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Many of you will recall a request made
by Louise Bridge
for help with
Romanian Relief.
Louise's colleague Harriet Gore (of Fulwood, Preston) took part in a
visit to a Romanian Orphanage and Maternity Hospital to help the aid
workers already stationed there. Within Harriet's first 24 hours
in Romania, 13 babies were abandoned at the hospital. Because of
the deep cultural issues between Romanians and its Romany population,
these babies will all not receive clothes and proper food or care.
After Louise's appeal for help, she was able to give Harriet over 30kg
of baby clothes and £50 in donations towards the shipping and handling
of the clothes. This is an excellent response and the St
Cuthbert's parishioners should be proud of their contributions.
Below is an email from Katie Scotland (Romanian
Relief Correspondent for Volunteers) who is based in Romania and
volunteers at some of the institutions which Harriet visited. Her
email is lengthy, but MUST be read as it describes in depth the
conditions currently observed in Romanian Maternity Units and
Orphanages.
ONCE AGAIN. THANK YOU
ALL FOR YOUR KIND DONATIONS.
ABOVE: Harriet Gore with abandoned
babies
BELOW: The volunteers and the children in donated clothing.
 
Left: Lydia on arrival at the
Orphanage. Right: Lydia after receiving care at the Romanian Relief
Orphanage.
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:41:17 +0000
From: Katie Scotland
Subject: RE: Baby Clothes
To: harrietgore
Hi Harriet
The 3rd parcel arrived, many thanks.
I'll look out for all the clothes, and let you know when they arrive.
You go for it on the radio, the more people hear and understand how bad
things are for these children and their families who choose to abandon
them, hopefully the more people will stand up and put pressure on the
government to change things.
Below is a list of things
that we will need in the counselling room at the medical centre. There
is also a list on the website for anyone who is interested in donating
any items.
Fetal
development model
Life like baby (the kind that they use for teenagers in school)
Milestones development chart
Motorised sanitiser and soap
Children's and adult vitamins
Calpol and children's nuerofen
Cloth washable nappies and liners
Plastic nappy bins with lids
Baby wipes
Sanitary towels
Intimate wipes
All kinds of toiletries including soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and
toothpaste
Towels
Bottles
Sterilising tablets
Plastic shoe covers (many don't have shoes, so we will use them to put
over their feet)
Stationary packs with pencils and colouring pens etc
School bags
...and if anyone out there is feeling extra generous we need a large
plasma TV that hangs on a wall, along with a DVD player so that we can
play educational DVDs to the families.
Trained medical staff in
all areas are also needed to volunteer their time at the medical centre.
Sadly many people are of
the opinion that abandonment has disappeared since Romania joined the EU
in January 2007, but as you know it's simply not true. If anything, the
problem is getting worse due to rising food prices etc, and of course an
EU Gypsy (Roma) is still a Gypsy here, they are regarded as the lowest
of low and are always the last to benefit if at all. There are many
layers to this abandonment problem, and the blame cannot be laid at
anyone single persons feet.
Gypsies (Roma people) are
almost always totally uneducated. Most cannot read or write, count or
tell the time. We meet mothers who do not know how old they are, never
mind how old their children are, and sometimes they don't even know how
many children they have. Some can't get child support money from the
state because they do not have birth certificates, and that means their
children cannot get birth certificates, and no money can be given for a
person who does not exist. Very few have jobs, because no one wants to
employ them. With a lack of food, hygiene, terrible living conditions
(often no running water or electricity) and no general health care or
knowledge about contraception, it is little wonder that these women walk
away from their babies in the maternity hospital, sometimes it is the
only answer. I have seen with my own eyes many times, some of these
mothers are so poor that they do not have a single item of clothing for
their baby, let alone nappies. These women or children (within our
family support programme we have just started to help a mother who is
about to give birth to her 3rd child, she is just 15 years old) get
pregnant and have no one or nowhere to turn to, so they leave their baby
behind in a warm place, where they will be fed. They have no knowledge
of the horrific stories about what has, can and is still happening to
their children once abandoned.
