Romania’s large number of orphans were the result of a devastating combination of factors. The first was state-directed social engineering aimed at generating human capital. When Ceausescu took power in 1965, Romania had a declining birth rate and one of the highest rates of abortions and divorce in eastern Europe.
Why did the Romanian government create an orphanage system?
In aiming to create a race of Romanian worker bees, his policies precipitated the abandonment of thousands of children each year. Because parents could not afford to raise children, the state orphanage system grew. Many parents believed the state could better take care of their children.
Why are there so many orphans in Bucharest?
The U.S. Consul in Bucharest at the time, Virginia Carson Young, noted that many of the children were not actually orphans, but were in fact children who had parents unable to afford such large families, with such a situation being created by the mandated natalist requirements.
Are Romanian orphans still living in the sewers?
Now, 25 years on, these orphans have been found still living rough in underground sewers throughout the country. A homeless man living in the sewers below the Romanian capital of Bucharest wakes from his slumber on a filthy mattress. Thousands of people raised in the country's notorious orphanages of the 1980s now live in underground slums
What happened to Romanian orphans in 1990?
A woman smokes a cigarette in the underground slum, where hundreds of people live near Bucharest central train station Romanian orphans, pictured in 1990, line up for food in one of the country's many neglected orphanages. These images sent shockwaves across the world when they were broadcast following the collapse of the communist regime
What happened to the orphans of Romania?
Healthy children went to orphanages until they were six and were then sent to facilities run by the Education Ministry, where they received some schooling. But those with disabilities, illness, or physical differences, were dispatched to separate facilities: Homes for the Deficient and Unsalvageable.
Why are there so many homeless children in Romania?
Unemployment and the extremes of income inequality are some of the causes behind the phenomenon of street children in countries like Russia, Romania and Ukraine.
What happened to Romania's abandoned children?
Although Romania is now on the cusp of becoming orphanage free, the legacy of these harsh institutions still casts a long shadow. The children rescued by charities such as Fara are now adults with stories of heartbreak and hope. Iuliana Georgiana, now 29, was placed in an orphanage when she was six.
Which country has the highest number of orphans?
Asia holds the largest number of orphaned children, at 71 million – India alone is home to 31 million orphans. This is followed by Africa, which harbors 59 million. 3. Each day, 39,000 children are forced from their homes alone because of the death of a parent, family illness or abuse and abandonment.
Do Romanian orphanages still exist?
Although Romania is now on the cusp of becoming orphanage free, the legacy of these harsh institutions still casts a long shadow. The children rescued by charities such as Fara are now adults with stories of heartbreak and hope. Iuliana Georgiana, now 29, was placed in an orphanage when she was six.
Why are there so many orphans in Ukraine?
There are more than 100,000 children living in orphanages in Ukraine. In most cases orphans are abandoned by their own family due to lack of finances to support them, however, other reasons include alcoholism, abuse, crime illness, and poor medical health.
Why did Romania ban adoption?
In 2001, Romania placed a moratorium on international adoptions, and officially banned the practice four years later, citing widespread corruption in adoption practices across borders.
Why do babies in orphanages not cry?
Residential homes are especially damaging for very young children (0 – 3 years), as they do not provide the child an opportunity to bond with one constant (primary) attachment figure. In those residential homes for children across Ghana, babies have learnt not to cry because they realised no one will comfort them.
Why does Russia have many orphans?
Russian doctors often push mothers to abandon disabled newborns to the state. The result is growing numbers of orphans, two years after Russia imposed a ban on American adoptions.
What is the easiest country to adopt from?
According to the list, China is the number one easiest country to adopt from. This is due to their stable and predictable program. Adopting is a life-changing decision.
What country is most in need of adoption?
China. China is the country with the highest population, and Americans have continually chosen to adopt children from China over other countries. In 1992, China began its own international adoption program and since has become one of the world's most searched for and most stable international programs.
When did the US stop orphanages?
By the 1950s, more children lived in foster homes than in orphanages in the United States, and by the 1960s, foster care had become a government-funded program. Since then, U.S. orphanages have gone extinct entirely.
Why were there so many Romanian orphans in 1989?
An estimated 100,000 Romanian children were in orphanages at the end of 1989, when communism ended. The high number is linked to the pro-family policies pursued by former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In 1966, the regime banned abortions and contraceptives to keep the population from shrinking after World War II.
Can you adopt a child from Romania?
Who Can Be Adopted. Because Romania is party to the Hague Adoption Convention, children from Romania must meet the requirements of the Convention in order to be eligible for adoption.
What was the Romanian Orphan study?
In 1989 Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was overthrown, and the world discovered that 170,000 children were being raised in Romania's impoverished institutions. As the children's plight became public, Fox, Nelson and Zeanah realized they had a unique opportunity to study the effects of early institutionalization.
