Category: Society Today

Bucharest, the capital of Romania, has always been a magnet for all those trying to find a better job and a more comfortable way of living. For many years migration from rural areas to the capital was not offset by any other phenomenon. However, since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2009, this migration wave seems to have taken a different course: people started leaving Bucharest to lead better and quieter lives in villages and smaller cities across Romania.

There are those who have chosen to commute between the countryside and their city job, but also some who’ve left Bucharest for good. We have talked with Ioana Mihai, journalist with the Ziarul Financiar, about the reasons for which people leave the capital city and settle down in the countryside.

Ioana Mihai: “Many of them are retired people, those who have chosen to leave the city to take up a small estate in the countryside or in other towns. And there are students who understand they cannot get integrated in Bucharest. This city may offer better-paid jobs and a lot of benefits, but there is also a flipside of the coin, which translates into a lot of sacrifices; at times it may entail time-consuming, nerve-wracking experiences. With all its traffic-jams, Bucharest can be a real pain in the neck for someone trying to get to the office. This is highly unlikely in smaller cities. There is also the category of highly skilled people, those who have made it to the top of their career, a status allowing them to choose the city they want to raise their children in. I know top managers who’ve turned down a better position in the company they were working for in exchange for less significant jobs in companies, or just to start their own business outside Bucharest.”

Most Bucharesters have decided to settle at the city outskirts. Others prefer regions that have lately seen a lot of investment, such as Timis County. Eleven thousand people from all over the country have moved to Timis in recent years. Although Bucharest offers a lot of opportunities, life can be very expensive here. Here is Ioana Mihai at the microphone again.

Ioana Mihai: “If we take into account accommodation fees, rent rates and prices for one square meter of living space, both families and entrepreneurs who plan their expenses on the long-term have noticed that it is far cheaper to live outside Bucharest. Travel expenses inside the city must also be taken into consideration, because there are towns in Romania where a five-minute walk will take you to its remotest parts, something virtually impossible in Bucharest. In this city a five-minute walk will barely take you from one junction to another and I know people who’d like to devote more time to their families than stay stuck in traffic for hours.”

Time spent with the family was what Sabina Dumitrescu and her husband had in mind when together with another couple of friends they decided to set up a greengrocery business in Ialomita County, 60 kilometers from Bucharest. They also wanted healthy food, fresh air an enough playing space for their children. So they left an overcrowded Bucharest district to settle in the countryside. Here is what Sabina told us.

Sabina Dumitrescu: “We wanted to avoid pollution at any cost and the first night we spent in the countryside was great, we felt quite at home there. And the kids were so happy. We used to live in an apartment building before and though our apartment was close to a big park, our present situation is beyond compare. It’s important for the kids to see the forest nearby, the fields, to run freely in the yard. It’s a different kind of life.”

It wasn’t difficult for the newcomers to adjust to the new environment, on the contrary. Now they live in an area looking more like a Bucharest suburb; they enjoy the comfort of a city plus the quietness of the countryside. Here is Sabina Dumitrescu again.

Sabina Dumitrescu: “It’s a long way, you have to carefully plan your trips to the city and your activities there. But I think it’s worth the effort. When you come back home you get a distinct feeling. You have your own private space, your courtyard. I have not always been that obsessed with nature and flowers. I enjoyed living in a city, going out with friends, having an active urban life. But then we had the kids, priorities changed and it just seemed natural to us to move out of the city.”

The four friends, each in their thirties, knew little about agriculture when they started their own business, because they each took different paths in life, choosing either psychology, IT, architecture or mathematics as their field of activiy.

Matei Dumitrescu: “We mostly grow vegetables, especially seasonal ones that grow naturally in Romania and less fruit. We have a whole team working here, and a big number of day laborers in the summer. Knowing how to pick the best people is another secret of this trade. I hope that in 2 or 3 years we will be granted the organic farming certificate, and put the AE stamp on our products. For the time being, all startup companies are switching to organic farming, a process which might take several years.”

In conclusion, at times of crisis, solutions for improved living standards seem to become more diverse. On the lookout for better living conditions or in an attempt to live their lives in a more natural way, Romanians have started to search for solutions at national level. Migration and relocation to another country has thus been balanced.

Romania is today faced with a phenomenon whose scale is hard to ascertain at this point: children being left behind with one parent or no parents at all, raised by relatives, because the parents go to work abroad. According to figures submitted by the Child Protection Department at the end of 2012, social assistance authorities had on their books 79,901 children with parents working abroad. Of them 41% had no parental care whatsoever. Of them 22,993 had both parents abroad, while 9,991 came from single parent families where the parent was working abroad.

Although these are large figures, the real dimension of this phenomenon is much more worrying. For this reason, the Save the Children Romania organisation has initiated a project called Growing Together. Gabriela Alexandrescu, executive president of the organisation, speaks about the aims of the program:

Gabriela Alexandrescu: “Our aim is to find together the best solutions to protect the children whose parents work abroad, and as a result develop complex support solutions for these children. We want to help them cope with homework and school, because without adequate parental protection it is hard for a child to be well prepared for school. We help them communicate on a permanent basis with their parents abroad by providing them with access to computers and the Internet. At the same time, we help the people who take care of them, because there are a lot of grandparents and relatives who have no skills in raising children, especially teenagers. One important thing for us is to involve the authorities in order to help children in this situation all over the country.”

The Growing Together project resulted in the implementation of several so-called School After School programmes 14 counties all over Romania, especially in poor and disadvantaged areas. Between 2010 and 2012, 2,080 children were included in the programme. Of them, 785 had their mums working abroad, 876 had their fathers abroad, while 419 had both parents gone. All these children benefited from help in school and were involved in activities such as trips, walks, and visits to museums and tourist sites. Also, their caretakers benefited from monthly social and psychological counselling. The authorities are, however, aware that there is much more that needs to be done. Catalina Chendea, an inspector with the Ministry of Education, confirms:

Catalina Chendea: “Our emphasis is on providing counselling for the people left at home with the children and training courses for those who take these children in their care. We are trying to create ties between children and these new parents and also to encourage children to keep in close touch with their parents, to understand that their parents are not gone for good, that they did not abandon them and that they will be back eventually. To this end, we have all sorts of out-of-school activities to boost the children’s confidence in themselves and their families.”

Even though ironically they are sometimes perceived as privileged by their peers for having some new gadget or expensive gift from their parents abroad, many of these children lack the safety and protection of a home. Daniela Ganu is the grandmother of a girl whom she raises together with the mother, as the father works abroad. Her granddaughter is also part of the programme run by the Save the Children Organisation:

“Often when I come to pick her up, I see children who, even though they have parents abroad, are poorly dressed, and have not eaten. They get a croissant and some milk at school. I saw that in your program you provide a meal, that’s great. My opinion as a grandma, as a parent, is that there are a lot of social cases, families with four of five children whose parents are gone, children left with some poor grandma who can’t even see well. Or an uncle, an aunt who leave them in the street to roam around until dark. Some have no place to sleep, they are in the street. I saw a child like that, hungry, naked, barefoot.”

