The period of 1998-2009
The problem of Romanian street children actually started with the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu (1989) in Romania. The children’s homes opened up and then the problem of the children of Romania became visible. Ceaușescu wanted a great people.
He encouraged the birth of children by rewarding the parents when children were born. Families without children were burdened financially and tax-wise. The parents were often unable to take care of them, so many of those children ended up in large state children’s homes, where the care was pitifully poor. When from 1990 and onwards, these houses closed down, a lot of these children fled and ended up on the streets. They literally ended up in the sewers of the city, because the pipes of the district heating also run through them. These give off heat and therefore they can survive the harsh winters and it gives a certain protection. In Bucharest, for example, the third generation of street children lives underground, in the sewers. Many of them are addicted!
Later, there were more children whose parents could not take care of them or from families with problems, runaways, there are quite a few because Romania is a country with many problems and a lot of poverty.
In 1998 we started a work among these children. First with a work on the street, among the sewer children. This resulted in a drop-in centre, ‘Casa Cana’, near the main train station – Gara de Nord. Later also in Constanta walk-in house, ‘Casa Sami’, on the Black Sea, also near the station, where many street children and poor families live in huts.
Theo van Hoof from Valkenswaard started this. Later, others came to help. From the beginning, young Romanians have helped, most of them have a good education. They are at the heart of this work.
We had Romanian teams with a single Dutchman who joins us as a volunteer. Theo was the pioneer and coordinated this work. In Bucharest, Lucas and Lisa took over the responsibility from 2009. They are now in a transition phase because Pastor Luke passed away in January 2018. We work well with them and we help each other. There is also good cooperation with others. From 2020 there is a church congregation from Arnhem – the Netherlands – that now supports and directs this project.
(Text by Theo van Hoof).