CHILDREN AND DISABILITY IN ROMANIA

Co-ordinator: Filofteia Panduru National Institute of Statistics, Bucharest

MONEE Country Analytical Report 2002

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or

views of UNICEF.

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Piazza SS. Annunziata, 12 50122 Florence, Italy webs i te : www.unicef - i cdc .org

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ROMANIA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS

CHILDREN AND DISABILITY IN ROMANIA

MONEE Country Analytical Report 2002

Bucharest

- 2002 –

Authors:

PhD. Filofteia PANDURU, co-ordinator

PhD. Maria MOLNAR

Andoria IONITA

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Introduction

Romania inherited from the old regime a big number of institutionalised children, living in

inappropriate conditions for care and education: improper living space, not enough staff and

unqualified, insufficient alimentation and lack of elementary conditions for hygiene, absence of

family, community and social links. Children with disabilities had the most serious situation,

especially those with severe handicaps and AIDS.

The large number of institutionalised children was the result of coercive pro-natalist policy

promoted till 1989. This determinated, on one hand, the increase of number of unwanted children

and those born with disabilities caused by abortion attempts or use of not-healthy contraceptive

means. On the other hand, this policy encouraged birth rate in disadvantaged families, with no

financial resources to rise children, which had as consequences the increase of the number of

children suffering from malnutrition, without minimal hygiene conditions, much more exposed to

risk of illness or to be abandoned in the moments of crisis.

In the case of children with disabilities, especially those with severe handicap and special care

needs, of dystrophic children or children suffering chronic illnesses, hospitalisation in special

assistance institutions was also determinated by the fact that families hadn’t any special financial

support, meant to allow them to cover the additional expenditures for children’s with special needs

health care or to compensate them for income loss caused by the fact that mother couldn’t have a

job because she had to take care for these special children. The only consistent way of protection for

the children with disabilities was special education. The special education units included residential

care institutions, boarding school type, for children whose families had residence in other localities.

Thus, a big number of children with disabilities were living in an institutionalised framework.

In the eighties, living conditions of population deteriorated seriously, which leaded to the increase

of parents abandoning their children or leaving them in the state care institutions. In the same time,

the generalised state of deprivations (caused, mainly, by the efforts made for external debt payment

and to maintain functioning a not-efficient production system) affected social assistance institutions

also, leading the care conditions in some institutions in the situation of misery.

Obviously, after the change of political regime, the State got involved actively, through its

organisations (Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, Ministry of Health and Ministry of

Education, especially) in the living conditions improvement in child protection units. The non-

governmental institutions, the involvement of international bodies and humanitarian help gave by

many private organisations from abroad played an important role in this action.

In 1992, the State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons (SSHP) was established, state body

responsible for special protection of persons with handicap – adults and children, institutionalised or

not - and a Law regarding special protection of persons with handicap was adopted. According to

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this Law, not institutionalised children with disabilities and those in social assistance units entered

under protection of State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons. Children in special education

remained in the responsibility of Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health was responsible

for the children hospitalised in hospital’s departments for recovering dystrophic persons, neuro-

psychological recover and for children with HIV/AIDS.

Since 1997, the Romanian Government has started an ample reform program for protection of

children in difficult situations. This program includes also measures for protection of children with

special needs, these children being a target group for reform. The main trends of reform imply the

decentralisation of the childcare system, the decrease of number of institutionalised children and

priority for the protection in family.

According to the Government’s Emergency Ordinance no. 26/1997 regarding protection of children

in difficulty (approved by the law no. 108/ 1998) and Government’s Emergency Ordinance

no.192/1999 regarding the establishment of National Agency for Protection of Child Rights and re-

organisation of child protection activities, between 1998-2000, large process of creation of a new

structure for the institutional system of childcare took place:

� at the counties’ level, the bodies meant to decide the protection measures and to assure

the appropriate application of these measures were established, subordinated to the

County Councils (the commission for child protection and specialised public service);

� the transfer of institutions for children between birth and three years old (called

“leagane”), institutions for children between three and eighteen years old (usually known

as “case de copii”) and centres for receiving under-aged under the responsibility of

specialised services and re-organisation of these units in placement centres and centres

for receiving children;

� the transfer under the responsibility of specialised public services of:

- institutions for special protection of persons with handicap, which assured care,

assistance and rehabilitation of children with handicap;

- units or hospital departments for rehabilitation of dystrophic persons, neuro-

psychological recover or for persons with HIV/AIDS;

- special education units taking care of children in residential regime.

� establishment of National Agency for Protection of Child Rights, body of central public

administration, having as main responsibility the co-ordination at national level of

policies in the field of reforming the system of services and institutions which assure the

promotion of child rights, care and protection of children in difficulty and children with

handicap.

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The Romanian Government is strongly engaged to continue child protection reform, considering

that “to assure and to respect the children rights and to place them in a special position of interest

is a national priority”. The special attention given to the problems related to children protection

comes from understanding the importance of the children development for country’s future, from

the decision to apply the stipulations of UN Convention of child rights, ratified by Romania in

1990, and from the necessity to respect Copenhagen political criterion in preparation process to join

the European Union.

The governmental strategy for protection of children in difficulty between 2001-2004 is based on

the following principles:

- principle of best interests of the child;

- principle of non-discrimination and equal opportunities;

- principle of securing a family environment;

- principle of decentralisation and of making the community responsible for their children;

- principle of solidarity;

- principle of inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary intervention;

- principle of partnership.

Main target groups of the strategy are:

� institutionalised children;

� children protected in families, both their own families (in order to reduce the risk of

abandonment) as well as in substitute families or alternative family-type services;

� children who are maltreated, neglected or abused in their own family;

� children with special needs and children with HIV/AIDS hosted in institutions or in

alternative family-type forms of protection;

� delinquent children;

� street children;

� children/young people coming of age during their long-term institutionalisation.