No one doubts that such programmes are more and more badly needed. Here is Vera Limbei, a poor grandmother who is left with four children in her care:

Vera Limbei: “I’m taking care of four grandchildren. Their parents are abroad to be able to buy a house. We rent a one-room apartment. The children are between 7 and 5 years old. Two of them, who are twins, are 6 years old, the oldest is in first grade, and the youngest is in kindergarten. We couldn’t have made it without the help of the foundation.”

In the case of children who become part of such programme, improvement is soon visible in terms of communication, self-confidence and school performance.

The Growing Together programme involves 565 volunteers. In 2013, over 1,000 children will be part of the activities carried out by the organisation in all its 16 locations.

Romania has a number of state schools that are run by certain churches, the so called confessional schools, which, while teaching state curricula, have something different too. To find out what is different there, and what makes them attractive to the students going there, we went to one of them. It is the St. Joseph Roman Catholic College of Bucharest, where we talked to one of the students, Razvan. He is a 9th grade student, specializing in math and IT. He’s been going there since first grade. Obviously, his parents picked the school for him at first, but when he went to high school, he had a choice, and opted to stay. Here he is telling us about it:

“I like the fact that we study hard. We don’t need private tutoring, because teachers do their jobs really well. There are no drugs, there is no drinking, as opposed to other high schools, where you can even see physical fights. It is a small high school, so teachers have time for each and every one of us.”

Since his specialization is math and IT, Razvan has only one class of religion per week. However, Francesca, a 12th grader, specializes in theology, so she has more religion oriented classes. She is Christian Orthodox, and she likes being in a Catholic high school, where they encourage a balance between learning and spiritual peace.

“To me and my parents, order in life was important, and as opposed to the people specializing in math, I have four of five classes weekly which include religion: the history of religion, religion, which are specialty subjects, but are equivalent with history and Romanian classes, they have a lot in common.”

Sister Rodica Miron, director of the St. Joseph college, as the high school is known in Romania, believes that the main aim of this confessional school has a job additional to intellectual training, that of shaping kids in line with the ethical and spiritual lines of the Gospel. She told us about it:

“Typical of our high school is how we approach all subjects. The entire atmosphere of the school helps kids develop spiritually, culturally, shape themselves as people. There is even a spiritual headmaster, there are a few people working here exactly for that, sisters and priests, who are there for the children when they have questions about anything.”

This spiritual atmosphere, however, is what puts some parents and children off. Here is Sister Rodica Miron once again:

“Some get here by chance, and then leave. We don’t proselytize. We don’t ask kids what they are, Catholic, Orthodox or Neo-Protestant. It is true that we only take Christian children, because we have a Christian approach. We work the same way with all of them. In the high school’s entire history, which is over 20 years long, I think we’ve had only one student who became a priest. There are a few nuns, but the majority choose lay careers.”

In the town of Oradea there is another confessional high school, the Iuliu Maniu Greek Catholic High School. 60% of the students are Orthodox, and around 30% are Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, with the rest having different Christian affiliations. According to headmaster Aurelian Cristea, the purpose of the high school is to educate children in a Christian spirit, not along the lines of dogma:

“In our general knowledge cycles we have one religion class a week. In specialty theology cycles, we have three or four specialty classes a week. Once a week, on Fridays between 8 and 9, we have a mass for all students. In addition, we have a lot of extra-curricular and out of school optional activities for children, helped by volunteers who are priests or teachers of religion, which, with their complexity, attract children, and shape their personality according to moral principles, love, altruism, compassion for the needy, reacting to problems in life with prayer and trust for those around us.”

Father Vasile Gavrila set up the Three Holy Hierarchs High School of Bucharest in order to offer Orthodox children and parents an alternative to regular education, which is closer to their faith. They are trying to do this following the curriculum offered by the Ministry of Education, especially by having teachers act differently. As opposed to other confessional schools, the Three Holy Hierarchs High School is a private school, accredited by the ministry and blessed by the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel. This grants them a certain independence. Let us listen to Father Gavrila talking about it:

“Everything that is studied is studied from the perspective of revealed heavenly truth. There is no antithesis between science and culture, we try to blend culture with revealed truth. Being a private school, we can register only the children we want. There is a selection by mutual agreement between the school and the parents. Our priority, besides education, is to shape children in the Christian Orthodox spirit.”

Iulian Capsali has two children who go to high school. As a practicing Orthodox Christian, he wants his children to grow up in the faith. He is not happy with public schools:

“If you behave in an Orthodox fashion at home and you have the same thing at school, then certain things flourish in a child’s soul. He grows in the spirit of the church. It is even better if this spirit can be found in school. My other kids come from school with things that trouble them. Imagine, they have colleagues who take drugs and sell them in school. I don’t think there are high schools in Bucharest where this phenomenon does not exist.”

Although Romania has made singificant progress in battling HIV infection, the need for information and education in this respect is still high. This is the reason why a special programme for HIV-positive women has been launched recently. The programme named SHE, for “Strong, HIV positive and Empowered Women,” is a European programme initiated in 2010 by physicians dealing in the HIV-AIDS pathology at European level, who also take care of the women infected with this virus. The programme is aimed at supporting the over 5,200 Romanian women who are HIV positive, who need education, counselling, support, equal opportunities in the labour market as well as respect from others and self esteem.

According to head of the “Matei Bals” Institute of Infectious Diseases, Professor Adrian Streinu Cercel, almost 250 thousand HIV tests are run every year in Romania, of which over 25% at the initiative of patients. Under the National AIDS Programme, launched in 1997, all patients have free access to treatment. HIV is today considered a chronic disease that can be kept under control if patients stick to the treatment, physicians say. This is probably one of the reasons why Romania has the highest survival rate in Europe. Romanian physicians recommend that all pregnant women should be screened for HIV so that, in case they test positive, they can take measures to protect their babies. According to physicians the risk of giving birth to an HIV positive baby can be ruled out completely. Adrian Streinu Cercel:

“Many years ago, in 1998, Romania’s position in this respect was very clear and it was then that we proposed that all pregnant women should be screened for HIV. The data collected along the years proved that a woman tested for HIV stands almost 100% chances to give birth to a healthy child. This is something all women should do, that is why testing is free of charge. If a pregnant HIV-positive woman does not do the test and get treatment, there are 40% chances that her child will be HIV-positive.”

Over 11,500 HIV-positive people are currently living in Romania, of whom 5,200 are women. Half of them are aged between 20 and 24, when many of them consider having a child, hence the need for such a program. Adrian Streinu Cercel:

“There are many young women, born in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, who want to live a normal life and that’s perfectly possible now, given that their life expectancy rate is currently very close to that of perfectly healthy women. In this context, the medicines that we were able to make available ever since 1995 paid off, and after the 2001 declaration in New York, where all countries convened to discuss about universal access to therapy, Romania was one of the first countries in the world to put it into practice, starting 2002. The things that the US is only implementing in 2012-2013, Romania started doing as early as 1998.”

