Romanian orphans

The standard of living for Romanian orphans is still problematic despite vast improvements since their conditions were leaked to the West after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. A news report on the American newsmagazine 20/20, which first aired on October 5, 1990, was the first to show the conditions in full detail on television.^[1]

Background

Natalist policy

Under Nicolae Ceauşescu, both abortion and contraception were forbidden. Ceausescu believed that population growth would lead to economic growth, which is what the country needed.^[2] In October 1966, the Decree 770 was enacted, which banned abortion except in cases in which the mother was over 40 years old or already had four children in care.^[3] Birth rates especially rose during the years of 1967, 1968 and 1969.^[4] By 1977, people were taxed for being childless.^[2] Children born in these years are popularly known as decreței (from the Romanian language word "decret", meaning "decree", diminutive "decrețel"). This increase in the number of births resulted in many children being abandoned in orphanages, which were also occupied by people with disabilities and mental illnesses. Together, these vulnerable groups were subjected to institutionalized neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and drug use to control behavior.

Poverty in the 1980s

Romanian ration card, 1989. The forced natalist policy of Nicolae Ceauşescu coupled with poverty led families unable to cope

In the 1980s, Nicolae Ceauşescu enacted the 1980s austerity policy in Romania, in order to pay Romania's external debt. As such, living standards dropped dramatically, and food was rationed and the struggle of families was made worse. Housing conditions also got worse, with large families being cramped in small apartments. This period also coincided with mass population migration from rural areas to cities.^[5] Overcrowding in homes became an issue; most of these families being housed in standardized apartment blocks that were built in large numbers across Romanian cities during systematization.

Conditions in orphanages

The conditions in orphanages had declined after 1982, as a result of Ceauşescu's decision to seize much of the country's economic output in order to repay its foreign debt.^[6] Due to the economic downturn, orphanages lacked electricity, heat, and food.^[2] The U.S. Consul in Bucharest at the time, Virginia Carson Young, noted that many of the children were not literally orphans.^[7] They were children who had parents unable to afford such large families, with such a situation being created by the mandated natalist requirements. The parents had placed them in orphanages, often with the intention of picking them up when they are older. There was a high percentage of Roma children in the orphanages, who were often left in an institution until they were 12, 13 or 14, i.e., old enough to help earn a living, and then parents would claim them again.

Orphanages lacked both medicines and washing facilities.^[6] The children were often tied to their own beds or dangerously restrained in their own clothing.^[8] Physical and sexual abuse of children was reported to be common.^[9] Often, the children would spend their day naked because the staff had failed to put clothes on them, and the children would be sitting in their own urine. Nurses who worked at the institutions were not properly trained, and often abused the children. The children were also bathed in dirty bath water, thrown in three at a time by the workers.^[8] Due to the abuse children received from staff, older children learned to beat the younger children. All children, including girls, had their heads shaved, which made it difficult to differentiate the children. Many children had delayed cognitive development, and many did not know how to feed themselves.^[8] Physical needs were not met, as many children died for minor illness or injuries such as cataracts or anemia. Children also would starve to death. Physical injuries that had to do with development included fractures that had not healed right, resulting in deformed limbs.^[8] Some children were infected with HIV/AIDS due to unsterilised instruments.^[10] Overall, the orphanages failed to meet even the most basic needs of the children.^[10] In addition to the distress of living in an orphanage, children faced further displacement when they were moved from one orphanage to another, without being told in advance. Usually children had to change institutions first when they reached 3 years of age, and again when they reached 6 years of age. The harshest fate was reserved to children deemed as "irrecuperable" who were considered "unproductive" and assigned to the Labor Ministry. Corporal punishment of all children was practised and officially encouraged as appropriate discipline, and staff who did not beat the children were considered weak.^[11]

Number of children in communist orphanages

The true number of children who lived in orphanages during the communist era is not known, due to the fact that is not possible to obtain reliable data on practices and policies that took place under the communist regime. According to some sources in 1989 there were approximately 100,000 children living in orphanages at that date,^[11] other sources put the figure higher at 170,000.^[12] Overall, it is estimated that about 500,000 children were raised in communist orphanages.^[11] 1