The general directions of the reform process in the system of child protection are the following:

� preventing and reducing the abandonment of children by their own parents;

� restructuring the existing residential care institutions, including services for children with

deficiencies or disabilities, reorienting the use of their financial, material, human and technical

resources towards the organisation and diversification of alternative services to residential

protection and reducing the number of institutionalised children (particularly in the case of

institutionalisation for long or indefinite terms);

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� improving, completing and harmonising the legislative framework required for the organisation

and operation of the system for child protection, both in order to improve and clarify that

framework and to bring it in line with the standards stipulated in the international norms and

treaties in the field to which Romania is party;

� promoting adoption as a special measure for child protection, with a special emphasis on

encouraging national adoption;

� continuing the decentralisation of the system from the county to the local level;

� improving financial mechanisms;

� improving the system of minimum mandatory standards, as well as professional and

administrative-institutional norms;

� creating a national accreditation and monitoring system at national level for non-governmental

organisations operating in the field of children’s rights protection;

� developing and improving the professional level of human resources involved in the system of

child protection;

� creating and developing a national system of monitoring and assessment of the situation of

children in difficulty or at risk, the activity of the services and institutions for child care and

protection, including the use of financial resources allocated.

As a result of the reform measures implemented till now, all institutions and child protection

services were transferred to local communities, to the counties’ councils and the National Authority

for Child Protection and Adoption (NACPA) became responsible for the co-ordination of all

protection activities at the national level. NACPA was created in 2001 (by virtue of Government’s

Emergency Ordinance no.12/2001), taking the responsibilities of National Agency for Protection of

Child Rights.

Regarding children with disabilities, the whole sphere of problems related to their protection was

transferred from the State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons to county councils and under

NACPA co-ordination. The reform of special protection of children with disabilities is a component

of whole reform of the protection system for children in difficulty, having as objective these

children’s integration into their community also. Related to this aspect, the Ministry of Education

and Research is carrying-out a large process of special education’s restructuring, to orient it toward

integrated education and integration of children with disabilities in the ordinary education and the

preparation of public school to become inclusive.

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1. Who are children with disabilities?

Problems related to protection of children with disabilities, in all its complexity, became relatively

recent a concern for decision makers in social politics, and responsibility for reform’s conceiving

and co-ordination in this field (intrinsic component of the reform of child in difficulty protection)

relapsed only in last years to a single institution (National Authority for Child Protection and

Adoption). In these conditions, there were not systematic concerns to tune up an informational

system that allows to know the number and structure of this category of children, to analyse the

trends of this indicator. Moreover, even after the children with disabilities became one of the main

target groups of the reform of protection system for child in difficulty, the information referring to

dimension and structure of this group became difficult to collect and especially to aggregate,

considering the important changes, carried-out continuously in the protection system.

The available information is fragmented, referring only to one or another category of children with

disabilities (those who were the object of some social protection policies, under the responsibility of

one or another institution), and to different moments or periods (that periods in which different

categories became the object of some special concerns or of some analyses and reports intended for

policy substantiation in this field).

The only information referring an important and large category of children with disabilities, that

offers possibility to analyse their evolution, is that regarding the number of children enrolled in

special education. Obviously, this information don’t cover children with disabilities younger than

the age needed to be enrolled in pre-school education, and older children, institutionalised or not,

not-enrolled in education or a part of children with disabilities enrolled in ordinary education.

Data show the annually increase of number of children enrolled in special education, thus, in school

year 1996/1997 this was by 23.8% higher than the level recorded in 1990/1991. The increase could

be determinate, partly, by attending the school age of a big number of children with disabilities. The

increase is related mainly by the augmentation of possibilities to attend special education units, due

to the extension of units framework, a more active policy to include children with disabilities in

educational system that is a result of institutionalisation the protection policy of persons with

handicap (due to the issue in 1992 of the first law referring to the special protection of persons with

handicap and establishment of State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons).

In recent years, in stead, the decrease of number of children enrolled in special education shows the

policy for children’s with disabilities integration in ordinary education.

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Table 1 Evolution of number of children enrolled in special education

Total pupils

1990/1991 44705 1991/1992 45657 1992/1993 47240 1993/1994 48930 1994/1995 52349 1995/1996 54717 1996/1997 55326 1997/1998 54952 1998/1999 55237 1999/2000 53510 2000/2001 50826 2001/2002 45470

About the age structure of children in special education, it can be noted the high share of children

between 11-14 years old (38.9% in 1995/1996 and 40.7% in 2000/2001), and 15 years old or more

(36.0% and respectively 41.9%), differed from 7-10 years group (20.2% and respectively 12.7%)

and 3-6 years group (4.9% and respectively 4.7%). This distribution was determinate, mainly, by

the fact the age when children with disabilities start school is higher than the normal one especially

for those children who must go to school in onother locality and to leave in this way theirs families;

also. A part of children enrolled after 1990 were children not-included in education, even if they

had an age much more higher than normal age for enterring in educational system.

The number of girls included in special education is considerably smaller than the boys’ number,

the girls representing only 40% from total enrolled children, mainly due to the lower frequency of

girls in vocational education, but also in primary and secondary education.

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Table 2 Number of children enrolled in special education, by age groups

Total from which: 3–6 years 7–10 years 11–14 years 15 years or

more

Total children

1995/1996 54717 2694 11043 21278 19702 1996/1997 55326 2901 11278 21527 19620 1997/1998 54952 2556 10744 21619 20033 1998/1999 55237 2857 9710 22604 20066 1999/2000 53510 2769 8556 22513 19672 2000/2001 50826 2681 7188 21185 19772 2001/2002 45470 2155 5760 18520 19035

from which: girls

1995/1996 21889 1286 4588 8286 7729 1996/1997 22018 1399 4603 8144 7872 1997/1998 21826 1152 4338 8406 7930 1998/1999 21952 1289 3961 8887 7815 1999/2000 21343 1293 3443 8652 7955 2000/2001 20162 1244 2862 8279 7777 2001/2002 18033 1000 2314 7294 7425

The greatest part of children attending primary and secondary special education, are enrolled in

special schools or school-type hostels for mentally ill persons: theirs share was 87.8% in 1995/1996

and 79.7% in 2001/2002.

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Table 3 Children in primary and secondary special education, by school types

1995/ 1996

1996/ 1997

1997/ 1998

1998/ 1999

1999/ 2000

2000/ 2001

2001/ 2002

Total 36362 36704 36953 37423 36729 34805 30497

Special schools (mentally ill persons) 28724 28730 28448 28778 28798 27418 23378

Special schools for eye problems 1064 1138 1129 1103 882 910 893

Special schools for hearing problems 2242 2202 2151 2067 1788 1687 1695

Schools for persons with moving problems or behaviour problems, centres for curative pedagogy and special therapy

1147

1251

1623

1811

907

990

1339

Special school centres - - - - 662 1065 866

Centres for special education - - - - 468 165 121

School-type hostels (mentally ill persons) 3185 3383 3601 3664 2318 1280 926

Special classes integrated in ordinary education - - - - 906 1290 1279

The children protected in special protection institutions for children with disabilities represents a

category of children with disabilities, much more smaller as dimension and coverage, for which

there are time series for a longer period of time. These children are only a part of institutionalised

children, the others children with disabilities, protected in other units, were not the object of distinct

statistical evidence, being recorded together with other children in that protection institutions

(orphanages and nurseries in the old system).