Last year, 754 new cases of HIV/AIDS were detected in Romania, of which 213 women and 541 men. 19 children under 14 were among those infected. Eighteen of them have most likely got the infection from their mothers. Doctors claim that the infection transmission rate from mother to baby during pregnancy saw a significant decrease, down to less than 5%, one of the lowest levels in Europe.

Dr. Mariana Mardarescu from the “Matei Balş” National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest has further details:

“It is very important and equally interesting that in Romania, the number of new cases, among adults, has increased slowly. Over more than 20 years, Romania has registered a low HIV incidence and prevalence rate. At present, Romania has a large number of long-term survivors. If we take, for example, the people born between 1988 and 1990, over 8,000 people registered as HIV-positive in late 2012 benefit from specific antiretroviral therapy, of a total of 9,800 people registered in the active medical records. We are interested in controlling the phenomenon, not only in terms of treatment and medication, but also of prevention. We aim to prevent transmission, by screening pregnant women, having talks with the couple, and taking any other prophylactic measures for women in general, pregnant women and newborns, in particular. As regards the transmission ways, in most cases the infection was transmitted heterosexually. However, it is very important to know that there was an increase in the number of new HIV infection cases among drug users who inject their drugs. The incidence is higher in the case of men than women”.

Three events, to be attended by HIV-positive women from Bucharest, Constanta and Iasi, will be organised this spring, under the SHE Programme. They are aimed at raising their awareness of the issue and at setting up support groups for HIV/AIDS women. SHE units will be set up in large hospitals and clinics in the three cities, there will be local training sessions meant to better inform the medical staff involved in diagnosing, treating and monitoring HIV positive women.

At world level, there are over 34 million cases of HIV/AIDS infection, of which 30 million are adults, and 16 million are women.

Many heritage buildings in Bucharest are deteriorating at a fast pace. The lack of a strategy meant to restore historical areas and to preserve buildings of high architectural value, alongside the high pressure exerted by chaotic real-estate developments are a threat to the historical part of Bucharest. This is a reality recently signaled by the Report on Bucharest’s Heritage, covering the past four years, compiled by several NGOs interested in the protection of these buildings. The vice-president of the Association for the Protection and Documentation of Heritage in Romania, Roxana Wring, has further details:

”We are witnessing a systematic destruction of Bucharest’s historical and architectural assets. Actually, the inhabitants of Bucharest see this process unfolding every day and we’ve grown accustomed to it. We pass by these buildings and no longer see them. We’ve got accustomed to living in a deteriorating city. I believe that if this process continues, the architectural and cultural identity of Romania’s capital city will be irrevocably destroyed. It’s pretty obvious how the past 20 years have left signs on Bucharest’s historical heritage, already marked by the communist years.”

Experts say that the destruction of the heritage after 1990 is more worrying that that during communism. According to the report, hundreds of architectural gems have been leveled in recent years and others might soon be demolished. The president of the “Save Bucharest” Association, Nicuşor Dan, says that all these actions are based on a purely economic mechanism.

”Speaking of Bucharest, Ceauşescu demolished some 15% of the old city. Only 5% of the buildings in historical areas were demolished after 1990, but this destruction is more worrying and severe than before, because inadequate buildings were also built in all historical areas. In any civilized state, when an investor comes into a town, they have two choices: either they go to the city center, buy a heritage building, restore it and turn it into their representative office and thus make proof of their social prestige or they go on the outskirts, build high buildings and make profit. However, when the public administration is weak, investors buy a historical building, demolish it and build a high building instead, because any heritage building is 10 times cheaper than the plot of land beneath it, and there will always be a speculative pressure to demolish it and sell the plot of land.”

Assan’s Mill in Bucharest is just an example illustrative of the degradation of heritage buildings. Built in 1853, the construction was partially destroyed by fire, then it fell into decay, left at the hands of thieves, of those looking for scrap iron or who try to remove materials from the building’s structural frame. The report mentions many such examples. For instance, there is a building of exquisite architectural beauty on the Aviatorilor Boulevard, a residential area, near the headquarters of the Romanian Government. The outer mural decorations include richly sculpted leaves and plaster angels. Every corner of the building and every window is decorated with neo-Baroque motifs. Today, it is only a ruin of a once splendid building. Decorations are broken or eroded, and a part of the roof has collapsed. The house is on the list of historical monuments and is the creation of architect Petre Antonescu (1873-1965), one of the prominent representatives of the Romanian school of architecture in the first half of the 20th century. Deeper you go into the center of Bucharest, more such buildings you see.

The historical center of Bucharest, teeming with life, is a real tourist attraction and boasts the highest concentration of historical buildings in Bucharest, which are however in a precarious state. The road infrastructure has been restored in the past five years, but nothing has been done to restore the buildings. Here is Roxana Wring again:

”Restoration works have been carried out, most often than not, inadequately, without historical studies. Other buildings have been demolished, like that at Selari 14. In a nutshell, this is again an erroneous vision of what economic development means. The historical center has a huge value. It has the potential of a long-term investment, but the City hall should do its duty and implement a coherent project. At the moment, there is no such project.”

The report on heritage buildings also mentions that Bucharest is unique among other European capitals due to the quantity and quality of interwar Modernist buildings. After the Great Union of 1918, a generation of young architects returned to Romania after studying abroad, to build the first Modernist buildings. However, many of those buildings included in international architecture textbooks are now only one step away from total decay. Programs of consolidating and restoring them are expected, but most of the works carried out so far have not been done properly, annulling the architectural value of the building. Roxana Wring:

”This heritage is almost unknown. It either fallen into decay, like the Aro (Patria)block of flats, which should be consolidated, because a powerful quake might reduce it to rubble, or the Turist block in Piata Romana, which should be refurbished. Other buildings have been thermally insulated, using polystyrene. Well, when you using polystyrene to veil a Modernist block, you make it look like a communist block. Furthermore, it gets painted yellow or pink, and windows are changed or replaced; and we can see that all along the Magheru Boulevard, the main axis crossing Bucharest, which could have been a landmark for Bucharest’s modernist heritage.”

The dispute between the authorities and NGOs over heritage buildings has been taken to court, in many cases. So far, the “Save Bucharest” Association has made sustained efforts and initiated legal action to save some heritage buildings, bought by real estate agencies. The NGOs which fight to protect heritage buildings call on public institutions to protect and restore historical buildings and recommend a series of measures to improve the situation of Bucharest’s heritage.

Some 42 of the world’s biggest corporations have opened branch offices in Romania over the past 20 years, most of which deal in the import and distribution of goods and services. Usually, these companies’ local branches are headed by people from the shareholders’ countries of origin.

