Jurnalul National Article

Article from Jurnalul National Monday, June 5, 2006.
Author: Alex Nedea

BABIES KEPT ILLEGALLY IN ORPHANAGES

In spite of the fact that the law forbids the institutionalization of children under two years of age, in Buzau babies are kept in orphanages because of the lack of maternal assistants (fosterparents). Psychologically healthy children are kept with those who have disabilities and who mutilate themselves. Psychologists have called attention to the fact that these little ones will imitate the behavior of those around them. One little one who is here was beaten from the time that she was in her mother's womb. She got used to being kicked and beaten and only after that did she get used to air and light. This torture remained somehow in her blood and if she wasn't beaten by someone she mutilated herself. Therefore, she was kept tied at all times in an orphanage in Focsani. Until she was 12, she was tied with ropes. Last year she was transferred to the Complex for Children with Severe Handicaps Number 8 in Buzau. The County Council invested over six billion lei ($200,000) between 2001 and 2003. The girl could have participated much earlier in a series of treatments that for most orphanages for children with disabilities in this country seem to be the fantasies of science fiction: hydrotherapy, aroma therapy, music therapy, light therapy, kinetic therapy, motorskills therapy. Last year (2005) the girl learned to take her first steps.

Thirty six children between the age of 0 and 18 years live at "Number 8". In a large room with many toys, children of various ages play together. Stefan, age 16, draws on the blackboard. Stefan has huge scars on his hands, he bites himself. When one wound is not quite healed, he makes another. Next to him, a six year old girl, Andreea, write numbers from 1 to 10. She is mentally healthy. It is only the fact that she has some birth defects at her hips that causes her to learn next to this boy who abuses himself and who repeats himself obsessively. Children with slight and mild retardation play together with those who are severely retarded. A psychologist for the organization Save the Children, Andrea Biji, calls attention to the fact that, "It is contra-indicated that these psychologically healthy children should be together with those who have severe mental retardation. The healthy children have a tendency to adopt the behavior of the mentally retarded ones." The directress of orphanage Number 8, says however, opinions are divided on this matter. She said, "I believe that these children who are severely mentally retarded can be associated without problems together with those who are more developed psychologically. If we isolate those with severe mental deficiencies, they don't gain as much."

ILLEGAL

Although law 272/2004 forbids the institutionalization of children under 2 years of age who have no severe handicap, at orphanage Number 8, there are six babies kept there only because there are a lack of professional mothers (maternal assistants/foster parents). The directress, Anca Bistriceanu, says, "The majority of these children could be placed with maternal assistants, but there are no maternal assistants available in Buzau county." In this county, the number of maternal assistants is so small that each one has on average three children in foster care.

We managed to get into a large room where the children were having their nap time. However, only one of the seven was sleeping. One little boy was so ill that all his skin was blue. The veins on his face could be seen more clearly than the veins on a leaf. He is here merely in order to "put on weight". At the age of one year, he managed to pass 6.5 pounds in weight. He has a heart problem that necessitates surgical intervention, which will be possible only when he weighs at least 13 pounds. His parents brought him here because they didn't think they could take care of him. They said they would take him home after the operation.

Next to this little boy, in another bed, is a little girl Cristina, age 5, whose eyes are fixed on the ceiling. She suffers from a congenital disease which is characterized by the failure of the bones of her extremities to continue to grow in contrast to those of her head and trunk. But her disease shouldn't have stopped her from growing up in a normal family. There is also another boy whose only problem is a hydrocele (an easily operable condition). Marilena and Gabi, both two years old, are also here and they are only mildly retarded.

In this orphanage of 36 children, there are 57 people employed; a physical therapist, a kinetic therapist, a tutor, a neuropsychiatry specialist, 16 teachers and 10 supervisors. These people work 5 to a shift and the directress says that this is sufficient. She added, "We also have a security guard who helps the employees when the children become aggressive."