More rich and comprehensive information was collected by Census of children/young persons

placed in protection institutions in Romania, May 19, 1997. The census’s program included a

question about the main reason of children’s placement in institutions, allowing identification of

those who live there because disabilities (mental, sensorial, moving problems or multiple ones), and

for medical reasons (HIV/AIDS, severe malformations, dystrophy).

According to census’s results, out of total 98872 children in protection institutions and special

education, 55728 (56.4%) came there because theirs disabilities, from which: 44406 (44.9%)

because mental disabilities, 5784 (5.8%) because sensorial disabilities, 1562 (1.6%) because

moving problems and 3976 (4.0%) because some multiple disabilities. The number of

institutionalised or enrolled in special education children because medical reasons was 994 (1%),

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from which: 377 of them having HIV/AIDS, 194 having severe malformations and 423 of them

being dystrophic.

From the total number of children accommodated in protection institutions or enrolled in special

education because disabilities or medical reasons, 33203 (58.5%) were boys and 23519 (41.5%)

girls.

Table 4 Children in protection institutions and in special education

because disabilities or medical reasons May 19, 1997

Boys Girls Placement reason Total children

as % of total

as % of total boys

as % of total girls

Total 56722 100.0 33203 100.0 23519 100.0

Disabilities 55728 98.2 32658 98.4 23070 98.1

- mental 44406 78.3 26610 80.1 17796 75.7

- sensorial 5784 10.2 3226 9.7 2558 10.9

- moving problems 1562 2.8 672 2.0 890 3.8

- multiple 3976 7.0 2150 6.5 1826 7.8

Medical reasons 994 1.8 545 1.6 449 1.9

- HIV/AIDS 377 0.7 208 0.6 169 0.7

- severe malformations 194 0.3 101 0.3 93 0.4

- dystrophy 423 0.7 236 0.7 187 0.8

Source: DCP – EU/Phare, Childhood Protection Program, Census of children/young persons in protection institutions in Romania. May 19, 1997, volume1. The results summary, Bucharest, October 1997.

Not even the information obtained with this census don’t cover all children with disabilities:

information on not-institutionalised and not-enrolled in special education children with disabilities

and on children with disabilities enrolled in ordinary education doesn’t exist.

A source of information about evolution of number of not-institutionalised children with disabilities

are data regarding children who benefit state allowance for children with disabilities, which are

accounted by State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons.

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Table 5 Number of children who benefit of state allowance for children with disabilities

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Beneficiaries (at the end of year)

7117 28412

43172

55566

61364

49224

51178

49536

54747

The evolution of persons who are beneficiary of state allowance for children with disabilities shows

in a small extent the evolution of number of not-institutionalised children with disabilities. The

increase in the first years (1994-1997) was determinate by the system development, by progressive

increase of the legitimate beneficiaries, while the criterion used in establishment of a handicap’s

existence were more generous; the decrease recorded in 1998 was result of children’s re-evaluation

and use of more rigorous criterion in handicap’s evaluation. Only in following years, the increase of

beneficiaries’ number was due to decrease of institutionalised children, to integration of one part of

them in the natural, substitutive or adoptive family.

Data coming from National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption, regarding the number of

children with disabilities protected in placement centres of specialised public services, and data

from State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons, regarding number of children who remained in

special protection units for persons with disabilities under SSHP’s responsibility and number of not-

institutionalised children with handicap in July 2002, allow a more comprehensive estimation of

total number of children with disabilities. In July 2002 this number was 74130 children, from which

164641 are institutionalised - in placement centres of specialised public services (15431 children)

and in care and recovery centres in SSHP’s subordination (1033 children) - and 57666 are not-

institutionalised.

According to the structure by types of handicap of children in placement centres, the most are the

children with mental disability (81,8% of total number of children). 9.6% of children have hearing

problems or can’t speak and hear, 4.8% are blind, 2.9% of them suffer a neuro-motor disability, the

rest 0.9% has other types of disabilities. Children in centres under the SSHP’s responsibility are

affected, mostly by a mental handicap (30.8%), a neuro-psychic one (37.8%) and an associate

1 The number of children in placement centres of specialised public services is affected by the fact that July is a holiday month, and only a part of children which live in boarding school type centres were reported to attain to these centres. In September 2002, the number of children in public placement centres was 20995.

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handicap (27.2%). 62.5% from these children have a severe handicap, 24.4% a pronounced one and

13.1% suffer a medium handicap.

Not-institutionalised children are distributed according to type of handicap in the following way:

physic – 18.5%; somatic – 12.9%; hearing problems – 4.4%; visual – 8.8%; mental – 25.7%; neuro-

psychic – 15.7%; associated problems – 8.8%; HIV/AIDS – 4.0% and rare illnesses – 1.2%. Out of

total 47.2% suffer a severe handicap, 27.2% suffer a pronounced handicap and 25.6% of them have

a medium handicap.

2. Government responsibilities for children with disabilities

Romanian Government believes that life, development and wealth of this country’s children

represent a fundamental responsibility of the entire Romanian society, and unifying all efforts for

the improvement of children’s situation can represent a model of national understanding and co-

operation2.

The reform of protection system for children in difficulty is based on the belief that responsibility to

assure protection and assistance for his rights’ exertion by children in difficulty is incumbent,

mainly, on the local community in which they live in. The State has the responsibility to create the

necessary legal and administrative framework, to establish norms and standards regarding

protection conditions, services’ quality and activities of the institutions involved, monitoring and

control of all protection activities. This implies also the task to elaborate the general concept of

reform in this field and to co-ordinate and control its implementation. The Government’s

Emergency Ordinance regarding protection of child in difficulty specifies the State ensures child

protection and helps local community to fulfil the duties related to the protection of the child in

difficulty3.