Nevertheless, for most university graduates, finding a job in a multinational corporation is the best alternative to emigrating. Multinationals pay better than small or state-owned companies and they also offer other types of advantages such as company cars, access to continuous education, private health insurance and bonuses for extra-hours. The private sector covers 14% of the Romanian labor market, according to data provided by an organization that promotes the interests of small and medium sized companies, the National Council of the Private Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. What young people don’t know when they fantasize about working in a big corporation is that advantages match the efforts only in theory. Reality is a lot tougher, according to Ioana Popescu, a 38-year old woman who works in the banking field.

“After graduating from university, we all saw multinational companies as places abounding in opportunities. I wanted find a job in a corporation. I didn’t know what that involved, it was tough at the beginning but little by little I got where I wanted. The level of professionalism is high. We all dreamed of being promoted, of learning many new things. A multinational was a sort of a Holy Grail to us. Reality is a little bit different though. It’s true, you have access to state-of-the-art software, you can learn a lot and have access to various courses. On the other hand, there is no time left for you to do anything else. So you find yourself in a situation where you have to give up your hobbies, your family life, the joy of going out and so on. This is something you don’t know from the beginning. You find that out when you’re already in the system.”

When you enter a corporatist environment you are told you have become part of a big family where everybody has his or her responsibilities but also the duty to help the others finish their job on time. Metaphorically speaking, people turn into bees that work for the good of the beehive. No one tells you from the beginning how many extra hours that entails. Ioana Popescu again:

“In time, you learn that there is no such thing as an 8-hour shift and that working hours extend until the job is done. And very often the job gets done long after an 8-hour shift is complete. No one forces you to work extra hours, you are free to decide for yourself. It depends on what you want. But if it’s a career you want, than this is what you have to do. If you want to be one of the two parents who makes sacrifices for the child’s sake, then you can say ‘yes, I’m doing this for my child.’ The price is quite high and in the best case you end up being a weekend mom. It’s very hard to give your job up because, if you know how to sell your work, if you work hard and reach a certain professional level, you can earn a lot of money in a multinational. So in terms of professional knowledge you’re high rated on the market. Perhaps that’s why it’s so hard to make tough decisions.”

After years of hard work, at a fast pace and almost uninterruptedly, people get tired and lose their motivation. Some of them even get depressed.

“There comes a time when you change as a person, but you only realize that when you go on a three week vacation and then you get back to this environment and see that it is not ok. You see other people leave home at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and you don’t think there is something wrong with you, but that there is something wrong with them, that they do not know what they want and how to grow as professionals. You need a moment to change, to make you understand the path you’ve taken is not the right one. In my case, there were some family problems that made me understood I needed to change something.”

Companies constantly promote career development opportunities and provide personal development training – professional training courses that are extremely expensive – and also, quite importantly, high-level medical care services. However, many of these companies’ employees end up on the shrink’s couch, as psychiatrist Gabriel Diaconu told us:

“When we start talking, I see that these people who come to me are angry with themselves. When they open their eyes they start asking themselves: How did I end up here?, Why did I allow this to happen to me? It’s a pretty nasty reality. As compared to the general population, with these people the risk of chronic insomnia is 3 to 4 times bigger, just like anxiety disorders. Talking about substance addiction, the risk is 6-7 times bigger for this category than for the rest of the population. They have to somehow support this fatigue generating enterprise, and I’m not talking about coffee or cigarettes, I’m talking about energy drinks, about cocktails that in the morning are based on taurine, and in the evening on alcohol. These cocktails are not just drinks, they keep the brain restless all the time.”

Still, what is it that motivates so many people into accepting this life, no matter how well paid it may be? Psychiatrist Gabriel Diaconu explains:

“They buy a standard of living. They actually live 2-3 weeks per year, when they go on holiday to Greece or Thailand, or go from work home driving a good car, or their house is in a better neighbourhood, it’s 30 square meter larger the regular ones and in that house they sleep in sheets they’ve bought for double the normal price. All these details give them the feeling that their life, as they’ve chosen it to be, is legitimate and well-ordered.”

Paradoxically, doctor Diaconu also says, many of the employees of multinationals that have seen him dream of gathering several hundreds thousands Euros and setting up their own business. They want to leave the system before it’s too late. And this is not a typically Romanian problem, Dr. Diaconu says:

“Romania is just now starting to wake up and understand. We only have a 20 year long corporate tradition. If we look across the ocean, we can see that a corporatist’s pathology is much more cynical.”

Ioana Popescu filed her resignation 45 days ago. Once the notice period is over, as stipulated in her employment contract, she just wants to live for a while. Ioana is 38, unmarried with no children.

It’s no longer a secret that teaching jobs are in very low demand, while many teachers look for jobs elsewhere because of the low salaries and the high amount of stress in the education system. The situation has become worse with the outbreak of the world economic crisis. Teachers’ salaries were cut by 25% as part of austerity measures taken by the government. As a result, 40,000 teachers have left the education system in the last three years and the exodus is likely to continue according to a poll conducted by the Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education. Simion Hancescu, the federation president, explains:

“A large percentage of the people we interviewed, more than 41%, say they plan to leave the education system in the next five years. Approximately 30% haven’t made up their minds yet about their professional future. These figures are worrying. The people cite a number of reasons or their dissatisfaction. First and foremost, they are not happy with their salaries. A young teacher receives a net monthly pay of about 800 lei, which is barely enough to survive. Many of these young teachers still have to count on their parents for financial support. Some of them are commuters living in the city and working in the countryside. Under the law they have the right to claim a transportation allowance, but few local councils have applied this law so the teachers have to spend half of their salaries on transport.”

That pre-university teachers wish to leave the system is hardly news and it’s not always the financial aspect they blame for it. Other flaws in the system have also been invoked.

Ana, for example, worked as a primary school teacher for five years, a job she took as soon as she graduated from a teaching school. She didn’t quit the system because of the low pay, but because she didn’t agree with some of the changes that were being implemented at the beginning of the 2000s.

“School directors and deputy directors began to be politically appointed, which caused a lot of problems between the management and the teaching staff. Not to mention that while these so-called changes were taking place, the actual teaching and learning areas remained the same. It was applying glossy paint over an old fence to hide that it’s actually falling apart. I also didn’t like that children had to carry so many books with them to school. They are expected to do so much homework, so they no longer have time to enjoy their childhood.”

Ana also had to fight the mentality of many colleagues and parents:

“I used to wear trousers, which was a problem. I was supposed to wear a skirt at school. Another problem was that I didn’t do maths or reading during sport classes or history and geography during music classes as other teachers.”

In the meantime, Ana left the education system and chose instead to build a career in television. Her financial worries are now over, but there’s one thing she still misses from her teaching years:

“I miss that miraculous moment when 26 pairs of eyes look straight at you as if you were the most important person in the world.”