WE WON'T SEE MUCH PROGRESS UNTIL AT LEAST THE SUMMER

At Orphanage Number 1 in Buzau, an orphanage for social and medical recuperation for children ages 0 - 3 years, we found 27 children. All of them are over 2 years of age because in 2004, this orphanage came to be funded by the PHARE program which forbids this orphanage from receiving anymore children. Thus, all babies who would have come here, are redirected to orphanage Number 8. Sorina, age 3, has Downs Syndrome. In these cases, physical therapy is vital. Proper treatment of children with Downs Syndrome can help them live a relatively normal life and to even have a job. Pediatrician Constanta Popescu Murgoci, specialist in the treatment of Downs Syndrome children says,"If these children do not get the proper therapies and especially physical therapy, they will rapidly become obese, isolated, and their isolation will remove them from a normal social life. Many of them also suffer from spinal problems which can lead to paralysis. This is because their musculature is poorly developed. However, in Orphanage Number 1 where Sorina stays, there is no physical therapist, and Orphanage Number 1 must appeal to Orphanage Number 8 for help. Veronica Draghici, the head of this center, told us, "It is very difficult for one person to handle both orphanages. Each should have its own physical therapist." She sighed and added, "We're not going to see much progress until at least the summer." She further told us that, "In the summer, this orphanage is to closed and the children will be moved to two apartments. CPS told us they received314,000 Euros for this project from PHARE." The assistant director for CPS Buzau, Carmen Nutulescu, enthusiastically told us, "We will come up to European standards." In these apartments there will be1 employee for every 2 patients and the children will stay three to a room instead of six to a room.

BEGGING FOR FOOD

At the time of our visit to "Number 1", some of the children were outside with some supervisors. Others were playing inside. We did find one child in a dormitory room. A little girl with hydroencephalitis was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. The directress told us that she also was taken outside from time to time. Her mother does come to visit on weekends. The greatest problem at Orphanage Number 1, is that the allocation of food is very small for these children. The head of the orphanage admitted, "One third of these children have need of special diet, which of course is more costly. They also need a special kind of milk." Two dollars per day is all the money the state allots for food per child, no matter what the needs of the child are. The last increase was in 2005, but in that year alone the price of butter doubled. Finding themselves completely broke, the employees of CPS Buzau now have a new obligation on their job description. The directress added, "We now have to beg. We mostly beg from the Swiss who have given us several hundred dollars, and even so striving as hard as we do in begging, foreign subsidies only cover about 10% of our expenses."

VISITS ARE INSPECTIONS

It seemed like we had wrung the nose of the directress of CPS Buzau, Cecilia Manolescu, when we told her we wanted to visit Orphanage Number 14 in Ramnicu Sarat, an orphanage for handicapped children. She replied, "Do you really want to visit Number 14? There are many orphanages in Ramnicu Sarat, whyNumber 14?" "Why not," we replied. "Is it a little uglier?" "It's a little uglier," she replied sarcastically, repeating our words. After about an hour, we arrived in the courtyard of the institution. The children were in school. We went to the second grade class. It's hard to determine which of the 14 students are boys and which are girls since they all look alike and their hair is all cut short. The children gathered around the directress and stood in line in order to hug her.The woman smiled from ear to ear at the camera that was pointed at her. From time to time you suddenly wake up with one or two of these children stuck to you as if they have known you their whole life. One of them, Dan, an eleven year old boy, came close to me and said, "You're handsome, Mr. Will you give me your pen?" He is dressed in dirty clothes. His sneakers are split at the toe but the liner stops his toes from poking through. "Take your and off of me," Florentina said to him. Florentina is a beautiful little girl and the only one in the class who has long hair. Florentina and Dan were a couple for a short time, but they split up because she's 13 and he's only 11. "It's not good when the girl is older than the boy," she told us. She now has a boyfriend who is 16. Dan appears to be unaffected by her decision. With all the vanity of a man, he tells us in a loud voice so that she can hear, "I have another girl friend and Florentina is just jealous." We asked him,"How do you know what jealousy is?" After shrugging his shoulders several times, he responded that the older boys taught him. The children in second grade only have morning classes. However, in the afternoon they also meet at school. The teacher plays all kinds of games with them. She has become like an older sister to the children and they tell her all of their complaints. In this way one finds out who has argued with whom. Or they exchange roles and drag the teacher to the blackboard. You ought to see either satisfaction at this.