The abandoned babies stay
in the maternity hospital for up to 3 months generally. Within this
time, they are either sent to foster care (very rarely adopted) or if
sick they are sent over to the children's hospital where, if not
collected can remain up until and past their 2nd birthday, this is the
age when it is now legal to transfer a child to a state institution (one
of the few things that has changed for these children under European
law)
Many babies or young
children that were initially taken home sooner or later return, this
time to the children's hospital. Again the lack of education and poor
conditions brings them in with all kinds of complaints.
The parent's often have
many children at home to take care of, so return when their child is
well again, or months later or even worse never. Those who are lucky
enough to be collected can end up on a never ending cycle of repeated
hospital admissions, due to continuing illnesses, such as rat bites that
become infected or extremely bad flu or tuberculosis.
All citizens of Romania
are required to carry an identity card from the age of 14 (providing
they have a birth certificate they can get one) which carries a few
personal details including an address. However if the person has moved
and not updated their i.d. card, then they become almost untraceable.
Once a child has been
identified as abandoned, at some stage (there are many cases to deal
with) the child protection unit tries to trace the Mother and Father and
if necessary, as far back as the Grandparents and Aunties and Uncles and
maybe a little further, to see if any of these persons would be willing
to take custody of the child. This sounds simple enough, but bearing in
mind, if they have an i.d. card in the first place, people move around
and sometimes don't leave a forwarding address, so this is not always
possible. Until all these relatives have been found and either reunited
with the child or signed a paper to say that they give up all custody
rights, as the law stands now, no one else can step forward to adopt
that child.
The general opinion of
Gypsies in Romania is more often than not a bad one.Many young
Romanian's are told by their parents 'if you do not behave i will tell
the Gypsies to come and take you away' says it all really doesn't it,
they instill fear and racism into Romanians from a very young age.
One of the nurses (who as
part of her working rota is responsible for caring for the abandoned
babies in the maternity hospital) is known to come in and ask 'how many
animals do we have in today?' by this she is referring to the abandoned
babies.
Corruption also plays a
big part in what happens to these abandoned babies, and the maternity
hospital that i work in is renowned for being corrupt.
When women arrive to give
birth they are asked what their educational and employment background
is, if it fits the bill, then they will be put on the 3rd floor (place
them in nicer conditions and you will stand more chance of extracting
money/bribes from them), if not then they are put on the 2nd
floor (that's the floor where i work) no prizes for guessing where the
Gypsies are put then. I cannot say that everyone is corrupt, but a large
majority are, and it's not just a case of accepting a gift for a 'job
well done'.
To get the best treatment,
you need to be prepared to give bribes. 5 lei (£1) to a cleaner for
clean sheets, 10 lei for each nurse to pay you some attention and to be
extra careful with that injection or to even offer you formula to
supplement your baby, 50 euros for the midwife and over 200 euros for
your doctor to come to the hospital to deliver your baby (otherwise you
will get a house doctor who is learning the ropes) and the list goes on.
People are so au fait with
bribery in Romania that the staff do not always need to use their
bribery tactics, like standing with their pocket open, it is a disease
that seems to run through the whole of Romania, pay and anything goes.
I was offered a bribe last
year, just so that i would allow a Father into see his newly born
offspring. I will never forget the look of shock on his face when i
immediately took the money from my pocket where they had placed it, and
gave it back smiling and saying 'i volunteer here for a charity and i do
not take bribes' please go and see your baby.
Some people say that if
the money was not offered then this problem wouldn't occur, what about
those who do not receive proper care because they do not have enough
money to pay their way through treatment.
Bearing in mind that the
average person earns 600 to 800 lei a month (£130 to £175) this is money
they can ill afford to pay. If you do not have money then you are
totally at the mercy of the staff, and believe you me there is little
mercy for Gypsies in that place, or even poor Romanians for that matter.
The nurses earn
approximately 1500 lei if they have been there for a long time.I am not
sure if i mentioned this, but even after all the studying, many people
have to pay to get these kind of jobs here in Romania, my friends
brother needed to raise 5000 euros to buy, yes buy a job, as an
ambulance driver. I have been told it is as much as 3000 euros to buy a
nursing job in the maternity hospital. Once you have the job, it is more
or less yours for life, and the bribes you will receive over the years
will many times outweigh your initial investment.