Are there alot of orphanages in Ukraine?
Although orphanages are fewer and smaller, there are still a lot of children in orphanages. Orphan's Hope continues to be a light for kids in the orphanages who haven't been able to be taken into a home. There are 750 orphanages all over Ukraine with about 10,000 orphans leaving the orphanages every year.
Who was the first British journalist to visit Romanian orphanages?
In January 1990, Daily Mail reporter Bob Graham was one of the first British journalists to visit a Romanian orphanage in Bucharest. This trip unraveled the troubled history of Romanian orphanages. “Usually, when you enter a room packed with cots filled with children, the expectation is lots of noise, chatter or crying, sometimes even a whimper,” he said in an interview with Public Radio International in 2015. “There was none, even though the children were awake. They lay in their cots, sometimes two to each cot, sometimes three, their eyes staring. Silently. It was eerie, almost sinister.”
How many children grow up in Romanian foster homes?
The state pays Romanian foster parents a salary to rear children. There are also ‘family-type’ homes, where five or six children grow up together. In regards to the more problematic, remaining institutional buildings–called placement centers–the government has made a public commitment to close them all by 2020.
Why did Ceausescu abandon children?
In aiming to create a race of Romanian worker bees, his policies precipitated the abandonment of thousands of children each year. Because parents could not afford to raise children, the state orphanage system grew.
What was the relief effort after the collapse of the Iron Curtain?
The impassioned relief effort provided things such as blankets, powdered milk and toys. However, little improvement was actually made in the decade following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Much of what defined the old, corrupt regime bled into the new government. Consequently, this interrupted any progress and left the abject conditions of orphans unaddressed.
When did Graham expose the orphanages?
Journalists like Graham began to expose the nightmarish history of Romanian orphanages in December 1989. Their reports broke the hearts of the international community. As the haunting details of such places began to emerge, so did numerous charities, fundraising activities and adoption efforts.
Which dictator enacted pronatalist laws to fuel his belief that population growth would lead to economic growth?
The last Communist leader of Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu, took a page out of the 1930s Stalinist dogma and enacted pronatalist laws to fuel his belief that population growth would lead to economic growth. In October 1966, Decree 770 was enacted. It forbade both abortion and contraception for women under 40 with fewer than four children.
When was Constantinescu elected?
When Emil Constantinescu was elected in 1997, however, a period of greater reform ushered in. Under his government, services were implemented that helped his countries’ parentless, such as establishing a new Child Protection Authority and promoting foster care. Since then, the system has made vast improvements.
Why did the Romanian government build children's houses?
As tens of thousands of poverty-stricken Romanians struggled to look after their swelling families, the regime erected dozens of 'children's houses' and embarked on a campaign to present them as a viable alternative to the traditional family. The message delivered to parents was simple: the state can take better care of your child than you can.
When were Romanian children adopted?
Once the world learned their stories, thousands of Romanian children were adopted by foreign families, from the US to the UK, in the late '90s and early 2000s. Although, media has since reported the struggles of many to cope with the additional needs caused by their early neglect.
How many children were relinquished during the Ceaușescu regime?
It's estimated that roughly half a million children were relinquished during the Ceaușescu regime's 24-year reign.
What were the facilities that children were sent to?
Healthy children went to orphanages until they were six and were then sent to facilities run by the Education Ministry, where they received some schooling. But those with disabilities, illness, or physical differences, were dispatched to separate facilities: Homes for the Deficient and Unsalvageable.
How many Romanian children were studied?
The American team, led by scientists from the University of Maryland and Tulane University, studied 136 Romanian children, aged between six and 31 months, who had been in orphanages since birth. Half remained there, while the other half were dispatched to foster families that had been recruited and trained by the researchers.
What were the problems that remained in the institutions?
Those who remained in the institutions experienced profound problems: delays in cognitive function, motor development and language and deficits in socio-emotional behaviours. They also experienced more psychiatric disorders.
What did the children of the savages eat?
They survived largely on meals of boiled cabbage and meagre portions of bread and cheese.
When did people come to Romania?
In early 1990, people began coming in quite large numbers to Romania. At one point, they were allowed entry into virtually any orphanage. They could just roam through and say, “I like that one and that one.” Then there began to be some really awful stories of almost auctions, bidding wars. Nationality was pitted against nationality and couple against couple. But, for the most part, there were plenty of children and adoptions proceeded relatively quickly.
What did Ceauşescu say about Romania?
So Ceauşescu then said, “Okay, here are the people, they are free to go.” What our Congress and officials in this country never said was that they wanted people free to emigrate, but only the people that we can accept under our law would be admitted into the U.S. Romanians had not traditionally been immigrants to the United States, so we did not have the family relationships established, with a pull factor from this country that would bring in relatives. Virtually none of the people allowed to depart Romania qualified under our immigration laws.
