Radio România Internațional

Tag: Save the Children Romania

  • September 6, 2024 UPDATE

    September 6, 2024 UPDATE

    EDUCATION – Poverty is severely affecting school performance, internships are discriminatory, some students end up unmotivated and most of them would like to leave the country– a report drawn up by the Save the Children Romania organization states. According to European data, school dropout is affecting an increasing number of Romanian children. A 16% dropout rate was reported among students in Romania’s secondary education cycle in the 2022-2023 school year and 25% among high-school pupils. High dropout discrepancies have been reported in various environments, 3% in the big cities, 14% in the country’s smaller cities and 27% in the rural area. At national level, two in five students in the country’s secondary education system have failed to pass their final exams. Their number is 2.5% higher in the rural area.

     

    EXPO – “As strategic partners and as NATO allies, we stand together in the face of Russia’s unprovoked and illegal aggression, to support Ukraine and strengthen collective deterrence and defense within the Alliance”, the ambassador of the United States in Bucharest, Kathleen Kavalec, said while attending the opening of a photo exhibition in Galați (east) marking 25 years of Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Titled “We, the people” the aforementioned photo exhibition explores the security, diplomatic, cultural and economic relations between the two countries.

     

    ROMANIA-JAPAN RELATIONS – Romania’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIRR), has extensively promoted economic relations with Japan. Romania can represent a business opportunity for Japanese companies given the results obtained by the Romanian entrepreneurs in the fields of IT&C, green energy and innovative technologies, CCIRR president Mihai Daraban said. On Thursday, Mihai Daraban had an official meeting with the Japanese ambassador in Bucharest, Katae Takashi, who underlined the importance and potential of the economic cooperation between the two countries. Japan sees Romania as a strategic partner in Eastern Europe and encourages Japanese investors to explore the business and investment opportunities here, the Japanese ambassador pointed out.

     

    AGRICULTURE – Romanian farmers whose crops were affected by this year’s draught will be compensated by October 15, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu said. During a visit to Mehedinți (southwest), a county seriously impacted by the shortage of rainfall, the Romanian official said compensations will stand at 200 EUR per hectare. The wheat and corn harvest this year is enough for the upcoming year, the Romanian official gave assurances. The wheat yield this year is by 1.8 mln tons higher compared to 2023, while the corn harvest will cover both internal consumption and exports. The Agriculture Ministry is considering handing out loans with fixed interest rates of 1.95% to help struggling farmers, as well as the suspension of foreclosure procedures for farmers whose crops have been completely compromised.

     

    MOLDOVA – Hungary unequivocally and firmly supports Moldova’s EU accession, Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, said during a visit to Chişinău. On the sidelines of talks with his Moldovan counterpart, Mihai Popşoi, the Hungarian official said his country will do everything in its power during Hungary’s term at the helm of the EU Council to ensure EU enlargement proceeds as smoothly as possible. Each candidate state must be assessed individually, to prevent the stalling of countries that reported quicker progress, Minister Szijjártó explained. EU enlargement can provide new impetus to the community bloc, the Hungarian diplomat went on to say. Péter Szijjártó also met the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, giving assurances Hungary will fully support Moldova’s EU accession. 50 public officials from Moldova with a key role in negotiations with the EU will travel to Hungary where they will be trained by Hungarian experts. The first 32 will arrive in Budapest next week.

     

    HOUSING – Housing prices continue to go up faster than the EU or the Eurozone average, although the pace is slower compared to other states in the region, Florin Dragu, the head of the Financial Stability Department with the National Bank of Romania has said. Housing went up 5.5% in the first quarter, compared to nearly 18% in Poland or 16% in Bulgaria, the Central Bank official explained. The price hikes are also determined by higher construction costs, which went up 10% in the last year, while the work volume went down 13% across the sector. The demand for new housing continues to rise amidst Romanians’ higher purchasing power. The number of real estate transactions went down 11% at national level, with Bucharest, Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Brașov and Constanța accounting for nearly 60% of total transactions. (DB & VP)