Street children in the 1990s

Children Underground a 2001 documentary film directed by Edet Belzberg, depicting street children in Romania

After the December 1989 Romanian Revolution, an initial period of economic and social insecurity followed. The 1990s was a difficult transition period, and it is during this period that the number of street children was very high. Some ran away or were thrown out of orphanages or abusive homes, and were often seen begging, inhaling 'aurolac' from sniffing bags, and roaming around the Bucharest Metro; this situation was presented in a documentary called Children Underground, which depicted the life of Romanian street children in 2001.

Improvements

As the realities of life in Romanian orphanages emerged after December 1989, the reaction outside Romania was of shock at the plight of the orphans, and numerous charities were established.^[13] Numerous fund-raising activities have been conducted by various parties, such as the 1990 album Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, which was compiled by George and Olivia Harrison for AIDS-infected orphans.^[14] Along with fund-raisers, Westerners and Europeans adopted many Romanian children after the exploitation of their conditions. However, strict laws prevented many adoptions and the process of adoption became complex.^[15]

In September 2005, Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, the European Parliament's rapporteur for Romania, stated "Romania has profoundly reformed [from top to bottom] its child protection system and has evolved from one of the worst systems in Europe to one of the best."^[16]

Improving the situation of orphans had been made a condition of Romanian entry into the European Union, but an investigation by BBC journalist Chris Rogers in 2009 revealed that conditions in some institutions are still very poor and large numbers of institutionalized and traumatized people are still held in inadequate conditions, with many apparently having entered the system post-Ceauşescu. The institutions actually housed adults at this time, who did not get adequate medical attention as they suffered injuries and physical problems due to improper care.^[17] In early 2011, two British charities Hope and Homes for Children and ARK launched a plan to complete the reform of the Romanian Child Protection Systems and close all large children's homes in Romania by 2020.^[18]

Unfortunately for the children who never got adopted, they either ran away or left the institutions at 18. They were illiterate, and lived on the streets. Prostitution, begging, and drug use is common among those who came from an orphanage. Sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and infections from synthetic drugs are reportedly "rampant."^[19]

Effects on children

Because of the neglect the children suffered, many grew up with physical and mental delays. Children with obvious mental delays or disorders were given false diagnoses from untrained nurses or doctors.^[8] According to Jon Hamilton, "A lot of what scientists know about parental bonding and the brain comes from studies of children who spent time in Romanian orphanages during the 1980s and 1990s."^[20] The conditions of the orphanages showed that not only is nutrition vital to a child's development, but also basic human contact. Due to lack of human contact, babies developed without stimulation, which led to self stimulation such as hand flapping or rocking back and forth. With these characteristics, children were often misdiagnosed to have mental disabilities and forced to move to another institution. They were also given psychiatric medication to treat their behaviors, or they were tied to their beds to prevent self-harm.^[21]

Even after being adopted, children had problems forming attachments to their new parents. When testing the children's responses in comparison to other children, scientists monitored their brain responses to seeing their adoptive mothers or an unfamiliar woman. The results, according to scientist Nim Tottenham, state, "The amygdala signal was not discriminating Mom from strangers."^[20] According to other MRI studies, children who grew up in Romanian orphanages had physically smaller brains than average children who developed properly.^[20]

According to attachment theory, "The most important tenet of attachment theory is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for the child's successful social and emotional development, and in particular for learning how to effectively regulate their feelings." In the Romanian orphanages, children had grown accustomed to neglect in early infancy.^[20] Because of the struggle to form emotional attachment to others, such as adoptive parents, children had trouble adapting to their new lives after being adopted.

Additionally to physical effects, the legal attributes of being disowned include a loss of legal surname, in addition to first names being assigned as numbers. Young children brought to orphanages typically cannot remember their names and because of this are named by their caretakers.

Statistics

Number of children in the care of the state between 1990-2010:

^[30]

References