Broken Childhood 

I met Adriana on a beautiful July day. She was looking at me with her eyes wide open, from behind her mother’s skirt. Her look wasn’t like the other children’s: too mature for her age, too sad for a child …

I’ve asked her to tell me her name, but received no answer… the girl hided even better behind her mother’s skirt. I took then out from my purse a chocolate and gave it to her, but the sweet little girl was still hesitating to come closer. The mother insisted on her taking the chocolate. Adriana then shyly came forward and at that point I finally understood this child’s drama; she had only one hand, the second one was just a stump. This is how she was born.  

The loved ones cannot understand why precisely their child? ... Have they done something wrong?! ... Just questions without an answer. Adriana cannot unwrap her chocolate and with a pleading look, she gives it to her mother. The handicap has stole Adriana’s childhood, mutilated her soul and limited her freedom in such manner that the girl cannot do anything now without help. Her only hope remains prosthesis. However, the family’s financial situation is so poor that this possibility is almost zero.

The mother cannot work because Adriana needs permanent care and supervision, and the father is a day- labourer. In such situation, the family’s incomes ensure only the daily food and nothing more.

Everything that Holt Foundation can do at this point is to help the family with some food supplies and clothes for the little girl, as well as with looking out for a sponsor who could offer her the required prosthesis.

Life is sometimes unjust, but this is a fight which you have all the chances to win if you are strong enough, if you really wish it for and if you constantly keep the hope flame burning.

Adriana whishes to be able: to play, to embrace her loved ones and to do all those things which now only dreams of.

We, the powerful grown-ups, can make her dream come true! ...

 Social worker: Loredana TURICEANU, Constanta site

Case story – September 2007   

Fall breath of wind

Yesterday, we felt a nice fall breath of wind. Calm and warm, after a hot and effervescent summer. Emil was smiling in his mother’s arms. He was feeling well, too. Six months ago, he was a new born baby and we met him and his family. We found out that he is the sixth child in the family, and that he lives with his mother and siblings in a small, but clean house. The father recognized legally the paternity of all children, but he doesn’t live with them. He comes from time to time to visit them. The family situation was very difficult, because their income is reduced to the children’s allowances. This is far away from assuring the minimum necessary even for surviving. The mother cannot work because she has to stay with the children at home. We were very impressed by the mother’s abilities to create relationships, to identify the needs of the family, and to prioritize them in order of importance. So, we found out that she considered very important to assure the food for the children, and to renew her identity card, that was needed for obtaining Emil’s birth certificate. It was not difficult for us to help the family with some food supplies, and even with some clothes for all the children, especially for Emil that was very small, and outside was still cold. Much more difficult was the procedure related to renew the mother’s ID card, because it was not possible to obtain an ID card with an address in our town, due to the lack of a contract for the house where the family lives. So the mother needed to go in another town, in another county, and this means she needed money, and someone to take care of the children for the time she was gone. We talked with the mother in order to help her to identify solutions for her problems. She noticed she needed money for transportation, she needed someone to take care of the children, and she needed support in order to reduce as much as possible the time necessary for obtaining the ID card. We shared the responsibilities. She assumed to contact the mother and obtain her support in order to take care of the children, and we offered her money for transportation and establish a connection with the authorities which make the ID cards. As the plan was ready, the mother took action and she succeeded. She returned with the ID card. After a few days she had Emil’s birth certificate. After another few days, the family could benefit from Emil’s allowance – which is, concordant to the new law, bigger then all other five children’s allowances all together, and some more.

          Now things are calm. We accomplished our objectives. Emil and his family may enjoy the calm of the fall and go forward...

Social worker: Ada GABOR, Mures site

 Case story – September 2007   

The Princess

In her birth certificate she appears as Ancuta, but her mother calls her “the Princess”. When she calls her, her face fills with happiness. The princess is eight months old, and she is a beautiful girl, with big black curious eyes. She is much loved by her mother and her family. She and her mother are always together. But the story has another beginning.   

The princess’ story started in a Saturday at the end of January, this year. It was late in the evening. In the hall of the biggest maternity in town, the atmosphere was agitated. Over ten persons came with a pregnant woman to hospital: grandmother, aunts, friends, all of them are speaking in the same time and they want to found out if it is a girl or a boy. A little before midnight, a nurse told them the new baby born is a beautiful, big and healthy girl.

“Girl”?!

 Every one was quiet and in a few minutes in the maternity hall no one was left. The father left first. He was upset, not satisfied at all and he was reproaching with the mother that the baby was a girl and not a boy. Next day, scared and abandoned by her family, the mother left the hospital without her child.

The Princess’s mother is a sixteen years old gipsy girl. One year ago, her parents married her, after the gipsy low, with a gipsy young man, eighteen years old. The relationship between the two families was good till Princess’s birth. The young father and his family refused to accept the child because it wasn’t a boy. Soon after the mother left the child in hospital, the case was referred by the social worker from the maternity to Holt Foundation. The social worker from the hospital and the ones from the local authorities were looking for the mother, counseled her and supported her. All these great efforts had finally a happy end. The mother and the grandmother of the Princess came to take the child home.

The Princess’s story goes on. The mother and the girl have a future together....  

Social worker: Iuliana ZAGAN, Iasi site