Category: Society Today

Climb Again in Bucharest is a sports club, founded and managed by Claudiu Miu, former free climbing champion. It is an athletic club started in 2014, which offers free climbing therapy for children and youth with disabilities, such as sight impairment, hearing impairment, physical disabilities, or autism spectrum issues. At Climb Again, civic action is supported by regular people. More to the point, the payments and the subscriptions for regular clients go towards paying for treatment for youth with disabilities.

Razvan Nedu, a trainer with Climb Again, told us about the therapeutic benefits of free climbing:

“This is a sport that forces you to be in the moment, to be there, to understand exactly what is happening with your body, it makes you aware of the limiting fears you have, or create for yourself, which you may not realize you have, or that this can be an easy thing to do if you stop being afraid. It makes you trust people, and learn to communicate with them, because free climbing is a sport where one person climbs, the other secures them with a rope, keeps them safe, so this is a team sport. For people with disabilities, as well as with regular people, free climbing is a sport where the climb is standardized, but peoples abilities differ. You may be taller, stronger, more flexible, you may or may not be able to see, you have paralysis, or you miss an arm, or a leg. You learn to get by in your own way, you learn to adapt to what your body is able to do, in order to make that climb. Its exactly like real life. You have to do things for yourself.”

Contrary to popular belief, free climbing is not an extreme sport. It means climbing a rock wall or an indoor wall with no tools, trying to make it to the top without falling. As long as the climber and their partner adhere to all the safety features, the risk is zero. But that is not all. For people with disabilities, the physical and psychological benefits can be great. Here is Razvan Nedu explaining:

“The focus is not on what you cannot do. If you cant see the grip points, someone will tell you where they are. If you cant lift a leg enough, we either work on your flexibility, or find another way to position your hands, which makes things easier. This is very much about finding solutions. People with disabilities see these problems, and they dont find solutions. They get stopped in their track by seeing too many barriers, too many shortfalls. In climbing you have a lot of problems, you have various paths that you have to climb and solve, and they force you to find solutions. And this gets carried over into real life. If you start finding solutions for a climb, there is no way that is limited to one or two hours a week of climbing. You cant find solutions only there, and not find solutions for yourself in the rest of your life.”

In free climbing, youth with disabilities gain courage in their own strength, and have an escape from the glass cage they are often in, afraid that they may not be able to adapt to a sometime hostile natural or social environment. At the same time, climbing shoulder to shoulder with regular kids, they understand that they are no less than their peers. Razvan, who speaks next, was one such kid, a living example.

“Almost 7 years ago, Climb Again had a tour with a mobile climbing wall, visiting schools for the visually impaired, and they came to my high school. Back then I wanted to exercise, and I was doing so, and I liked climbing, it was more attractive than a fitness gym. I wanted to do that, but I liked climbing much better, and I kept at it. And when I went up a rock wall for the first time, I was totally hooked. I cant say that I had special skills, or that I stood out. Claudiu, the Climb Again founder and the coach of the team, told me I should go to competitions, see what they are like. And I did! My performance was nothing special at first, but I really wanted to grow.”

And grow he did.

Razvan Nedu, as you probably realized by now, is visually impaired severely. Doctors say that his vision is about 1% of normal. During the day, he told us, everything looks like abstract art, meaning he can make out light and shadow, and he can realize what is going on around him only by extrapolation. At night, everything is black with white dots. He loves going around to schools for the visually impaired to teach people to use the white cane. But, ever since hes discovered free climbing, he cannot imagine life without it. He is no a coach at Climb Again for all kinds of clients, with disabilities or without. He is a member of the National Paraclimbing Team. He has a multitude of medals and cups won in world paraclimbing championships. He has climbed the Mont Blanc, the Elbrus, the Aconcagua, and the Matterhorn.

“Limitations are much more in our heads than physical. We believe we cannot do certain things, and so we dont. When we start ceasing to think about this, and start finding solutions, then we start getting things done. My message to kids is that nature is wonderful, just as the world in general. It would be great to discover it, seek it out and discover it, to not be afraid, but do it smartly, not throw ourselves headlong into things. If you cant swim, you dont just throw yourself into a river. I have to learn how to swim, take it easy, discover it, and enjoy every sensation, because it is a unique and special thing. And when I take it easy, when I realize it takes time, then I can take the time for small steps, and I can get further ahead than I could ever believe at first. All you need is consistency.”