♦ National Authority for the Child Protection and Adoption

Established by virtue of Government’s Emergency Ordinance no.12/2001, National Authority for

the Child Protection and Adoption (NACPA) is Government’s specialised body providing the

methodological co-ordination for child protection activities, whose main responsibility is to draft,

co-ordinate and monitor the policies in this field.

NACPA was assigned with the functions of strategy, management, representation and state

authority, which means it assures:

� establishment and application of reform programs in the field of child protection and adoption;

2 Government of Romania, “Chance for innocence”, Review of Progress for Institutionalised Children in Romania, Bucharest, 2002. 3 Government Ordinance no. 26/1997 regarding protection of the child in difficulty.

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� establishment of institutional framework in order to accomplish the tasks and programs;

� administration of public and private state property and organisation of the public services

related to the protection of the child in difficulty;

� representation in internal and international relations, in the name of Romanian state;

� monitor application and controlling the way in which the rules in this field are respected,

controlling of activities carried-out by institutions and bodies subordinated to it or under its

authority4.

A State Secretary leads NACPA, which is also the president of Romanian Committee for

Adoptions. With the State Secretary a Co-ordination Committee is working, with a consultative

role, its members being representatives of ministries and other agencies of public administration

with responsibilities in the reform, representatives of local public administration and a person from

Federation of non-governmental organisations working in child protection field.

NACPA sustains the child protection activities and the reform in this field by programs of national

interest. Its represent modalities in which state budget resources are used to co-finance the activities

carried-out at local level by specialised public services for child protection or authorised private

bodies. Its are:

� programs to implement the reform of protection services and institutions (investments for

development, diversification, restructuring and well functioning of protection services and

institutions; training of the staff; studies, researches and publications in this domain etc.);

� emergency programs to cope some crisis situations and to assure the adequate functioning of the

protection system.

Some of the programs of national interest in progress between 2001-2004 endorse the protection of

children with special needs:

� the program to promote the protection of handicapped children or children with HIV/AIDS in

difficult situations in families of professional maternal assistants;

� the program of shutting-down of obsolete institutions for children with handicap (with special

needs) that cannot be restructured / rehabilitated; the program develops support services for the

families taking in children with special needs;

� the training program for the human resources in the child protection domain, including training

of maternal assistants for children with handicap.

In order to apply the reform measures for the protection of children in difficulty and to correlate

these with measures promoted in other domains of social policy, NACPA collaborates with

Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Health and Family and Ministry of Internal

4 Governmental strategy in the field of child protection (2001-2004).

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Affairs; also with Romanian Orthodox Church and other churches officially recognised on the

country’s territory, and with civil society, especially with non-governmental organisations.

The protection of child in difficulty, implicit the situation improvement of child with disabilities, is

the subject of some partnerships with international community, which gives financial and technical

assistance for Romania in this field:

� UNICEF, through its numerous projects regarding the improvement of the children situation,

both from the social point of view and children’s health and education point of view, and in

present sustaining the governmental reform strategy (in virtue of the Memorandum established

between UNICEF and NACPA); UNICEF has in progress some projects regarding the

elaboration of minimal compulsory standards in the case of services for the handicapped

children and the methodological framework of children’s with disabilities evaluation, evaluation

of the children in hospital-hostels and financial and technical assistance to implement the

strategy of shutting-down these old institutions;

� the European Union, through PHARE programs for assistance in shutting-down old-type

institutions and development of the alternative protection services, for promoting an public

awareness campaign oriented toward the prevention of child abandonment, assistance offered

for NACPA to strengthen its institutional capacity;

� the World Bank and Bank for Development of the Council of Europe, through the credits given

for investments necessary in the reform, in the Project regarding the reform of the child

protection system;

� USA administration (through USAID) and governments of United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern Ireland (through the Department for International Development), France, Spain,

Sweden and Switzerland, in bi- and multilateral financial programs for the closure of big

residential institutions and the development of alternative protection services, of technical

assistance in standards’ elaboration and staff training for child protection.

♦ Public local administration institutions

The establishment of protection measures for children in difficulty and assurance of the proper

applying of these measures is the responsibility of Counties Councils, the presidents of these bodies

co-ordinate, monitor and respond of the activity regarding protection of the county’s children. The

commission for child protection and the specialised public service for child protection are

specialised bodies organised at the county’s level that assure the exertion of these attributions.

The commission for child protection has decisional attributions in the field of child protection: it

establishes the protection measures for the child in difficulty, co-ordinates the activity of the local

authorities of public administration in administrative-territorial units of the county in the field of

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tutelary authority and child protection, authorises Romanian nationality private bodies which

develop activities related to protection of child rights on the county’s territory. As regards the

children with disabilities, the commission makes the evaluation of difficulty type in order to

establish the degree of handicap and elaborates recuperation program for each child with handicap.

In the reform’s context, in order to restructure the institutions of special protection of the children

with special needs, the commission makes the evaluation and establishes programs for recuperation

and protection of each institutionalised child with handicap. The psycho-socio-medical evaluation

of children in special schools is also a commission’s attribution. It elaborates also recommendations

referring to the possibility and the way these children could be integrated in the ordinary education

system.

The specialised public service for child protection makes the evaluation of social and juridical

situation of the child in difficulty, suggests to commission the protection measures and assures these

measures’ enforcement. The institutions taking care of children in a residential system and

alternative services sustained and developed by local public administration authorities are organised

inside the specialised public service.

The expenditures for protection of child in difficulty, including those for caring the children in

residential system, are financed by the local budget of the county council or by extra-budgetary

resources, from funds transferred from the state budget (available for NACPA) to sustain national

programs or from credits.

3. Institutional and public care of children with disabilities

As the most children in Romania, the children with disabilities are the parents’ responsibility, the

natural family takes care of them with love and often with big difficulties and sacrifices. However,

there are families which don’t cope with the difficulties related to children’s raising, particularly

those required for taking care of children with special needs and there are also some parents which

don’t assume the responsibility of these children, abandoning them. In communist regime, the

protection of these children in double difficulty was State’s responsibility, being organised in an

institutional system, mainly in specialised institutions for assistance of children with disabilities.

Another component of the protection system for children with disabilities had as objective these

children’s education, assured by special education’s development. The number of special schools

was relatively small, because the education network was specialised by types of handicap and

organised in big units, and the units were located mainly at county level. So, a big part of children

educated in special schools were accommodated in boarding school-type institutions, being present

in theirs families only in holidays or weekends.

