The street kids of Bucharest- Teen Challenge

Trian, Leanne and I at the Constanta waterfront.

Our train arrived late (as per) and we were greeted by an American man named Ryan, who we had actually already met during the last trip, he and his wife Andrea have just moved permanently to Romania specifically to work in combatting human trafficking within Romania. They’re lovely people and had set aside their spare room for us to stay in (having just moved into an apartment in the heart of the city). 

Although they mentioned they had to do quite a lot of spring cleaning to get the place as we saw it, I really loved it, the building is quite old, and has that Eastern European carved stone architecture… although it’s in need of a bit of repair (like most buildings here)  it has some serious charm. To get to the apartment you can either take a winding marble staircase or this rickety Titanic-looking elevator where you close a few sets of metal grating doors. I dared to take the elevator with our baggage while the others walked… afterward I was shown the (outdoor) weight and cables which run the elevator… let’s just say I haven’t used it since.haha.

After settling in Leanne and I had a meeting with the directors of Teen Challenge Romania, which is an Organisation focusing on the drug addiction among the street kids and homeless. 

One of those "classy" self-made photo's.

The organisation was started by a Romanian couple who had a heart for the street kids in Bucharest, they’ve now been working in the city for 16 years. It is said there are about 100,000 kids living in sewers and abandoned buildings across Romania, with 3,000 of these in the capital Bucharest. The meeting was jam packed with information, both us were trying to get a feel for all the things they do over here, the challenges they face, the people they work with and how they need help etc. Catalin and Oltita were amazing. They spoke of how they were the only org. in Bucharest providing year round beds for the drug addicts, and have a structured recovery program for them... Romania doesn’t have any rehabilitation centres, you’re either in a Hospital for overdosing, or out, there’s no real way the average person can get medical assistance. They spoke of how readily drugs are available in the capital, and a new drug which is stronger than Heroin, cheap and has disastrous psychotic effects on the kids. 16 years ago when they started working it was mostly glue and heroin, of the thousands of kids using about 1/10 had Aids, now it’s 9/10.

In the men’s centre (ages 16-35, with the average being 22) they take in the addicts for between six months and a year, where they recover and have a schedules program, exercise, counselling and are trained in fields they are interested in to be reintegrated into society. Usually jobs like gardening, a moving business, carpentry. They also have feeding programs, provide medical treatment, and do prevention work in the high schools. 
Through all this though they find those there have difficulty with the structure and authority, many have been living on the streets, canals and sewers for most of their lives… it usually take a few visits by the street teams before someone is really ready to make the decision to give up the life they have.

Some of the country fields in Romania

Unfortunately they’ve found that the Government funding often comes with too many strings attached, and if they use their support, they have to bend their rules (like allowing the addicts to smoke, having visitors and girlfriends visiting during rehab, working around their “rights”) which really defeats what they are trying to achieve in the program. Many similar programs have failed early on for these reasons. There is also whip-lash for those who choose not to take the funding, because there is a feeling that the others are always trying to “prove [we’re] wrong”. 
Unfortunately it’s meant they’ve survived on outside funding for the last 16 years.
They’re currently trying to start small businesses to employ those who have finished the program (same old unemployment issues in Europe), they have a greenhouse of tomatoes and a removal business but are looking for other ideas or philanthropist businessmen who would be willing to help them or train others to start new businesses. 

Sadly the numbers of kids on the street are increasing, as the majority of orphanages were shut down for a poorly organised “foster child program” which has them often abused and pushed onto the streets. They hear all the time of children and people they know dying on the streets, 

Small shacks/tents can be seen from the railway tracks...

particularly in winter. Just a few weeks ago they found out 2 kids they knew were sold for drugs by their mother… she herself was a gypsy girl they met in 1996 and was in one of their centres for a while but ran away, she was “wild” they said, sadly went back to the streets involved with drugs and ended up being prostituted out. She’s now dying in hospital because her blood has been poisoned by the new drugs… they said when they visited her, her head has swollen to twice the size, the only thing which would possibly save her would be a full blood transfusion, but this won’t be “wasted” on her in the hospital.