In Romania, 62% of inhabitants have never stepped into a museum, and only 33% go in once or several times a year, according to the 2019 Cultural Consumption Barometer. Since that time, before the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic, polls on museum attendance have not been run, but no radical change seems to be in sight. However, experts believe these are worrying figures, but that they should not scare us. We asked sociologist Dan Petre to explain:

“We definitely should not panic. What I believe is constructive for geting out of this situation is to put pressure on museums to become more attractive and interesting. I mean, I would have a more capitalist approach, so to say, as follows: consumers have no obligation to visit museums, they have no obligation to expand their general knowledge. It is the museums who have the duty to make the experience they offer more attractive, so that they can get on the agenda for spare time for people, for consumers. This seems to me to be the main thing that you have to bear in mind, we have to abandon this mentality according to which it is the peoples duty to get culture, and to turn it on its head.”

This upside down means a reversal of attitude for museums, with the goal to go from passively waiting for visitors to the initiative of attracting them with unusual offers. For this, there is a need to discover who these visitors are, what expectations they have, and what museums can do to become more interesting. All these topics were approached in a recent paper called Museum Explorer, under the aegis of the Bucharest Municipal Museum, with the participation of several experts, coordinated by Alexandra Zbuchea, dean of the School of Management with the SNSPA political studies university, who told us why this exploration was needed:

“There is a need to understand visitors in order for museums to offer them what they want, help them develop personally, but at the same time give them an opportunity to spend some very pleasant time in a museum. In other words, development does not occur only at the cultural level, intellectually, they need to have a good time. Otherwise, we are stuck in this situation we see now, where interest towards museums is totally marginal, and limited to a pretty well defined group of people. Statistics are fairly worrying. I only point out at the fact that this 62% figure appears in the last barometer, before the pandemic. However, some polls have suggested an even higher number, upwards of 70 to 80%. This figure does not mean that 7 out of 10 Romanians have never stepped in a museum. In other words, interest is very low, but somehow people still go there.”

We asked Alexandra Zbuchea who and why still goes into museums, and here is what she said:

“In terms of the profile of museum visitors, things are clear and simple. We notice that, generally speaking, the museum visitor is young, which may be surprising for many. Young people, high school and university students, people in their early careers, generally people with higher studies who live in cities, go to museums. The other categories of the public dont go to museums. One of the reasons may be the lack of opportunity, because, unfortunately, many localities, including small towns, have no museums, or some that are not too attractive. What we also know about museum visitors is that they are interested in Romanian heritage, but at the same time they are not very satisfied by the experience they have. They would like their visit to museums to be more interesting, to have a more pleasant and interactive experience, which is on offer from some museums, but not all museums.”

However, the sociological perspective adds nuance to this opinion, which puts optimism in the evaluation of museum goers. For instance, sociologist Dan Petre believes that creating a model profile of an average museum goer is forced, because there are many types of consumer. People go there for many reasons, and museums are therefore in competition with all providers of experiences, such as malls, as Dan Petre told us:

“For instance, during the School a Different Way week, the number of children going to museums goes up spectacularly, or on Museum Night. Access is free, but this is not the main reason, because we noticed that the price is not a barrier. What motivates them more is the experience. For instance, on Museum Night, when access is free, its not so much that it is free, as the fact that they provide an experience, or a number of experiences. There are people who do a museum crawl the entire night. I will make a comparison that will put me into a disfavored category. They go from museum to museum just like people do when they go out on a Saturday night and go from club to club or from bar to bar. On that night, there are people who who go from one museum to the next in order to have a comparative cultural experience. So, as far as Im concerned, the main thing to remember here is that you have to create for yourself and experience that is interesting, strong, and that brings satisfaction. This is the first thing I would work on.”

As a result, among the conclusions of the Museum Explorer paper are: getting to know better the desires of visitors, more attention paid to marketing, and especially an investment in interactivity, which would make visitors turn from passive admirers of exhibits into active participants in the museum experience.

The earthquakes that hit Turkey in February brought into the attention of domestic and international public opinion a special category of rescuers – mixed teams made up of humans and dogs, called to the rescue of those on the edge between life and death.

