European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Mary Battiata Washington Post of Quot n the second floor of the state run institution in Videle Romania dazed toddlers lie or sit in Iron cribs in closed Stuffy rooms. Their foreheads Are speckled with flies and with scabs and bruises that come from banging their Heads and Mouths on crib rails. Some cry but most Are silent and appear bewildered behind their bars with the doomed air of Laboratory animals. Down the Hall other cribs hold smaller children Pale skeletons suffering from malnutrition and disease. Despite the heat of the Day several of the children Are wrapped in dirty blankets. From one still bundle Only a bluish Patch of Scalp is visible. Asked if the child inside is alive an orderly says Quot of course Quot and pulls Back the cover. The tiny Skeleton stirs turns onto its Side and groans. This is one of Romania s Homes for abandoned malnourished and disabled children one of the human warehouses filled by the policies of the late romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It is called the Home for the deficient and a salvageable. Thousands of families forced by the state to produce babies deposited infants in institutions like this. Nearly eight months after the revolution that toppled Ceausescu Little has changed in these Homes despite the intervention of International Relief organizations. Conservative estimates of foreign Relief officials suggest that 15,000 children a and possibly As Many As 30,000 a Are still living in conditions that one French doctor described As Quot something Between Auschwitz and  French dutch and Swiss medical organizations came across these Homes in february while trying to Trace Romania s infant aids epidemic. They were stunned. Quot i had never seen anything like this a not even in the poorest countries in the world Quot said Guilhem Delmas director of a medical team from the French Relief organization doctors of the world stationed in Bucharest Quot it was unbelievable to me that such conditions could exist in Europe at the end of the 20th Century Quot International Relief organizations working to compile a Complete list of the orphanages and Homes estimate that there Are 350 to 500 of them. Romanian government statistics indicate that 15.000 children Are housed in orphanages alone. Delmas said there could be As Many As 40,000 children in such facilities if Homes for the mentally handicapped Are included. In one Home 40 percent of the children died last year of infectious disease and neglect Delmas said. The children Are the legacy of a 1965 Ceausescu decree that forbade birth control or abortion and closely monitored pregnant and Fertile women to see that the Law was obeyed. Some of the children were injured during botched abortions or deliveries in romanian hospitals. Most arrived because their families faced with shortages a of food and heat Felt unable to provide for them children were abandoned because mothers were forced to have children Quot said or. Gheorghe Jipa director of Bucharest s Victor babes Hospital. A in our country it was very frequent because of the misery and bad living situation we were in. Even girls in the eighth Grade were compelled to have a child when they became pregnant Quot the Home in the Village of Videle a 90-minute drive Southwest from Bucharest is not considered among the worst. Yet a staff assistant said matter of factly that Quot about 30&Quot children or nearly one fourth of the total 135 child residents die each year. The Home s handful of orderlies have Little or no medical training and scant knowledge about the causes of death. Sickness agitation Quot suggested one. Omani a so something be Ween Auschwitz and Kampuchea Page 14 since discovering the Homes teams of doctors and International charities have been visiting them delivering Medicine and supplies and urging Romania s pos revolutionary government to help make improvements romanian state television showed pictures of one Home but otherwise the government has been slow to respond Delmas and others said there have been a few improvements but mostly in Homes nearest Bucharest the ones visited by foreign television teams. In Many of the Homes Leaky roofs still funnel Rainwater onto children a Beds. Food is sometimes served by throwing it on the floor. Staffers hardly know their charges names much less their medical problems. Children Are handcuffed to Beds so tightly that the cuffs eat into their wrists according to doctors. Those too Small or unable to feed themselves often waste away because their nursing bottles propped on piles of rags slip away and there is no one to right them. Quot they die of hunger of very dirty environment of nobody touching them and of never getting out of their Beds Quot Delmas said. They also die of aids. About 65 percent of Romania s 428 cases of infant acquired immune deficiency syndrome Are abandoned children who went to hospitals from orphanages and state Homes to be treated for severe malnutrition and were transfused with contaminated blood or hypodermic Needles according to the most recent romanian government figures. Hepatitis b also is rampant. The Home at Videle contains both the malnourished and the handicapped. Once they arrive children rarely see their families again. Quot in the beginning when they bring the child Here they have a hard time leaving it. But then they become accustomed to this and they miss the child less and less a said Rodica Jancu the Home s director. Once inside the system it is almost impossible to get out. At the age of 3, abandoned children go through what romanian officials Call a Quot switching Center Quot a a cursory examination that shuttles them off to Homes for handicapped or to children s asylums where they May learn a task such As Basket making. After that there is virtually no diagnostic testing in the Homes for the handicapped and Little teaching or physical therapy. The Only cure is death and that does not cure very quickly Quot said one doctor. At Videle children who have mild epilepsy or polio splayed legs Are put together with those who suffer severe autism. The Blind or deaf sit in rooms All Day with those who cannot control their bodily functions. Valentin Kovacs a Friendly mildly retarded 15-year-old boy spends his Days wandering the Halls. He was curious and Friendly with a visitor following closely and was fascinated by a pair of