They described how heart-breaking it was for them to see the generations and  vulnerable and yet wild children. If they have broken bones or horrific injuries they just take more drugs to numb the pain. One 12-year-old boy they found had a wound on his arm so deep the muscle had come off the bone and had started to dry, the husband Catalin took him to hospital, the first refused to see the boy because of where he’d come from, and he had to bribe the second hospital to see him. Because the boy was high and such a big drug user, the anaesthetic had no effect on him, so Catalin lay on top of him during surgery as the boy screamed and thrashed as they first had to cut away the muscle and then sew up his arm. He said there was a lot of blood, but that it had to be done because he would die from infection sooner or later. Afterward the boy just pretended nothing had happened and made fun of the doctors, then it was back to the streets. “He probably has aids by now”… Catalin said shifting his gaze out the window.

The cafe part of Bucharest.

Oltita spoke of a dream she has about creating a multi-purpose centre for the street children. The “kid’s kid’s” as they are now seeing generations born on the streets, are often ashamed of going to school, because their clothes are dirty and old, and do not have lunch. As much as the couples want their kids in school it is hard. She wants the day-centre to provide showers and clothes, lunches, help with their health issues and provide a place where they can help the children with their homework. 
I asked her about how they were received by the people they visit on the streets, she commented that because they’ve been around so long they are known and respected as they have proved they will help and don’t have hidden agendas. “They have great instincts and can spot a fake” she says, many western photographers will have bad experiences because they come and take photos, raise funds… which the homeless never see. If they visit a new area or people they take other street kids they know, to introduce them. Always in groups, and women are never alone… because “it’s very dangerous”. After telling her of how in my first trip I saw an abandoned building with the door open and poked my head in to look and take a photo when I got a really bad feeling and backed out (I saw the next day the door was shut, meaning people lived inside somewhere), she looked at me and with very serious, knowing eyes and said “BEST case scenario you’re robbed…” I trust this woman, and mentally slapped myself for being so stupid sometimes.

I asked how it was that there were orphans so young (three or four) on the streets, the answer I got really gave me an insight into what she has to deal with, and the memories she must have to live with. “The orphans often run away in groups or gangs, or brothers aged 12, 9 and 3 years old. The youngest will be sold by the elder, the middle prostituted or sold for sex, the older addicted.” This is where my brain did a little mental gag-reflex. I asked whether she meant the 3 year old was sold for illegal adoption (wishful thinking) “no, sex or organs”. 
God. What have we (humans) done.

When she talked about the children and adults it was almost as if in two minds, one was the mother, heart broken by the lost potential and young lives, the other told me of how although they’re human they’ve been in survival mode so long they have become wild, harsh, and very hard to work with… almost having lost a lot of what makes up human. Which begs the question, what does make us human? Are we any more human than those who have lost their heart and soul in the fight for survival, if we ignore what is happening or turn a blind eye to protect our 

Gypsy and Turkish suburbs.

lives of comfort, or to protect our own children? All rhetorical questions that perhaps have no answer…

That night we went out to dinner with Ryan and Andrea at a rather nice local outdoor restaurant. We heard of how they are hoping to connect and work with human trafficking shelters around Romania, the Trafficking unit in the Capital and investigate how they can best help. We heard yet another similar story of a girl they’d met and gotten close to, and who was actually pictured on a fundraising newsletter they put out before they moved over… she had a young baby last time they visited and was living on the streets, this time they saw her again without the child, when they asked she said he had been “taken”, though others who knew the word on the streets told them she had sold the child for money. The newsletter more than ever stands for the hopelessness which resides here for many children who have no say in their situation.

So, this was originally written a few days ago, but through a combination of internet connection troubles, and the fact that we were visiting a Centre for girls who have been rescued from Trafficking situations and for security/protection reasons I was told not to write about anything just yet… I have this and another to post after their completion. I’ll write up the other tonight and post hopefully tomorrow. 
Hope I didn’t worry anyone with my comment about not communicating for a while. Yes I am a bit of a risk taker, but I’m collecting experience and am getting more worldly and calculated in the risks I take. I figure many people wouldn’t come here and do the things that I and those I’m talking about are, just because of the danger. 
That’s why I think it IS important I do… because many will hear of what is actually happening out there in the world, who might not normally. Plus it’s for my own good, and hopefully will allow me to change things myself, if I find a job or something where I can be used most effectively to improve some of the things I’m talking about and seeing.

Peace and blessings,
Kendra