Before the economic crisis, Aura taught French in two high schools in Bucharest. She left the education system mainly because of the low pay. She continues to teach French, however, but works for a training firm where she teaches French to business people:

”I still have the profession I’ve studied for. I like teaching very much. I didn’t leave the state system because I didn’t like to teach, but because I didn’t have a decent salary. One other thing is that now I’m working with adults, which is easier than working with children and teenagers. I can’t say that I regret leaving the education system, because my life has improved a lot. It’s true that sometimes I’m nostalgic about the satisfaction I had when working with children. They get so attached emotionally to their teachers and if you treat them nicely and take good care of them, they give you a lot of affection in exchange.”

Unfortunately, teachers are massively abandoning the state education system, which Aura believes will have a negative impact on the education of today’s children and the generations to come:

“As long as teachers don’t have decent salaries, we can’t expect a lot of achievement. I don’t agree with people who say teachers should first prove themselves and then ask for more money. There should be a balance between a teacher’s performance and his or her salary. This lack of balance has a negative impact on the quality of education. “

One last problem is that many of the people working as teachers do not really have a vocation for this profession, but only accept teaching jobs until something better comes up.

According to a Eurostat survey made public in 2011, targeting the period between 2008 and 2009, the percentage of obese adults across the European Union was 8% to 25%. Most of them were in Great Britain and Malta, while Romania had one of the lowest obesity rates. Also, in 2007, the World Health Organization warned that 20% of European children and teens were overweight, while a third of them were obese. The situation has changed in the meantime. But what is the situation today in Romania in terms of child obesity? According to information recently provided by the Romanian press, Romania ranks 3rd in the child obesity classification in Europe. Since we could not trace the source of the aforementioned information, we started our own investigation.

The Romanian Society of Endocrinology and the endocrinology clinic of the Elias Hospital in Bucharest have jointly carried out an epidemiological study in schools in Bucharest. Included at random were children between 6 and 18. Speaking now about the results of the aforementioned study is endocrinologist, doctor Carmen Barbu.

Carmen Barbu: “We found out that 32% of these children had problems with extra kilos, which means 11.5 % of them were obese, while the rest of 20.5% were overweight, the latter being an intermediary category between the normal and obese states. As compared to the rest of the country, we expect Bucharest to have the highest percentage of obese children. In 2009 a survey was published also targeting the urban population, specifically focusing on secondary school and high-school students where the obesity percentage was smaller than what we found in Bucharest. We discovered 1% cases of obesity and 10 % cases of overweight young people. There is a big discrepancy as compared to Bucharest, and this shows how varied environment conditions are and how different the impact of the environment can be on child obesity.”

In the rural areas the rate of obesity might be much lower. Consequently obesity is caused by a lifestyle that is typical of big cities. In some cases there is a genetic predisposition, stimulated by a favorable environment. If that specific environment does not exist, obesity will not occur. Furthermore, at present there are a lot of obese or overweight children whose parents do not have such problems. According to medical doctor Carmen Barbu, the main causes are several unhealthy habits.

Carmen Barbu: “An example of unhealthy behavior we found and which is widespread in Bucharest is the fact that people have the last meal of the day late at night. More than 90% of children told us they had supper after 10 p.m. and that they had at home stocks of sweets. Those are concentrated sweets and not homemade. We have also discovered that children did not always have a balanced meal in terms of proteins, carbohydrates and so on. Even when basic nutrients were not provided, the sweets supply was there for everybody. More than 90% reported that they had their meal in front of the telly or the computer. And the last aspect we highlighted was the lack of physical exercise. For the vast majority of pupils physical exercise is limited to physical education classes. And even if they practice sports activities on their own, the average time they spend on that is one hour and a half per week.”

Besides sweets, fast food ingredients are also dangerous. The high quantities of salt, fat and chemicals are as harmful as they are addictive. Nevertheless, children eat fast food because they have been taught to do so at home or at school or because their parents simply don’t pay enough attention to what they eat, says nutritionist Gheorghe Mencinicopschi.

Gheorghe Mencinicopschi: “Parents and grandparents alike should know that at the young age of 10 or 11 a child’s brain is insufficiently developed to make the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. Children learn, at this age, by imitation, and what they see in their families, in terms of lifestyle, will influence them for the rest of their lives. Once children have a bad habit such as eating unhealthy food, as adolescents and later as adults, they will have to try very hard to improve their lifestyle.”

Among the diseases caused by the harmful ingredients in our food are high blood pressure, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions, type 2 diabetes, several forms of cancer, gout and arthritis. Gheorghe Mencinicopschi gave us several solutions.

Gheorghe Mencinicopschi: “Cooking at home, although some might find it old fashioned, is the primary source of health, because you can control very well what ingredients you use. Nowadays we pay little attention to what we eat. Many of us don’t even have the curiosity to read the foodstuffs labels and we invent all sort of excuses for that. If we don’t read the list of ingredients on the label we cannot possibly know several simple things, such as how much sugar or salt we eat in one day. So it’s clear that it’s easier to pick the ingredients ourselves and cook our own food at home. Eating organic food is another good option, if we can afford it.”

Unfortunately, chemicals-free food is almost impossible to find nowadays, when pollution with insecticides and pesticides has reached dangerous levels and when animals live on industrial fodder. Nevertheless, we can refuse to eat highly processed food, loaded with chemical substances and start cooking ourselves. This is the best way to control what our children eat.

According to a Eurostat survey made public in 2011, targeting the period between 2008 and 2009, the percentage of obese adults across the European Union was 8% to 25%. Most of them were in Great Britain and Malta, while Romania had one of the lowest obesity rates. Also, in 2007, the World Health Organization warned that 20% of European children and teens were overweight, while a third of them were obese. The situation has changed in the meantime. But what is the situation today in Romania in terms of child obesity? According to information recently provided by the Romanian press, Romania ranks 3rd in the child obesity classification in Europe. Since we could not trace the source of the aforementioned information, we started our own investigation.

The Romanian Society of Endocrinology and the endocrinology clinic of the Elias Hospital in Bucharest have jointly carried out an epidemiological study in schools in Bucharest. Included at random were children between 6 and 18. Speaking now about the results of the aforementioned study is endocrinologist, doctor Carmen Barbu.

Carmen Barbu: “We found out that 32% of these children had problems with extra kilos, which means 11.5 % of them were obese, while the rest of 20.5% were overweight, the latter being an intermediary category between the normal and obese states. As compared to the rest of the country, we expect Bucharest to have the highest percentage of obese children. In 2009 a survey was published also targeting the urban population, specifically focusing on secondary school and high-school students where the obesity percentage was smaller than what we found in Bucharest. We discovered 1% cases of obesity and 10 % cases of overweight young people. There is a big discrepancy as compared to Bucharest, and this shows how varied environment conditions are and how different the impact of the environment can be on child obesity.”

