Romania: Counter the phenomenon of the children left behind

Romania envisage to vote on a new bill for improved management of the issue of the children left behind. The Terre des hommes (Tdh) delegation in Romania has been working hard on this problem in the framework of the MOVE programme and its educational method ‘Movement, Games and Sport’ (MJS), which is recognised and approved by the Romanian government. Developed in partnership with the UEFA, this project invites children to practise sport, especially football.

*The children left behind *
Romania, just like other Eastern European countries, has a considerable amount of economic migration. Parents abandon their children so they can leave to look for work in West Europe. The consequences for the youngsters can turn out to be extremely dangerous, as these children left behind develop all sorts of trouble: they quit school, have behavioural and psycho-affective problems, amongst other things. In the most extreme situations, their feelings of having been abandoned can even lead to suicide.

Football to the rescue
The MOVE programme makes it possible to offer these children left behind an educational framework to learn how to trust again and raise their own self-respect. Through sporting activities and rigorous educational supervision, the youngsters develop cooperative qualities amongst themselves and become keen to go to school. Football idols like Miodrag Belodedici, Ion Vladoiu and Daniel Prodan support the programme by participating in activities with the kids. The UEFA, sharing the initiative of the project with Tdh, has understood that football can be an important vehicle for the youngsters’ reconstruction, thanks to the values it stands for. And it moreover rewards the kids by inviting them to see the final of the Europe League football match in the stadium. On this occasion, Joseph Aguettant, Tdh’s representative in Romania, told them: “Tell the people around you that you weren’t only lucky, but you took an active part in our projects, you are respectful to your fellow men, you treat everyone equally, you never say anything racist. Tdh is not a charity organisation: we help you, you and other youngsters in Romania, because you are the future leaders of this country”.

Towards new legislation
The MOVE project is bearing fruit and shows that the proportion of child victims of behavioural problems is greatly reduced. In 2011, 1062 Romanian youngsters benefited from the MJS method. There is still a lot of work to be done. In fact, according to the instigators of the new bill, Deputies Tudor Ciuhodaru and Mircia Giurgiu, who stated to the Bucharest Herald that: ”Statistics show […] that 300,000 children were left alone when more than 3 million adults went to work abroad. Half of these children are aged between 2 and 6, 4% under one year of age, 16% of them have not seen their parents for over a year, and 3% have not seen them for at least 4 years”. New legislation to benefit these children left behind would thus enable controlling the departure of migrants more seriously by the relevant authorities, and would impose the legal nomination of a guardian to look after the child. The supervision of local social services would also be strengthened, as well as checks on the living conditions of the child. All the same, an analysis of the bill undertaken by the Tdh delegation in Romania’s head of project, Laura Ghica, shows up some gaps. The lack of funding and the lack of social workers at a local level, training of these specialised social workers and cooperation between the various services of protection for social orphans are some of the elements which will make implementation of the law difficult. Even if Romania is on the right track to protect its children, the path is still a long one. The legislation will be voted on in the second half of 2012.