As you know Harriet, that
afternoon you spent in the maternity hospital with me feeding washing
and changing those 13 babies, never once did any one of those 3 nurses
on duty that day come and help (other than giving injections) and every
day is the same. I came to the hospital initially to assist the nurses
but instead, i find myself doing their work and they simply take it as a
signal to walk away from their responsibility with these children, the
same goes in the children's hospital.
As soon as i leave, the
door is locked and who knows when they go in there to check on them
again. Most of them see it like this, why waste time caring for an
abandoned baby, no one is going to give you any money for looking after
them. If there were not charity workers in these places, these children
would remain in soiled nappies and beds for hours on end, barely being
fed on time and hardly ever being picked up or spoken to.
I figured out quite early
on how to get the babies in the maternity hospital just a little bit of
attention. I noticed that once the babies were smiling, a few of the
nurses paid them some attention, and a little attention is better than
nothing at all, so i try very hard to spend time every day i am there,
just hoping and praying that another one of these cute little faces will
break out into a smile.
We do all we can to stop a
baby being abandoned at the maternity hospital. My colleague speaks
with the mothers about their problems and tries to spot potential
abandonments. Where a mother is struggling to cope with the new arrival,
and may be at risk of abandoning the child for whatever reason, we try
to offer assistance and a solution to her problems, in the form of
family support. First of all we visit them in their place of residence
and we listen carefully to their needs. We can get them birth
certificates if necessary, nappies, food and clothing for the whole
family and assist them with better living conditions to make life a
little more comfortable. We help them with contraception and medicine
and teach them the importance of education for their children. Most
importantly though we try to get them to a level where they are able to
support themselves and their family so that they have some hope for a
better future.
Very rarely do we have
abandoned babies that are Romanian in the hospital, and if we do, they
are quickly fostered or adopted. These babies are valuable, and money
can exchange hands to get one of them, I've been told as much as 10,000
euros.
As adoption is notoriously
difficult here, only a few weeks ago a Romanian husband and wife who
desperately wanted to adopt a Romanian baby, paid the mother (an
unmarried 19 year old Romanian, whose Father refused to allow her to
bring the baby home) a sum of money to write his name on the birth
certificate.
As a foster carer in
Romania, you get 800 lei a month, not a bad salary in Romania, but many
people will simply not take a Gypsy child into their care, because they
don't know the history of the child and who knows what might be
genetically wrong with them, some even believe once a gypsy always a
gypsy (the child could grow up stealing or worse), with all that in mind
getting enough foster carers is difficult, never mind finding those
willing to plough through all the red tape to adopt.
Changes need to be made
and it is time that Gypsies were given the same rights as their fellow
Romanians and indeed all other citizens belonging to EU member states.
They need to be integrated into society through education (much of this
needs to be done with the younger generations, both Gypsies and
Romanians) These people need access to free Doctors and medicine, as
they desperately need help with birth control and the awful diseases
that plague the camps.
Adoption needs to be made
more accessible, and under strict controls International adoption should
be opened once again, so that the thousands of abandoned children being
housed in state institutions and hospitals here in Romania have a chance
of growing up in a loving family.
Corruption needs to be
investigated immediately and stamped out, to stop those who have from
getting more, and those who don't have from suffering.
Many believe that Romania
should never have been given the right to join the European Union whilst
this kind of corruption and child abandonment is allowed to continue.
Funding needs to be given
directly to on the field charities such as 'Romanian Relief' instead of
handing the money over to larger Charities in the UK (who then control
where and when the money is filtered) or local authorities in Romania,
who simply make it impossible to access funds.
These charities are
registered and deal on a daily basis with the problems of abandonment,
so they are more than qualified to know where and when to spend the
money, instead of always having to hand the begging bowl around.
Romanian Relief runs purely from donations, other than a grant awarded
to build the medical centre, and yet they have done and are doing more
in this surrounding area to try to stop this abandonment problem than
any authority or governing body that i have seen or heard of, it's time
they were given much more support by those who have the say, just look
at how they have saved and improved the lives of those beautiful
children in Tinca(my computers nuts so it's changed the colour sorry)
I think i have given you
enough to read through for now, but if there is any other information
you'd like, let me know.
Katie x |
