Radio România Internațional

Tag: child

  • Romanian recent award-winning film productions

    Romanian recent award-winning film productions

    Clara is a feature-length film directed by Sabin Dorohoi. A fresh production, with a strong impact, focusing on a major and necessary topic, Clara has been recently launched in theatres across the country. The film tells the story of millions of Romanians who have no choice other than go abroad to provide for their families at home, in a bid to help them have a better living standard.

    The production has come out as an absolute first in Romanian film-making industry: it is the first feature-length film tackling the topic of migration from the standpoint of the social problem posed by the children that were left behind in Romania, to stay with their grandparents or with relatives.

    The film tells the story of Clara, a teacher acting as a baby-sitter for the little girl of a family in Germany, also looking after their house, in much as the same way as millions of Romanian women support their folk at home working abroad. When her son, left in his grandfather’s care, disappears from home, in a childish attempt to reach his mother, Clara returns to her native village in Romania where she must face her failure as a mother and try to regain her son’s trust. Sabin Dorohoi.

    “The topic of the film was born a long time ago. The idea of tackling this topic came to mind in 2012, or thereabouts, when migration turned intense and I could see the phenomenon was spreading, at that time, in northern Romania as well. Also, at that time I read in the press about the case of a little boy who committed suicide because he badly missed his parents. I found that piece of news terrible, it affected me so much and I thought I should make a film about that. And that is how the short reel titled The Danube Road premiered in 2013. Then I felt the need to develop the story of the Danube Road and that’s how the feature-length film’s screenplay was born, written by Ruxandra Ghițescu.”

    „Clara” saw its world premiere in 2023, at the Cottbus International Film Festival, where it also scooped the public’s award. Awards and nominations followed, positive criticism and a warm welcoming from the regular pubic of international film festivals, such as the Kolkata International Film Festival India, South East European Film Festival Los Angeles, Internationales Donaufest Ulm/Neu-Ulm, Ceau Cinema of Timișoara, Romanian Film Evening and Bucharest International Film festival.

    Here is one of the producers of “Clara”, Dan Burlac.

    ”It is a film posing an important problem. Yet in no way did we intend to push it, to sadden people with the story in Clara, or to make a film that could get people shed tears for nothing. We sought to focus upon a key problem, a problem that has become more and more important worldwide, and not only in Romania not only in Europe. Proof of that stands the reaction Clara triggered at its premiere in India, where almost 1,000 spectators, who attended the premiere, reacted with a lot of empathy and perceived this film as a personal experience.

    That’s why I say Clara’s story is in no way linked to a certain place, it doesn’t depend on it, it is the story of all those who experience that condition and have no choice other that travel far from home, irrespective of their being from Latin America, Europe or India. I believe what’s most valuable about this film is the fact that it succeeded to remain sincere, honest, all along, and tackle a key issue with utmost attention. Since it is a key issue, we also wanted to trigger as many reactions as possible in a bid to find solutions to a problem that concerns us all.

    Since the issue of migration also takes its toll on the society we build, here it’s all about the future generation that will build Romania. It is a problem that even concerns us all, parents, grandparents, children, it is an important problem for the entire community. It is not an issue touching one level alone, it touches, as I said, all layers in society. It is our problems.

    After the gala launch in Bucharest, the film crew embarked upon a national caravan that included special screenings, where authors and actors sat down and talked to spectators, in Q&A sessions. At some of the screenings pedagogy and psychology experts took part as well, via a relevant partnership between the film crew and the Save the Children, and organization supporting the social debate “Clara “initiated, on the occasion of its launch in theatres. Sabin Dorohoi.

    ”At the screening we had in Timisoara, it was deeply touching, because I practically arrived at home. As you know, most of the actors hail from Timisoara and, broadly speaking, from Banat, save for Ovidiu Crisan, Clara’s father and Ionut’s grandfather in the film, who is from Cluj. In Timisoara, at the screening but also as part of the talks we had afterwards, the hall was packed with people, which made us very happy, while no less happy were we because of the spectators’ reactions and their otherwise very astute questions.

