What became of Romania's neglected orphans?

by stejeb | December 21, 2009 at 10:05 am

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Despite receiving $144 million to help clean up and modernise it's institutions, Romania remains a blight on the European landscape as far as care is concerned.

The orphans plight, brought to the worlds attention after the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime, has changed very little, they are still overcrowded, undernourished and inadequately housed and fed in dirty and cold conditions.

The Romanian government have not used the money well, one feels if at all, for the purpose it was intended. They have not kept their word, and now appear to be getting away with fobbing the EU off with more promises.

I think it's high time the overpaid fat cats in Brussels acted on this, they're all to eager when it comes to worrying about the shape of my cucumber and banana, how about they tackle a real issue for a change.

A BBC investigation has uncovered appalling conditions and abuse in adult institutions in Romania, 20 years after the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu exposed conditions in the country's orphanages.

The overthrow of Ceausescu shone a light on the plight of the orphans
As the care worker unlocked the door and pushed it open, a musty stench of body odour and urine filled the air. There were 10 people crammed into the room, bed-bound on rotting mattresses and lying in their own faeces, some two to a bed.

Among the dirty, scarred faces peering above the duvets were the orphans whose plight roused the international community when Romanian orphanages opened their doors to Western journalists in 1990.

Staff at the Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre in Carpenis had no idea how old the latest arrivals from a children's orphanage were - they guessed 18 but they looked much younger.