Liviu Ionescu leads the National Canine Training Center, based in Craiova (south). A volunteer himself in Turkey, he is one of the Romanian specialists best able to explain to us why it is important to train dogs for search-rescue missions:

“At the National Canine Training Center, we, for about 30 years, have been trying to create a database of search-rescue dogs for all specialties in this activity, namely rescue tracking dogs, dogs that search for missing persons, dogs searching for people under rubble, or dogs that rescue people from water or urban tracking (persons missing from urban areas). These are the specialties that we are trying to develop in Romania! Why? Because, in addition to the sporting canine aspect, of training puppies and increasing their intelligence, not only beauty, the social aspect is particularly important, actually a necessity for all areas, regions, cities to have search-rescue dogs for any type of emergency situation, for any disaster, be it natural or technological. And we are trying to raise awareness about this, among animal lovers, animal breeders, whether they are members of the Romanian Canine Association or a working club, to test each of their canine specimen.”

The selection of rescue dogs is very tough and realistic. Whether they are brought by their owners who want to evaluate their qualities or they are discovered by the specialists of the Canine Training Center, they have to meet very strict requirements to certify their qualities. It is the reason why only 5-10% maximum of the dogs tested in several stages -darkness, fire, height, etc. – are able to start training courses to become professional rescuers, as Liviu Ionescu also explains:(track) “It joins an educational program and depending on its temperament, character, adaptability coefficient, the age at which it starts, the area the dog is from and where it lives, its daily area and depending on the specialty where we direct it, the training can last 6 months, but it can also last 2 years. There are some educational modules designed for such puppies, and after 2 years, maybe even 3 of intensive training, they take some official international exams, where their value is seen. They have to go through some levels of training and examination, and after getting through all these levels of examination, they can participate or even be admitted into the national team and from there the step to the World Rescue Championship is big. Then they get into an international database to be called for help in real situations.”

The tests used by canine training specialists apply to any type of dog, in other words there is no specific breed predestined for search and rescue activities. Conversely, the earlier a dog is tested, even at the age of 3-4 months, the faster it can enter the actual educational process. Once prepared, it is fit to act. With what performance? According to the president of the National Canine Training Center, the dog is able, for example, to penetrate extremely sensitive places, up to 2-3 meters deep, including where even high-performance electronic audio-video systems would be impossible to use. Then, in theory, a search and rescue dog for missing persons, for example, can cover an area of ​​50,000 m² in 20 minutes, at least three times better than any professional human team. In a human-dog tandem, this relationship changes to the detriment of the human, hence the need for compatibility bordering on perfection with the dog.

Romanian search-rescue dogs do win awards at international canine competitions. But where does Romania stand, externally, from the perspective of the training of dogs? Here is Liviu Ionescu again with the details:

“Romania is considered at the beginning of the search-rescue activity. Other countries started these human-canine selections before the world wars, but we started in the late 80s, and only after 93-94 we can talk about a serious development according to international standards. The National Canine Training Center has a database of about 30 search and rescue dogs. The problem is that, unfortunately, the life and the active time of a dog is much shorter. They and we prepare for any cataclysmic situation, at any time. Unfortunately, they can help us for up to 7, 8, 9 years. We are in a constant race against time to have a certain number of dogs. They would be willing to help even up to the age of 14, unconditionally, but we have to think about their health and- we use them between 3 years and 7, 8, 9 years at the latest, because, otherwise, problems can arise and they can no longer perform at an optimum level as rescue dogs.”

In other words, says Liviu Ionescu, president of the National Canine Training Center, one can never say there are enough search-rescue dogs in a country, a region or a continent. The discovery and training of these quadrupeds that prove exceptional qualities must be continuous. Moreover, after the earthquakes in Turkey, the need for reorganization with a view to increased coordination between states became obvious. Here is Liviu Ionescu once more:

“We are in full program of reorientation, rethinking of the intervention strategy, of communication and joint multinational trainings. I am coordinating this program at world level, and I see the applicability, the speed, the intensity, the human thinking in certain areas of the world and I am glad that we are starting to become more effective in such real situations and we are crossing the sports threshold, the World Championship being considered, until the earthquake in Turkey, the most important event. Well, things have started developing in this field just as it happens in IT and everything flows very quickly. You have to be forward-thinking, wondering whats going to happen to the performance of the rescue canine team in 5 years, 10 years, given that earthquakes and other situations in which people get missing are not over we must be prepared for any type of activity where search and rescue dogs can become a real rescue tool. Following our performance in Turkey and the results we scored at the last three editions of the World Championship of the International Canine Federation – we are talking about the World Team Championships, Romania is vice-champion and world champion, for example, in the ʹtrackingʹ section – we have some results, we have a certain, lets say, mentality. I developed this project worldwide, it even bears my name, and it is clear that Romania, in Craiova, is an important when it comes to rescued dogs.”