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This type of assistance has remained predominant in the protection system in first years after the

change of political regime, and still has some influences on the system’s structure. In fact, to

restructure this institutional system is one of the most difficult and expensive component of reform.

3.1. The old protection system

In the period preceding reform of the protection system for child in difficulty, the children with

disabilities were protected in the following types of institutions:

� Specialised units for under-aged with disabilities (hospital-type hostels for under-aged

with severe handicap; workshop-type hostels for under-aged; school-type hostels for

persons with disabilities), re-organised under the co-ordination of State Secretariat for

Handicapped Persons in recovery and rehabilitation centres for children with handicap,

pilot centres for young persons with handicap and centres of occupational therapy for

young persons with handicap;

� Orphanages with school for children with disabilities, subordinated to Ministry of

Education;

� Residential-type units inside special schools (full or partial boarding schools), also

subordinated to Ministry of Education;

� Hospitals or hospitals’ departments for recovery and neuro-psychiatric rehabilitation of

dystrophic persons or for persons with HIV/AIDS (subordinated to Ministry of Health),

in which both children temporarily hospitalised and children abandoned by theirs parents

were under these units’ care.

Statistical data related to number of children with disabilities these institutions take care of are

incomplete, fragmented and offer the possibility to analyse trends only for a part of them.

A picture of those children with disabilities which are in public care can be obtain from the census

of children situated in care institutions (May 1997). According to it, the number of children in

public care because theirs disabilities or medical reasons was 15495, represented 27.9% from the

total number of children in public care. More than a half of these children (51.9%) were cared in

specialised institutions for protection of children with disabilities (hospital-type, workshop-type

hostels and school-type hostels), 41.1% of them were in nurseries, orphanages with or without

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school and centres for receiving under-aged persons, and 7% were situated in other types of

institutions (including hospitals or hospitals’ departments)5.

Table 6

Children in public care because of disabilities or medical reasons (May 19, 1997)

from which: Total children in public care

because of deficiencies

for medical reasons

for social or economic reasons

for other

reasons

Total 55494 14693 802 39243 756

� Specialised institutions for children with disabilities:

- hospital-type hostels

- school-type hostels

- workshop-type hostels

8162

4473

2750

939

7947

4303

2729

915

91

71

20

-

124

99

1

24

-

-

-

-

� Other public care institutions

- nurseries

- orphanages without school

- orphanages with school

- centres for receiving children

44853

9309

23132

12033

379

5722

211

818

4686

7

649

495

138

15

1

37734

8399

22014

7146

175

748

204

162

186

196

� Other types of institutions 2439 1024 62 1345 8

Source: DCP – EU/Phare, Childhood Protection Program, Census of children/young persons from care institutions in Romania. May 19, 1997, volume 1. Results summary, Bucharest, October 1997.

At the census moment, there were 54 specialised institutions for protection of children with

disabilities, out of which 33 were hospital-type hostels, 15 school-type hostels and 6 workshop-type

hostels. 27 orphanages with school intended for children with special needs must be added at this

total.

5 The census results don’t offer the possibility to estimate the number of children protected, in

boarding schools of special schools, so that the picture of number of institutionalised children is

incomplete. However, taking into account these children represented more than half of the number

of people in special schools, we can appreciate that, in the census’s moment, the number of

institutionalised children with disabilities outnumbered 40 thousand, and the total number of

institutionalised children was bigger than 80 thousand.

19

The census results show the big dimension of these institutions: only 14 out of 54 specialised units

had the capacity smaller than 100 places, and 7 units outnumbered 300 places.

Statistical information regarding evolution of number of institutionalised children with disabilities

is available, in conditions of comparability, only for children protected in institutions specialised for

children with disabilities.

Table 7 Children in institutions specialised for children with disabilities

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

Total 6919

8022

8125

8116

7627

7809

7349

7238

6129

5473

3889

3753

� Centres for care and assistance and centres for recovery and rehabilitation for under-aged with handicap (hospital-type hostels)

3354

3617

4204

4349

3940

4586

4180

4331

3484

3160

3050

3188

� Centres of integration by occupational therapy (workshop-type hostels) 594

1073

1020 960 678 360 449 50 36 26 38 35

� School-type hostels

2971

3332

2901

2807

3009

2863

2720

2857

2609

2287 801 530

Statistical data regarding special education offer, also, an image on the evolution of number of

protected children with disabilities, because a big part of them are protected in residential regime.

They are mainly in parents’ responsibility, spend holidays and weekends in family. They are not in

public care.

Special education was organised for all levels of educational system – from pre-school to post high

school – in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools (first four classes or first eight classes),

vocational schools, high schools and post high schools, and special schools centres. The school

units were specialised depending on the type of handicap. Primary and secondary education was

carried-out in special schools for children with eyes, hearing or moving problems, in special schools

for children with behaviour problems, and in special schools or specialised units like school-type

20

hostels for children with mental disabilities. As already has been mentioned, the schools units had

also full or partial boarding schools.

Data show the increase of special education units’ number between 1991-1998, by extending both

special pre-school education and primary and secondary education, vocational education also, in

order to bring closer the school to children’s domicile locality and to include in the system all

children with special educational needs.

Table 8 School units in special education

Total Pre-school education

Primary and

secondary education

High school

education

Vocational education

Post high school

education

1990/1991 204 34 136 6 27 1

1991/1992 210 34 138 4 33 1

1992/1993 219 36 141 5 36 1

1993/1994 231 38 146 4 42 1

1994/1995 263 40 164 6 52 1

1995/1996 278 42 168 6 61 1

1996/1997 288 47 167 6 65 3

1997/1998 279 51 165 4 56 3

1998/1999 305 67 170 5 59 4

1999/2000 268 60 166 7 34 1

2000/2001 230 31 160 9 30 -

2001/2002 219 26 151 8 34 -

School units had big capacity. According to census’s results of children protected in institutions, in

1997 only 5% of special primary and secondary schools had a capacity smaller than 100 places,

20% of its had over 300 places; more than 65% of special vocational schools outnumbered 300

places.

The number of pupils in special schools recorded also an increase between 1991-1998, for all

educational types, mainly because the increase of enrolment degree in educational system of

children with special educational needs, and due to inertial development of the system built on the

principle of separation of children with special educational needs.