eyeglasses. I have shoes he exclaimed showing off a pair of moccasins donated by a dutch Charity. Asked what kind Anc in of. ®3�s.to d0, he thought for a moment and Mother la count and to 9� 3ac< a my Vasilica Bogolu 14, is Quot almost Normal Quot staffers say. Her Only obvious defect is physical her lower legs Are Wisted and cannot support her body so she walks a. A. Nees she is shy but Able to speak clearly and Relief Tiave become fond of her. They keep her fully hah i ave even Given her a pair of earrings. They she would be allowed to go to a special school and learn Basket making. Nurse sh0 was tuned Down Why her Gesl Quot said a  received a shipment of clothes and oys from a dutch Charity m March. Yet about half the Washington Post Many of the abandoned infants in Romania such As vre child in top photo Are infected with aids. There Are at least 15,000 abandoned children still living in deplorable conditions in the country a state run Homes. The group above live in the Home Tor deficient and a salvageable in Videle. Older children squatting in the Day room recently were naked. Only a few pairs of shoes have been distributed and those Only the week before. The toys Are displayed in a closed room on the first floor where the children do not go. A ooh they destroy their clothes Quot an orderly said. A we a would have to have a new set of clothes for each child each  the orderlies a there is one for every 60 children a Are mostly older women from the Village. They do not seem embarrassed by the conditions but said they could use More help. There is one teacher and the director said the Home recently has tried to establish a  state gives them 50 cents a Day to feed the a children. Quot what can you do with that Quot asked one orderly standing in the stairwell As a boy ascended carrying a bucket of cold Stew of tomatoes water and bread heels. For recreation the children play on Concrete floors in a Bare room. At the sight of a visitor a group burst into a loud chorus of the song that was the Anthem of the revolution Quot Ole Ole ote Ceausescu is no More Quot foreign doctors working there Are increasingly critical of the new romanian government s inaction while Many romanian officials chide foreign doctors As being alarmist. One foreign doctor said he was told to Calm Down because Quot things Are surely worse in Ivory  doctors with wide experience say however that romanians system a with its combination of neglect bureaucracy and haphazard medical care a is in a class by itself. Even in the poorest countries in Africa they say mentally and physically disabled children Are not left alone in Bare rooms for hours every Day deprived of the sound of human language or physical Contact. That a the of treatment the doctors say can be blamed on a totalitarian system that made a cult of physical labor and encouraged the idea that anyone unable to labor for the state was not quite human. Quot As soon As someone Here was considered unproductive a unable to work for the state a he was completely abandoned. It s something typically totalitarian Quot said Delmas. Quot to this Day in Many hospitals they done to understand Why aids children should be kept clean because in their minds these babies Are going to die  in the beginning foreign Relief teams were patient with the romanian government s halting Steps. But while they once made allowances for the country s poverty and the aftereffects of. Ceausescu s terror they now Are increasingly Blunt in citing bureaucratic inertia and an erosion of compassion that May be Ceausescu s bleakest legacy. Other critics note that while spending on the children a Homes has increased Only slightly the new government since january has spent $440 million importing luxury electronic goods such As color television sets and videocassette recorders. Frustrated by the Lack of Progress delegation of French doctors the International red Cross and the u n. Children s fund met with romanian officials to demand More Effort from the health ministry some have begun hinting they will pull their teams out of Romania unless the government makes a concerted Effort to improve the situation. When an earthquake struck Romania recently it was lunchtime. On the top floor of the Videle Home orderlies spooning Gray porridge into the Mouths of some crib bound toddlers dropped what they were doing and with a visitor raced Down four flights of stairs and outside the Cement slab building. After the shaking stopped the staff stayed outside waiting for a feared aftershock which they said could come in two or three hours. At windows the puzzled faces of children could be seen. From open windows came the wails of smaller children raging at the interruption of their meal. Asked whether it was important to get the children out before the aftershock hit and possibly damaged the building staffers looked puzzled. They knew the history of the area they said and aftershocks Are usually less Strong. Quot besides there Are Only eight of us and 135 children so How would we get them out Quot one orderly asked. Quot Many of them done to have clothes so if we brought them out we would be exposing them to other diseases Quot agreed ton lord ache a local Man who became a bookkeeper at the Home after the revolution. Quot Don t wave them Down Here Quot he advised. Quot you will Only scare  readers seeking to help or make contributions can Send Cash donations to the following organizations. In All cases it should be specified the donations Are for romanian children american jewish joint distribution committee 711 third Avenue new York . 10017 american red Cross a romanian Relief . Box 37243 Washington d c. 20013 Baptist world Alliance 6733 Curran St. Mclean a. 22101 brother s brother foundation 824 Grandview ave. Pittsburgh a. 15211. Doctors of the world 67 Avenue de la rep oblique a f-75011 Paris France help the children of Romania dept. 771246 Detroit Mich. 48277-1246 operation Usa a 7615v2 Melrose ave. Los Angeles Calif. 90046 Unicof 3 United nations Plaza new York . 10017 world vision 919 West Huntington drive Monrovia Calif. 91016 for adoption information association de la Famille adoptive Francais Paris France Simone Chalon director Casa de cop ii ii 187 Calea Dorobantu sector 1 Bucharest Romania help the children of Romania. Dept. 771246 Detroit Mich. 48277-1246 the stars and stripes wednesday july 25, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15