    However, the most interesting questions, even disputes, constructive, interesting disputes and debates, were hosted by the city of Iasi. And that did not happen by accident, since Moldavia is worst-hit by migration in Romania. Like I said, that was reflected in the large number of viewers, but also in the talks, which were very interesting. “

    The screenplay of the film was written Ruxandra Ghitescu, the director of photography was Lulu de Hillerin. The set design was signed by Anca Miron and Sonia Constantinescu. The editor was Mircea Lăcătuș, while the original movie soundtrack was written by Eduard Dabrowski. Lead role actors are Olga Török (Clara), Ovidiu Crișan (Nicolae), Luca Puia (Ionuț) and Elina Leitl (Johanna).

  • Children facing the risk of separation from their families

    Children facing the risk of separation from their families

    The
    Romanian Government as of late has endorsed a bill meant to regulate the prevention
    activity targeting children’s separation from their families. The text mainly
    deals with the vulnerable communities, in need of permanent support because of that. Such families live on very limited means, which prompts quite a few members of
    those families to leave Romania for a better-paid job. But that has dramatic emotional
    implications for the children that have been left behind.


    Many
    parents opt for sacrificing their children’s emotional balance and leave Romania
    for a job abroad. Crippled by their parents’ lack of affection, some of the
    children develop abnormal patterns of behaviour. They have school problems,
    they’re quick to rebel for no reason. The school is unable to manage such crises
    and neither are the other members of the family. Upon their return home, the children
    the parents find are totally different from the ones they’ d left behind when
    they left the country.


    And
    at this point, the law intervenes, or is supposed to intervene. According to
    the Government’s spokesperson, Dan Carbunaru, the bill will enable the
    implementation of a set of measures meant to prevent separation. Therefore,
    such families will be granted emergency aid. The aforementioned bill is the
    foundation act for the National Child Observer. It is an informatics module, to
    be included in the National Informatics System. In plain speak, the local
    public authorities will be able to access the updated situation of the families
    whose children face the risk of separation. The bill also stipulates measures
    targeting the rehabilitation of children with disabilities, psychological and psychotherapy
    intervention services for these children.


    And
    that, because our children’s psychological and emotional development should be
    treated very seriously. We’re highly likely to run the risk of dragging behind childhood
    traumas all our lives. If we don’t do anything about it in time, we’ll find it
    even harder to do something about it later.


    Psychologists
    are capable of telling the fear of separation from the separation anxiety. Elena
    Maria Dumitrescu is a psychotherapist in cognitive-behavioural problems. Here she
    is, explaining the difference between the separation fear and the separation anxiety.




    I believe it is important for us to be able to tell the fear
    of separation from the separation anxiety. Ever since we are born, we need
    safety, which makes the newly-born and the infant, respectively, to manifest
    the fear of separation from the attachment person. The process we all go
    through in our early experience is a natural one. The thing is how we go through
    that stage, and that is connected to the way significant people in our lives
    fulfil our emotional, but also our material needs.


    Therefore,
    the fear of abandonment is the newly-born and the infant’s greatest fear. The
    way the parents express their affection is vital for their balanced development.


    We’re
    well aware of how vulnerable children in such communities are, given that
    parents go at all lengths to be able to face the conundrum: should they first
    provide for their children, sacrificing them emotionally, or should they first
    give them love but have them feel the pinch and the discomfort or a life in
    poverty? So strong may be the ensuing emotional outburst, that nobody is capable
    to sort it out.


    Psycho-therapist Elena Maria Dumitrescu tells us
    how the children’s behaviour may degenerate, when they do not receive their
    parents’ affection.


    Certain events, but also failing to properly fulfil such needs, can be
    perceived by children as unsafety, so they’re sure to move from the fear of separation
    to the separation anxiety, thus generating a low-grade control of perceived reality.
    You can see that happening with the children who limit their own opportunities
    to explore the environment, to develop new abilities, to cope with certain new
    challenges or to ask for help. In certain situations, the children are separated
    from their families and they will perceive the physical but also the emotional distancing
    from people in their lives whom they hold most dear. And that leads up to an
    increasingly low tolerance of uncertainty, a mechanism underlying the state of
    anxiety and its symptoms.






