Category: Society Today

In Romania, 47% of the people live in the countryside. With that in mind, one would be inclined to think that these people can live on subsistence farming and that extreme poverty is out of the question. Statistics show a different reality, though. In rural areas, the number of people living below the poverty threshold is six times bigger than in urban areas. Children are the most affected by this situation and not only those who live in the countryside.

More than half of the children in Romania are at risk of poverty or social exclusion — 52.2% in 2011 – the highest level in the EU. Such data transpire in the large number of malnourished children who have related health problems as well as in school dropout figures. Daniela Buzducea advocacy director with the “World Vision” Foundation Romania confirms that these problems are more acutely felt in the rural areas:

“There are many children who suffer from malnutrition in Romania. Studies confirm that 1 in every 10 children aged under 3 is undernourished. This can be explained by the fact that mothers don’t have a balanced diet themselves. Iron deficiency is quite common. Two years ago we conducted a survey on how well children eat and we discovered that one in every 10 children go to bed feeling hungry. The impact of this phenomenon will lead to health problems later in their life.”

School dropout minimizes the chances for these children to find a good job as grownups on a highly competitive single European labor market.

“Over the past few years, we have been witnessing a constant increase in the number of children who do not go to school. Around 40 thousand children abandon school every year. The situation is very serious in rural areas, where, according to a World Vision report, the distance to school is one of the main reasons for school dropout. Children from these areas have significantly poorer results in national exams. In 2011 about 30% of the children in rural areas got very low grades at the final secondary school exams, as compared to only 13% in the urban areas. So there is a quality difference between the rural and urban levels of education.”

The nongovernmental sector, through some of its representatives, such as the World Vision Foundation, have been conducting programs to support poor children. The foundation’s press officer, Oana Serban, tells us more about one of these programs, called “Donors for a promising future”.

“Donors for a promising future is a program aimed at reviving civic initiative in people. We work jointly with the local authorities, other NGOs and even trade partners. It’s easy to become part of the program. Each donor contributes 68 lei per month benefiting certain children and the community as a whole. The money goes to a fund that finances community projects. Equipping schools with labs and computers or connecting them to electricity grids are such examples. There are many things that can be done for these children. The program addresses 600,000 children and we have already found donors for 160,000. So we still have work to do. “

The Donors for a promising future program encourages the relation between a donor and the child he or she supports. The two often exchange letters and the donor also goes to the child’s community to visit and check the manner in which the community uses donations to support these children. Entrepreneurship is thus encouraged, as one of the donors, pianist Nicolae Dumitru, told us.

“The program ‘Donors for a promising future’ is aimed at combating civic apathy. It is one thing to give some money for textbooks or footwear and it’s quite another to go there yourself to see how things stand. Our presence would have a greater impact on the community. These children really need an energy boost from time to time, to have the courage to try and change their destiny. “

“Donors for a promising future” is currently implemented in several rural communities in the county of Dolj, the area with the biggest number of poor children. If more donors get involved in the program, it might be extended to other areas.

15.01.2014

Radioman — RRI 2- RRI MUZICAL — HITUL ZILEI 15.01.2014 Dacă iubeşti fără să speri” — Florin Bogardo

Olivia Cristina Sima

HITUL ZILEI: Dacă iubeşti fără să speri” — Florin Bogardo

În fiecare an, 15 ianuarie şi 15 iunie sunt două repere unice şi clare pentru orice român, oriunde s-ar afla: naşterea şi respectiv săvârşirea din viaţă a poetului naţional, nepereche”: Mihai Eminescu. Din anul 2010, 15 ianuarie a devenit în România Ziua Culturii Naţionale”, cu manifestări pe măsură, în semn de firesc omagiu adus geniului de la Ipoteşti / Botoşani (nord est). Mesajul special al creaţiei eminesciene a inspirat la rându-i alţi creatori întru frumos, în muzică Florin Bogardo — compozitor şi interpret de mare rafinament fiind un etalon. Una dintre numeroasele piese compuse pe versuri de Eminescu şi tălmăcite de artist este de această dată HITUL ZILEI la RRI: Dacă iubeşti fără să speri”.

Muzică — 2’43”- Prod. Electrecord 2010

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Given the latest warnings issued by the World Health Organization regarding the increasing resistance of certain bacteria to antibiotics, the European Commission has recently launched a Euro barometer related to medicines consumption among Europeans. What’s intriguing about the issue is that the excessive use of antibiotics increases the resistance of certain bacteria. As regards Romanians, results are not really encouraging: Romanians take more antibiotics than the other Europeans and are less informed about the way in which antibiotics should be administered. For instance, asked if they took antibiotics in the past 12 months, 47% of Romanians said ‘yes’ as compared to 35% the European average.

But what is more worrying than the number of Romanians who took antibiotics is how they bought them: asked “How did you come to take antibiotics?” 75% said they got them based on a medical prescription, 5% said they received them from a physician and 18% said they bought them over the counter in a pharmacy. By comparison, 87% of Europeans answered that they obtained the antibiotics based on a medical prescription, 8% received them from a physician and 3% bought them over the counter. But why is the doctor’s prescription important when it comes to the use of antibiotics? Journalist Vlad Mixich attempts an answer:

“Most Romanians, as compared to Europeans, take antibiotics without a prescription. Moreover, they are the most ignorant among European citizens as regards the use of antibiotics. If one knew exactly what an antibiotic cures, then it would be no problem to use it without a medical prescription. But Romanians’ problem is that they do not know how to use antibiotics. Speaking from a medical point of view, this is not only an individual issue but also a community one. One of the top priorities of the world public healthcare is the increased resistance to antibiotics.”

In winter and especially when temperatures fluctuate, people are affected by colds and flues and 55% of Romanians as compared to 41% Europeans consider that antibiotics are efficient in treating these ailments and take them without asking the opinion of a physician, and they do not know that a viral infection is not treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics are prescribed only in the case of bacterial infections. Doctor Sandra Alexiu with the National Society of Family Physicians in Romania gives us more details:

“Each infection should be investigated based on several tests. There are infections that are so obvious that they can be treated after the first visit to the physician. But in most cases of infections you need further tests to make sure that it’s a bacterial infection, which is treatable with antibiotics.”

Although Romanian laws regulate the sale of medicines, patients can buy them over the counter, in pharmacies. How is that possible? Doctor Sandra Alexiu is back at the microphone:

“There is a list of all registered medicines in Romania and each drug has a code related to the type of prescription, specifying if a drug is delivered based on a medical prescription and if the prescription needs to be renewed after some time. Unfortunately this code is not always taken into consideration. For instance many parents prefer to go directly to a pharmacy when their kid get sick instead of seeing a doctor and the reasons are many: it’s either crowded, it’s a weekend or they act on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, pharmacists are allowed to prescribe a certain type of treatment for infectious diseases and at weekends they can sell antibiotics over the counter for only two days, so that the treatment can be continued after seeing a doctor.”

In spite of all this, is it possible that physicians prescribe antibiotics when it’s not the case? Sandra Alexiu:

“Antibiotics are excessively prescribed even by physicians and this is not a problem only in Romania, the practice is spread all over the world. But self-medication is worse than excessive prescription of medicines, because in the latter situation, a doctor saw the patient and made a decision. Maybe it’s not the best decision but it’s an assumed decision that can be contested. Self-medication poses a risk, which patients take when they treat an ailment without having the necessary medical knowledge.”

