Câtă hârțogărie și câtă interacțiune reală cu copiii

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Dacă parcurgi rapoartele scrise din serviciile de protecție a copilului, ai impresia că se lucrează la greu cu copiii. Dar dacă vrei să surprinzi activitățile efective făcute cu ei, apar surprizele: lipsesc ieșirile în aer liber, lipsesc lucruri simple, precum mersul la frizer, sau la dentist. În acte stăm bine, toate standardele sunt în grafic. În fapt, stăm prost: copiii sunt lipiti de ecranele televizoarelor din living, prea puțin în aer liber, prea puțin incluși în activități sportive, în cluburi de aptitudini, sau  pur și simplu, de socializare. Experiențe firești, precum cumpărăturile de haine, sau pantofi - sunt rarisime, asta în cazurile fericite. E o prăpastie între textele rapoartelor și realitatea cotidiană.

Hârtiile și documentele au și ele rolul lor. Problema noastră e că, în sistemul nostru, birocrația e infinit mai importantă decât firescul vieții de zi cu zi a copiilor.

How Much Paperwork and How Much Real Interaction with Children

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If you browse the written reports in the childcare services, you would think there is a lot of activity with children. But if you want to grasp real activities involving children, you are in trouble: there are very few outdoors activities, or simple things, such as going to the dentist, or going for a haircut. We are good in papers, all standards are on course. In fact, children are stuck in front of TV sets, spending very little time out in the fresh air, and actually excluded from sports and socialization activities. Everyday experiences, such as buying clothing, or shoes - are extremely rare to find. There is a huge abyss separating the texts of reports and the everyday reality.

Papers and documents have their role, of course. Our problem is that, in our system, bureaucracy is far more important than children"s everyday life.

140 Paintings at the Children"s Arts Camp

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More than 40 children, as well as 35 painters from Maramures, Bacau, Bucharest and Arges counties came together for the Children"s Arts Camp in Hoteni. The event reached its eighth edition. The eighth year of organizing this camp, by Priest Ioan Ardelean and his wife, Luminita. Porsche Romania supports this event for the second year, and we thank them for it.

The children had a great week, with singing, painting, walking. The village is perfect for an arts camp. With its wooden church from the XVII-th century, with its wild nature, you feel like going back in time into another world. The vegetables come from the garden, the milk from the cow, the eggs - straight from the poultry in the back yard garden.

The image of an artist, next to a child, in front of the canvas and the colours - stays with me for a long time from now on.

The Youngsters Leaving the Childcare System Need Support

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An impressive 4,261 youngsters are in the childcare system in 2012, aged over 15. Another 2,181 are aged between 12 and 14. In consequence, there are 6.442 youngsters in the old-style childcare system. If we think that the overall number of children in care in old-style institutions is 8,721, then 73,86% of those in institutions are youngsters who, in the next few years, will leave the system, without real support, without the chance of real social integration. These are the data revealed by teh Audit of Social Services for Children in Romania, carried out by HHC/ARK, this year. What do the younsters get when they leave care? Nothing. No support. To real help. Once the system amputates their confidence, once the institutions destroy their childhood, once the abuse of so many kinds hurt their best years - they end up in the streets, in the hands of abusers and offenders.

A support system must be put in place. It can be done. There are models and methodologies. All we need is good will to have these applied. And then, thousands of youngsters will be able to start their lives right.