21

Table 9 Pupils enrolled in special education

Total Pre-school education

Primary and

secondary education

High school

education

Vocational education

Post high school

education

1990/1991 44705 2155 29652 510 12340 48

1991/1992 45657 2041 30365 544 12631 76

1992/1993 47240 2233 31670 564 12703 70

1993/1994 48930 2114 33085 865 12797 69

1994/1995 52349 2741 35358 713 13461 76

1995/1996 54717 2578 36362 742 14919 116

1996/1997 55326 2853 36704 772 14860 167

1997/1998 54952 2519 36953 758 14553 169

1998/1999 55237 2807 37423 733 13976 298

1999/2000 53510 2725 36729 680 13142 234

2000/2001 50826 2681 34805 685 12468 187

2001/2002 45470 2108 30497 1078 11562 225

3.2. Reforming institutional and public care

The reform of protection system of child in difficulty endorses the change of institutional protection

system for children with disabilities, including educational system of these children.

The main reform directions concern the decrease of number of institutionalised children,

restructuring residential-type institutions and development of alternative protection forms and

services, the increase of care’s quality in institutions and restructuring special education system,

especially in order to integrate disabled pupils in ordinary education.

Decrease of the number of institutionalised children is an objective carried-out through programs

for abandon’s prevention, for child’s re-integration in natural family or adoption, and child

integration in a substitutive family by placement/ entrustment for adoption at relatives, in other

families or persons or by child’s placement in the responsibility of a maternal assistant.

Integration process of children in adoptive or substitutive families is a difficult one, because the

general living standard is low, so that few families can afford to take the responsibility to raise and

take care of a child, and especially a child with disabilities. The level of state allowances for

children and allowances paid for familial placement is low compared with expenditures involved by

a child’s care and education. For all that, the total number of children in placement or entrusted for

22

adoption to relatives or other families increased significantly in the last years (from 20670 at the

end of 1999 to 31126 in July 2002), most of them being cared in relatives’ families (78.3% in July

2002).

The reform program includes measures for developing a network of professional maternal

assistants, a special attention being given for training those assistants specialised in taking care of

children with handicap and special needs. Maternal assistants are employees of specialised public

services and of private bodies authorised to carry-out activities in the field of child protection. In

July 2002, the total number of children cared by maternal assistants employed by specialised public

services was 9475, and number of those children in the responsibility of assistants employed by

private authorised bodies was 4846. The number of maternal assistants employed by public services

was 7825.

Regarding the institutions which take care of children with special needs, the reform programs are

oriented towards shutting-down those units that can’t be rehabilitated and the restructuring, in

stages, of the units transferred to public specialised services from the State Secretariat for

Handicapped Persons, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education in:

- residential-type placement centres for children with handicap;

- day-care centres and recovery centres for children with handicap;

- other services for care, recovery and protection for children with handicap.

Another reform’s objective is the improvement of childcare quality in institutions, generally of

services intended for children. To fulfil this objective, minimum quality standards, professional and

administrative-institutional norms were elaborated. These standards require the activity carried-out

in placement centres to be organised based on principle of individual intervention, which means the

complex evaluation of child with disabilities, of her/his recovery potential and establishment of an

individual plan for recovery, familial and social integration of each child. According to these

standards, the services intended for children in placement centres don’t refer only to living

conditions (housing and food) and care. Its involve education and leisure time activities also,

integration/ re-integration in family and socialisation, promoting access to information and

possibility of free expression of opinion. The protection of child with disabilities in placement

centres constitutes the object of a multi-disciplinary team, the orientation towards changing the

medical character of the services offered to these children being a priority direction of modifying

the way in which activities in placement centres are carried-out.

Restructuring of residential institutions for child protection into family-type centres or day-care

centres for care and recovery of the child with handicap represents a difficult process, long timely

6 At the end of 1999, the number of these children was 2150 and 908 respectively.

23

and very expensive. Restructuring presumes investments for buildings’ rehabilitation and

endowment with furniture and necessary equipment, and staff training, carried-out in the same time

with the current expenditures needed for childcare in these institutions.

The first step in deployment of restructuring process was the transfer of protection units of children

with disabilities from the sub-ordination of State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons, Ministry of

Health and Ministry of Education in administration of specialised public services, where its function

mainly as placement centres. Between 1997-1998, the orphanages with school specialised in

protection of children with handicap were transferred. In 2000-2001 specialised units for under-

aged with disabilities in SSHP’s responsibility, residential-type units inside special schools

subordinated to Ministry of Education and hospitals or hospitals’ departments for recovery and

neuro-psychiatric rehabilitation of dystrophic persons or for persons with HIV/AIDS (subordinated

to Ministry of Health) were transferred.

Ulterior, 37 old type institutions were closed7, 31 institutions were restructured at module level and

23 family-type centres were created.

In September 2002, the number of public placement centres for children with disabilities being in

the responsibility of specialised public services was 225, from which 132 placement centres

accommodate, during the school year, the children in special education, the others being institutions

that assure public care. Three quarters of those 225 placement centres are classic ones (76%), 13.8%

are centres restructured on module level and 10.2% are family-type centres. 32.4% of total number

of placement centres accommodate up to 50 children (from which only 6.2% up to 10 children),

29.3% have between 51 and 100 children, 29.8% have between 101 and 200 children, and 8.4%

have over 200 children. Placement centres in specialised public services’ responsibility

accommodated 20995 children, from which 15375 were in boarding school-type placement centres,

and 5620 children represent those permanently living in placement centres, which means in public

care.

A small part of children protected in special institutions for children with disabilities remained in

institutions situated in sub-ordination of State Secretariat for Handicapped Persons, being assisted

in childcare centres for children and adults with handicap and in centres for recovery and

rehabilitation of children with handicap. At the end of June 2002, the number of these was 1033.

Taking into consideration the fact that the number of children protected in institutions situated in

the SSHP’s sub-ordination didn’t recorded big changes in time8, it can be estimated that in

7 Till the end of 2002, the shutting-down of other 34 institutions is planned. 8 At the end of 2001, its were 1055.

24

September 2002 the total number of institutionalised children with disabilities outnumbers 22

thousand, from which those in public care represent around 6650.