Because, yes, search and rescue is much more than a canine sporting activity, it is one of unconditional, humanitarian, social aid!

Teenage mothers have 10% of all births in Romania. At the same time, 45% of births in the EU by girls under 15 occur in Romania, which beats every European measure in this index. This data comes from the Save the Children organization, in a report that also makes the link between the level of education and the age of girls in disadvantaged rural communities who give birth.

85% of under 18 mothers and pregnant women are drop-outs, and most drop out before getting pregnant. One out of 10 admits that they have never been to school, and three quarters of them stopped going to school before 8th grade.

What is also very worrying is that 4 out of 10 mothers or expectant mothers do not access other medical services during their pregnancy than the family physician. One third of future young mothers say that they never had a medical check-up, the main reason being lack of money. Half of their families have a monthly revenue of about 200 Euro. At the same time, 80% of them have never used contraceptives, mostly for lack of information.

These statistics from the Save the Children foundation also show that three quarters of the minors who give birth or are pregnant have relatives or acquaintances that gave birth while under 18. Also, one third of them are themselves the daughters of minor mothers.

As an example, in Salaj, in the northwest of the country, dozens of girls are supported by a special program built by a special working group created at the county level. With this program, minor mothers get medical, social, and education programs in order to integrate in society. Here is Violeta Milas, director of the Social Services and Child Protection Department of Salaj:

“Most of them are from the countryside. It is an environment in which these young women or children, these minor mothers lack identity papers, birth certificates, their families are gone elsewhere. When they go to the hospital to give birth, there is no birth certificate or ID papers. Registering a child is no problem. Based on these families culture and education, giving birth at this age is normal. We had to first teach them some basic things related to hygiene, and then try to get them to manage to raise their own children. In communities where there are trained social workers and community physicians, that is where we see results, in the sense that they are monitored, they are taught certain things, and the situation of these mothers gets easier.”

In Bucharest, the Ministry of Health reinstated a year ago, after a long absence, a structure to deal with the health of mothers and children. They are also working on setting up 200 integrated community centers nationally, placed in areas with vulnerable populations, offering them both medical and social services. However, as Health Minister Alexandru Rafila confirmed, in order for young mothers and expecting girls to have access to medical and social services, central authorities have to be in partnership with local ones.

Minister Rafila also believes that education is essential, and that the number of underage pregnancies would reduce if school would be more prevalent, and if health education would become a permanent part of the curriculum:

“I believe that the main problem is access to education, and, next but not second, because they stem from one another, access to health education. Access to health education is very important, it is multi-disciplinary, it does not necessarily have to do with sex education, and we have to avoid being stuck only in this area, that of sex education. We have a new minister of education, and I am convinced that a solution can be found, so that health education becomes an obligatory subject, adapted for all ages, as part of the curriculum. However, we cannot have health education if these kids dont go to school. I think it has to do with the cultural background, they are often a part of minority groups, vulnerable groups which traditionally marry their children at young ages, who as a result will have children themselves.”

In July 2022, Romania passed a law regarding the introduction, starting in 8th grade, of health education classes that children can attend with their parents approval. According to Diana Paun, a presidential adviser, this health education is a priority, because it is a filter through which an opportunity is offered to present and future generation an opportunity to make informed and responsible decisions. Adviser Diana Paun also promised further changes:

“Within health education, sex education is a major component which has the potential to change these sad statistics, not to call them grim. In the countryside and isolated communities, there is the greatest need for a functional network of medical services, sex education, family planning services, and the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience made this a priority. One major pillar of the plan is investing in furbishing and restoring the family planning venues in vulnerable regions, with a high level of teenage pregnancies and STDs, and that would contribute to substantial improvements.”

In conclusion, there are many needs on many levels. A reform to lead to profound changes should also aim at human resources in healthcare, providing the necessary number of professionals with adequate training and an optimal geographical distribution. What also needs to be done is a collection of information, in order to gain a birds eye view of the health situation of mothers and children in socially isolated communities. What is also essential is maintaining communication between public social assistance services, medical services, and educational institutions. All these, and many more, are essential. It is well known that underage pregnancy runs greater risks, on the one hand. On the other, it exposes young to-be mothers to the risk of dropping out of school, and of entering a vicious circle of poverty, which generally reflects on the next generation.

