Quoted from
http://www.relieffundforromania.co.uk
Romania continues
to suffer badly after a legacy of 40 years of severe
communism. Civil society and social services have
had to be reconstructed from scratch.
Subsequent fashionable - but dubious - western
“market led” reforms by the likes of the World Bank
have left most of the population 8 times poorer
than 10 years ago. A tiny fraction has thrived.
But that’s all.
An astonishing 44% of Romanians are now reportedly
living in poverty. (See note 1)
The World Bank in 2004 places Romania just above
Namibia and Columbia in its economic indicators
report.
Every 5th Romanian Child is Exploited: some 900,000
of the approximately 5 million children of Romania
are forced to work. Approximately 300,000 (of these)
are forced to perform extremely hard manual labour
(See note 2)
The north east of Romania - where we have many
of our community-based projects - was recently described
as "the absolute poverty pole of Europe"
– (See note 3)
95% of Romanian households in some parts of the
north east have no running water, 10% cannot afford
to connect to the electricity supply and there are
no social services - other than those we provide
- for an area of 24,000 people.
One doctor we know of has to care for 16 villages
and a population of thousands (Vultureni Communa,
Bacau County).
With 18 deaths per 1,000 babies born alive, Romania
has the 3rd highest infant mortality rate in Europe
after Albania (37) and Ukraine (21).
What we are doing in the face
of this
There has been no precedent
for care of the disabled, sick and elderly. Local
communities and even the authorities need to be
shown how it can be done.
Our models of care of children,
elderly and other needy groups act as seed-corn
projects for the local communities and the authorities
to develop their own programmes.
Part of what we do with these
model projects is “dare to fail”. This is something
that isn’t that easy to do for a Romanian bureaucrat.
But when they see how we have tried and tested a
social project that brings real solutions to problems
in their area, they have been able to adopt it with
confidence.
They then secure funding from
the Government. We move on to the next thing.
If we hadn’t done it on the
ground they would have been stuck with an unworkable
plan foisted on them by some western consultant
who knows nothing of the realities of life on the
ground but everything about implementing unworkable
plans - for which others will get the blame when
they invariably fail..
Sadly the cameras have long
since left Romania's notorious institutions and
it is failing to attract the international support
it needs to reform. This is doubly sad considering
the time is now ripe for real change.
A new generation of younger
Romanians are poised to get involved at senior level
in the country’s problems. We’re still there with
a dwindling number of other foreign charities but
we need your help for what should be the final push
towards self-sufficiency and the sustainable care
of the less fortunate in Romania.
Note 1
Born two years ago, under the
orders of the Government, the Anti Poverty Commission
(CASPIS) presented to the government its first report
in 2004.
The Romanian population over
the past ten years has decreased from around 23,000,000
to c. 21,000,000. The decrease is said to be due
to migration of the workforce.
According to the CASPIS study,
some 6.5 million Romanians live in poverty, of whom
2.4 million live in extreme poverty and another
1.2 million cannot afford basic food rations.
The data suggests a Romania
filled with people that live from one day to another.
It must be emphasised that extreme poverty is very
widespread.
Note 2
"Every 5th Romanian Child
is Exploited: some 900,000 of the approximately
5 million children of Romania are forced to work.
Approximately 300,000 (of these) are forced to perform
extremely hard manual labour . Most of them are
illiterate as they were withdrawn from school in
order to be able to 'do their job'.
About 89% of the exploited
children live in rural environments. Poverty was
deemed as the main cause of this situation."
Study by UNICEF, Ministry of Labour Romania and
the Bureau of
International Labour Affairs May 2004
Note 3
Significantly, over two thirds
of the paupers live in rural areas, where the poverty
risk is 2.3 times higher than in urban areas. Geographically
speaking, 25% of Romania's paupers live in the north
eastern province of Moldova, where the poverty risk
is 43%. Generally speaking 20% of the paupers are
farmers, while another 20% are pensioners.
The most affected individuals
are usually children or aged 15 - 24 (40%), followed
by farmers (20%), retired personnel (20%), employees
(10%) and unemployed (9%).
Recent socio-economic studies
"Romania has the lowest
purchasing power in Europe - 1/7 of the European
average. . Zurich, London, Luxembourg and Oslo have
the highest purchasing power in Europe. At the opposite
end are 8 Romanian regions and 2 Bulgarian regions.
The absolute poverty pole is in North Eastern Romania"
[2]
Austrian press agency APA on
a study by Consodata marketing(Germany) and RegioData
Research (Austria) April 2004
" With 18 deaths per 1,000 babies born alive,
Romania has the 3rd highest infant mortality rate
in Europe after Albania (37) and Ukraine (21) .
rural areas are the most affected" [3]
Mother and Child Institute,
Bucharest April 2004
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