Where Do I Enter? How Can You Help?

“I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I cant change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.”
―    Charles de Lint

This cause, helping orphans in Romania, is all about the children. Everything in this program revolves around the children getting the care and love they deserve. I am studying to become a teacher, so my ideas are a little bit more centered on how teachers can help in their classrooms, but with these same principles, anyone can help-even those who, like the “orphans”, have absolutely nothing.

Getting Kids Involved

Kids can relate to each other a lot better than adults can relate to each other, so it is very important to get children involved in the cause. By doing this, they would be learning that there are children in the world who need help and who don’t have a computer to play Minecraft on every day after school. Even though this would make a small difference in the child or person who is donating’s life, it could change the life of a needy orphan.

One of the simplest ways to raise money (not very much, but at least enough to buy food for the orphans), would be to simply ask. Teachers can set up routines in their classroom by having a piggy bank or something similar in their classroom, and children can bring change they find or a portion of their allowance to donate to the orphans. Parents could even get involved in this. If more teachers were willing to participate in the cause, maybe a school competition could be set up to see which class or grade level raises the most money.

Some other things that could be done are setting up bake sales, yard sales, talent shows, and lemonade stands at the school. To increase profit, the students could have a talent show at the school and have a bake sale in the lobby so that parents and viewers could have some snacks during the show.

All the money raised for the cause would go to the group/organization of people that will be visiting the orphanages during the summer. They could then use the money however they see fit when they arrive to Romania. They could use it to buy food, clothes, school supplies, or anything else that might be of need (students could also donate lightly used clothes to send a package to the orphanages).

This summer, I, with a group of teenagers from church, visited Romania. While we were there, we met three young girls whose father had died and whose mother simply left them to marry another man. The three girls were the ages of 12, 9, and 6. They lived in a small mud house alone, and cared for themselves. Every few weeks, the mother would come visit them drunk and beat them. To them, going to an orphanage is scarier than staying home alone. When I came back to America, the girls’ choir (about 20 girls) donated clothes and school supplies and we shipped the things to the girls within a month. The point is that even a group of young girls from the ages of 9-20 were able to make some sort of a change, so it is possible for anyone.

One last thing teachers can do with their students is to have them write to a pen-pal. Although this wouldn’t donate any money to the cause, it would make a tremendous difference in the orphan’s lives. Imagine how valued they would feel knowing that someone across the world is thinking of them, and taking time out of their days to write to them. The letters would have to be short of course so that they could be translated, but the thought would be amazing. Drawing pictures to send for them would also be a great idea. Basically, any sort of craft to send to the orphans to let them know people care about them.

Parents and Adults

·         Encourage. Parents, if teachers at your children’s school do not know about the cause, bring it up. Encourage your children to make crafts for orphans in Romania even if their school isn’t doing it.

·         Donate. Your donations don’t have to be hundreds or thousands of dollars; they could be $5 a week. Maybe one day, you will pack your lunch instead of going out-you could make that sacrifice and use that money as a donation to help children in need.

·         Volunteer. If you have the funds and are willing, volunteer to go to Romania with the team that would be working in the orphanages. I guarantee it would be a life-changing experience for you and that you would never look at children the same.

Nothing is too small. Any action towards good will help!

What is the Solution?

Love is all you need    
           
Solving the problem of suffering children in Romanian institutions isn't something that can be done easily. I mentioned in my previous post that the European Union had provided millions of dollars for Romania to improve their orphanages, but still not many changes have been made. Money is needed, but more than that, loving people to run the orphanages are needed. Children still suffer, live in horrible conditions, and have no one to love them. The majority of the time, the people that run the “orphanages” are not kind people, and they have no interest in building a relationship with the children (I’m trying to refrain from calling them orphans, because, in reality, the majority of them have living parents). This has to be changed.

                                    
Mirela Kinney was adopted from Romania by an American family and they brought her to the United States to have a better life. When Mirela was adopted, her new parents were told that either they adopt her, or Mirela ends up a prostitute. This is the reality of the majority of orphans that are not adopted, because they have no education and no skills. They’re just left to care for themselves.

Getting America involved

I think American university students, teachers, and any other interested person, should come together during the summers or winter breaks and go to Romania as volunteers. Funds would be raised so that school materials (books, pencils, crayons, and paper), food, and games could be purchased for the children. The American teachers can set up workshops in the orphanages to teach effective ways of caring for the children and teaching them. These workshops could be set up so that people (beyond just the orphanage directors) that are interested in the areas of Romania can come, learn, and get involved. Not only would they learn how to care about the children, they would implement a set school schedule in the institutions so that children are getting education daily. This way, when students do reach the age of independence and are forced out of the orphanages, they can have some skills and education to be successful.