  • Sore points of the situation of children in Romania

    Sore points of the situation of children in Romania

    Recently, the organization Save the Children Romania published an x-ray of the situation of minors in our country, their conclusions including 10 extremely critical points. Among them are problems that have been going on for many years and which, although well known, have not been corrected. For instance, one out of five Romanian children does not finish school on time, annually over 7,000 Romanian children are born to underage mothers, almost 1,200 of these mothers are on their second or even third birth, over half a million children have recently had at least one parent who went to work abroad, and in the countryside, the infant mortality rate continues to be significantly higher compared to the urban areas (6.5 vs. 4.2 per thousand). Besides these problems, there are others, perhaps less discussed in the public space, but equally serious. One of these problems concerns the emotional or mental health of children. More than 41% of 15-year-old girls have sleep-related problems, while 57% of them frequently feel nervousness.

     

     

    The advocacy director of the Save the Children organization, George Roman, draws attention to this issue: “Emotional wellbeing refers to the way in which the authorities understand how to invest in the mental health and protection services for children who need extra support, such as children with special educational needs or children with disabilities. And we dont have any positive scores. Even the World Health Organization highlighted the fact that there are children in Romania with problems related to sleep and self-control. Sometimes they feel isolated, excluded from their groups, in educational institutions or in the community. They need money to have psychological counseling sessions, because the social services, the general directorates for the protection of childrens rights have a very limited number of psychologists, not all of them are trained to provide counseling or psychotherapy, and there are few and overcrowded non-governmental organizations. For example, at the Save the Children Organization Mental Health Center children have to wait for several months, between 3 and 6 months, to benefit our free-of-charge services.”

     

     

    Part of the childrens emotional problems are also caused by the lack of parents who have gone to work abroad. Moreover, the mirage of going abroad also attracts the young people, who seem to have grown up with such ideas in mind.

     

     

    George Roman: “More than half of the children do not want to remain in Romania, and two of the essential reasons mentioned by the children are related to the quality of the education system. About one third of them said they want to leave because of this very issue, because school is not attractive, and they cannot achieve professional and educational development in Romania. But there is also an important number of them, quite significant in our opinion, who want to leave because here they feel the threat of poverty: between 21% and 22% of the children have said that. They don’t want to live as poor people in Romania, but go and try their luck in other countries, and many most probably took the example of their own parents.”

     

     

    Another extremely serious aspect is sexual abuse. Out of all criminal complaints involving victims among minors, less than 20% end up with the indictment of the aggressors. The advocacy director of the Save the Children organization, George Roman, is back with details: “We seem to be the least interested in fighting this phenomenon of sexual abuse. Apart from several well-trained professionals in the legal system, there is little investment in social policies at the national level. I can give you an example, a program that Save the Children organization has developed in the past two years jointly with the General Directorate for the Protection of Children’s Rights in Bucharest’s District 6. This is, I believe, one of the few examples in which a child involved in legal situations receives the necessary protection during the hearings, so that they can avoid further trauma or stress caused by these hearings which are quite numerous, sometimes their number reaching 14. A child who has been the victim of sexual abuse would otherwise be forced to recall the trauma he or she experienced before all those who are directly or indirectly involved in legal procedures. And I am speaking here about the repeated hearings with police officers, prosecutors, courts and other institutions.”

     

     

    In the very few situations in which sexual abuse cases against minors are brought to courts, the aggressor is rarely indicted and 3 out of 5 sentences are suspended. Which means the aggressors can return to the community where their victim also lives, says George Roman, advocacy director with Save the Children organization. He hopes that the X-ray of the situation of children in Romania will also register improvements next year. (LS, db)

     

  • Romanian civil society rallies to Ukrainian refugee relief effort

    Romanian civil society rallies to Ukrainian refugee relief effort

    Romania has
    responded to the war in Ukraine with an unprecedented mobilization of civil
    society across all sectors, providing emergency assistance consisting in food,
    water, legal counselling, medicine and other types of humanitarian aid to
    refugees coming in Ukraine.




    We spoke to a
    number of NGOs that intervened either on the ground, at the Siret border
    checkpoint in Suceava County, providing relief to the wave of refugees, but
    also devising smart solutions jointly with local authorities.