We asked the directress why so many of the children were dressed in clothes that are not even allowed to be sold in second hand stores. She gave us a typically Romanian explanation. "This is the afternoon program. It's like at home--house clothes." She is also ready to show us their good clothes. The children's clothing is obtained via public auction and is given out proportionately. In this way, throughout the year, a child is supposed to receive two pairs of pajamas, five pairs of underwear, a pair of shoes and a jacket every two years. The total value of these clothes is not allowed to be more than $90. Sponsors are not lining up to help the children who have health problems. One of the doctors at CPS observed, "Our sponsors are for soccer."

The building where the children stay is next to the special school. Inside, the tile shines like a mirror and the carpets are cleaner than those in the Parliament. But there is a bizarre "order" in the dormitories. You'd think that no one lives there. But in fact there are 12 children in each room who sleep in bunk beds. And Directress Manolescu wants to tell us about "EU standards"? They want to make it appear as if there are fewer children per room because that's what the EU wants. The walls were recently painted and are decorated with hand-made objects. They have gathered so many objects that they had an exposition in Buzau. They sold many items there, having established their own prices and then were able to pocket the money. Unfortunately, on the day of the exposition, there was an electrical blackout. In one dorm room, however, we found the unsupportable odor of urine. Despite the open window, the air was heavy and impossible to breathe. But the children refused to leave. It seems they were stuck to the walls. The children here have severe handicaps. They are separated from those who can take care of themselves. Although the bunk beds are high, the workers maintain that the children only sleep on the lower ones. However we saw several stretched out on the upper ones. There are 17 children with severe disabilities in this orphanage. The directress reminded us that these children had been kept in the middle of the courtyard in a "stable" made of soldered re-bar. The image of a well-kept orphanage is further shattered when you go into the bathroom. It's chaos in there. The common showers are continually dripping and the toilets date from the 70's. The directress did inform us that, "Next week we will organize an auction for modernizing the bathrooms."

In one of the dormitories a group of boys and girls are practicing for a show that they want to give at the theater in Buzau. A cassette player blares hoarsely Gypsy songs that are in style. The girls go from one boy to the other and one by one they get to Vivian (a boy) who is dark skinned with his hair cut short with long bangs dyed red, and they also get to another young lad who smiles alot. He has AIDS. He is blind in one eye because of a cataract. Petrica also participates in this dance. He is very healthy, but he lives in an orphanage for children with handicaps. He is there because his slightly retarded brother was taken there and CPS decided not to separate them. Their mother died ofcancer when Petrica was 4 years old. He has a vivid memory of his mother. He wants to become an actor. He admits in a serious tone, "I like to make others laugh more than to have others laugh at me." Petrica is waiting to eat his evening meal together with his teammates from the school soccer team. More recently he has been eating more beef and pork, ever since the avian flu epidemic began the cook has been avoiding chicken. Another boy came up to them and asked, "Hey, do we have another inspection?" "Heh, heh," came the response. At that point we spoke up and said we'd merely come to visit. "I know, but that's what we say when people visit. We call them inspections." At orphanage Number 14, not even Santa Clause comes to visit, he comes rather 'to inspect'.

BUZAU

Veronica Draghici, head of Orphanage Number 1 in Buzau said, "The $2 per day per child are not sufficient because the children have need of a special diet." In Buzau county as of December of last ear there were 525 children with disabilities who were in residential institutions. There are twice as many of these cases than cases of children who are merely in "social difficulties", that is abandoned children or children who come from families who cannot take care of them. In 2005, 75 children with handicaps came into the system, the majority of them coming from outside the county. All of these are cared for in 8 orphanages in Buzau and in Ramnicu Sarat.