    How
    the programs the Government seeks to implement in the vulnerable communities, that
    still remains to be seen. For the time being, please note that is the south-eastern
    county of Tulcea alone, over 300 children on the brink of separation have been offered
    aid through a European project carried by the Romania SERA Foundation. The
    figure of 300 exceeds the initially-envisaged number of children, which only
    stands proof of the fact that such programs must develop in our country. (EN)





  • The abandonment of children, a worrying phenomenon

    The abandonment of children, a worrying phenomenon

    Way too many children in Romania have been the victims
    of abandonment! Whether they spend their childhood in orphanages, family-like
    care systems or whether they are in the care of an extended family, for all of
    them, the word home does not exist, or it exists in a seriously distorted way.


    According to official statistics, as we speak, the
    parents of almost 76 thousand children work abroad. As of late, the Ombudsman, Renate Weber, has stated the number of such children was much greater, more
    than 100 thousand, which is appalling, she said, given that, for various
    reasons, a great many of those children are not officially registered as such or
    nobody cares about them.


    Of the dozens of abandoned children, nearly 4,000 are
    in 140 placement centres or thereabouts. Why did they end up being there? Giving
    us an answer to this question, here is the development manager of an NGO, Hope
    and Homes for Children, Robert Ion.


    Robert Ion:

    In Romania, one in three children lives
    below the poverty limit and it is because of poverty that most of the children
    end up in placement centres, at the moment. They are the 4th, the 5th,
    the 6th child in their family, in most of the cases hailing from
    rural areas, for whom there is nothing left at home. Children end up in placement
    centres for various other reasons! It may very well be because their parents
    work abroad. It could be because a child was abandoned in a hospital unit. It
    could also happen because a legal entity ruled that the child be removed from
    an abusive environment. And yet, were we to look at the most common cause of
    the children being institutionalised, that is, nonetheless, poverty ʺ.


    Time has told us that the chance for children in
    orphanages to become the adults society expects them to be and, which is more important,
    accepts, that chance is very slim.


    Robert Ion:

    ʺWhat
    comes in handiest for us to do is to have the earmarked budget so that we can
    prevent the separation of the child from their family. In all Romanian governments
    after the Revolution, no such budget has been earmarked whatsoever. It does
    exist, for the placement centres to be functional, and becomes operational once the
    child is removed from his family, which is unusual. We should have a budget earmarking
    in order to prevent the separation of the child from the family, so that we can help
    the underprivileged parents or the children coming from vulnerable socio-economic milieus
    to stay with their parents. Once the rift occurs, we’re speaking about a
    tragedy, for the child, but also for the family, it’s something we have decided to sort out by institutionalising the child, who is in no way to blame, as regards
    such dynamics. The programs preventing the child from being separated from their
    family are, for their vast majority, supported by non-profit organisations,
    such as ours. Longer term, we should also consider, as a country, opting for no
    longer allowing for institutionalisation to be recognised as a form of child
    protection. We wouldn’t opt for allowing our own children to be included in a placement
    centre, but we think that is all right in the case of other children, and that
    shouldn’t happen. We should have more prevention services, we should have as
    many as possible family-type care homes, an as wide as possible network of
    professional maternal trained nurses so that we may help parents keep their
    children at home.


    To that end, ʺHope and Homes for Childrenʺ, for instance, has
    taken action along three directions.