Journalist Vlad Mixich believes that one cannot state that Romanian physicians prescribe antibiotics excessively as there is insufficient data to back this supposition. Responsibility is individual and it all depends on people’s level of education, in which the authorities should be involved. Vlad Mixich:

“We need a national awareness-raising campaign supported and financed by the healthcare ministry because this is the institution responsible for education and prevention; and this is a matter of prevention, namely preventing the spread of infections that are resistant to antibiotics.”

One of the microbes resisting classical treatments is the one that causes tuberculosis. The World Health Organization has warned that in several parts of the world a new form of this disease has emerged, which cannot be treated with known medication used so far.

Just as the term ‘Franglish’ has long been used in French to define the use of a mixture of French and English words and phrases, in a colloquial language, the term ‘Romglish’ has emerged in a similar way. Linguists have noticed that starting 1990, the influence of English has gained ground in Romania by means of music and film. The use of American English in particular, by young people or in certain scientific circles, has become something common. Linguist RodicaZafiu, a professor with the Bucharest Faculty of Letters, gave us several examples of words and phrases in Romglish:

“If we speak about young people’s language, we see that they use a lot of slang words. Some of these words, such as ‘funny’,’ groggy’ and ‘OK’ have been used for a long time in the Romanian language. Nothing new here. But there are many other terms, like ‘loser’ for instance, which have been introduced recently. Besides slang words and expressions, which are expressive and often pejorative, or the words that link information or the conversation together, such as “by the way”, replacing the French expression ‘a propos’, computer and Internet language is quite extraordinary. In spite of the fact that this kind of language is not specific to young people, they are in fact the segment that use it the most. In the computer world it’s not just the Romglish words that are used, but an entire separate language code, inaccessible to older people, with abbreviations like ‘LOL’ and many others borrowed directly from English abbreviations. There are also cases when Romanian words are abbreviated after the English model.”

Fast internet communication has also contaminated the capacity of the Romanian language to adapt to the English used in the IT world. Romanian young people now use English words instead of Romanian for “download”, “share”, “click” and “like”. This phenomenon is a trend, but it is also a matter of choosing the easy way. Sociologist Claudia Ghisoiu explains:

“About 85% of the information found on the Internet is in English, and this is an effect of globalization. That is why around 1.5 billion people throughout the world speak English, at a certain level. In order to navigate on the Internet one needs to understand English. It is a synthetic language, which means it can offer a lot of information in just a few, simple words. This is the reason why it’s so frequently used in the business and IT sectors. At educational level, students receive bibliography in English, they read English books and look for materials on the Internet in the same language. Then there is also the fact that they use many English words when they speak, for the translation of which they would need more Romanian words or phrases.

It’s not just a trend or the excessive computer use that can explain the emergence of Romglish. There is also an attitude towards one’s culture, as sociologist Claudia Ghisoiu explains:

“This is a more than just circumstantial speech. Sociologists use the term xenocentrism. It means appreciation of and the wish to adopt everything that’s imported. This is something that defines young Romanians, who believe that the Romanian celebration of Dragobete is inferior to Valentine’s Day, the latter being imported for economic reasons. Culture is exported through celebrations, films and music. Most of these imports come from the US and are in English, therefore they ‘must’ be good.”

Although there are no studies to explain how spread exocentrism really is, one of the characteristics of the Romglish speakers seems to be their appetite for everything that comes from abroad. This appetite is also the effect of the Romanian culture being undervalued domestically. Nevertheless, Romglish should not be a reason for concern. Rodica Zafiu:

“It’s rather unlikely that Romglish should affect the structure of the standard language or the language of a philosophical essay. It is part of a colloquial and argot language that, by the nature of things, renews itself very often; it shocks at the beginning because just like it now borrows words from English, it used to borrow words from Turkish, Greek and French. So terms like ‘Facebook’, ‘link’, ‘hacker’, are common terms that can either adapt themselves to Romanian or disappear. All these elements are provisional by definition. They didn’t exist 20 years ago and might even disappear, as technology advances, before becoming part of the Romanian language.”

Sociologist and Professor Claudia Ghisoiu however, thinks differently:TRACK: “People over 25 are still unable to write a text of a certain scientific or academic level without using terms in English. It’s the same when it comes to their speech. It is striking. If you ask them to explain what they have written down they have difficulties in doing so in Romanian. They use a whole paragraph to explain one word. They cannot find equivalent words in Romanian.”

Whether it should worry us or not, Romglish is a phenomenon which proves that language is a living thing with temporary norms that can change in time, depending on the circumstances.

Statistics show that 136.7 million babies are born annually across the globe, but only 32.6% are exclusively breastfed. More and more women choose not to breastfeed their newborns, either because of health problems or because milk powder is so widely available and more convenient. We talked about the physical and psychological difficulties of breastfeeding with Maria, who breastfed her baby boy for one and a half years:

“Breastfeeding for such a long time creates a strong dependence between mother and baby, which sometimes prevents babies from becoming independent earlier. In my case, because of excessive breastfeeding, my baby had problems assimilating proteins and iron. However, I don’t think introducing milk powder will help much. Anyway I recommend weaning babies when they are 1 year old. One year of breastfeeding is enough. I also recommend adding other foods when babies are 4 or 5 months old, while making sure they get enough proteins.”

In an attempt to help her baby overcome his anemia, Maria also fed him canned food she bought from supermarkets and pharmacies:

“He ate this kind of food for a while, then stopped. I don’t know if I should trust canned baby food, but apparently it is safe and contains organic ingredients. However, there’s no way of knowing precisely what they contain.”

Alina, the mother of another one-year old boy is still breastfeeding her baby although she was not encouraged to do so while she was in the maternity hospital:

“I know they gave my baby powdered milk in the hospital, and because he wasn’t hungry anymore, he refused breast milk. Breastfeeding is a big psychological challenge, but luckily, I had the moral support of my family. You experience so many new symptoms and pains, but I managed to overcome them and continue to breastfeed my baby, given that he also had some health problems”.

Alina started diversifying her baby’s food when he was 6 months old, but she did not give him canned food from the supermarket, instead she cooked it herself:

“Home made food is much safer. I only used canned baby food when we had to go on a longer trip and took the baby along.”

According to a study carried out in 2011 by the Institute for the Protection of Mothers and Babies in partnership with the Healthcare Ministry and UNICEF Romania, only 12.6% of women breastfeed their babies exclusively, this percentage being one of the lowest in Europe. Surprisingly, this percentage is even lower in countryside than in the urban areas. Voica Popa, an expert in child protection who works for UNICEF Romania, explains:

“Unfortunately, women living in the countryside have access to little information in the period before and after giving birth. There are many women who never go to a specialist doctor during their pregnancy. However, it is important for a woman to know how to feed and take care of her baby from the very moment she finds out she is pregnant.”

