A New Method of Working with Special Needs Children

These days, at the Hope and Homes for Children Romania headquarters, there is a "train the trainers" event, aimed at the proactive interaction with special needs children. Representatives of state authorities, as well as of other organisations, analyse the content of the "trainer"s manual", authored by Autistic Services, Inc. (ASI) in New York, together with Hope and Homes for Children Romania. I believe that this way of working is something new to Romania. The method brings a fresh vision on the way in which we should work with special needs people. We thank our partners from ASI, for the help offered in introducing this practice of work in our country. We have been partners for eight years, and the publishing of this trainer"s manual, focused on the IMPACT method, is a synthesis of our exchanges of experience and efforts over this period of time.

Once direct carers in services for people with special needs are familiar with this technique, once the IMPACT method becomes a recognised procedure, we will not see children and youngsters in straight jackets, and our perspective will be fundamentally transformed: we do not need to force those with special needs change themselves according to our routines, it is enough to accept the reality of human diversity, the reality of the differences among people. We should understand there are other ways of relating to the environment, other than our own, or the one usual to us, the so-called "normal" ones. In fact, normality is relative, and our rigidity becomes (in the absence of diversity) another form of autism and self-sufficiency.

Event for the HHC Project in Romania at the Tower of London

The event in support of our programme in Romania will take place at the Tower of London, on Wednesday, June 15, between 6.30 - 10.30 pm. A reception, a private tour of the Crown Jewels and then a viewing of the Ceremony of the Keys - are the main events for the evening. The Constable or the Tower of London, Lord Dannatt, also a Patron of our organisation, is hosting the event. The focus of the evening is on our plans to close down all old style institutions for children in Romania, by the end of 2020. We aim to attract new committments from new supporters. There will be around 80 persons, including the Romanian Ambassador in London, Princess Marina Sturdza and Trustees of some major organisations already supporting our programmes in Romania.

Unpunished Rape and Incests

It happens in a region in our country. A "father" abandons two girls in institutions, from an early stage. Then another boy, of the six children he has. Years and years later, the girls and the boy come back home. On a visit, we find out from the boy that both girls are being abused by their father. In other words, incest. We announce the social services, and they announce the police. An investigation is on track. The girls confess: the first one, that the "father" rapes her. The second, that the "father" tried to rape her on several occasions, but could not make it. The second girl is stronger. The "father" admits the facts. Then, there is a resolution: two and a half years in prison, but only on paper. The actual punishment is but a few lines on a piece of paper. That is, the "father" is free to go home. Incest, sexual abuse, rape - are unpunished. What"s next? The girls are obliged to leave home again. They are with special needs. A charity takes them in care, then they end up in an institution for adults, where they are now. No mercy, no support, no therapy.

So, we live in a country where, for incest and rape, the beasts with human faces receive suspended punishment and they are free to go home. While their victims are doomed to live on the streets. This is what they call justice. When I witness such tragedies, I feel like this is nobody"s country.

Posts are Blocked in the Childcare System

If seven people leave their jobs in the childcare system, only one can be hired in their place. This is meant to be a way of stopping the drainage of financial resources in relation to social protection all over Romania. In fact, this legal constraint has a direct, negative effect upon the quality of care the children in state care receive. Approximately 10% of the professional foster carers left their jobs as a result of the 25% cut off in their salaries, yet the social services are not legally allowed to hire new foster carers. This means the children, who got used to living in a family environment, are forced to come back to residential care, which is a serious draw-back and a psychological trauma. Yet the staff in residential services are affected as well, as a significant number of people left their jobs, due to very low salaries. This means there are very few staff working with loads of children in residential care, which translates into a very bad staff-to-children ratio: a large number of kids are in the protection of a truly small number of carers. I agree the state system should tighten up the social protection costs. However, there is a real drainage of funds when it comes to social benefits. And this huge area of money waste is not under the lens of legal decision makers. Yet the cuts are done where money is essential: at the level of the direct care of children, by suffocating the direct care system and by not allowing jobs to be filled where they are vacant.

Another discrepancy: the care standards underline the children-to-staff ratio, while the cost standards are obviously contradictory, thus invalidating them.

This is how a good measure in its essence gets to harm children: neither does it allow for exceptions, nor does it take into consideration the very substance of the social protection: its beneficiaries, that is, children in our case.

More flexibility and openness would create a way forward to preventing children from being exposed to neglect and abuse. Direct care staff have to be with the kids they are meant to protect from harm.

Every Six Hours, a Baby is Abandoned in a Maternity Ward

Yes, I know the situation is better than five years ago, when a baby was abandoned every two hours in a maternity ward in Romania. However, this is disturbing statistics and it leads to the need for social workers in maternity wards and in city hospitals, as well as the need for prevention of abandonment. It also shows the orphanages are replaced by maternity wards and hospital sections. Officially, babies under the age of two are not to be placed in institutions or residential settings, but what is a maternity unit/hospital, if not an institution? I saw how babies drink the milk from their bottles, lying down, with their heads on one side, striving to grasp the teats into their mouths. Milk pours from their lips, into their ears. This is the start of auditive problems and then illness. In addition, no eye contact is involved, so the absence of the mother-figure feeding the baby leads to attachment disorders with a dramatic impact upon babies. Carers only held them into their arms when they change their nappies. This means there is no interaction between the babies and adults, or parent-figures. In consequence, babies display autistic tendencies, or behaviour that could be interpreted as autistic.

Basically, perfectly healthy kids can be labeled as "handicapped" from such early stages, due to traumatic "care", with disastrous effects on their development.

Kids left  for months in maternity wards are abused in a most horrific way.