Twelve
years ago, the non-governmental association the Centre for
Educational Evaluation and Analysis initiated a project entitled
Physics differently aimed at changing the way in which this
subject is taught in secondary school. The goal was to no longer
teach theory followed by its application in various areas but to
focus instead on encouraging pupils to experiment directly. Cristian
Hatu, the president of the NGO, explains why this new approach was
necessary:

This
was in response to trends we saw in other countries with
high-performing educational systems. As to why these countries
adopted this approach, this is a more complex issue, but I’ll
mention a few examples I find more relevant. Compared with 30 or 40
years ago, when many jobs implied repetitive and routine activities,
with time and the introduction of automation, the percentage of these
jobs has decreased. Instead, we’ve seen an increase in jobs where
employees are required to put their mind to work in order to solve
new and problematic situations. And then the question arose as to
what extent does school need to focus on memorisation and
reproduction and whether it shouldn’t in fact need to develop
pupils’ logical thinking to a greater extent. So these countries
began to rethink the way in which certain subjects are taught in
school in order to develop critical thinking and problem-solving
skills in pupils. So, for example, science teachers no longer simply
stand before pupils and teach them Ohm’s law, the formula and then
immediately start solving problems. On the contrary, they let pupils
solve and find a solution to the problem themselves. Teachers take a
step back and let pupils have direct contact with reality. So, in a
way, pupils retrace the steps of the scientist who first made the
discovery.

Moreover,
the method of applied investigation proposed under the Physics
differently project can help reduce functional scientific
illiteracy, as pupils will acquire a direct understanding of how the
laws of physics work and to identify them in daily life, through
experimentation and stimulating their own thinking. But how did
pupils react when first faced with this method? Cristian Hatu tells
us more:

We
made them curious and they began to realise their own potential.
Teachers say that at first pupils ask why should they answer the
questions, they couldn’t possibly, it’s the teacher who should give
them the answers. It takes a few weeks until they overcome this
reflex, which is only normal after all these years of learning
through the conventional method.

Twelve
years since this project was first implemented, Physics
differently is a success. Almost 3,000 teachers have been trained
to teach based on this investigative method. While the project
initially targeted secondary school pupils from years 6 to 8, it has
in time also been extended to high school. Cristian Hatu, the
president of the Centre for Educational Evaluation and Analysis
explains:

Changes
were made to secondary school curriculum for this end. Inspectors now
check to what extent teachers apply this method of investigation in
class. In high school, despite the problems with the adoption of a
new curriculum, an intermediary solution was found and methodological
recommendations were included for year 9 and 10 teachers, as they
were faced with pupils who had studied after this method in secondary
school. So teachers were trained to continue the approach used in
secondary school with this first generation of pupils, who are now in
year 10.

The
success of the project led the Centre for Educational Evaluation and
Analysis to initiate, a few years ago, a similar project for
chemistry, also based on the investigative method. In the future, the
NGO plans to develop yet another project for teaching mathematics.

Seven out of ten Romanians go to the mall at least once a week, and three of them are women and four are men. In addition, ‘if gentlemen are the ones who come to the mall more often, ladies spend more time per visit. And as far as buying habits are concerned, men spend 10% more than women (302 lei vs 275 lei)’. These were the findings of the authors of a study conducted by Reveal Marketing Research. The explanation lies in the fact that men purchase technology, which is known to be more expensive. But the data from this research surprises in several ways. For example, according to mental clichés, we would have expected the number of women to be higher among those who are fond of going to the mall. Then the figure of 7 out of 10 seems a bit high in view of the general purchasing power of Romanians. However, if we deepen the analysis and start taking into account factors such as proximity, explanations begin to appear, and are now offered to us by sociologist Dan Petre.

“First of all, in the case of Romania, and mainly in the case of Bucharest, unlike other European capitals, malls are placed to a much greater extent inside of cities. In other European capitals, the malls are located more towards the edge of the city, and proximity plays a very, very important role. The second reason: as far as I remember, we are in first place in terms of square meters of mall area per capita in Europe, in all of Romania. So malls spread over a large area. And the third reason is that there is a cultural trend. The mall offers a condensed experience, or opportunity of experiences. I mean, I go to cover a utilitarian need, or shop for the family, but also shop for myself, mainly clothes. We have seen in this study that clothes are in high demand. Second, I want to have a social experience over coffee or over a meal. The mall is currently a place where, if you’re a consumer, you can get a lot of the experiences you need in one place.