It is difficult to explain why the breastfeeding culture is disappearing in the countryside and why healthy traditional habits related to infant feeding are being abandoned, even in the rural areas. Voica Popa:

“The problem is not only the elimination of breast milk, but the use of products that are aggressively advertised and recommended for babies under 6 months, who should in fact be breastfed exclusively. Gradual diversification of food should start after 6 months. Our study shows that there are babies in Romania who at 7 or 8 months already eat fries. At this age they should be eating fruit. Apples, which are common in the countryside, have been replaced with bananas, while preserved vegetables have replaced fresh vegetables from the garden. This paradox is caused by the lack of information and education”.

For this situation to improve, the European Union has recently passed a directive that regulates the labeling of foodstuffs for children as well as the content of powdered milk. Romanian Euro MP, Daciana Sarbu, was one of the supporters of this directive that better regulates the content of baby food traded on the single market:

“Consumers will know very clearly what the canned baby food contains and what ingredients were used. Also, all advertisements for baby food will be modified, the purpose of the directive being to encourage breastfeeding. I think people should become aware of the importance of natural food. I would like these things to be better explained to people, who only use advertisements and television as their main source of information. It is difficult to change this because people lead busy and hectic lives and use convenient sources to get their information from.”

With the recent emergence of a number of websites about breastfeeding and the launch of campaigns such as World Breastfeeding Week held at the beginning of August, Daciana Sarbu is optimistic that the level of public information will improve in the future.

Against this background, the Legal Resources Center has launched a program called “A Plea for Dignity”, aimed at contributing to the setting up of an independent mechanism for monitoring the institutions for the mentally disabled, the psychosocial institutions included. The program also plans to improve the legal and institutional framework as regards the protection of the mentally disabled, and to improve the capacity of integrating and accepting these people within the community.

Georgiana Marinescu, executive manager of the Legal Resources Center explains what fundamental rights can be broken in the case of people in placement centres: “Depravation of liberty does not mean only detainment or penitentiary. It means being in a placement center and having no right to go out when you want to. It means being committed to a center for people with disabilities, in a psychiatric hospital or a neuro-psychical rehabilitation center. You cannot get out of there, you’re not allowed to. You know when you get in but you never know when you get out, and that’s deprivation of liberty. And if we talk about deprivation of liberty, then patients should enjoy the guarantees those in penitentiaries and those arrested have, and even more than that, because they are a vulnerable category that needs protection.”

Since its launch, the program “A Plea for Dignity”, has dealt with several cases of human rights violation in placement centers, some of which were taken to the European Court of Human Rights. Beyond the wish to solve these cases, the Center, through its representatives, is fighting to solve some problems of the system. A case brought to the attention of the European Court for Human Rights is that of Valentin Campeanu, a young Roma ethnic, abandoned at birth, who suffers from HIV infection, mental retardation and tuberculosis, who died at 19, after being transferred from a foster care center for minors to a center for people with mental problems.

Constantin Cojocariu, a lawyer with the NGO “Integris” tells us more about this case: “We have reported the violation of many rights stipulated in the European Human Rights Convention, such as the right to life, freedom, to private life, to not being discriminated, and to an efficient remedy. Campeanu was practically alone, in the authorities’ hands, that have deprived him of all his rights and failed to protect him in any way. People like him are invisible in a way and they become visible only tanks to cases like this. Problems are of structural nature and we need to find solutions to them.”

Georgiana Pascu, manager of “A Plea for Dignity” program is the woman who at the time got involved personally in the Campeanu case and has told us why this case has become emblematic: “The case is that of a young man, who had just turned 19, in February 2004. This case includes all elements: mental health disorder, young age, a defenceless, orphan. It shows us a problem affecting the healthcare system, namely that each and every person working in the healthcare system plays a very important role. We should not minimise the role played by the social assistant, who has sent notifications, made a series of requests, or the role of the County Council President, the role played by the educator, who should have accompanied Valentin. But, he got transferred, just like a minutes. The papers for Valentin’s transfer read: ’the equipment and the child get transferred’. Things are far more dramatic.”

After visiting several foster centres, the rapporteurs of the Legal Resources Centre have signalled cases of severe abuse and they also tried to identify the origin of the problems. In most cases, the investigation carried out in foster care centres shows that the situations of abuse are perpetuated for several reasons. One of them is the structure of the centres, which do not observe these young persons’ rehabilitation needs, the more so as they are minors, with different vulnerabilities and need different and specific types of attention.

Furthermore, the centres are understaffed or the staff is not properly qualified for the work. Another reason is the lack of financial motivation and continual professional training for all professional categories of personnel working in these centres. One last inconvenience is the lack of instruments to signal abuses by the abused young people and the lack of a mechanism allowing these teenagers to have access to justice. This is precisely what the Legal Resources Centre has done, in its effort to fight for the right to represent these young people in the relation with the state.

In the mid 1980s the Communist regime decided to demolish a landmark monument of the then Bucharest: the Vacaresti monastery, which had been built in the mid 18th century. They intended to build an artificial lake nearby and even started works to that end. But the revolution occurred in 1989 and the project was abandoned, and the 190-hectare land became in time a wet area, extremely valuable from a scientific point of view, actually a genuine ecosystem with fauna and flora specific to a delta.

More than 90 bird species (hawks, pheasants and wild ducks — many of which are protected under international conventions), mammals, fish and amphibians found shelter here. Also there is evidence that the otter has found shelter in the new Vacaresti Delta. An NGO called “Save the Danube and the Delta” has already started a project meant to turn the Vacaresti marsh into an urban natural park. But, besides the bureaucratic difficulties faced by the NGO in accomplishing such a project, there are many social problems in the area. Dan Barbulescu, executive manager of the “Save the Danube and the Delta” Association, will tell us about some of the problems in the area:

Dan Barbulescu: “There is fish in the lake so poachers are always looming. That is why we believe the authorities should get more involved. We are now working very well with the Environment Ministry, a group from the ministry meets regularly to discuss the project, which, according to the law, seems easy to accomplish, but in reality it’s more complicated. Despite the Environment Ministry’s support we are frequently faced with obstacles such as the mentality of certain city hall employees. Furthermore there are real estate interests in the area, as they intend to turn it into a residential neighborhood with a mall”.

Considered a no man’s land, the Vacaresti marsh provides shelter and means of survival to several homeless families. Some live on fishing and other on collecting waste. Most of them wait to receive the donations made by various charities. Aurelia lives there, in an improvised hut, together with her family.

Aurelia: “I live here with my husband, children and mother in law, my husband’s brother lives nearby and in the same yard there are another 5 or 6 families. There are 4 other families with 12 children living near the marsh. It’s very difficult for us because we have no heating and lighting, and children cannot do their homework.”

In spite of these hardships the family’s two older boys and two older girls go to school regularly. However the family’s middle daughter Alina went to school rather late. She is 12 but she is only in the 3rd grade.

Alina: “I would have liked to go to school earlier and learn more. I would like to be a good student in the future”.

Aurelia’s family has been living like this for many years:

Aurelia: “For 15 years we have been living in these conditions, in huts, in various areas of Bucharest. We came here thanks to my brother who found this spot first. We don’t know who owns this land. Every day we go and collect PETs, waste paper, cans and copper lines. We don’t fish, so we’ll keep doing this until we find a job”.

