Romania

Care for Orphans - Casa Ray Orphanage

The Casa Ray Orphanage is providing a safe home and place of refuge for 23 underprivileged and orphaned children.

The orphanage is in Dobreni, a small town in the north-east of Romania which suffers particularly high unemployment rates. Social and economic problems have contributed to high levels of crime in the area. Many of the children at the orphanage have one parent currently serving a long prison sentence.

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Education for Disabled Children

Hand Rom is a school in Curtea de Arges, central Romania, which provides care and education for 60 children who have a range of disabilities including cerebral palsy, polio and muscular dystrophy.

33 children between the ages of 4 and 18 attend the school on a daily basis and benefit immensely from the opportunity to study in small classes with a lot of attention and guidance from their teachers.

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Supplementary Education

Alta Sansa (which translates as Another Chance in English) provides security and supplementary education to children from disadvantaged families in Dobroesti, a community on the outskirts of Bucharest.

10 children aged between 6 and 14 years attend the centre every. The children are encouraged with their homework and also enjoy a range of activities, such as cooking, art and learning about Romanian culture.

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Romania

Romania is the largest of the Balkan countries. After World War II the country was a member of the Warsaw Pact until the violent overthrow of the Ceauşescu regime in1989. The Soviet legacy left Romania with an unproductive economy dominated by inefficient state-owned enterprises and collective farms.

Romania is continuing to make the challenging economic transition to a market economy. During the 1990s the country experienced two major economic recessions.

Romania joined the European Union (EU) in January 2007 and the Romanian government has been praised by EU officials for its efforts in tackling the problem of corruption in the country.

Inflation rose between 2007-8, driven by consumer demand, high wage growth, rising energy costs and a drought which affected food prices. However, during 2009 due to the world recession, Romania’s GDP dropped by 7%. This spurred unemployment figures which had doubled by the end of 2009.

Romania continues to face a number of challenges. Thousands of children live in public or private institutions. Some of these children have been abandoned by their families, but most have been institutionalised due to transition-related problems.

Contributory factors include poverty, malnutrition, school abandonment, social exclusion, disability and HIV/AIDS. Discrimination against disabled people and ethnic minorities is common in Romania and they often face barriers in gaining access to education or basic social services.

The most recent Human Development Report ranks Romania at 63, with a medium human development rating status. The Human Development Index (HDI) value is 0.837 compared to the HDI of the UK, which is 0.947.