In addition to setting up workshops in Romanian orphanages, several workers from American orphanages willing to transfer, could permanently move to Romania and continue helping improve the orphanages. Michelle Kelly is an American woman, who owns a private orphanage in Romania, and through her care, she has saved children, and she helps provide them with clean living conditions and food. There could be many more success stories like Michelle Kelly's if more people were given the opportunity to go to Romania and work in orphanages. The main goal of having all of these people travel to Romania and work on improving the care in the orphanages is to help them get their basic needs such as food, love, clothing, and education.

After meeting the basic needs of the children in the orphanages and enough funds have been raised, orphanages would be remodeled and made larger so that every child has enough space to sleep comfortably each night. In addition to remodeling, washing machines would be bought for all the orphanages so that children can have fresh, clean clothes available to them all the time.

If nobody in Romania is going to step up and help the suffering orphanages there, it is our job to get involved. I don't want to just sit and read about the suffering of the orphans, I want to do something about it. I want to help. I want to contribute. Even donating one dollar to the volunteering organization traveling to Romania could buy a coloring book for a child. Every act of kindness and effort to help restore the orphanages is appreciated.

-Inhumane Living Conditions for Romania's Lost Generation
from ABC News

-Mirela Kinney: An American Adoptees Story

What is the Problem? Who Does it Impact?

Imagine living in a place where you are forced to have babies-not just one, but multiple.

Some Background Information    
In the 1960's through 1980's, Romania was under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, who was a communist ruler with the desire to make Romania prosper. Similar to the Nazi eugenics program, Ceausescu wanted to create a perfect race and to increase the population of the country. One of his bizarre plans was  to force every woman to have at least 5 children in order to populate Romania. In implementing his plan, he banned all abortions and contraceptives. He also forced women to have regular gynecological check-ups at their workplace. His plan drastically failed though, because many women still tried to have secret abortions-many of which failed. The result of the failed abortions were many disabled children, and the result of the mothers who did have healthy babies was unwanted children, leading to overcrowded "orphanages" (more like inhumane institutions).
      
The "orphanages" that these children were taken to were not orphanages at all (the children weren't even technically orphans), they were just institutions that children were locked into. These children were "closeted away from society, often malnourished and subjected to physical and even sexual abuse." The children were left alone with no one to properly care for them. The grave conditions of these institutions was finally revealed to the world in 1990, but shockingly enough, not many changes have been made.

 Orphanages Today   
Ever since the 1990 reveal of over 600 Romanian institutions for children, millions of European Union funds have been directed toward improving orphanages in Romania, yet the malnutrition and mistreatment of orphans still remains a major problem. Although conditions have slightly improved, many children are still living in inhumane environments. Just earlier this year, Tom Jarriel from ABC News visited Romanian orphanages and found shocking living conditions. Some of the conditions that persist are: toddlers caring for themselves with no adult supervision, children covered in blankets with their hands tied behind their backs, toddlers sitting in their own urine, and children tied to chairs by their shirtsleeves. Most children don't even have anywhere to fully lay down because orphanages are so crowded.

The ABC News article also spoke of an American woman, Michelle Kelly, who runs a private orphanage in Romania. She rescued a child named Zambo from starving to death when she found him in another Romanian facility weighing only 8 pounds at 3 years old. She took him under her care and helped him gain over 20 pounds in 3 months. So, as we can see, it is very possible to create orphanages that can feed children and help them be just as successful as those living normal lives.

Many orphans wait for the day they can finally leave the institutions that are not even fit for animals. At 18 years old, they are forced out of the orphanages and sent to fend for themselves. This sounds appealing because they are finally free, but when it comes down to it, they have freedom for nothing. These children continue to suffer their entire lives because after they leave the orphanages, they can't do anything with their lives because they have no skills. The majority of 18-year-olds who leave the institutions:

• are illiterate
  
• are untrained
• have no place to go
• earn a living by prostitution or begging
• take refuge in filthy tunnels

As you can see, these children are gravely suffering, and it's not only in their childhood while they are in orphanages. The inhumane living conditions of these orphanages affect these children their entire lives.
       



References:
-The Health of Children Adopted from Romania
from Orphan Nutrition
-Inhumane Living Conditions for Romania's Lost Generation
from ABC News
-Ceausecu's Children
from BBC News
-My Glimpse of Hell and the Pitiful Children who Have Been Betrayed
from The Telegraph