The association called Samusocial has been trying for several years to improve these people’s living standards and professional situation. They obtained identity papers for them and have been providing them with school supplies, clothes and shoes for children. They have also helped them find a job, which, unfortunately, is a difficult thing to do, for various reasons. Monica Tautul works for Samusocial:

Monica Tautul: “We find them jobs, but most of them are seasonal jobs, on the black market. We also plan to find them a home after finding them a stable job. It’s impossible for them to work well if they sleep in the streets and don’t get enough rest. Food is also important, but not as important as hygiene. They need to be clean to be able to keep their jobs.”

It goes without saying that lodging is not easy to find. That is why for those living near the Vacaresti marsh, the ideal situation would be to continue to live there even after the area is declared natural reserve. The very initiators of the project have some ideas in this respect. Head of the “Save the Danube and the Delta Association” Dan Barbulescu has details:

Dan Barbulescu: “We know there are several families who live in the area and we have never considered having them out. They live there and should continue living there, but in better conditions. They are social cases and need special attention from the state. For instance, these people can become guides or rangers or security staff here in the park. We keep in touch with them anyway. Two days ago, Gica, an old man who lives by the marsh, called us to tell us some that some people came to cut down some trees. This is another problem. Each fall, trees are being cut down for firewood. More security staff is needed and this is something these people can do, they can take care of the park.”

Although its has a scientific certificate issued by the Romanian Academy and enjoys the official support of the Environment Ministry, the project of turning the Vacaresti Delta into a protected area has yet to work its way through thick bureaucracy.

The recently submitted European Commission analysis on the number of people employed in agriculture indicates that few Europeans work in this area, even though it is crucial for the European economy. Around 10 million people work full time on EU farms, 5% of the union’s labor force. Of them, 92% are members of the family that owns the farm. There are also people who do regular work outside the farm as well. The total number of people doing regular agricultural work in the EU countryside had reached 25 million in 2010, a fairly small number considering the importance of farming products in every day life. Add to this the 4.8 million jobs lost between 2000 and 2012 in EU farming. 70% of them were in newly integrated member states, including Romania, a country where agriculture accounts for much of the economy. There are many reasons for losing these jobs, the worst being the lack of interest in farming jobs among young people, and the widespread practice of subsistence agriculture, which produces no economic benefits, and does not involve employment contracts and wages as such. This situation has pushed both the authorities and civil society to act. We spoke to Dumitru Fornea, a member of the European Social and Economic Committee, in charge of international relations for the Meridian Trade Union Confederation. He told us that a part of EU funds for agriculture are aimed specifically at the labor force:

“One third of the EU budget – 30 billion Euro per year – is allocated to the Common Agricultural Policy. There is concern at the European and also at the national level, since Romania is still a country with a high rate of agriculture employment. Almost 3 million people work in agriculture. Romania has spent a lot in relation to agricultural policy. Between 2007 and 2013, 15 billion Euros have been allocated in total to agriculture. This should yield some results. Unfortunately, most of the rural population is forced to emigrate and look for opportunities on other European markets.”

As subsistence agriculture merely provides food, but no income, a lot of young people take the road of emigration, and they are not alone. This means that most subsistence farmland have little chance of becoming farms or any kind of economic unit. One other reason for which agricultural work doesn’t pay off is the peasant’s reluctance to form larger farms by association. Dumitru Fornea believes that this is a leftover attitude from the time of the state farms imposed by the communist regime:

“This lack of confidence creates a lot of problems for young people and people in rural areas. They have difficulties in becoming efficient and competing with corporate agriculture. The fact in Romania the agricultural sector accounts for 30% of the economy is not a bad thing in itself. We have industry making up 28% of the economy, while services provide 42% of it. All could balance out in a favorable way. Unfortunately, these farm workers do not have collective employment contracts, neither do they have individual ones. Only 8% of them have unions, and only 3% are part of an agricultural cooperative set up on the basis of the latest legislation.”

In spite of this, there are private initiatives that want to address the situation, offering young people the opportunity of a rural career. This is precisely the name of a program of free courses organized by a company called Global Commercium Development, aimed at people from the countryside who want to develop various business skills. It is financed through the European Social Fund, and it was implemented mainly in a few villages in Cluj county, but also elsewhere, as we found out from Tina Cozmanciuc, who works at the company:

“We started a few local projects with partners from Spain and Italy, projects worth around half a million Euros, with local initiatives in Cluj county, but also in a few other counties, such as Constanta, Alba, Valcea and Ilfov. Our projects are aimed at inactive people, unemployed people who practice subsistence agriculture. Our analysis shows that around 62% of the people in the countryside have incomeS strictly resulting from agriculture. Unfortunately, this is not a good percentage, since of this percentage, only 25% are employees. The others have incomes from agriculture without having employee status.”

Young people in particular seem interested in these courses that encourage them to become entrepreneurs and show them how. Tina Cozmanciuc told us about their preferences in terms of a potential rural career:

“They don’t go for the agricultural sector. They want an occupation besides that of helping their parents in the household. For instance, in one of the areas where we are active, there is a factory making parts for an automobile manufacturer. Many want to go work there, but for that you need to be trained. Unfortunately, after finishing their obligatory 8-year education, they do go to high school, but do not pass their final baccalaureate exam, and don’t learn a trade to allow them to work in that factory. Another trend is that of working in the newly developing tourist industry, but they still need training and qualifications.”

People in the countryside appreciate and welcome any kind of vocational education, but that takes money. However, this money is available, with careful management, from European funds provided to Romania for agriculture for the 2014-2020 period.

Organ donation remains a volunteering, anonymous act which brings no benefits except for the comfort that somewhere, someone you don’t know can be brought back to life and carry on living. Here’s what we got from the mother of a donor child: ”I told the nurse what organs we had in mind: skin grafts, kidneys, liver, pancreas and heart. But I did not want to donate the eyes. That was the only thing left. I had the opportunity to see two of the people who received the organs. A 21-year old boy needed a liver and a 35-year old woman needed the kidneys. They were young people and I didn’t want their parents to go through what I had been going through. “

Raluca is 27, and when she was 18 she was diagnosed with cirrhosis and she needed a transplant: ”At the outbreak of my disease when I was 18, I had a very strong anemia, and in two weeks the functions of my liver deteriorated to half of its capacity. Then I pursued a treatment for about six years. Physicians thought is was the right one. Meanwhile I graduated from the university. Eventually doctors told me the disease returned, and that more was needed. Straight away they put me on a transplant waiting list and I only waited for six months. I was lucky, as back then there was an organ crisis. The recovery was a bit more difficult, but it was worth it, there were also some post-transplant problems, but I was very well taken care of by my doctors, I have to tell you that in Romania we have fantastic doctors. Now I am and I feel healthy.”

In Romania more than 3,600 people are on the waiting list for a transplant of organs. Across Europe, each year 12 people die waiting for a transplant while in Romania, about a third of those who are on a transplant waiting list die waiting for a compatible donor. For instance, last year there were 65 donors for more than 400 people with a liver problem. Since 2006, when the National Transplant Agency was founded, the number of completed transplant procedures has seen an annual 30% increase, which meant over 3,000 lives saved. This year Romania reported the biggest number of transplants from brain dead donors. With details on that here is doctor Victor Zota, the coordinator of the national transplant program.