In the rural areas the rate of obesity might be much lower. Consequently obesity is caused by a lifestyle that is typical of big cities. In some cases there is a genetic predisposition, stimulated by a favorable environment. If that specific environment does not exist, obesity will not occur. Furthermore, at present there are a lot of obese or overweight children whose parents do not have such problems. According to medical doctor Carmen Barbu, the main causes are several unhealthy habits.

Carmen Barbu: “An example of unhealthy behavior we found and which is widespread in Bucharest is the fact that people have the last meal of the day late at night. More than 90% of children told us they had supper after 10 p.m. and that they had at home stocks of sweets. Those are concentrated sweets and not homemade. We have also discovered that children did not always have a balanced meal in terms of proteins, carbohydrates and so on. Even when basic nutrients were not provided, the sweets supply was there for everybody. More than 90% reported that they had their meal in front of the telly or the computer. And the last aspect we highlighted was the lack of physical exercise. For the vast majority of pupils physical exercise is limited to physical education classes. And even if they practice sports activities on their own, the average time they spend on that is one hour and a half per week.”

Besides sweets, fast food ingredients are also dangerous. The high quantities of salt, fat and chemicals are as harmful as they are addictive. Nevertheless, children eat fast food because they have been taught to do so at home or at school or because their parents simply don’t pay enough attention to what they eat, says nutritionist Gheorghe Mencinicopschi.

Gheorghe Mencinicopschi: “Parents and grandparents alike should know that at the young age of 10 or 11 a child’s brain is insufficiently developed to make the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. Children learn, at this age, by imitation, and what they see in their families, in terms of lifestyle, will influence them for the rest of their lives. Once children have a bad habit such as eating unhealthy food, as adolescents and later as adults, they will have to try very hard to improve their lifestyle.”

Among the diseases caused by the harmful ingredients in our food are high blood pressure, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions, type 2 diabetes, several forms of cancer, gout and arthritis. Gheorghe Mencinicopschi gave us several solutions.

Gheorghe Mencinicopschi: “Cooking at home, although some might find it old fashioned, is the primary source of health, because you can control very well what ingredients you use. Nowadays we pay little attention to what we eat. Many of us don’t even have the curiosity to read the foodstuffs labels and we invent all sort of excuses for that. If we don’t read the list of ingredients on the label we cannot possibly know several simple things, such as how much sugar or salt we eat in one day. So it’s clear that it’s easier to pick the ingredients ourselves and cook our own food at home. Eating organic food is another good option, if we can afford it.”

Unfortunately, chemicals-free food is almost impossible to find nowadays, when pollution with insecticides and pesticides has reached dangerous levels and when animals live on industrial fodder. Nevertheless, we can refuse to eat highly processed food, loaded with chemical substances and start cooking ourselves. This is the best way to control what our children eat.

Summer vacation is here, and it is the right time to talk about games and playing. Playing is very important for the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of children. Playing is the first stage of learning and creative activity. Children gain skills and have new experiences, develop their memory, attention, fantasy, thinking and artistic abilities. As the child grows, playing becomes more and more complex and imaginative, giving them an opportunity to cultivate their talents and abilities.

There is a project in Romania that has been running for the last three years, for children with disabilities called ‘Let’s Rediscover School’, aimed at reducing the rate at which these children drop out of school. Here with details is project manager, Daniela Visoianu.

“The novelty of the project is that we work with children and parents together as a team. There are a few stages in this project: first we train people to work with children and parents together, to become school mediators. Acting as a resource in schools, or for social services. After these trainers graduate the first stage, and gain accreditation, they must have a week of practical interaction with a group of children.”

There have been workshops for children, and activities with parents, but there has never been a workshop involving both parents and children. Daniela Visoianu told us about the advantage of this approach:

“We have the children control playtime, meaning that the child is the one that tells the parent what to do, and how to help him during play. It is a reversal of power. The children have the feeling at all times that they do what they want and what they like, especially children with special needs, and, more importantly, their parents, who are under tremendous pressure. Playing is a form of therapy for them too. Another important thing we do in this project is to offer parents psychological counseling, and to get them together with parents of kids with different disabilities than their own. Children who know each other and have different disabilities can see that there are things that compensate for their condition, and that they may have abilities that help them get along better than children who have a different disability. Each of them gets to see the good things about themselves, or the things they can rely on to deal with things.”

In late June, the project was helped by British therapist Eunice Stragg, who has 26 years experience in mental health, specializing in play therapy and sand play therapy. At first, Eunice worked with eight children with disabilities and their parents. Then the British expert explained the benefits of play therapy and for the workers in the program ‘Let’s Rediscover School’.

The main aim of this form of therapy is to help children deal with their emotional and behavior problems, to improve communication between child and parent. Another aim is improving verbal skills, the capacity to self-analyze, impulse control, developing coping mechanisms for anxiety and frustration, improving trust in others and the ability to relate to them. In order to reach these aims, the therapist takes into account the cognitive development typical of a child’s stages of development, as well as the conflicts typical of each stage.

Another novelty for a project of this type is the idea of developing some independence from parents for kids with disabilities. Daniela Visoianu tells us all about it:

”We want to give space to the child, so that parents understand they cannot build their lives around the child with disabilities. When parents are faced with this challenge, having a child with disabilities, reorganize their lives around this child, and dedicate 10 to 20 years of their lives to the needs of the child. The biggest danger is that the parent may leave the child with psychological scars, putting pressure on him, constantly reminding him of the sacrifices they made.”

So far, around 800 families from the south of Romania have been involved in the project. The next challenge is bringing this type of program at the national level.

School dropout, an important issue for the European institutions, has become an important topic in Romania as well. It’s not only finding out the exact dimension of the phenomenon that matters, but also finding solutions to it. What’s clear is that solutions cannot be found unless the relevant authorities in the field of education, social protection and local development work together for the best results. This is the topic of the study “All Children in School by 2015. Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children”, launched by UNICEF. The study is based on a methodology common to all 26 participanting states, Romania included. The Education Ministry, the Labor Ministry, the National Institute of Statistics and the Institute of Education Sciences have drawn up a report on Romania. The purpose of the study is to analyze the background against which school dropout occurs, raise awareness over the phenomenon and come up with solutions. Before finding solutions, it’s important to understand the scale of this phenomenon and its causes.

The long-term effects of school dropout are impacting a country’s entire society and economy. According to data supplied by the National Statistics Institute, 52% of the young people who abandon school early became jobless earlier than those who studied for a longer period of time. Another proof that school dropout is a social issue is the fact that there are differences between the various regions of the country in this respect. In some areas the phenomenon is less extensive than in other parts of the country, depending a great deal on that specific area’s economic and ethnic situation. In the regions where the number of Roma ethnics exceeds 5% of the local population, the school dropout rate is higher.