4. Children with disabilities in families and in communities

Most of the children with disabilities are cared in family, mainly in natural family, but also in

substitutive ones. At the end of 2001, the number of non-institutionalised children with disabilities,

receiving state allowance for children with handicap, was 54747. In school year 2001/2002, the

number of children enrolled in special primary and secondary education, in day-care regime (from

natural family and all forms of family placement) was 15664, representing 46.1% from total

children enrolled in this form of special education.

The institutionalisation was related, mainly, to the impossibility to assure care, treatment, recovery

and education for children with special needs and in some ways, to the absence of financial support

or of some services meant to make easier to take care of these children.

Reform programs which regard decrease of institutionalised children and keeping the child with

disabilities in a family environment include measures for:

� making the system of special education more flexible and diversified, to adapt it to the need

of keeping the child in family, and also to integrate her/him in ordinary education;

� development of alternative services system, intended for assuring the necessary help to

families which take care of children with special needs;

� financial support for families which take care of children with special needs;

� arrangement of public places, public transportation means and buildings of public

institutions in order to assure for persons with handicap the unabashed access.

The integration process of children with disabilities into ordinary education started in 19999, with

integration of children enrolled in special schools based on a wrong diagnosis and of those children

who made progress in learning and recovery. The integration process is in process now, based on a

national program for updating the special education, especially in the period 2000-200310, with the

9 Program started in 1999 was based on the experience gained like a result of carrying-out by Ministry of Education of pilot program for promoting the integrated education, in two counties and Bucharest. 10 The national program „Integration and rehabilitation of children with disabilities in/through community”, Ministry of National Education Ordinance no. 3634/17 April 2000; Liliana Preoteasa, Liliana Aldescu, Education of the child with special needs – a juridical framework based on integration, in the paper „School integration of child in difficulty/ with special needs”, CRIPS, 2002.

25

main objective to integrate/ include the children with disabilities into public school (which must

become inclusive school). This intend to:

- on one hand, integration of children with light/ moderate disabilities in public education and

theirs maintaining in natural family and,

- on the other hand, integration of children with associated serious, severe disabilities, from

hospital-type hostels or from family, not-enrolled in school till now, in special schools, with

theirs maintaining in family, where it is possible.

The integration of children with disabilities in ordinary education is carried-out individually, in

group or in special classes11, depending on type and handicap degree, established by a complex

evaluation of child’s situation, from medical, psychiatric, behavioural and social points of view.

National program includes actions intended for preparing the public school (managers, teachers and

parents) to accept children with disabilities, in order to transform public school into an inclusive

school; creating optimal conditions for physical, mental, psychical, behavioural and attitudinal

development of children with disabilities in community, using specialised psycho-pedagogical

assistance in public school, specialised assistance in family and specialised social services for child

and family.

According to national program, the structure of integrated special education will include:

- special schools with special classes for pupils with light disabilities or severe ones, and

for pupils with serious, severe disabilities, and for groups of children which can’t

exceed the socialisation, physical and socio-attachment recovery stages;

- inclusive classes and special classes in ordinary schools, for children with light

disabilities or with difficulties to learn/ develop, with psycho-pedagogical and

specialised assistance, assured with itinerary pedagogical staff or supporting staff;

- new forms of enrolment for child with disabilities which stays in family: enrolment in

extramural education, enrolment in vocational and evening education, merged

vocational education etc.12;

11 According to an evaluation carried-out of NACPA, the number of children integrated from special education in ordinary education in school year 2001/2002 was around 4240, of which those who go to school from family were 2673, the others being from placement centres. 35.6% of the total number of these children were integrated individually, 19.6% were integrated in group and 44.8% in special classes. 12 The Law regarding special protection of persons with handicap establishes the child with handicap which can’t move has the right for school education at domicile, on the duration of compulsory education.

26

- inter-schools centres for speaking problems, psychological diagnosis cabinets, cabinets

for school and vocational orientation, school psychological cabinets, centres or cabinets

for psycho-pedagogical assistance.

Specialised public services for child protection and non-governmental organisations develop a

complex system of alternative services, for the support of families and children in difficulty. The

total number of services functioning inside specialised public services was 270 in the middle of

2002. Among its, the day-care and recovery centres for children with disabilities (29 centres) are

very important for families which take care of such children. Equal important are centres of

assistance and support for psychological re-adaptation of child with psycho-social problems (5

centres), centres for preparing and support of re-integration/ integration of the child in family

(totally, 22 centres).

Non-governmental organisations offer, also, socio-medical assistance services at domicile, care in

day-care centres for children with handicap, children’s transportation to special school or

kindergarten or children’s and them companion to the treatment units, specific educational

programs, psycho-pedagogical therapy, guidance and child or family socio-therapy, family

sustaining in her efforts to raise, educate, protect and recover the child with handicap, respite care

services; these organisations also lend technical material and offer medical help, medical devices

etc. These organisations’ activity is, partly, sustained financially by subventions from state or local

budgets.

Special protection of non-institutionalised persons with handicap, implicit of children with

disabilities and families who take care of these children, became a concern for authorities only after

the change of communist regime, first law which regulated this domain of social protection being

adopted in 1992.

According the Law for social protection of persons with handicap13, the children with handicap and

families who take care these children benefit of financial support, facilities and gratuities, thus:

� state allowance for children, in quantum established by law, increased by 100%;

� allowance for children with handicap, in family placement or entrusted for adoption to a

family or person, in quantum established by law, increased by 50%;

� personal assistant for the child with severe handicap, employed by local public authorities,

or an allowance paid to the parents or legal representatives of the child with severe

handicap;

13 The Law no. 519/2002 for approval of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 102/1999 regarding special protection and employment of persons with handicap.

27

� free places in camps for pre-school children and pupils with handicap, once a year;

� tickets for spectacles, museums, cultural and sportive events, in same conditions like pupils

and students;

� free of charge obtaining of prosthesis, crutches, orthopaedic shoes and trucks and assurance

of hearing devices and cardiac implants with priority and expedient;

� free of charge urban and inter-urban transportation for children with severe handicap and for

theirs personal assistants;

� monthly food allowance for children with AIDS;

� paid leave for one of the parents taking care of child with handicap, till the child becomes 3

years old;

� medical leave for one of the parents taking care of child with severe handicap, who needs

treatment for repeated illnesses, till the child becomes 18 years old;

� free of charge accommodation and meals services for the person who accompanies the child

with severe handicap in hospital;

� exemption from television and radio subscription payment, priority for phone installation,

exemption for phone subscription payment, if the child has a severe or pronounced

handicap;

� priority for renting, building and buying state owned dwellings and rent’s establishment at

the minimum level established by law for state owned dwellings.