Victor Zota: “We are now among those countries with hundreds of donors. These over 100 donors we’ve had so far (and we hope to have even more, at least 150) mean over 200 kidney transplants only from dead bodies, almost 100 liver transplants, one heart transplant, unfortunately, more than 200 bone marrow transplants as well as several hundred tissue transplants. This year we have had 35 in-hospital coordinators and over 35 anesthetists working in ERs whose main job is to identify potential donors among brain-dead people.”

Professor doctor Irinel Popescu working at the Fundeni hospital in Bucharest has underlined the decisive role the National Agency for Transplants has in managing transplant activities and also the role of the Health Ministry, which covers the costs of these operations, but he added that Romania needs much more.

Irinel Popescu : “In the case of liver transplants, if we compare with figures from abroad, and try to asses the transplant demand and not the number of donors, we can say that there are somewhere around 300-400 transplants that should be done in Romania. So, we are waiting for the number of donors to increase. Simple calculations show that 100 donors to a population of 20 million means about 5 donors per million, which is less than satisfactory.”

The donation rate in Romania remains relatively constant, with small fluctuations: it raises when there is positive news about transplant and drops when news is bad, to subsequently stabilize at around 60-65%, says professor Popescu.

There is only one liver transplant center in Romania, at Fundeni, three centers specialized in kidney transplants, in Bucharest, Cluj Napoca and Iasi, and two centers for heart transplants in Bucharest and Targu Mures. The “Sf. Maria” Hospital in Bucharest is about to become the second liver transplant unit in Romania, after Fundeni. Two sections of this hospital have been brought up to international standards fitted with state of the art equipment for this type of transplants. Other aspects are to be regulated for those willing to donate their organs after death. Their names could be included in a registry at the health ministry, upon a statement at the notary public. Under a law issued by the Justice Ministry, the applicants could be exempted from paying fees to public notary offices.

Lucky enough to have one year’s maternity leave, Romanian mums are not so lucky returning to the workplace. On top of the fact that there are much fewer day care centres than the demand would prompt, jobs are hard to come by. According to a 2012 study, 47% of parents went back to work after childcare leave, while 17% chose to stay at home. In addition, most women who go back to work only have two children, while those with more than two children generally prefer to stay at home.

The costs of providing day or after school care for more than two children are mostly beyond people’s means. Employers told sociologists that 80.3% of returning employees come back to the same position they left. However, experts in vocational training said that some employees going back to work risk unemployment soon after, because their leave of absence prompted a redistribution of tasks in their workplace. Also, even though most employers and co-workers without children say that their colleagues with children are punctual and well performing, they tend to take leaves of absence much more often.

Considering all these challenges, we asked sociologist Florian Nitu, one of the experts who ran the study, what do women tend to choose when their maternity leave ends? He said that after returning to work, they leave children between one and three in the care of their grandparents:

“They obviously prefer leaving their children with their grandparents. Most times, grandparents offer much better supervision than a day care worker, but the latter provide much better education. Today, parents are very interested in the educational component of a child’s upbringing.”

Most children above the age of three are sent to primary school. Florian Nitu explains:

“The study shows that women, and parents in general, believe that primary school helps the development of their children. Children sometimes have the possibility to learn a foreign language there, or even how to properly hold a pen to write. They learn songs, poems and dances, and also to socialise. These are things that people appreciate. Confidence in day care services depends on the type of institution. Almost 80% of parents have higher confidence in state-run primary schools, as opposed to 50% who have more trust in private ones. The public system is appreciated. Nurseries don’t get the same degree of confidence, so most people don’t use them.”

The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection is currently running a European funded project to increase the level of confidence that parents have in the primary school system, in partnership with a private company, a project entitled “Balance. Family and Career”.

The project has several components: the sociological study we quoted above, setting up a network of teacher trainers all over the country, and setting up two centres of excellence in Bucharest and Brasov to provide an example. Here is Manuela Manea, coordinator of the project from the Ministry of Labour:

“With this project, we tried to see what financial and legal problems may appear when local authorities try to set up such facilities. We used structural funds to modernise and furnish them at an adequate level for the children admitted here.”

We also spoke to a teacher involved in the project, Marilena Balaciu, who told us this:

“I’ve only been here for a month and a half, but I have achieved things I could not have hoped for, on the emotional side. Any beginning is difficult, and that goes for us too, teachers, children and parents. However, I did manage to grow close to parents and kids alike.”

At the same time, children receive an age-appropriate education, which some parents cannot offer at home, as Antoaneta, the mother of a primary school boy, told us:

“It is to his benefit, and it works for me too, he learns much more than he would at home. He doesn’t want to learn these things from me. This is much better, you can see the change. Before he went there, he was just fooling around, he was just doodling, but now he is in competition with his older sister, and claims he does better than her.”

Crina kept her boy at home, and he was cared for by his grandparents. This year, however, he went straight to the last year of primary school. We asked her why:

“We wanted him to go to primary school earlier, by his grandma wouldn’t let him. In the end we persuaded her to agree, because it’s better for him, and because that way she could take a rest. For instance, when he was at home he didn’t take an afternoon nap, but now he naps both at school and at home. He even learned more than he did at home. He pays much more attention while he’s doing his colouring, because he does that in school alongside all the other children, which he is now doing at home, too.”

Faced with the need to encourage population growth and bring mothers back to work, the authorities have to promote policies that allows parents them to balance work and family life, reflecting the wishes of both employers and parents, believe the authors of the study “Balance. Family and Career”.

Teodora Dragut: “It’s a big mistake to stay away form such homes. When I told some friends where I was living, they told me “God, you’re living in an asylum?” This is no asylum, but a home offering you a peaceful life. This is exactly why old people are still on the streets, because they’re afraid and embarrassed to live in such homes”.

It’s been more than a year since Teodora Dragut chose to move into the Nicolae Cajal Rest Home of the Bucharest City Hall. She says she was lucky to have met a few kind-hearted folks who were impressed by her life story and the fact that, at the age of 85, she was living in a home for singles, with nothing but her books and a fair-headed doll she was looking after, as if it had been the child she never had.

Her only family is her sister’s son who drove her out of the house after his mother died. As her pension did not allow her to pay for her home, and as there were no other relatives to support her financially, Teodora Dragut joined the long queue of welfare cases, her fate depending entirely on the funds made available by the Bucharest City Hall. But what about all the other pensioners who find themselves in the same desperate situation? How many of them are able to find a spot in a home? How many of Romania’s old are really willing to put everything behind and share their loneliness, in an unknown place, with people in the same situation?

According to official data made public by the Social Assistance Directorate of the Labour Ministry, there are a little over 200 rest homes in Romania, both public and private, as well as a waiting list exceeding 2,600 pending requests. Of these, most refer to dramatic cases of people fighting illness and poverty.

