac?ionat ca facilitatori pentru agen?iile de adop?ii interna?ionale“.
În 2004, adop?iile interna?ionale au fost interzise prin lege, în urma unui scandal mediatic provocat de traficul de copii. Decizia guvernului N?stase a dus îns? la situa?ia în care din cei aproape 60.000 de mii de copii abandona?i sau orfani, institu?ionaliza?i sau da?i în grija asisten?ilor maternali, doar un procent infim au fost adopta?i. Familiile din România care vor s? adopte un copil trebuie s? a?tepte ?i 5-6 ani, multe dintre acestea renun?înd între timp.
Simbrie pentru p?rin?i contra afec?iunii pentru copii
Cei mai mul?i exper?i în domeniu sus?in c? legisla?ia adop?iilor trebuie relaxat?, inclusiv sau mai ales în ceea ce prive?te adop?iile interna?ionale. În momentul de fa??, legea prevede c? cet??enii str?ini pot adopta un copil din România doar dac? sînt rude de pîn? la gradul patru cu acesta sau dac? unul dintre so?i este cet??ean român. Restric?iile respective fac aproape imposibile adop?iile interna?ionale, iar forurile legiuitoare ezit? s? fac? mai permisive condi?iile în care un copil care tr?ie?te traumatizat într-un orfelinat s? aib? ?ansa de a fi adoptat de o familie dintr-o ?ar? european? în care s? primeasc? ceea ce i-a lipsit cel mai mult, anume afec?iunea.
Pe de alt? parte, aceia?i exper?i se tem c? o relaxare necontrolat?, prea permisiv? a legisla?iei adop?iilor interna?ionale ar putea duce din nou, într-o ?ar? s?rac? ?i corupt? cum este România, la traficul de copii din anii ’90.
O problem? extrem de complicat?, dar care ar putea fi abordat? de forurile legiuitoare, este aceea de a g?si solu?ii prin care copiii din orfelinate s? fie recupera?i de familie. Adic? s? fie adu?i acas?. Sigur c? multe familii nu î?i vor „revendica“ niciodat? copiii, la fel cum nu au vrut s?-i mai vad? de cînd i-au p?r?sit în maternitate. Sau de cînd i-au internat la orfelinat. S? li se dea familiilor s?race de c?tre stat o simbrie contra afectivit??ii? Da, asta prevede o hot?rîre a guvernului de la începutul lui ianuarie. În contextul în care pîn? la sfîr?itul anului se va finaliza dezinstitu?ionalizarea copiilor ?i desfiin?area orfelinatelor, conform Hot?rîrii de Guvern, se va încuraja plasamentul în familie sau la rude prin acordarea unei indemniza?ii de sprijin de 400 de lei lunar. Cum se vor purta oare aceste familii cu copiii pentru care vor primi bani pentru îngrijirea sufletelor lor? O întrebare retoric?, desigur.