Daniela
along with her three daughters: Cristina – 12, Ramona-7 and
Paula –5 years old, lives in a rural area, at the outskirts
of the village, far away from the “civilized world”, in very
poor and improper conditions.
Their
shake- house is composed by one room and a storage space,
which is multipurpose, dark and without any comfort or
intimacy. They don’t any utilities (sewage or running water)
either. Moreover, the house is abusively built, on a piece
of land which belongs to the local authorities; therefore
there is a permanent risk of being evicted.
The
young mother makes great efforts in order to assume her
parental responsibilities; she struggles by herself to
surpass the multiple problems they face nowadays. Despite
all these, she demonstrates to be much implicated in her
daughters’ lives; she is much attached to them and wishes
for them to have a decent living and a bright future.
The
girl’s father left them right after Paula’s birth, and never
since then showed any interest in the girl’s situation.
Therefore, the mother, overwhelmed and obviously in a crisis
situation, was forced to find some inner resources to help
her deal with all the problems.
The
family’s income is discontinuous and insufficient to cover
all the family’s needs. Daniela has no stabile job; she
works only occasionally in agriculture or as a housekeeper.
But the
greatest problem of all is represented by the fact that the
mother has no valid identity documents (besides the fact
that they live illegally in that house, her former partner
left with all the documents). Hereby she couldn’t register
the girls with the local authorities at the moments of their
births, and they never could benefit from state incentives,
free medical care or education.
None
of the three girls has attended any form of school or
preschool until now; the mother tried to teach them a few
basic concepts, everything at a primary and concrete level,
but the absence of an appropriate and organized stimulation,
as well as the social skills they could have developed in
school, hallmarked the three girl’s general evolution.
Moreover, Cristina, the eldest one, presents also some
others deficiencies related her physical development.
Because she doesn’t have a birth certificate, and according
to the law in force she doesn’t exist, the mother could
never take her to a specialist for an appropriate diagnosis.
And nevertheless she seems to have certain nutritional
problems; she now weights approximately 110 kg.
The
mother is much concerned with her evolution, especially
since the youngest, Paula, seems to have the same
tendencies. She wishes that after obtaining their birth
certificates, to try to make some specialized investigations
for both of them.
From
approximately one year, this case in our attention. It was
referred to us by the local community they live in. Since
then they constantly received Family preservation
program’s specific services.
The main
demarche was made - to solve the children’s legal situation.
The procedure is however long and complex, and unfortunately
sometimes the civil judgments are delivered with errors in
the documents, and therefore become invalid. They then need
to solicit their correction, which is also a very long and
complex procedure.
We are
waiting, in the very next period, for the papers to come
out, and in
this way to obtain the girls’ birth certificates and include
them in a form of education.
Meanwhile the family received some other services too, such
as: counseling, information, guidance, follow- up,
education, access to community resources, moral and material
help consisting in food supplies, clothes, tax payments etc.
They will continue to be support until they surpass the
crisis situation.
Social worker
:Nina Negutu, Constanta
There is born a new hope
Petelea
is a village not far from Tg.Mures. There lives a family
composed by five persons: the mother who is a widow,
suffering a physical disability, and 4 daughters: Mirela, 15
years old, Livia 7 years old, and the twins Diana and Anca 3
years old.
The family
lives in a shabby house, without current water or
electricity. The mother has lots of financial difficulties
in raising her daughters, especially because the eldest ones
are attending school, with good results, and the youngest
daughters are attending kindergarten, and this implies
certain costs which the family can hardly manage. Because
the school is a priority, sometimes, the family has
difficulty in having enough food.
The house
where the family lives is much deteriorated, and puts the
family members in danger. Very often, after the girls fall
asleep, the mother is crying because she is very concerned
about the days to come. Sometimes she asks help from some
neighbors who understand the situation, but sometimes she is
too shy to talk about her pain and sorrow. The pain of the
soul is many times more difficult to face than the physical
one, caused by the seven chirurgical interventions to the
leg.
Mirela,
the eldest daughter helps the mother with the households and
she is also involved in taking care of her youngest sisters.
On the other hand, she is upset because sometimes she has to
skip school, because of the lack of money she needs for
transportation. On the other hand the youngest girls are
merry, because they cannot understand their mother’s sorrow
or their elder sister’s.
One day,
when we visited them we brought a baby doll with a baby
basket. I was very surprised when I saw the way the girls
shared the toy between them without words. When one was
playing with the doll, the other one was playing with the
basket, and then changed the toys. Even the sweets they
received they shared with each other, offering from their
part. I was profoundly impressed when seeing this,
especially because the egoism is a common characteristic for
children their age.
Our
intervention plan included material support consisting in
food supplies, clothes, toys, and school supplies. We also
offered the family sessions of counseling related with
improving skills for the management of crisis situations,
and improving parental skills. This help was welcomed, but
first the family needs a safe house. In this aspect, we
contacted some private persons who could contribute with
money necessary for building a modest, but new, and safe
house. What happened? The family has a new hope: the hope
that the goodness in people’s hearts is not over, yet.
Social worker: Mihaela
Tintesan, Mures
“Dear
Santa,
I
am in a hurry to write to you, even though there is still
plenty of time till Christmas Holidays, when we have to see
each other…I don’t see any reason to wait to write to you
and to thank you because you have already fulfilled my wish…
my only wish for this year …Do you remember it?
My name
is David and... I wrote to you, long time ago to tell
you how good I had been, that I hadn’t done too many pranks,
that I had been helping my mom to take care of my little
sister and brother …We asked you to gave our daddy back…
because he went far away, in places I do not know and where
I cannot go because I am too little…my daddy went to work in
a place where the people don’t speak our language, and they
pronounce strange words I do not understand…
I
don’t know why daddy wants to stay there alone, without us…
my little sister doesn’t even know him… daddy was not here
when she was born… my little brother also asks every day
about daddy… not even me, the eldest child, I cannot say for
sure how he looks like… but all these things doesn’t matter
anymore….
I don’t
know how you did it… but it seems you have read my letter
and you met my daddy and convinced him somehow to come home…
I have just found out that he will be back with us on
Christmas…
I thought
to write you quickly in order not to waist anymore your
precious time and come to us again… instead of going to
other children who need you more than us… although… maybe
some candies would be good… but ,better no, because our
father will bring us soon some…
Thank you
from the bottom of my heart because you brought our daddy
back to be a happy family again! I can’t wait Christmas to
come… I wish all the other children to be as happy as I am…
I love you Santa… I knew I could count on you…..”
The
child from this story is only six years old and his family
was in the evidence of Holt Romania Organization’s - Iasi
Branch. Because of the difficult material situation the
father chose to go to work abroad, in order to earn more
money to provide a better future for the children. The
mother asked for help to Holt Organization because she
couldn’t face the situation anymore and there was a risk to
abandon the children. Using counseling and material support
the social worker helped the mother to surpass the crisis
situation. In the end the father decided to come back home
to be with his family.