Rest homes don’t come cheap. To get a room, the pensioner must pay the fee in full, if his or her pension allows it, or at least 60%, with the family taking charge of the remaining 40%. The state only takes care of welfare cases. But since things tend to get overcomplicated in a country like Romania, where the number of pensioners is increasing by the day, the social security budget cannot cope with the number of requests. Carmen Manu, the head of the Social Services Directorate with the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection tells us more about it:

Carmen Manu: “In general, social services in former soviet states, now members of the EU, are funded from the state budget. For this reason these countries try to set up special funds, or social security programmes. These services for the elderly can be quite expensive. If we look at things in perspective we see that the population is ageing at an alarming pace and that we won’t be able to have enough funds for all of them. This is not because someone will be unwilling to provide, but because there won’t be enough for everyone in the first place. Today we witness the emergence of a new traditional type of family, where the adults must look after the children and the elderly”.

And when the adults have exhausted their possibilities, they move to rest homes. But since waiting lists are often too long and families cannot always wait for a spot in a public rest home, an increasing number of Romanians pick private homes instead. After her 90-year-old grandma had a stroke, Alexandra decided she could no longer take care of her, given that they also shared the house with Alexandra’s six-year-old daughter. As they were not very confident in the public system, they opted for a private rest home.

Alexandra: “I went to see the place and I liked it, because it looked more like a hotel rather than a rest home. My grandmother was very relieved it did not look like a hospital. Because that’s how we imagined it at first.”

Alexandra thinks it’s worth paying 450 euros a month so that her grandma may benefit from decent accommodation and assistance. In fact, Mariana Melinger, a Romanian-born Israeli who owns the center, said that she opened it with the intention to offer the elderly the comfort of a real home. However, it is not the price that makes Romanians reluctant to the idea of putting the elderly in rest homes. Here is Mrs. Melinger again:

Mariana Melinger: “We have a backward mentality. We believe that if we take our parents or grandparents to a rest home we are abandoning them. Actually, we are offering them better conditions than what they have at home.”

In spite of preconceived ideas, state-run rest homes are also trying to catch up, offer their guests more comfort and involve them in all sorts of creative activities:

Mariana Melinger: “They have a club here, they can take part in all sorts of activities, talk to each other, watch TV; we even run a glass-painting course. We have two dogs, a parrot and a fish tank…We take them on tours to monasteries and invite them to barbeques, to make them feel like they have a family. In summer we take them to a guest house in Moeciu, where they benefit from the same professional assistance.”

Calin Maxim, head of a state-owned rest home in Bucharest, is very proud of the conditions the rest home he runs offers. Nevertheless, Mrs. Olga, who has been living in such home since she lost her husband seven years ago, has a different opinion:

Calin Maxim: “I found it pretty difficult to get used to the new environment at first. I feel OK now, but I still cannot refer to this place as my home. It’s like home and family, but, somehow different, you know.”

And indeed, the elderly may perceive life in such an establishment as something very different. However, they still have hopes and dreams, as psychologist Mirela Fita with the Nicolae Cajal center tells us:

Mirela Fita: “They wish to stay in good health, and not end up bedridden. They want to be as active and healthy as they possibly can.”

And as long as they don’t feel abandoned or useless, the elderly can miraculously turn from marginalized people into lovely grandmas and grandpas.

This is one of the conclusions of the study “The Situation of Adolescents in Romania” made under the aegis of the UNICEF by the Romanian Center for Urban and Regional Sociology (CURS) and the Institute of Education Sciences. The study focusing on the 10 to 18 year age bracket reveals the adolescents’ cultural preferences, their problems and vulnerabilities.

The number of adolescents that have drunk alcohol at least once in their life is very big indeed, but there are a few differences between the rural and urban areas and also between boys and girls. Sociologist Ionela Sufaru with the Romanian Center for Urban and Regional Sociology tells us more about it:

Ionela Sufaru: “The number of boys who drink alcohol is twice as big as that of girls. In the rural areas the quantity of alcohol adolescents use to drink is double the amount consumed by adolescents from the urban areas. 23% of adolescents answered they smoked cigarettes at least once in their life, while the number of girls who answered positively is half the number of boys. It’s worth mentioning that the number of smokers in towns and cities is by 10% bigger than in villages. As far as illegal drugs are concerned almost 4% answered that at a certain point in their lives they tried it. When it comes to the 14 to 18 year age bracket this percent stands at 5.4% with 7.4% in the urban area alone. Most adolescents started drinking and smoking at around 14 years and a half. For drug users the time of initiation ranges from 11 to 15 years. “

This type of risky behavior is usually triggered by the adolescents’ estrangement from their families starting at the age of 14, their exposal to the aggressive campaigns for alcohol and cigarettes and the easy access to these substances. A risky sexual behavior is another category considered by the authors of the aforementioned study:

Ionela Sufaru: “15% of the adolescents interviewed had already started their sexual life, boys twice as many as compared to girls and most of them from urban areas. Girls are more cautious than boys, more stable in a relationship and more careful when it comes to using a condom. Unfortunately 16% of the adolescents never use condoms. Most boys had their first sexual experience at around the age of 15.”

Apart from identifying the main weaknesses of teenagers, the purpose of the study was to make certain recommendations on behalf of UNICEF so that teenagers’ rights should be observed and protected as best as possible and that the community should provide them with all the support they need.

The Romanian Minister for Youth and Sports, Nicolae Banicioiu, pleads for raising the awareness of the youth, while acknowledging the seriousness of some of the problems facing Romanian young people today.

Nicolae Banicioiu: “Most of the efforts we devote to young people include activities aimed at preventing the use of drugs, alcohol and forbidden substances. Moreover, apart from NGOs working in this field, we want to carry on our partnership with the National Anti-Drug Agency. All the actions of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and by that I refer to students’ camps and vocational activities, were conducted in the presence of Anti-Drug specialists, who were there to conduct awareness-raising and prevention activities. Moreover, we do our best to promote a healthy lifestyle among school teenagers, given that this is the perfect time to learn such things”.

Apart from awareness-raising campaigns, authorities also need a closer dialogue with teenagers. Despite the inherent troubles associated with their age and social backgrounds, teenagers seem willing to communicate with those who are open to listen to them without making judgments.

In recent years the Romanian education sector has been confronted with the evidence of system failures, while the success rate in the Romanian Baccalaureate has failed to exceed the 50% threshold in the last two years. The shortcomings of traditional education have prompted parents to look at alternative tuition methods for their children, which are gaining more and more popularity.

In 2011 the “Communication for Community” Association, known as C4C, launched a project entitled “Let’s rediscover school”. The project kicked off this autumn with a meeting of representatives of alternative education institutions certified by the Romanian Education Ministry. The aim of the meeting was to find solutions to improve the education offer addressing normal or disabled children. Daniela Visoianu, the coordinator of the project, told us more about the purpose of the programme.

Daniela Visoianu: “With ‘Let’s rediscover school’, our aim was to focus on the parent-child relationship. The parent of a child with special needs is subject to a high amount of daily pressure, having no time to breathe. More often than not such pressure rebounds on children. Physically disabled children may sometimes develop an emotional disability in their relationship with their parents, to whom they feel attached. This is often the case when parents tend to blame their children for quitting their jobs and other problems in their life. What we did was to try and break this pattern”.

Alternative teaching methods endorsed by the Romanian Education Ministry are Jenaplan, Freinet, Montessori, Step-by-Step and Waldorf.

