Romanian orphans.
I was watching Nightline last night with Diane Sawyer reporting on the deplorable ways disabled orphans were/are treated in Romania. There are thousand of orphans in the many state-run institutions ranging from babies to teens in such emaciated state that it brought me to tears.
All of the children were confined to rickety metal cribs regardless of age all day with little or no human contact of any kind. The children were deathly malnourished with their sunken faces and twiglike arms and legs that could be broken in two easily.
The institution was filled with young babies and it was deadly silent. One of the workers there said that they did cry, as babies should, when they were new to the institution, but noone would come to hold them so after a while, they gave up and succumed to the zombie state rocking back and forth staring desparingly into dead space.
When these babies first came to the institution, some of them were healthy children. But with the lack of funds for food from the Romanian government and lack of staffing, their health diminished to unregconizable skeletal children with minimal clothing. Some were young teens and they couldn’t sit up or even walk. All they do is curled up into a ball in their crib just passing their hopeless lives away day by day.
For the disabled orphans, there were reports of horrible abuse as documented by the Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). Many of these disabled children have cerebral palsy and were abandoned by their parents because they were told their children were “biological garbage”. There was one case where a 17 year old girl, who looked like 5 years old and she weighs only 22 lbs. And there were children tied to their beds/cribs with sheets in full body restraints. How awfully inhumane is that?!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1945981&page=1
And the system is not getting any better, the Romanian government has planned to build more institutions but after the MDRI report was published, they’ve decided to create a special committee to investigate the institutions that shelter the disabled children.
This problem won’t be fixed overnight, but, I think, with all eyes from the world on Romania, it’d be shameful and unjust if they don’t take any actions to radicate this horrendous state their children are in.
Can we sit idly by watching this without any compassion or action? We, as Westerners, react with our wallet. And that’s not what the MDRI recommends. This is a quote from Eric Rosenthal, MDRI’s executive Director, “The European Union has a generous amount of money to provide technical assistance,” Mr. Rosenthal said “Don’t give them a blank check. Insist that that funding is linked to helping those kids. And not just nice, new, clean facilities, that won’t do — families.”
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1945981&page=3
With that said, I’d like to tip my hat off to all the families who have generously welcomed these Romanian children into their homes. You have granted these innocent children hope that they’ve lost, precious childhood that was taken from them, and most importantly, unconditional endless love that they never knew existed!!
I was watching Nightline last night with Diane Sawyer reporting on the deplorable ways disabled orphans were/are treated in Romania. There are thousand of orphans in the many state-run institutions ranging from babies to teens in such emaciated state that it brought me to tears.
All of the children were confined to rickety metal cribs regardless of age all day with little or no human contact of any kind. The children were deathly malnourished with their sunken faces and twiglike arms and legs that could be broken in two easily.
The institution was filled with young babies and it was deadly silent. One of the workers there said that they did cry, as babies should, when they were new to the institution, but noone would come to hold them so after a while, they gave up and succumed to the zombie state rocking back and forth staring desparingly into dead space.
When these babies first came to the institution, some of them were healthy children. But with the lack of funds for food from the Romanian government and lack of staffing, their health diminished to unregconizable skeletal children with minimal clothing. Some were young teens and they couldn’t sit up or even walk. All they do is curled up into a ball in their crib just passing their hopeless lives away day by day.
For the disabled orphans, there were reports of horrible abuse as documented by the Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). Many of these disabled children have cerebral palsy and were abandoned by their parents because they were told their children were “biological garbage”. There was one case where a 17 year old girl, who looked like 5 years old and she weighs only 22 lbs. And there were children tied to their beds/cribs with sheets in full body restraints. How awfully inhumane is that?!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1945981&page=1
And the system is not getting any better, the Romanian government has planned to build more institutions but after the MDRI report was published, they’ve decided to create a special committee to investigate the institutions that shelter the disabled children.
This problem won’t be fixed overnight, but, I think, with all eyes from the world on Romania, it’d be shameful and unjust if they don’t take any actions to radicate this horrendous state their children are in.
Can we sit idly by watching this without any compassion or action? We, as Westerners, react with our wallet. And that’s not what the MDRI recommends. This is a quote from Eric Rosenthal, MDRI’s executive Director, “The European Union has a generous amount of money to provide technical assistance,” Mr. Rosenthal said “Don’t give them a blank check. Insist that that funding is linked to helping those kids. And not just nice, new, clean facilities, that won’t do — families.”
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1945981&page=3
With that said, I’d like to tip my hat off to all the families who have generously welcomed these Romanian children into their homes. You have granted these innocent children hope that they’ve lost, precious childhood that was taken from them, and most importantly, unconditional endless love that they never knew existed!!
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