 |
Parents working in Italy, children thrown in the orphanage
The parents lost their home and left their two children in state care,
staying out of touch for eight years
"We do not judge our parents, neither I nor my brother.
What could they do? Let us sleep in the street?"
He was seven years-old when he last saw his parents. They led him and his brother to a children’s home in Bucharest and promised to return in a few hours. Mihai had a feeling that that would not be coming back, but he didn’t dare to ask them anything. His younger brother, Eugen, began to cry. Those few hours passed, and then a few days, and their parents did not appear.
The children still hoped that their Mum and Dad would return, but after the first year passed, they gave up on the idea. "We had a good placement at Dămăroaia. The room was really nice, with six children sharing, but we were all united because we were abandoned," remembers Mihai.
 Not a day went by without them asking themselves why their parents left them. "Before, when we lived with Mum and Dad in our one-room apartment, I slept with Eugen in one bed, head to toe. There was just space in the room for two people to pass each other, but it wasn’t very good for us like that. Mum and Dad both worked but wages were low and the time came when we started to get into debt and couldn’t pay the utility bills. They cut the power several times, and once we only had candlelight from Easter until the New Year. Eventually we were taken to court and then we lost our home. So they took us to the placement center, and they went to work in Italy. I do not know what work they do there that they can’t come back for us. I imagine that they don’t sit there doing nothing, but they probably work very hard to get a new home for us. I do not judge them, and neither does Eugen. In the end, what could they do? Let us sleep in the street? We couldn’t even stay with our grandfather as he was an alcoholic," says Mihai.
Cireşarii "Prison"
For eight years, Mihai and Eugen went through several placement centers without feeling at home anywhere. They kept thinking about their tiny one-room apartment where they had all lived on top of each other until eventually, they gave up all hope that their parents would return.
After Dămăroaia placement centre, they went to "Cireşarii”. There, says Michael, it was like being in prison. "They had a high fence, several meters high, which we could not climb, and we did not have permission to go out or walk through the park. We felt like prisoners. Sometimes we wondered what life was like outside the wall. Many guys ran away from Cireşarii – they preferred to take their chances on the streets."
The brothers couldn’t stand it there for more than a few months. Mihai made an application to move to another center. They went to Placement Center Number 7, and then to "Robin Hood". There the regime was very military: discipline, cleanliness and making the beds every morning. Michael became a little Gavroche, making the best of every situation. "I split myself between football, billet, schools, caring for Eugen, caring for Ionut who was a little boy at the orphanage," says Mihai.
Mihai would face any difficulty, except for one: separation from his brother. One day it looked exactly as if that might happen. A family from the city arrived who was willing to adopt Mihai but would not hear of taking his little brother too. Nervous, Mihai made the request on behalf of his brother, but they closed him in his room. Nothing and nobody could persuade him to part with Eugen.
Laborer on the site, alongside construction workers
But how would he learn and get a job? None of the placement centers they had been through had taught the children anything. The only solution was to try on their own. He went to enroll in catering and hospitality classes, but came back disappointed: the 720-hour course cost 350 lei - a small fortune for him! If he sold all he had he would not be able to make that much money. Then he became friends with a construction worker and went to work with him. He laid paving stones and earned up to 70 lei per day. The working day began at six am, and when it ended each afternoon he was so tired, he could not take the bus to the center. He had to sleep on site to get his strength back! At the end of each working day, he had many injuries on his hands. After this, he enrolled at the catering and hospitality school, and completed the course with a grade of 8.3 (out of ten). "And without copying!" he says proudly.
The parents return
Then, one Saturday evening, the miracle happened: the boys’ parents called. They explained that they had worked very hard in Italy and had returned to Romania long ago, and since then they had searched like detectives through many placement centers looking for the children until the point where they had almost given up. With the money they had earned abroad, they had bought a house in Sighisoara and were calling the boys back to them to be a family again.
"We talked on the phone almost half an hour, we cried, they told us that it was only because of the money that they left us. We arranged to meet the next day at the station – Mum would be blond with a red shirt and jeans, and my dad would wear an orange shirt with jeans. That’s how we would recognize each other because our faces had changed," said Mihai. "We recognized the clothes in the station. I sent Eugene, to see if it was them, and I stayed in the back with a newspaper in front of my face while I waited to see if it was really them. Now we live with them. They have a house with three bedrooms and a store. They have asked for forgiveness, but still they haven’t really explained why they didn’t come for us in all of those eight long years. But it is ok. Mom and Dad have said they do not feel able to speak to anyone about it."
http://www.gandul.ro
Read more articles like this. Go to home page , or about us. |
 |