However, going to the mall is not only a functional or pragmatic experience, but also an emotional one. Even if the immediate reasons are utilitarian – such as shopping – there are also strictly subjective reasons, such as walking, or socializing over a meal or a coffee. Then, the recent study also highlights some generational characteristics. According to the study, the average amount spent by Romanians during a visit to the mall is almost 300 lei. The biggest spenders are those in the 36-45 age segment (Millenials), doling out almost 370 lei, closely followed by Generation X (those aged 45 and over), who buy stuff worth around 330 lei in a mall visit. Generation Z, made up of young people between 14 and 25 years old, spends the least in a shopping session, i.e. only 200 lei. Sociologist Dan Petre develops the topic starting from the need for socialization in young people, but also from the income of each generation.

“It can be seen from the amounts they spend which is the income level to which each generation has access. Millennials, who are in the area of maximum potential right now – employability, access to resources, access to social power – spend the most. Next comes Generation X, who have had time to accumulate resources, and then Generation Z, who still don’t have enough resources, but are on the rise. But they have more free time, and somehow that makes up for the lack of money. They spend the most time there, but spend the least. It’s always a game between time and resources.

In terms of time spent at the mall, 73% of gentlemen are present here several times a week, 23% go between once and three times a month, and 4% less often than once every three months. Ladies, on the other hand, often visit shopping centers, to the amount of 67%, 29% make 1-3 visits per month, and only 4% said that they go to the mall less than once a season. Also, the average time that Romanians spend in a single mall visit is just over 2 hours (130 minutes). Taken by itself, the data may not say much, but, for example, coupled with the information from the cultural consumption barometers, the picture of how Romanians spend their free time is complete. In 2019 – the last pre-pandemic year that allowed for regular research on this topic – a total of 5% of Romanians saw a theater performance, another 5% visited museums, 9% went to the cinema and 8% to performances entertainment. Of course, once these data are corroborated with those about age, education, place of living, and economic situation, the conclusions are deepened and detailed. For example, many localities in Romania lack theaters, cinemas, museums, or bookstores. The same happens in the case of going to the mall or other socializing options, which depends on the alternatives available, Dan Petre comments.

“There is a basket of opportunities that people have access to, and they allocate their time according to the opportunities available to them. The more opportunities there are, the more people use them. I give only one example here: urban festivals, such as, for example, in the case of Bucharest, closing down Kiseleff Boulevard or Calea Victoriei for car traffic, and opening it for pedestrian experiences within the city. There are many people from Bucharest who come there for street food, concerts, and walks. There are many Bucharesters who do this, which shows that when they have more opportunities, their needs are distributed. If there were more, they would be distributed, especially at certain times of the year. Seasonality matters a lot. Also, the structure of the Romanian economy focuses a lot on services, so on the tertiary economy, on what leads to consumption. But this consumption is best optimized in mall-type spaces, which are a machine to offer consumption experiences. And Romania’s economy is very much oriented towards consumption. And so it was somehow expected to have more development in the places where consumption is very intense, and optimized for brands and manufacturers.

In this situation, and as long as it will be maintained, one can only conclude what the authors of the aforementioned study found: ‘malls play an important role in the lifestyle of consumers, their success on the Romanian market being indisputable’.

80% of child abuse accusations between 2014 and 2020 were filed away without criminal investigations. This is the conclusion of a report of the Judicial Inspectorate, which was pointed out for us by Gabriela Alexandrescu. Of the 18,549 accusations made over this period, 80% of them were closed cases, even some with grave violations of the freedom and sexual integrity of children. When we are talking about the children who are victims of sexual abuse, the state is much more concerned about punishing the abuser, if and when they decide to prosecute, and much less about the childs recovery. We asked Gabriela Alexandrescu what was needed in order to help children who are victims of sexual abuse in our country:

“Generally speaking, in Romania there is little awareness of the effects of sexual abuse on a child. It is well-known that sexual abuse is under-reported in Romania. The number of children who are abused is much higher than the number of reports. Recovery does not happen by itself. The child needs immediate and long term support. Short of that, there are short term effects, but long term effects will affect the childs entire development. From our point of view, in order to help children mitigate these effects, what we need is introducing health education in schools, including reproductive health, sexual education, and many more children need to be aware of the risks they may face. Then we need experts trained in detecting, interviewing, and discussing with children who are victims of such abuse. What we need is more trust from children and families in the authorities, which is why we need teachers, judges, psychologists, and magistrates w ho are trained in uncovering, analyzing, and prosecuting such cases of abuse. We also need trained police. It is important to have a well designed apparatus, which is good at identifying the signs of abuse, and the means by which to help such children. We opened up the first specialized Barnahaus service, a service which was launched in Iceland years ago. This type of service interviews, protects, and supports child victims of sexual abuse, all with a view to the higher interest of the child. However, this treatment, and all that has to do with these cases, has to be subsidized by the state, in order to make it easier for the child and their family to get the benefits of these services, in order to get emotional support and prevent further trauma.”

Gabriela Alexandrescu from Save the Children drew for us a portrait of abusers, and the rapport they develop with their victims:

“Generally, children with high risk of abuse are vulnerable emotionally. The child is not always aware that something wrong has happened, so they dont talk about it. Smaller children may have a higher risk, because it has to do with their cognitive development. Small children can be victims for years on end, under the shroud of secrecy. Also, aggressors usually threaten their victims into keeping the secret. Eventually, many times in adolescence, when the victims start having information about sexuality, they realize that something abnormal happened to them. Generally, children do not realize that what happened was abnormal, a child is not capable of expressing clear consent, they are very easily manipulated by an adult. What we gathered from expert literature, and from our studies here, at Save the Children, is the fact that sexual abuse affects only certain children. The truth is that abuse has nothing to do with the socio-economic and educational status of children, or the general characteristics of a child. But, obviously, a familys economic and social situation, such as social isolation, divorce, extramarital relations, unpleasant events within the family, as well as economic hardship, can lead, and many times do lead, to children being at greater risk.”

According to Gabriela Alexandrescu, the fact that a child is more at risk of abuse in a vulnerable social and economic environment is just a myth:

“In terms of abusers, we can say that they are largely members of the family, or of the extended family. They are people who the children know, or trust, for instance neighbors, family friends, people who have a position of power over the children, such as a teacher, a coach, a maternal assistant, or members of their families. Abusers always try to cover up the abuse, and they are usually people who act with care and kindness, in order to gain the trust of the child and the family.”

Therapist Elena Maria Dumitrescu also pointed us to the lack of therapy for children who are victims of abuse:

“Therapy has specific means to intervene in order to cure these wounds, which affect the ability of adapting for each of the affected persons. The result depends on a series of factors, among which is the very important ability to set up bonds of trust with people who are significant in a childs life, which can offer then real life safety and protection. When a wound is extremely profound, this bond is hard to be made, in order to satisfy the needs of the child. They will learn to live with the wound, by developing certain coping mechanisms. The relationship between parent and child is based on satisfying a childs emotional needs, by creating a safe environment, in which the child can communicate with the parent openly about their day to day experiences. The parent can observe with whom, and in what way, their child interacts, and are able to identify unhealthy signs, if any. Unfortunately, there are situations in which, for various reasons, these connections cannot be made. Abusers are very good observers, noticing the vulnerable spots in their victims. They want to take advantage of them, and will manipulate things in the direction that furthers their Machiavellian purposes.”

Therapist Elena Dumitrescu told us about the way to healing for the abused child:

“In addition to the pathology of the sexual abuser, we are talking about what we call the dramatic triangle of aggressor, victim, and rescuer. We, humans, learn roles. As such, some will learn the role of aggressor, identifying with them and becoming them, with various manifestations. Others will go the other way. They will take on the role of rescuer in their relations, wishing to save the child within everyone around them. Speaking of child abuse, the earlier we intervene, the greater the chances for the victim to learn new coping mechanisms in order to become functional, and even to heal. Once they reached adulthood, and their personality completes, things get more and more stable. Therapy has techniques to intervene along the victims process of development, both in children, and in grown ups.”

Criticized for a long time and with regard to many aspects, Romanias education system has been trying all sorts of versions of reform, perhaps too many and too often, as some critics have stressed. Currently, significant changes to the education law are subject to parliamentary negotiations and are waiting to be voted on. At the same time, some schools and teaching staff come up with their own alternative projects, approved by the relevant ministry, to improve the teaching-learning process.