What were the conditions of Nicolae Ceauşescu's reign?
The despotic reign of Romania’s Nicolae Ceauşescu caused deplorable living conditions for Romanians and left its most vulnerable citizens – abandoned children — to be literally warehoused. Orphanages were overrun due to Ceauşescu’s policy of making abortions and contraception illegal while also practically forcing women to have at least four or five children. Most could simply not afford to keep their children and orphanages were unable to adequately care for the children placed there. Around 180,000 children lived in inhumane conditions – no heat, poor clothing, little food, and little health care. HIV became rampant due to a misguided belief in blood transfusions and a lack of proper medical care.
Why did HIV become rampant?
HIV became rampant due to a misguided belief in blood transfusions and a lack of proper medical care. After Ceauşescu was deposed and the issue was highlighted on news shows like 20/20 and 60 Minutes, thousands of Americans went to the country to adopt.
How many officers did the INS send to Romania?
INS sent out 7 officers, none of whom spoke Romanian, none of whom had been in the country before. They hired interpreters, rented cars and went whizzing off into different parts of the country to interview the birth mother of a given child.
Why did we create third country refugee processing?
Because we wanted to grant MFN status, to make a point, we created third-country refugee processing (which was a misnomer. To qualify as a refugee, one would normally have to be in a third country and establish that you have a well-founded fear of persecution, if you were obliged to return to your own country).
How many people were processed by Ceauşescu?
There were still several thousand people who could be processed but who couldn’t get passports to leave the country. At the same time, there were probably 3000 people to whom Ceauşescu had given passports but who weren’t registered with us and didn’t qualify under even our generous refugee policy.
What did Ceauşescu do to help the children?
To house a generation of unwanted or unaffordable children, Ceauşescu ordered the construction or conversion of hundreds of structures around the country. Signs displayed the slogan: the state can take better care of your child than you can. At age 3, abandoned children were sorted.
What happened to Nicolae Ceaușescu?
This past Christmas Day was the 30th anniversary of the public execution by firing squad of Romania’s last Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, who’d ruled for 24 years. In 1990, the outside world discovered his network of “child gulags,” in which an estimated 170,000 abandoned infants, children, and teens were being raised. Believing that a larger population would beef up Romania’s economy, Ceaușescu had curtailed contraception and abortion, imposed tax penalties on people who were childless, and celebrated as “heroine mothers” women who gave birth to 10 or more. Parents who couldn’t possibly handle another baby might call their new arrival “Ceauşescu’s child,” as in “Let him raise it.”
What did Onisa ask Izidor?
The next morning, Onisa asked Izidor if he wanted to go to work with her or to stay with her children. Here he made a mistake so terrible that, 31 years later, he still remembers it with grief.
When did Izidor return to Romania?
At 20, in 2001, Izidor felt an urgent desire to return to Romania. Short on cash, he wrote letters to TV shows, pitching the exclusive story of a Romanian orphan making his first trip back to his home country. 20/20 took him up on it, and on March 25, 2001, a film crew met him at the Los Angeles airport.
Why do babies sucking from bottles?
Well past the age when children in the outside world began tasting solid food and then feeding themselves, he and his age-mates remained on their backs, sucking from bottles with widened openings to allow the passage of a watery gruel. Without proper care or physical therapy, the baby’s leg muscles wasted.
Did the cement fortress have children?
The cement fortress emitted no sounds of children playing, though as many as 500 lived inside at one time. It stood mournfully aloof from the cobblestone streets and sparkling river of the town where Elie Wiesel had been born, in 1928, and enjoyed a happy childhood before the Nazi deportations.
Did the nannies donate sweaters to the children?
By then, donations had started to come in from charities around the world. Little reached the children, because the staff skimmed the best items, but on that day, in deference to the American, nannies put donated sweaters on the kids. Though the children seemed excited to be the center of attention, Upton and his Romanian assistant found it slow-going. Some didn’t speak at all, and others were unable to stand up or to stand still. When the filmmakers asked for the children’s names and ages, the nannies shrugged.
When were Romanian orphans pictured?
Romanian orphans, pictured in 1990, line up for food in one of the country's many neglected orphanages. These images sent shockwaves across the world when they were broadcast following the collapse of the communist regime
Where is the hospital where the orphans were emaciated?
A group of emaciated and cold orphans share a bed in Stefan Nicolau Hospital, in Bucharest, 1990
What were the conditions in the orphanages after the death of the sailor?
But the most shocking details to emerge after his death were the conditions in the country's orphanages - where thousands of emaciated and diseased babies were found slowly dying in filth infested cradles.
What happened to children in 1989?
Children such as these were sent to state institutions on the communist leader's orders but were left shamefully neglected and abused. A group of babies pictured in 1989, many of whom are ill or handicapped, share a cot at one of the country's orphanages.