    Further information
    about the actions of the NGOs that contributed to this programme can be found
    below:




    Code4Romania


    https://code4.ro/en


    https://code4.ro/ro/code-for-romania-war-task-force


    https://dopomoha.ro/en




    Fight for
    Freedom Association


    https://www.facebook.com/fightforfreedom.ro


    https://www.fightforfreedom.ro/




    Save the Children
    Association


    https://www.facebook.com/SalvatiCopiiiRomania


    http://www.salvaticopiii.ro/





  • Risks for mothers and children in Romania

    Risks for mothers and children in Romania

    The well-being of mothers and children in a given state is not only an indicator of economic growth, but also of the efficiency of social policies. Unfortunately, in Romania this indicator is rather poor, according to an international survey launched by the “Save the Children” Organisation. Conducted on an annual basis for the last 15 years, the survey includes a study on Romania, for which data provided by the National Statistics Institute were contrasted with information from Europe-wide mother and child health research. Adina Clapa, a member of “Save the Children” Romania, gives us details, based on official 2012 data:



    Adina Clapa: “The survey covers 178 countries. We realized that, once again, in terms of the best countries to raise your children in, topping the standings are the Nordic states, with Finland ranking first. Romania is once again, for the 15th time, the last in the EU and 65th in the world. Romania has the highest infant mortality rate, nine per thousand, which is almost double the European average of 4.3 per thousand. The absolute figure is nearly 1,812 deaths among children less than one year of age. This is disquieting and shameful. Premature birth is the main cause, followed by breathing or digestive disorders and household accidents. The conclusion is that one-third of these deaths can be prevented.”



    Besides poverty, one of the causes of the problems facing women and children in Romania is the level of education and information of mothers to be. Many of them do not see a doctor for regular check-ups and after birth they do not have their babies seen by doctors either. The situation has not improved lately, as shown by another study made by “Save the Children”. Ciprian Porumbaru, a member of the foundation, explains:



    Ciprian Porumbaru: “The study was conducted in all the 28 EU Member States, and also in Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. We saw that 28% of the children, including young people up to 18, are threatened by poverty and social exclusion. This happens against the backdrop of a deep gap between rich and poor, as the study has also revealed. On the other hand, the percentage in Romania is significantly higher, almost double, as 52% of the children are in this situation. We actually share the first position with Bulgaria. Another element highlighted by the study, which is very important in Romania’s case, is that although household work is at the highest levels in Europe, still many children live in poverty. Another important conclusion is that in Romania poverty particularly affects children, whose social exclusion risk rate is 13% more than among grown-ups.“



    Given that Romanians work harder and more hours than other peoples, why is the poverty risk higher? A possible answer could be the lower salaries they get. Ciprian Gradinaru also attempts an answer:



    Ciprian Gradinaru: “The labour intensity indicator measures how many members of a household are employed. In Romania more members of a household need to work for the family to be able to survive. And so we reach the sensitive issue of child exploitation through labour. A large number of children from Romania are active economically, and not only in the rural areas. That is why, even if the labour intensity index is high in Romania, this does not entail a lower poverty level.”



    Another NGO, World Vision, has approached the degree of children’s involvement in supporting the household. Here is Daniela Buzducea, advocacy director with World Vision Romania:



    Daniela Buzducea: “We were glad to note that Romania’s economic growth last year, which was reported as significant, albeit somewhat surprising, was also reflected in a general increase in living standards. There was a drop from 75 to 66% in the number of families who say they find it difficult to cover their daily needs. What is however worrying and sad is the fact that this increase in living standards is not reflected in children’s case. For example, the number of children who say they go to bed hungry has grown by 2%, as has the number of children who say they have to work and sometimes miss school because of this. This refers to work performed in their own households or for their neighbours for more than 2 hours per day.”



    Poverty and the fact that children have to work also explain the high dropout rates. European funds may be a solution, provided they are spent wisely and efficiently. Another solution may be an inter-institutional collaboration between the education system, the social protection system and local authorities, to create a stronger feeling of solidarity and community that could prevent school dropout.