Nevertheless, statistics can be deceiving when the exact background of school dropout is not known and when the calculation method is not right. Ciprian Fartusnic, a researcher with the Institute of Education Sciences tells us how this rate is calculated in Romania:

“We count the number of children who enroll in a school in September, and compare it with the number of children who end the school year in June. What this study brings new is the fact that it takes into account the number of children who should have enrolled in the first place. So the first thing we learn is that the number of children who actually go to school is smaller than the number of children who should have. Thanks to data provided by the National Statistics Institute we found out the number of children of pre-school or primary school age. We compared this figure to that of children who actually entered the education system. Comparing the figures we came to the conclusion that less children enroll into the first grade than demographical data indicate. The phenomenon becomes even more extensive later. More than 55,000 children aged between 7 and 10, who should attend primary school, are outside the education system. The situation is similar in the case of secondary school.”

By using a calculation method used by EU institutions, we see the phenomenon acquiring a different dimension, which requires looking at it from another perspective. Ciprian Fartusnic:

“At EU level the school dropout rates among member states are not compared because of important differences in methodology. For instance, there is a method that calculates the rate on cohorts, monitored along several years of study. The indicator used is the early school dropout rate. This rate applies to a certain age group, between 18 and 24. Why is that? Because there you expect to find young people with a basic level of education. According to this method, we came to the conclusion that 1 in every 5 young people have not even completed the minimum 10-year compulsory education cycle.”

Irrespective of the calculation method, solutions to fight school dropout require collaboration among several institutions.

The old orphanages are today known in Romania as “placement centres”, a name clearly stating their transitory nature. In theory, children who arrive in these centres are subsequently either adopted, or placed in foster care. However, more often than not, these children are not that lucky and they end up living in the placement centre until they turn 18. Once of age, they have to start taking care of themselves in a world they know nothing about and with no support whatsoever. Also, benefiting from no financial means, they are supposed to find a place to live, with the state no longer taking care of them. They are adults and therefore must make it on their own, although nobody prepared them for this in the placement centre.

The Association for Human Rights Activation in Romania has developed a project to help orphans cope with confusion and rejection on the labour market. 12 young people from the Placement Centre no. 5 in Peris, Ilfov County, will be taught to cook free of charge. Afterwards, the initiators of the project will help them get in contact with potential employers. The lawyer Elena Corciu, the founder of The Association for Human Rights Activation Romania, has told us more about this project.

Elena Corciu: “We want to bring meaning into the lives of teenagers who are forced to live in an orphanage until they come of age. When they leave that place, they are hit by the brutal and unjust reality of their lives, characterised by drama, powerlessness and failure. Our project is aimed at providing motivational, vocational and professional counselling to 12 young people who are about to leave their placement centre in Peris, Ilfov County. These free counselling and legal assistance services will help them establish direct links with employers in their own community.”

The project was initiated by a famous chef, Cezar Munteanu, who is already known for the humanitarian projects he’s been involved in. Cezar has cooked for children in Africa and has participated in charity actions in the US. In Romania, he has helped people with drug addiction and Rroma children.

Cezar Munteanu: “At this stage, we provide training to 12, from psychological counselling to gastronomy. Also, they will be closely monitored once the programme is over. They will not be abandoned when this project ends. The aim of the project is to set up the first social restaurant in Romania for disadvantaged children.”

The project also enjoys the support of the local authorities. Bogdan Pantea, the Executive Director of the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection in Ilfov County hopes this type of programme will set a good example for future partnerships.

Bogdan Pantea: “Occupational counselling adds to this motivational and vocational counselling. These are children that have integration issues, because they find it difficult to detach themselves from the environment they live in until they are 18, namely the placement centre. The Ilfov Directorate hopes to be able to take part, together with The Association for Human Rights Activation Romania and other associations, in other projects that will truly help 18-year-old people achieve real integration into society.”

Nicu is 16 years old and lives in the Peris Placement Centre. He was taken there when his mother died. At the centre he learnt to play the flute, but he knows he needs more in order to be better prepared for life. We asked him what he thinks about cooking.

Nicu: “I like the idea. I think you shouldn’t follow a single path in life, because you don’t know if this path leads you anywhere. You must try a number of different things.”

The first thing Nicu would like to do after leaving the centre is to see his family, in particular his 21-year-old brother.

Nicu: “I want to contact my family, I miss them, especially my brother. He has visited me three or four times. Whenever he can make it, he comes to see me.”

Unlike Nicu, Nicoleta does not know her family. She is 18 and will soon leave the centre, where she has been living since she was very young.

Nicoleta: “I was eight when I got here. My mom left me. I’ve tried to find her, but couldn’t. Two years I suffered a lot, I missed her so badly. But then I said to myself I had to get over it and move on with my life. I took a table waiting class and now I’m doing this cooking course and I like it.”

Nicoleta now knows how to make beef salad, aubergine salad, meatballs and soup. She has learnt to cook thinking it would help her in her personal life as well.

Nicoleta: “Eventually I will get married and I should know how to cook, for my husband and my children. I will never, ever, leave my child in a home, because I know how much I suffered and I wouldn’t do that to my children. I would keep them with me and teach them things about life.”

The project run by the Association for Human Rights Activation in Romania started psychological counselling for the 12 young people in the programme, followed by the cooking course, which lasts until September.

This year, in early summer, just as every year since 2002, civil society awarded prizes to its elites. 220 projects developed by organisations from the non-governmental field ran in the “Civil Society Gala”, held at the National Opera House in Bucharest. The best projects running in the 17 sections of the competition received prizes. Apart from them, a Grand Prize was also offered. Sick children, young artists, lonely old people as well as abandoned parks and endangered ecosystems received support in 2012 from some of the associations that were awarded at the “Civil Society Gala”.

We hope to be able to recapture for you the special atmosphere of the gala, introducing to you some of the winners. The first prize of the “Education, Learning, Research” section went to the “Little People” Association for the project “My school in hospital”. Actually, the “Little People” Association grabbed most trophies, five of them, and not only for the project entitled “My school in hospital”, but also for “Paralympic Champions”, the “Brave-Hearted Magazine” and “I’m not afraid!”. Under the project entitled “My school in hospital”, the winner of the Grand Prize, the association offered assistance to various children hospitalised in oncological facilities, for them to keep up with their colleagues in school, thanks to the lessons taught in hospital by volunteers of the association. Attending the award winning ceremony, Oana Rusu, press officer of the “Little People” Association said.

We share this prize with all the children who believe in the importance of school. We thank you for supporting us every time we take a child by the hand, on the way to school and teach him or her that, no matter how difficult it is for them to face the situation, they need school and education. It is extraordinary what happens in hospital. Children can return to school and can attend classes alongside their classmates, without having the feeling of being left outside.”

In the “Arts and culture” section, the first prize went to the project “Young talents”, developed by the “Princess Margareta of Romania” Foundation. For several years now, budding musicians and fine artists lacking financial resources, receive scholarships in order to continue their artistic education. Mugurel Margarit-Enescu, director of the “Princess Margareta of Romania” Foundation has further details on the support granted to young people.

