The most shocking reality of Ceausescu’s regime in Romania was discovery of thousands of children who were found locked away in some 600 notorious institutions. Who were these children? They were victims of Ceausescu’s policy against contraception. Romanian couples were forced to have more children and when they could not afford to raise them, they left infants in state care.

A whole generation was born and raised in appalling and shocking condition till they were rescued after fall of Ceausescu regime. Many international agencies stepped in to take care of these children. But there were thousands of them. In 1990 some 86,000 children were discovered in these institutions and figures went up to 96,000 later and shockingly even in 2005 there were some 80,000 of them. In between some 10,000 children were adopted worldwide.

At present officially there are no big orphanages in Romania. One of the conditions for joining EU was to put an end to these inhuman institutions. But where did these thousands of orphans go? Officials say some have found foster homes, some have left and become independent and some (most of them disabled) have been shifted to smaller better modern institutions. There are more than 2,000 street children in Bucharest alone according to Unicef figures. And these children are exposed to physical and sexual abuse. Infant mortality rate is also high in Romania.

Ceausescu’s regime has ended and Romania is officially a member of EU but future of Romanian abandoned children and orphans remains uncertain.

Via Vivid