The Jenaplan method fosters a disengaged type of schooling, free of the ideals of adult life, in which freedom of expression and choice are central to the child’s development. Monica Cuciureanu, the head of the Jenaplan Association, told us more:

Monica Cuciureanu: “The Jenaplan alternative is less known in Romania. At present the method is used only in the countryside. This alternative type of teaching emerged following an interesting experiment, given that schooling no longer keeps abreast of society. What’s most important is that Jenaplan promotes free and active learning, a complex method centred on natural learning situations. The specificity of this method lies in the fact that children are integrated into mixed age groups, on the assumption that children can learn as much from children as they do from adults. The maximum accepted age range is three years. Conversation, games, activities and festivities are key. The traditional timetable is replaced with a periodic activity plan, alternating between four fundamental activities. The curriculum is the same as in traditional schools, with a focus on environment-oriented education”.

One of the best-known alternative tuition methods which has been used for the last 20 years in Romania is Step by Step. Elena Mihai is the head of an Institution offering Step-by-Step programmes:

Elena Mihai: “Why is Step by Step so popular? This is mostly due to the fact that it uses the national curriculum, it is adapted to local culture and integrates the best practices in the field of pre-school education. The model it fosters is based on a specific involvement of parents. We want to raise citizens who can push society forward, who display initiative and self-confidence. We have a strong network of professions and training centres. We hold regular meetings with the teachers in our network. In terms of numbers, we have 280 kindergartens and 290 schools in 40 counties, teaching 690 classes of over 15,000 children”.

The “Celestin Freinet” method of alternative education is based on the assumption that schools are not bare-walled temples. Rather education emerges from contact with life and nature. Mariana Bandea attended the meeting of alternative education professionals. She is the chair of the “Celestin Freinet” Romanian Association for Modern Society, which focuses on extra-curricular activities.

Mariana Bandea: “Although we have few Freinet schools, many teachers opt for this method. Freinet classes were a late development in the school network. We focus on extra-curricular activities. We have summer schools, such as the one in Reghin, central Romania. Our extra-curricular activity calendar is certified and approved by the Education Ministry. We’ve also implemented a project called ‘The Freinet Universe’, which starts with the outset of the school year and ends with the summer school”.

In turn, the Montessori method addresses children with disabilities, helping them develop just like normal children. Dana Crainic, a teacher working for the Montessori School in Timisoara, shared with us her experience:

Dana Crainic: “The teacher is seen like a waiter serving children and taking their orders. The Montessori class is structured on five areas of learning: language, sensorial development, mathematics, nature and culture. The material is laid out in order and children are encouraged to choose a theme. The teacher then explains the material using as few words as possible. What distinguishes this method from others is that we have mixed groups of children, aged 3 to 6. Younger children learn from older children, and older children are trained to help young children learn. Our motto is ‘Help me to do it by myself!’ “

Boasting a 23 year- experience in Romania, Waldorf offers a schooling alternative for all ages. Zenovia Ungureanu is a teacher with Waldorf Bucharest High School.

Zenovia Ungureanu: “Waldorf education begins in kindergarten and in Romania ends with high school graduation. There are many Waldorf classes in public kindergartens. There are also Waldorf high schools in Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara and Iasi. Usually eighth-grade graduates prefer to opt for Waldorf high school, although some choose other high schools, given that our only specialty is philology”.

Although their number is small, alternative means of education are gaining ground in Romania. What they offer is a fresh perspective on a child’s experience by means of different approaches, being accessible to any parent interested in a change.

Romania is a genuine agricultural paradise and French investors have many opportunities to invest in Romanian agriculture, said early this summer the French Ambassador to Bucharest, Phillipe Gustin. Indeed, specialists confirm that agriculture is top of the list when it comes to foreign investors’ preferences. On the other hand, though, Romanian youth is not so much interested in getting specialized in agriculture, as Maria Drinovan, the Head of the ‘Tara Barsei’ Agriculture and Food Industry College in Prejmer, Brasov County, said.

“ Unfortunately, agriculture schools are faced with a difficult situation these days, because children are less and less interested in agriculture. It would be important to change people’s mentality, for them to no longer say ‘you’ll get to tend by cows unless you study”. I still believe that Romania can develop significantly through agriculture, but for that we need educated young people, graduates of agriculture high-schools, colleges or higher-education institutions. Without proper education and without well trained people we will not be able to talk about sustainable agriculture.”

The head of the Agriculture College in Prejmer made that statement in the opening of the event celebrating the 9th anniversary of the “the demonstrative farm and the Agrovision center for training and consultancy in agriculture”. This is a World Vision project launched in 2004, which can be seen as an alternative solution to training specialists in agriculture. The cattle breeding farm was built in a poor community, in the village of Crit, Bunesti commune, Brasov County. Crenguta Barbosu, a World Vision Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Program told us how the project started, the very year when Romania concluded with the EU the negotiations regarding agriculture.

“We first bought a farm, a former agricultural cooperative, which we modernized. We got money from the US and we also applied for a SAPARD project, to prove to people that those funds could be accessed by farmers in Romania. With the money we got we modernized the facility, we bought cows, we equipped a milking facility, etc. We also built a training center for farmers, we developed a management curriculum for cattle farmers, because back then specialized literature was accessible to specialists only. There were no books for small farmers. Then Romania joined the EU, the Rural Development Plan appeared and that was when our programs started focusing on teaching farmers how to apply for European funding.”

Radu Todea is a young graduate of the Civil Engineering Faculty, but he decided to work in animal breeding, after he learnt how to do it at the Agrovision farm. He designed and built his own farm, as we found out from the film that presented the impact of the project.

“ I inherited the business from my parents. We had 11 milk cows. Then I was trained by World Vision. I learnt how to breed animals in proper conditions, I learnt how to grow calf, how to properly equip the milking facilities. I have managed to double the number of cows in my farm and I use milking machines. The business is prosperous and I am not at all sorry for making the choice I made.”

In 9 years, the demonstrative farm in Critz has turned into more than just a project aimed at supporting small farmers to pass from subsistence to commercial agriculture, as it has also had a strong social impact, helping the development of the local community. Crenguta Barbosu again:

“ We also realised the tourist potential of the area. The Critz Village is located in an area where there are many Saxon fortified cities, which started to become interesting to both Romanian and foreign tourists. So we started courses of rural tourism for women, and not only. We’ve had 300 graduates so far, and many of them are now owners of guesthouses or work in such guesthouses. Also, to help develop the local community, we opened a weaving workshop for poor women, who lived on what they would get as seasonal workers. We taught them how to weave and some of them are now selling what they make to tourists whose number has grown by the year.”

One of the major issues facing agricultural education in Romania is the fact that students have no opportunities to do relevant internships, because the farms where the standards are high are very few, says Maria Drinovan.

“I really wish young people could stay in villages and develop their own businesses there, even if not all of them in agriculture. I come from a rich commune, which is also home to the school I work for, and our impact in the community was major. I can give you an example: in 2000, under a Leonardo project we sent 10 young farmers from Prejmer and the neighboring vilalges to a 4 month internship to Denmark, on ecological agriculture. The result? Five of the 10 young people who did that now have their own farms and one of them graduated from a higher-education institution and is now the manager of a big Danish farm that has 6 thousand hectares of land in Romania.”