    Robert Ion:


    We’ve been doing personalised work,
    for each and every child and every separate family, so that we can offer what that child
    or that family need. In some cases, that translates into medical treatment, in
    other cases we prevent school dropout from happening, sometimes what we do means providing footwear,
    clothes, essential goods, which, for various reasons, do not exist in
    that family. We’re working on the closing of placement centres (through memoranda
    signed by the County Councils and the General Directorate for Child protection)
    and on replacing them with what we have termed Alternative Care Methods,
    family-type homes, professional maternal assistance. and, to cut a long story
    short, we help children who are no longer included in the protection system
    when they turn 18 or 26, respectively, to make their first steps into the self-supportive
    life. For such children, we pay rents, for instance, because, even though they
    are recognised as a vulnerable population and are entitled to having access to
    social housing, in Romania, there are not enough social housing lodgings, while
    the youngsters who get out of the placement centres cannot access them, and the
    alternative for them, as soon as they’ve been released from the centre, is simply
    roughing it. And later, and with them, we need to find the answer to the
    question Do they need more schooling or what job best suits them? For us, child
    protection is of utmost importance so that is the area we get involved in. Everyone
    else can get involved, too, they can visit our website, at departedefrica.ro, if
    they want to find out more about how exactly they can help the children we
    support, or they can just text-message, hope, at 8864, for a monthly donation
    of 4 Euros.


    Among those who did get involved in that, albeit
    differently, is Oana Dragulinescu. Oana is the founder of a Digital Museum of
    Abandonment. The headquarters, a virtual one, actually, is the former hostel-hospital
    for severely-disabled children in Sighetu Marmației, in the north. That hostel-hospital
    is the strongest and most painful icon of abandonment and institutionalisation
    in communist Romania before 1989. Closed down 20 years ago, the harrowing image of the hostel-hospital
    in Sighet was preserved in most of the video recordings that
    came to be known all over the world immediately after the revolution in
    Romania. We want the Abandonment Museum to become a healing space of expression
    for a community whose collective trauma has never been truly acknowledged and
    discussed publicly. It is the trauma of the hundreds of thousands of children
    who were abandoned during the communist years, but also during the country’s
    recent history, or at least that is what Oana Dragulinescu says.


    Oana Dragulinescu:

    Whom should
    the healing target? Probably us all, as a nation. I think we should heal ourselves of indifference, as
    those institutions, we’re speaking about only one, that which was based in
    Sighet, but there were several dozens of other institutions in that extreme
    form, that of the hospital-hostels, such institutions were found in the city
    centres, people like me and you used to
    work there, and yet, in our interviews, it looks like nobody knew that, not
    even the social assistance employees, they never imagined that something like that,
    something appalling, happened in Sighet. I think it is something we resort to
    whenever we see something horrendous, it is simpler for us to look the other
    way. And that can really be simpler, short-term! Yet longer-term, here is
    what happened when we looked the other way. In Romania, the abandonment rate did
    not drop after 1989 and after Decree 770 was repealed, which banned abortion or
    any form of contraception. And then, we may find it healing, to talk about that
    aspect, I mean, to be able to realise that leaving the country to work abroad
    for our children, so they can have a better life, may also be a form of abandonment,
    a much softer one, definitely, and, viewed from such a perspective, talking about that,
    we wanted it to be an out-and-out healing undertaking.


    Let us not forget: abandonment is the most distressing form
    of neglecting a child.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)


  • The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    We’ve had
    the COVID-19 pandemic for over year now. All sorts of restrictions are still in
    place, school went online, for its greater part, some of the classes were held
    with physical presence, but with a higher risk of contamination. All that has definitely
    affected the youngsters’ emotional well-being. This is also the outcome of an
    analysis carried by the Save the Children Association. As of late, Save the
    Children has offered free of charge psychological counselling to pupils in
    several cities around the country. The conclusions of a survey carried among
    those who resorted to such services have revealed that one child in three had
    to face states of anxiety and needed counselling and psychological and
    emotional support. And at that, a higher percentage was reported for
    adolescents, even reaching 50%. Also, 90% of the children who were in need of
    psychological therapy in the last year have had emotional problems related to
    the pandemic context. No exhaustive and official research on that has been
    conducted so far, unfortunately. However, in a separate move, there are nonetheless
    data about the manner in which school has informed pupils about the dangers of
    the pandemic, and about how sanitary safety measures have been implemented in
    classrooms. Such measures have obviously influenced children’s emotional
    well-being. It was also the Save the Children Association that carried a survey
    taking up on such topics, jointly with the National Council of Pupils. The survey
    was themed Feeling safe in your own school. Almost 22,000 pupils took
    the time to respond to it. As for the conclusions of the survey, here is the
    president of the National Council of Pupils, Silviu Morcan, with the details.

