BMsncastsr Farming, Saturday, April 9, 1994 Children In Peril As Romania Struggles With Democracy ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff BLAINSPORT (Lancaster Co.) It’s a horror story made even more horrible because it’s all true. Imagine a country in which it is a crime to have less than five child ren. Then imagine a revolution, and the people having to face the realities of lack of decent food, shelter, or education. Then ima gine people giving up their child ren, en masse up to half a mil lion babies, toddlers, some almost teenagers to an indifferent state. Then imagine a country that literally herds the children, like cattle, into orphanages. And then treats them like they are nothing but refuse. Through an emotionally intense series of slides presented at the home of Vernon and Allegra Lei ninger recently, about 50 members of the Ephrata Area Young Far mers Association (EAYFA) and friends gathered to witness the hor rible events happening in a country called Romania, a former Soviet Union republic in southeast Eur ope that borders the Black Sea. Mike Brubaker, EAYFA advis er, who documented his trip last April to Romania, presented slides about the Romanian way of life. The trip was a humanitarian pro ject sponsored by Christian Aid Ministries. According to Brubaker, In December 1989, Romania’s Presi dent Nicolae Ceausescu was over thrown and executed at the brink of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Romania remains a country which is trying, in fits and starts, to become democratic. Under the Ceausescu dictator ship, thousands of people were torn from hundreds of years of farm ownership and forced into the cities. Ceausescu, in his own ego tistical agenda of making the coun try appear good to the West, uprooted whole forests and con verted large areas into completely open farmland. Meanwhile, during his reign of terror, he imposed stiff fines on families that had less than five children. Birth control and abortion were outlawed. After communism fell, and the dictator was overthrown and exe cuted, the country went into a tail spin, economically and physically. Many people could no longer afford to feed themselves, let alone their large families. So the people “returned” their children to the state. The state, bankrupt, with meager supplies and resources, set up a large num ber of orphanages, where the children, many of them “irrecov erable,” today are forced to lie in wait. The conditions in some of the state-run orphanages “really are just deplorable,” said Brubaker. This bed is shared by this entire group of Romanian orphans. The diseased children are forced to remain in cribs, many until they turn 10 years old. They are offered little, if any, food. Clothing is rare ly changed. Their version of “pot ty training,’ ’ according to Brubak er, has the toddlers sitting on dirty containers for two to four hours each morning. Toddlers lie in their own feces, their own vomit Many of them have never been held or touched. Children are confined, six or eight often to a single bed. Their only contact is with “caregivers” that “discipline” them, tying some to the crib- or bedposts, ignoring the rest. Brubaker showed a presentation offered by the local public televi sion station about the state orphan ages. One such showed the orphanage, The Negu Voda Home for the Irrecoverable. In the orphanage, there is constant crying and screaming. The children can’t speak right, and many withdraw, catatonic, into their own worlds, t holding tenuously to life. Some| rock themselves or do anything for stimulation or to simply feel, human. The children have never seen the outside. Many of them simply fail to grow. After learning of these condi tions, a ministry group came in to offer help including basic food and medical supplies, education, testing, and time—to the children. On the television program, which included extensive, detail ed, intense descriptions of the con ditions in one such orphanage, a man befriended an 8-year-old girl who remained constantly in a crib. He picked her up, held her closely, and kissed her, promising to show her, once in her life, something she had never seen before. He fed her, bundled her up, and showed her a place of untold wonders the outside. She looked about, mesmerized by a world she’d never seen. Since the country has opened its doors, according to Brubaker, many ministries such as Christian Aid have visited the country. Sup plies are being sent daily, through the efforts of volunteers and donors. Adoption of the children by Western countries is almost impossible, according to Brubak er. Because Romania is now democratic, there is no such thing as political asylum for Romanians in the U.S., he said. The U.S. has essentially closed its borders to adoption of the children. Brubaker took the trip to offer his agronomic expertise on the farming aspects during the mission operation. He stayed at the Roma nian home of the Ben Lapp family, who operates a dairy in a village called Suceava. According to Brubaker, through In one village, Romanian children are kept In a com crib because there Is no one to watch them. Potty training for Romanian orphans. Infants sit on containers for up to four hours each morning. the work of Christian Aid Mini stries, a special orphanage was set up to help the abandoned children. These children are picked by Christian Aid personnel and are kept in the orphanage, with the best care that the ministry can offer, until they turn 18. Brubaker himself took along “care packages” for the children in one state orphanage, which included cookies and coloring books and other items. He also brought along caps for the child ren, which really made them smile. Brubaker spoke about one boy who had not smiled at all at the orphanage. But the caregiver was “dumbfounded,” said Brubaker, when all of a sudden the child “just began to sing.” Brubaker played the song to the audience. Brubaker said that Christian Aid Ministries utilizes the majority of its donations for the people in need. Only a small percentage of the donations are used for admini strative purposes. “It’s a fabulous organization,” he said. Brubaker detailed his experi ences with the long flight over there and the living conditions he equates with this country at the turn of the century. Because of'the sudden change from communism to democracy, it will take a great deal of time for them to be able to achieve a decent standard of living. For the children of Romania, he said, “it’s a very desperate situa tion.” Many remain homeless, with nowhere to go. Out in the countryside, Brubak er said the people “are exception ally nice.” He said that the farms that are not state-run are parceled out according to individual claims. According to Brubaker, those wanting to farm have to provide proof of past ownership and even then fight it out with the local and state authorities. Once given rights to a property v usually measuring perhaps 2(f to ' 40 yards across by a half a mile to a mile long, a farmer stakes it out and begins to plow—using horse or hand-driven methods to culti vate, plant, and harvest When seed is available, some com is grown. Many grow sun flowers and try to market the seeds. Whatever they intend to grow, they must travel quite a distance, some back and forth for hours at a time. Sleeping on the field is frowned upon. The ground can produce a good crop, if treated right he said. “It has great-looking soil.” He said, in that country, there is An orphanage operated by Christian Aid Ministries raised the standard of living of many of Romania’s orphan ages a hundredfold. Jfomesteod JTotes “no sense of time." It is nothing for a fanner to travel three hours each way to work the fields. There are no televisions, radios, maga zines, or newspapers, and contact with other countries remains isolated. Brubaker slept out in the fields some nights, using nothing more than old com seed bags for pillows and covers. There is a constant wind blowing, and he used some of the seed bags to act as a windbreak. On one farm he visited, Brubak er, tired and hungry, shared the hospitality of a local farmer. In gratitude, Brubaker handed the fanner a pocket knife. The farmer hurried to clear some space on a (Turn to Pag* B 4)
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