The conclusion to all that would be that agriculture can generate decent incomes, a positive message that initiators of such projects are trying to convey; and, there are young people in this country willing to start a business in a rural environment, inspired by model farms like the one in Crit.

“ALTFEM. A campaign for changing the image of women in society” is the title of a project launched two years ago and financed under the EU Operational Programme for Human Resources Development. Carried out by a number of NGOs, the project included a survey on the image of men and women in the media and analysed TV shows, articles and advertising commercials run over a period of several months. In 2011, when the first such survey was conducted, the results were by no means favourable for women. The research was repeated in 2013. Ionut Codreanu, a programme coordinator with ActiveWatch, one of the organisations involved in the ALTFEM project, tells what has changed in these two years as far as the TV coverage of women is concerned:

Ionut Codreanu: “In 2011 we found that few women were involved in televised debates — only around 12%. In 2013, however, we have seen a significant increase in this respect, with more women taking part in talk-shows. There are several explanations for this. At a political and governmental level, women are under-represented, so it is difficult to invite a lot of female politicians to television shows, when there are so few of them. In 2011, the men to women ratio in the political class was 15 to 1, but in 2013 we see a slight increase in the number of female politicians. The men to women ratio in the media was fairly balanced in 2011. However, slight imbalances were noted in 2013. Although there are a lot of female students studying journalism, this is not reflected in the number of female journalists on TV.”

We also asked Ionut Codreanu whether there is a change in the discourse of the female guests in television shows compared to two years ago.

Ionut Codreanu: “In 2011 as well as today, the personal agenda prevails. In most cases, women are on television to present aspects from their personal life. Although things have improved in this respect since 2011, this trend still exists.”

The research also looked at gender stereotypes, sexual innuendos and references to physical appearance during TV shows. Ionut Codreanu tells us what the findings are.

Ionut Codreanu: “The number of phrases containing stereotypes has decreased significantly. There were fewer references to the traditional way in which gender relations are viewed. Another positive aspect is that the number of sexual innuendoes has decreased. In 2011, for instance, such phrases were frequent even in news programmes. A worrying aspect is that references to the physical appearance of a person have become more frequent. This year, there has been a rise in the number of shows, particularly in entertainment programmes, which focus very much on the physical appearance of the local celebrities. In such cases, we can talk both about the violation of a person’s private life and self-exposure, because some of the guests of these shows do this voluntarily.”

Looking at the print press, the ALTFEM team has come to the following conclusions: men account for 72% of the editorial staff as opposed to women, who only make up 28%. Women account for 33% of the expert personnel of general interest publications while 65% of them work for tabloids. All in all, the study shows the percentage of male and female experts in the field is almost equal.

However, the number of female experts working in advertising is higher. Women are also more present in the field of household and domestic activities. It seems the image of women reflected in the media is not that far from reality, as seen from the findings of the first gender equality study conducted at EU level and made public by the European Gender Institute within the European Commission. The study has also tackled the issue of equality between men and women at the level of member-states in several fields of activity such as the employment market, education, spare time, government and access to health services. Here is Irina Sorescu, from the Centre for Partnership and Equality, with details about this study.

Irina Sorescu: “Romania is lagging behind in all the chapters tackled in the study with 35% out of 100, on a 1-to-100 scale, where 1 stands for the complete lack of equality and 100 is the highest equality standard between men and women. The sectors where Romania fares worse are spare time and access to government. We are better placed in terms of access to health services and employment.”

We see them on the crowded streets of Bucharest city center, around railway stations or at supermarket entrances Judging by their age, they are children, but in terms of life experience they by far outsmart the grown ups. They are the child beggars, who unfortunately are in large numbers in Romania. But why do these children end up begging, be it on frosty weather or on sweltering heat, dressed in rags, at an age when they should enjoy the protection of a loving and caring home? An attempt to answer the question was made by the “child Help Line” , the National Association against Human Trafficking and the Institute for Crime Research and Prevention.” Their project, which ran under the heading “Where begging starts and Childhood Ends”, was financed by the French Embassy. Its eventual aim was to identify the causes of juvenile begging and methods of preventing the phenomenon from growing. The research is not a statistical survey; it includes opinions of local authorities. However, it speaks volumes of how the phenomenon is perceived, according to Police Chief Superintendent Constantin Stroescu.

“The main cause of child begging, according to the local authorities, is poverty. It was rated as the triggering factor of begging in a proportion of eighty five point four per cent. The other causes are the negative influence of the family, or the lack of supervision, or the fact that parents force their child to go begging, as well as the lack of involvement on the part of the school and local authorities. If we think of the beneficiaries of the gains minors get from begging, the local authorities believe that the family is the main beneficiary. There are just a few cases in which children are seen as beneficiaries. Answering the question where child beggars come from, most of the respondents mentioned the fact that 75 per cent of them come from families with financial problems. Then come families with drinking problems, families plagued by domestic violence or families that neglect their children.”

It is difficult to establish the number of children who beg, as the French ambassador to Bucharest, Philippe Gustin, has said, referring to the 200 Romanian child beggars roaming the streets of Paris.

“Figures as such are not really interesting, but the phenomenon catches our attention. Only one child begging in the streets is already too much. Consequently 200 is a huge number.”

Set up with the declared aim of giving children the chance to make their voices heard, the “Child Help Line” Association listens to them, at the phone number 116.111. The very idea of the project “Where begging starts, childhood ends” was given by the children who called 116.111. Catalina Florea, the Executive Director of the “Child Help Line” Association has further details:

“There are many such cases signalled on the child phone line. That is why we have chosen to start this activity, because it is frustrating for us, at the other end of the line to only register such cases and to discover that the law does not allow us to do more than we already do, because mobile teams take those children from the street.”

Identified by Child Protection Directorates, child-beggars are taken over and brought to emergency centres. However, they do not stay there a very long period of time. Catalina Florea:

“ The very next day they are again in the street. The Social Welfare Directorates say they do not have the right to limit a child’s freedom. Children are free to leave that emergency foster centre whenever they want. Undoubtedly, there is a problem when a child is repeatedly found in the street. The problem doesn’t lie with children, as they don’t end up in the street because of their own will. That is why we should consider sanctioning parents, too. From this point of view, there are some legislative gaps. “

What should be done, in this context, to curb this phenomenon? One possible solution is to educate children in school, to make them aware of the causes of the phenomenon. They should also be taught to defend their rights, to say “no”, when they are forced by others to beg. Catalina Florea again:

“We have been thing of some educational activities, which we will carry out more intensely as of September. Teachers should also get involved in and promote these educational activities. It is also very important to establish very clear sanctions for the parents who force their children to beg, and I’m not referring only to fines, I’m thinking of harsher penalties. Parents who force their children to beg, should be sent to prison, in my opinion. As long as that family lives on the money obtained by a child begging in the street, and the family resources are obtained by using children this way, those parents deserve to go behind bars.”

According to the Romanian Interior Ministry, the new Criminal Code which will take effect as of February 2014 provides for tough sanctions for the parents or legal guardians who have a begging child in their care. Thus, the authorities hope to contain juvenile begging.