When I started working in this field, there was nothing: there were no social workers, there was no question of deinstitutionalization, there was no foster care system, there were only institutions for children. At that time, for an abandoned child or one who came from a family with difficulties, the classic solution was placement in an institution.
I started working in this field effectively at zero point, that is, in December 1989. Then I received my assignment to the Children's Cradle in Onești, a place that was still called Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej at that time. I was assigned as a pediatrician, half the time at the children's cradle and the other half divided between the six nurseries of the city. On December 26, 1989, Decree 770 was repealed and while some were waving flags in the street, I received my housing assignment in Onești.
At the cradle level, there were all kinds of social-political movements. The director who had been in office when I arrived there retired, and that was pretty much the movement: people were resigning, retiring, or being dismissed from their positions. Then there were a couple of interims, but there were some very socially turbulent moments. And then, in April, they appointed me. I received this question from the County Health Directorate, whether I was willing to take over the directorship of the cradle, because the situation was chaotic in the institution and it was considered an advantage that I was from another city, Brașov, that I was young and a doctor, that I was not associated with the communist regime, that I did not know the team there, so I was objective, that I had graduated from a faculty that was relevant for that position. However, I found the proposal somewhat surprising, because I did not meet a lot of the conditions to become a director, primarily seniority. Some exemptions were requested from the ministry and, on April 1, 1990, I became the director of the daycare.