It is an extremely beautiful project, which is very close to our hearts and offers a chance to talented young people, who were born into families without financial means. Without this support-scholarships, guidance and promotion- they will get lost, and it will be the loss of the whole of Romania, which will be deprived of the beauty they create. It is a project initiated and carried out in keeping with the Royal House’s tradition to support culture”

With few green areas and parks, some districts in Bucharest also lack fresh air and properly laid out playing grounds for children. Showing a lot of civic spirit, the inhabitants of a district in Drumul Taberei set up an association to lay out a park between blocks of flats. Their effort was rewarded and they won the first prize in the section “Civic behaviour and public participation”. Delia Mihalache, a member of the Callatis-Drumul Taberei Civic Initiative Group won the trophy for modernising the Istru park.

We dedicate this prize to those who defend another park, namely the Gezi Park in Istanbul, as they equally defend their right to live honourably in their own country, the right to be consulted when decisions that affect them are being made. We hope that this prize will open for us and other interested citizens the doors of the public meeting halls of the City Hall of Bucharest”.

–

The “Health” Section boasted two first prize winners, at the Civil Society Gala: the “Sf.Irina”(St Irene) Foundation for the project “Alleviating the suffering caused by cancer” and the M.A.M.E Association for the project “Childhood should not be spent in hospital”. The “Sf.Irina”(St Irene) Foundation develops palliative treatments for people diagnosed with cancer. Ema Madalina Popescu, the president of the foundation said:

“I thank you on behalf of those suffering from cancer, who discretely experience the trauma of suffering, abandonment, indifference and the discomfort they bring to those around them. Our team finds it increasingly difficult to counterbalance the total lack of interest shown by the authorities, who seem to live a life marked by the hallucinating myth of eternal youth and deathless life.”

Maria Culescu, the founder of the M.A.M.E Association, knows from her own direct experience what it is like to live your life in a hospital. That is why, through the project “Alleviating the suffering caused by cancer”, she periodically organises various workshops, events and shows meant to reduce the amount of stress induced by treatment and to make children forget about pain and disease. A child’s smile is the perfect reward for all the efforts that are being made. Then, it’s time to express gratitude. Maria Culescu.

“I was lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who supported and loved me, mainly because I am a former patient suffering from cancer who dedicates her life to those suffering from cancer…I thank the team, our sponsors and partners.”

Environmental protection projects are on the agenda of many NGOs in Romania. So, this segment was also covered by the Civil Society Gala. The first prize in the “Environmental Protection” section went to the “Save the Danube and the Delta Association” for the project “ Hunting hunters in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve”. Through this project, the association militated against all attempts at making hunting in the Delta legal again. The association says that the reintroduction of hunting parties may affect local communities, which rely on the resources and opportunities offered by biodiversity. Upon receiving the prize, Liviu Mihaiu, the representative of the “Save the Danube and the Delta Association” thanked all NGOs active in the field for their annual efforts.

“My plea is not destined for the team together with which I’ve done so many things during this campaign. My plea is destined for civil society, whose members are here, in this room. In this country, we have plenty to do, in the next 50 years, to repair what has been damaged.”

Carried out under the slogan “Good can be sensational, too”, the Civil Society Gala this year saw a record number of projects running in the competition, which comes to confirm the vitality of a sector, which, in spite of scarce funding sources continues to offer support to many underprivileged categories of the population.

According to doctors, one third of these deaths may be prevented through the development of mother and infant support programmes and by providing maternity hospitals and newborn wards with high-performance equipment.

Save the Children Organisation struggles to improve these figures, and has joined an international programme called Every One, conducted by Save the Children International and aiming at reducing mortality rates among children under 5 by 15% until 2015.

To this end, two years ago the Romanian organisation launched a large-scale project entitled Every Child Matters. As part of this programme, the organisation runs a fund-raising campaign called Welcome to the World. So far, this campaign has helped 15 maternity hospitals in Romania buy new equipment to save the children who were born prematurely. The funds collected last year by Save the Children Romania from individual and corporate donors exceeded one million lei. As many as 42 employees and 800 volunteers from across the country have become involved in this campaign to reduce child death rates.

At the end of the programme, Save the Children Romania was able to provide the Cantacuzino Hospital in Bucharest with a portable incubator and the Polizu Maternity Hospital with a medical ventilator worth 24,000 euros. Gabriela Alexandrescu, executive president of Save the Children Romania explains:

Gabriela Alexandrescu: “According to our estimates, the equipment we have offered will help save 327 newborns and will ensure a normal birth for 380 babies. Naturally, we would like this programme to go on.”

Across the country, the medical equipment in maternity hospitals is insufficient and obsolete. To make things even worse, there is a chronic shortage of medical staff, says Adrian Craciun, the head of the Neonatology Department of the Cantacuzino Hospital in Bucharest:

Adrian Craciun: “We are a small maternity ward. We only have 2,200 births a year, but over 20% of the infants in our care are premature babies, because newborns with problems are transferred here from other hospitals. Last week alone, we received three babies from three different hospitals, and two of them needed ventilation equipment. Unfortunately, we cannot take all of them in, because we don’t have enough beds. Our Intensive Care Ward only has 9 beds, and I’m afraid very soon we will not be able to take on any more transfers, because our facilities are insufficient. This is a serious problem, and I don’t know whether we can solve it.”

Under-funding remains a serious problem for the Romanian healthcare system. Adrian Craciun, the head of the Neonatology Department of the Cantacuzino Hospital in Bucharest says this year his unit received less money than last year for the four programmes it is implementing: the premature birth programme, the respiratory virus infection programme, the nutritional prophylaxis programme and a programme for the identification of hearing problems in newborns:

Adrian Craciun: “Last year we received 4 billion lei, and this year only 600 million. This is a huge difference. We are literally living on last year’s funds. We used this money to buy everything we needed, but all of a sudden we no longer received any funding. You cannot treat a newborn with thin air.”

The Health Ministry will rehabilitate and provide equipment for 20 maternity hospitals around the country, under a World Bank-funded programme, State Secretary Adrian Pana announced.

Adrian Pana: “This programme to rehabilitate maternity hospitals and provide them with equipment, which is financed by the World Bank, is a long-term programme. Some parts of it have been finalised, others are ongoing, and we are discussing a new World Bank loan for further investments, for medical equipment, among others. But I would like to make one thing clear: child mortality is not exclusively related to maternity hospitals. Child death rates are a complex indicator that is relevant for the stage of development of a nation. It is very important to have well equipped hospitals where mothers and newborns may receive adequate healthcare services. But it is also extremely important for children safety and health to be ensured outside hospitals as well. The public healthcare system and other systems may do a lot in this respect, and this will reflect in the drop of child mortality rates.”

“All children have the right to live. No one can take that right from them,” says the executive president of Save the Children Romania, Gabriela Alexandrescu, who added that the organisation would continue to raise funds this year, so as to make sure that as many healthcare units as possible may benefit from the equipment they need to care for premature babies.