The Law regarding special protection of persons with handicap establishes arrangement of public

institutions buildings, cultural, sportive and buildings for leisure activities, of dwellings built from

public funds, of public transportation means and its stations, in order to allow for persons with

handicap the unabashed access. The progress made towards these utilities is still slightly visible. To

carry-out these utilities needs big investment expenditures, but small resources available for local

communities are oriented towards coverage of more urgent needs of social protection, especially in

present conditions, when descentralisation process puts in local community’s responsibility more

social policy’s tasks. Moreover, the Law foresees to carry-out these arrangements in stages, with

deadlines that will reach the end of 2010 for some of them.

Romania is characterised now by a low general living standard, result of multiple difficulties

generated by hard and long transition to the market economy from a centrally planned economy,

with great imbalances and low productivity. In this context, the situation of families taking care of

28

children is difficult, and situation of families taking care of children with special needs is even more

difficult.

Evaluations based on Household budget survey (HBS) show that poverty rate for households who

take care at least one child with handicap is over two time higher than the rate calculated for all

households, being considerably higher compared with the poverty rate for households with children

and the rate calculated for households which include persons with handicap (adults and children)14.

Almost one quarter of the households who take care at least one child with handicap had, in 2001,

consumption levels lower than poverty threshold, the number of persons living in these households

representing 30% of total persons living in households with handicapped children and almost 2% of

the total poor population15.

The handicapped children poverty rate (share of children with handicap in poor households in the

total number of children with handicap) was 26.1%, which means that more than one out of four

children with handicap is living in a household which can’t assure a consumption level over poverty

threshold.

Table 10 Poverty incidence among households taking care of children with handicap (2001)

- % - Poverty rate

(households) Poverty rate (persons)

Households taking care of children with handicap 24.5 30.0

Households taking care children (younger than 18 years old) 14.7 18.4

Households which include persons with handicap 19.0 23.3

Total households 12.0 15.2

Children with handicap 26.1

Total children (younger than 18 years) 19.6

Total persons with handicap 20.0

Source: National Institute of Statistics, Household budget survey, 2001

14 The poverty was estimated using relative method, and the threshold was established at 60% from the median of consumption expenditures per equivalent adult. The estimations for expenditures per equivalent adult were made using an equivalence scale built with the relation: 9,0)5.0( CAAE += , and equation’s parameters were estimated with a Rothbarth model. The expenditures were re-evaluated on January 2001 prices using price indices calculated by residence area (urban and rural), based on information regarding prices collected for consumption price index at national level and structure of consumption expenditures for households from the both area, in 2001. 15 Total number of persons from households with handicapped children represents less than 1% of country’s population.

29

The higher poverty among households taking care of children with handicap, and also among

children with handicap, is related mainly, to the higher frequency of children with handicap in

bigger households (which include a higher number of persons). In 2001, according to HBS data, the

households which include at least one child with handicap were equally distributed between

households with three, four, five and six or more members (respectively 23.2%, 27.5%, 22.2% and

24.3%)16, but theirs share in total households with three members was 0.7%, while their shares in

the total households with four, five and six or more persons were respectively 0.9%, 1.8% and

2.5%. So, the average size of households with handicapped children was 4.7 persons, out of which

2.2 children, while the average size for all households was 2.9 persons, and of all households with

children this average was 4.2 persons, out of which 1.6 children.

The disposable income gap between households with handicapped children and all other households

doesn’t explain the higher poverty rate calculated for households with handicapped children as

compared with the rate calculated for whole households, only if we take into consideration per

capita income. In 2001, the average income for a household having children with handicap was

slightly higher than average for all households (4296180 lei monthly compared with 4052646 lei

monthly). In return, per capita income of these households was considerably smaller than the

average for all households (916778 lei monthly compared with 1404599 lei monthly).

The influence of income level available for households with handicapped children on poverty

incidence among them is more evident if we compare theirs incomes with average income of all

households with children. Calculated as average per household (4992040 lei monthly), the last ones

were by 16.2% higher than incomes of households with handicapped children, and calculated per

capita (1193570 lei monthly) by 30.2%. The difference comes, partly, from the fact that, generally,

a bigger number of children live in families where parents have a lower level of education and

skills, which means lower income, too. The households having children with handicap are more

frequent in the bottom part of population distribution by income/ consumption expenditure level:

the number of households included in the two bottom deciles was three times higher then the

number of households included in the two top deciles.

Cash benefits the households with handicapped children benefit have low levels compared with

expenditures involved by theirs care. State allowance for children with handicap, in quantum of

260000 lei monthly in 2001, assured 28.4% of the average disposable income per capita of

households with handicapped children, and the allowance for one child with handicap in placement,

750000 lei monthly, assured 81.8% of the average disposable income per capita of these

households. Households having more children, with or without any handicap, benefit a

16 The households with two persons represent 2.8% from total households with handicapped children.

30

supplementary allowance. In 2001, this was 50000 lei monthly for families with two children,

100000 lei monthly for families with three children and 125000 lei monthly for families with four

or more children.

According to HBS data, for 17.3% of households which take care children with handicap, the

mother of the children is housewife, so it can be presume that she couldn’t employ in a paid job

because she needs to take care the her child with handicap. This doesn’t explain the income gap

between households with handicapped children and total households with children, because for the

last ones the share of housewife mothers is even slightly bigger (19.4%).

*

* *

The reform of protection system for child in difficulty, including child with disabilities, must face

three main challenges. First refers to the conversion process of an old and inadequate protection

system (from the principle, structure, management, material endowment and human resources

points of view). The second challenge comes from the fact Romania inherited from old regime a

high number of institutionalised children, with a high share of children with disabilities, in the

transition years to market economy, the need for children in difficulty protection amplified, as a

result of living standard’s decrease. The third is related to financial constraints the protection

system must face of, taking into consideration that resources available for State and local

communities are extremely low and the spectrum and dimension of the needs the protection system

must cover are very high; families confront with great financial difficulties also.

Efforts made by Romanian Society for improvement of children’s in difficulty situation are very

big. Progress is visible, but the process takes a lot of time.

In this context, the help Romania benefit of from international community is essential for carrying-

out in shortest time and good conditions the protection system’s reform.