ABOUT ROMANIA

After the fall of the Iron Curtain and Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the world began to realize to its great dismay just how devastating the years under the communist regime were to the Romanian people.  The country was bankrupt.

Tens of thousands of infants and needy children without any means of support were living in deplorable conditions because society simply couldn’t support them.  After more than a decade of reform, the government of Romania has made many important improvements to their condition.

Initiatives are in process to place abandoned children in families which will adopt them and care for them in foster home settings, and to move them into the mainstream.  However, tens of thousands of children are still left behind.  Blue Heron Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life and to expand the choices available to these less fortunate children.
 

The children whose faces haunted our TV screens in the early 90’s have now grown into adolescents. Some of them are bright, promising students who posses the mental abilities to continue their education at the university level.  We want to give these students the chance to become functioning, independent adults who will give back to society. 

STATISTICS

In 2004, out of 5,000,000 children between the ages of 0 and 18 in Romania:

• More than 100,000 children were in the care of The General Board for Social Services and Child Protection.*

• More than 82,000 children lived in substitute families (50,000) and in placement centers (32,000).  These include large orphanages and smaller residences intended to provide a family atmosphere for Romania’s abandoned children.

• More than 68,000 children were certifiably handicapped.
• More than 4,000 infants were abandoned at birth in hospitals.

• More than 3,000 children were known to be diseased or infected with HIV.  An additional 7,000 - 8,500 children infected with HIV between 1986-1991 are now teenagers and expected to become sexually active shortly.

 Additional issues:

• Approximately 29% of Romania’s population lives below the poverty line, with the Roma (gypsy) minority strongly affected.

• The maternal mortality rate is approximately 30 per 100,000, with over 50% of deaths being abortion-related.  The abortion rate is 1.3 to every live birth, five times higher than in Western European countries.

• Gender perspective is low among teachers and textbooks continue to promote male characters.
• Mandatory life skills are not taught, leaving maturing youth unprepared for living on their own.

•  Unicef, USAID, World Learning, and other prominent aid organizations will cut most of their programs by 2007 and stop operating in Romania by 2009.

 Source: UNICEF and The General Board for Social Services and Child Protection, Romania.

* Note: These children are now referred to as “abandoned children.”  The term “orphan” is no longer used since some of these children are only temporarily abandoned and may have parents, albeit in jail or mental institutions.