    Silviu Morcan:

    As for the information activities, we noticed that info on the
    prevention of disease transmission did live up to certain quality standards,
    for the greatest part of the educational units. More than 86% of the pupils stated
    they fully understood the information conveyed by the school staff. In much
    lower percentages respondents stated they would have needed many more clarifications
    on ways to contain the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus or they did not even get any
    info whatsoever related to the topic. The vaccination information campaign that
    should have been organized in schools reached fewer pupils. More than one third
    of respondents, around 36%, states such campaign
    were run in their schools. Under the circumstances, is school perceived as a safe
    environment from a sanitary point of view?

    Silviu Morcan:


    The feeling of safety school gives students was another topic we intended
    to tackle. And, despite the high frequency with which going online has been
    reported because of a classmate getting infected, we noticed the feeling of safety
    prevailed when they were at school the sample average standing at 3.53 points
    on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 standing for not at all safe and 5 for
    completely safe. More than half of the respondents pointed to a high level of
    that safety feeling. Otherwise, the answer to the open-ended questions we had
    in the final part of the survey are extremely diverse with opinion being
    equally divided between those who would like school to go online completely and
    those who stated that face to face schooling was their favourite and safest
    option. Equally divided were also opinions on prevention measures such as the ear-loop
    mask or the social distancing as part of the respondents wanted those measures
    to be more strictly implemented wanted to give up on such measures altogether.


    Notwithstanding,
    anxiety and the way it creeps into people’s hearts and mind are extremely insidious.
    Therefore, it is hard to say what exactly such a disorder is triggered by and
    how it manifests itself. Similarly, it is difficult to find out where school
    alone or the pandemic context in its entirety are the cause of the anxiety At
    any rate the authorities have admitted that as we speak there is no instrument
    by means of which data can be collected, regarding pupils’ psychological and
    emotional condition. However, there are nonetheless clues teachers can take
    into account, observe and try to sort out with the assistance of school
    psychologists.

    Education Minister Advisor Radu Szekely:


    As a result of the discussions we’ve had and with help provided by
    specialists, we reached a conclusion: anxiety exists among children and
    youngsters in schools. It’s just that it hasn’t been noticed long enough. Children
    do not put their anxiety into words. And, emotionally, it is signalled through
    gestures of fear, of panic expression, sometimes even through a lack of
    interest at cognitive level. Otherwise, children aske about certain things
    which, indirectly, signal the fact that their real concern lies elsewhere,
    whereas we, in the education system, more often than not come up with answers
    to the questions asked without taking the time to look into what lies behind
    them. But it is the role of the teacher and the parent and I am keeping my hope
    alive it will soon be the role of the school psychologist assigned to each and
    every school to notice the aforementioned signs, to identify them, their
    causes, and then try to solve such situations, all the more so as, when anxiety
    is high, some of the symptoms are likely to go physical with children and youngsters.


    Also, when
    at home, parents need to watch their children carefully and talk to them, even
    though we are a society that tends to suppress emotions and children do not
    have the opportunity to express their feelings, according to psychiatrist
    Carmen Trutescu.


    Carmen Trutescu:

    Any change in the daily routine or behaviour is an alarm signal. If a
    child used to sleep 10 to 12 hours daily and now, he sleeps 18, 20 hours, or he
    doesn’t sleep at all, if he changes his eating habits, if he is extremely irritable,
    as anxiety is hard to put into words yet his becoming irritable can be a sign, all
    that means there is something going on. We do not demand that the parent
    diagnoses his child, yet the parent can notice the change in his emotional
    condition. From that moment onwards, whether we speak about anxiety, about
    depression, or the adaptation disease, whether it’s bullying or a condition of
    a different kind, that’s for the specialist to say when he sees the child. It
    would be perfect if advise should be sought from the teacher, so that we can
    have a twofold perspective. So I would really love it if teachers could detect
    such patterns of behaviour that are atypical: the fact that a child doesn’t
    leave his desk, doesn’t talk to the others, he cries or he doesn’t eat
    during the break. A child who doesn’t speak in public, who does not speak when
    his classmates are around, maybe there is something peculiar about their development.