When did Nicolae Ceausescu's regime end?
Nicolae Ceausescu was Head of State from 1967 to 1989. His regime was ended in 1989 during the Romanian revolution which saw the violent removal of the communist government.
Who took the pictures of the sewers in Bucharest?
These photographs were taken by visual artist Dani Gherca, 27, who spent three years getting know the 100 or so inhabitants of a particular sewer next to Central Station in Bucharest.
Do the survivors of the rat war still live?
All grown up, but still without homes or family, these survivors continue to live among the rats and filth while battling serious drug addictions.
Why are there so many orphans in Ukraine?
Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe, achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. This independence brought joy as well as instability and economic turmoil. The economy is growing, but millions of people still live in poverty across Ukraine today. Often, children experience the worst effects of this instability and economic turmoil.
Why are children in Ukraine orphaned?
Illness & poor medical care – Resulting in early death of their parents, many children in Ukraine become orphans due to lack of access to healthcare. Other social problems – Abuse and neglect leads to children living in Ukrainian orphanages, where some are taken by Social Services to provide them with a safe environment.
What percentage of Ukrainian orphans end up in prison?
Because many orphans have nowhere else to turn, 60-70% of Ukrainian orphans become involved in prostitution and organized crime. Twenty percent of children graduating from internats at age 16 end up in prison. Ten percent go on to commit or attempt suicide.
What is Hope Now?
Hope Now partners with local organizations and churches, along with international donors, in order to care for orphans while they are in the orphanage and after graduation. Our Orphan Sponsorship and Orphan Graduate Programs are designed to love these children, provide basic necessities, and give them supportive communities. Our mission is to bring hope to these children in the bleakest of circumstances.
How old do orphans have to be to leave Ukraine?
Around the age of 16 , orphans in Ukraine must leave the orphanage. There is no funding for them to remain, and most leave without the basic skills to protect or provide for themselves. These orphan graduates face a grim future, as they are left to fend for themselves in a world that is not welcoming to them and for which they are vastly unprepared.
What happened to Ukraine in 2014?
War in the East - Since 2014, Ukraine has been in conflict with Russia. Thousands have been killed in this conflict, leaving orphans and widows behind.
Why do orphans die?
Every three days an orphan with a disability dies, usually because they don’t get the necessary medical attention.
What happened to the orphanages in Romania after 1982?
But after 1982, when Ceaușescu redirected most of the budget to paying off the national debt, the economy tanked and conditions in the orphanages suffered. Electricity and heat were often intermittent, there were not enough staff, there was not enough food. Physical needs were assessed, emotional needs were ignored.
What did Romania's neglected children represent?
Along with western money came psychologists and behavioural scientists. Romania’s neglected children represented a tragic experiment in what happens to institutionalised children denied the stimulation of normal human relationships. Michael Rutter, the UK’s first professor of child psychology, discovered that the time it took for the children to catch up to their peer group in terms of development, was relative to the amount of time spent in an institution.
What was the revolution against Ceauşescu?
A s much as the revolution against Ceauşescu was a popular uprising, it was also a palace coup. There was an overlap between the old regime and the new government – securitate members got rich, functionaries in ministries continued to be self-serving and incompetent. “Romania lost a decade,” a prominent magazine editor in Bucharest told me. Things began to change in 1997, when Emil Constantinescu replaced Iliescu (although Iliescu would be elected again, serving from 2000-2004). Constantinescu ushered in a period of greater reform. His government established a new Child Protection Authority, promoted the “family-type” apartments and introduced foster care, which had never existed in Romania. The EU made reform one of the explicit conditions of Romania joining, and spent money on training foster parents and renovating accommodation for children in care. Mirela Oprea remembered the impact of the EU’s declaration that membership would be tied to the way Romania treated its abandoned children. “You cannot imagine the huge pressure created by such a statement,” she told me. “It became a political issue. There was something amazing about this that still gives me goosebumps.”
What were the supplies of Romania in the 1990s?
In the early 1990s western charities and NGOs rushed in to Romania with supplies of blankets, powdered milk and toys. Many children were scooped up by western parents in a rescue-adoption frenzy. Orphanages got basic necessities, but the culture remained unchanged. The importance of play, of interaction and communication, of care, was not yet understood.
How many children were abandoned in Romania in 1989?
No one knows how many. Estimates for the number of children in orphanages in 1989 start at 100,000 and go up from there.
When were Ceausescu's children exposed?
Photograph: Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images. Romania, children in an orphanage in mid 1990s. Photograph: Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images. When they were first exposed in 1989, Romania’s orphanages shocked the world.
When did Romania ban condoms?
In 1977 all childless persons, regardless of sex or martial status, were made to pay an additional monthly tax. In the 1980s condoms and the pill, although prohibitively expensive, began to become available in Romania – so they were banned altogether. Motherhood became a state duty.