One of these projects, currently piloted in three educational units in the country, is already being implemented by the Gheorghe Șincai National College in Bucharest, the college that has actually developed this project. It is about rethinking the division of the school year into modules, not semesters or terms. In fact, starting with the 2022-2023 school year, the ministry rethought the structure of the school year and divided it into certain modules, teaching periods, broken by short vacations. However, in this case, the courses are scheduled according to the classic structure, while in the already mentioned pilot project, the teaching hours for some subjects are combined in one module.

Math teacher Silvia Mușătoiu, from the Gheorghe Sincai National College told us more:

“The idea is not new, it does not belong to us entirely, but we have put it into practice, which is not easy, because we put a lot of work into this pilot project proposal. So, what is this project all about? The children used to have between 14 and 17 hours of classes per week, as established in the framework plans for high school, which is 9th to 12th grade. The number of subject matters is very large, so the child cannot focus very well on all the subjects they study when there are so many, and we thought that regrouping them in one school year, so that there are fewer subjects to study in a week might help them. So, what did we do? The specializing subjects, according to the specific educational profiles, where there are many hours allocated per week, remained topics to be studied annually. For example, for all grades, the Romanian language is studied annually. There where math and IT is the profile, mathematics is studied four or five hours a week annually. The subjects, however, which have two hours allocated per week, were gathered in a shorter period of time, with more hours taught per week. Lets take as an example art, which is studied in the 9th and 10th grades. In the classical system, the art class is held once every two weeks, all year round. We regrouped these 18 hours per year into a shorter period of time, that is, they are studied only during six weeks of the school year, three hours a week. This is called a module.”At the end of the module, certain subjects are not taught at all until the end of the year, because the subject has already been covered. The next module will contain other subjects which, in turn, will be studied intensively. Although the project is now underway and formal evaluation has yet to take place, there have been unofficial reactions from students and parents.

Here is Silvia Mușătoiu again:

“The feedback from students is very good, because with only eight or nine subjects per week, the children can allocate enough time for each subject that is studied in that period. In this context, teaching methods may be different. Our goal is for them to learn more intensively and a little more thoroughly than in the classic system. The system is not new, it has been used in other countries, like since the 1950s, in the USA and in the 80s and 90s in Europe, and it involves precisely restricting the number of subjects studied by students in a week. And these studies highlight the fact that the student studies one subject intensively for six weeks, but that does not mean that after six weeks they forgot everything they learnt. When a subject is studied intensively, the attention is a little more focused on that subject and the learning becomes more thorough. And I believe that when things are learnt thoroughly, its more unlikely to forget what you learned.” Through a partnership with the University of Bucharest, experts from the Faculty of Educational Sciences are going to research the application of this pilot project. The result of the evaluation will be presented to the ministry and then, obviously, a decision will be made whether this modular system will be expanded or not. Currently, two other schools are piloting it, apart from Şincai College: Mihai Eminescu College in Petroșani and “Constantin Angelescu” Theoretical High School in Ianca, Brăila county. We asked the expert in education, Marian Staș, what he thinks about this project. TRACK : “Honestly, I dont see disadvantages, but rather challenges to manage, and the advantages are certain. Its clear that when we focus more on something and we do it more thoroughly, it starts to become a habit and we understand it better. How much can a child learn when they have just one hour of something every two weeks? Correct answer: a little more than nothing. Another important aspect is the fact that each module is focused on a smaller number of subjects. And when I dont dissipate my attention on too many fronts, but I learn to think in a structured manner, I learn to focus on what is happening there. I have read that good practice study from the Mihai Eminescu College in Petroșani. I saw there that teachers who normally teach a subject only one hour a week now find themselves able to do three or four hours a week. In other words, they have at their disposal a much more consistent volume of time allocated to one subject or another. The question remains whether the current curricula fits such modular structure of the school year or whether the contents should also be slightly changed. Marian Staș : TRACK: “I think its the first historical example of form and substance and not form devoid of substance in 30 years of educational change. I mean this pilot project. It just so happens that my wife is a physics teacher. And as a family, we experimented this and she provided a very nice modular design model for middle school and high school physics. The result was absolutely correct, without necessarily cutting from the contents of the curriculum approved by order of the minister. But that is exactly what needs to be done, namely to consistently transform the contents as well, to amend the school curricula also. Which is obviously perfectly possible, because the whole point of piloting is not to make things worse for the system and more counterproductive for the children, but to make things better for the system and for the children.

The results of the assessment conducted by the University of Bucharest are expected in early May.