    A recent legislative
    initiative will create the opportunity for teachers and parents to cooperate to
    that effect. Psychologist’s offices will be set up in every educational unit, where
    children can be tested frequently and solutions can be found, for the remedy of
    the psychological and emotional disorders that have been thereby detected. However,
    for the time being, that legislative initiative is still subject to parliamentary
    debate.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • July 30, 2020

    July 30, 2020

    COVID-19 President Klaus Iohannis has a new meeting today with the interior minister Marcel Vela and with the head of the Department for Emergencies Raed Arafat, to assess the situation and the causes of the steady growth in the number of COVID-19 cases. New containment measures were included by the Government on Wednesday night in an executive order concerning the state of alert. Authorities have decided that in counties or localities with large numbers of COVID-19 cases, the opening hours of outdoor bars and restaurants may be restricted. Also, in crowded areas where social distancing cannot be ensured, protection masks may become compulsory even outdoors. As of Thursday, face masks are compulsory in crowded outdoor areas in several counties in Romania where the number of coronavirus infections has risen sharply in recent weeks. The measure is adopted by an increasing number of counties, after more than a week with over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. On Thursday a new record-high number of new cases was reported, 1,356, with the total so far in Romania nearing 50,000, and the death toll standing at 2,304. Nearly 26,600 patients have recovered.



    CHILDREN The labour minister Violeta Alexandru presented in the Cabinet meeting a bill providing for the gradual doubling of child benefits, to roughly 60 euros per month for children aged 2 to 18 and to 120 euros per month for children up to 2 years of age and for children with disabilities. The minister explained the increase will be gradual, up until 2022. In a first stage, in September, child benefits will be raised by 20%. The Government intends to pass the bill in Fridays Cabinet meeting. Parliament voted to double child benefits, at the proposal of the Social Democratic Party in opposition, but the implementation of the measure was postponed because the coronavirus crisis has put pressure on the state budget.



    YOUTH 56% of Romanian youth lost their confidence and motivation, according to a survey, Insights PulseZ, designed to identify the response and behaviour of young people during the 2-month state of emergency introduced in March over the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the survey revealed, the sudden suspension of day to day activities disrupted youngsters emotional balance. More than half of them were affected by the lack of face-to-face meetings, and nearly 35% admitted to having experienced tiredness and mood swings. The survey also shows that 44% of Romanian youth spent over 8 hours a day online. 33% of them attended online classes, and an equal number watched series and films.



    ELECTION Over 2,000 Romanian citizens living abroad have registered on an electronic platform, votstrainatate.ro, to vote in this years parliamentary elections. Over 1,390 of them chose to vote by mail, and nearly 620 registered to vote in polling stations. The Permanent Electoral Authority in Bucharest urges Romanian nationals living abroad to choose voting by mail as a safe and comfortable means to cast their ballots, without queuing, traveling, costs or risks, particularly in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Information on the registration procedure is available at votstrainatate.ro, and questions can be sent by email at contact@votstrainatate.ro. The Permanent Electoral Authority says citizens may enrol as voters abroad no later than 15 days prior to the election date.



    UNTOLD The 6th edition of the largest electronic music festival in Romania, Untold, begins today and will be held online for 4 days, amid restrictions and social distancing rules triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The organisers have announced exceptional guests and surprises. In February, Untold announced its first participants this year, including David Guetta, Martin Garrix and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Pussycat Dolls, Iggy Azalea and The Script also confirmed their participation, while Paul Kalkbrenner, Charlotte de Witte and Richie Hawtin make up the techno section of the festival. Over 80,000 fans have enrolled to take part in this online edition of the festival. (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)