New vocational centre brings hope to disabled children in Romania

 “Without the support and care of Hand Rom I could never have won Gold in the paralympics. This new vocational centre will provide more hope to people like me in Romania.”

Gheorghe is 14 and comes from Curtea d’arges in Central Romania. He was born with a mental handicap in a country where the disabled have historically been very poorly treated to the point of abuse. However, with the help of Hand Rom, Gheorghe won Gold in under 16 football at the 2009 Romanian Paralympics. The new vocational centre opened today by Hand Rom to commemorate International Day for Persons with Disabilities will help more people like Gheorghe.

Romania, situated in Europe and a recent member of the EU does not immediately bring to mind poverty or inequality. But in fact many parts of Romania are extremely deprived.  Just 10% of people living in rural areas have access to running water and the average monthly income stands at a mere 125 Euros.

While ordinary Romanian people suffer from poverty and a lack of basic services, life for persons with disabilities is even harder as they are largely ignored and marginalized. For years disability was seen as a curse and resulted in disabled children being hidden away in orphanages and homes.

Suffering from a mental handicap, traditionally Gheorghe would have been shunned. Gheorghe’s father’s whereabouts are unknown and he lives alone with his mother, unable to look after himself. However, Gheorghe has been attending Hand Rom, a school in Curtea d’Arges that provides care and education to over 60 children with a range of disabilities. As part of Gheorghe’s education at the school, he learnt football, which led to him winning Gold in the under 16 paralympics.

Today, Hand Rom is opening a new vocational centre which will train teenagers in book-binding and candle making skills. Both traditional services are important to the local economy in Romania and are easily learnt by the students. Current equalities law in Romania allows businesses to simply pay a tax to the government rather than employ a quota of persons with disabilities, meaning that many businesses continue exclude disabled people from their workforce.  However the law also allows businesses to meet their criteria by purchasing goods or services from disabled organisations. 

By training persons with disabilities in candle-making and book-binding skills, businesses will be able to buy these services from the disabled community rather than pay the tax to the government. The children supported by the centre will be included in the local economy and gain a skill that could support them for the rest of their life.

Hope for persons with disabilities has emerged in recent years with the decline of prejudice and stigma surrounding disability, represented in the national paralympics. Hand Rom’s new vocational centre will aid this process by enabling children with disabilities to gain self-esteem and a level of independence. Gheorghe is just one success story of Hand Rom, with the opening of the new centre and continuing work of Hand Rom children with disabilities in Romania are given a chance to support themselves and succeed against the odds.

World Emergency Relief have been funding Hand Rom since 2002 and have supported the creation of the new vocational centre.