CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA – According to Bob Fukumoto, Canadian Program Leader for Impact Romania, the overcrowding that currently exists in Romanian orphanages is a tragic legacy dating back almost 50 years to the beginning of the Ceausescu regime.
"By 1966, the Romanian government had accumulated a huge foreign debt. To combat this problem, the dictator set in motion a law to ensure women had at least 5 children. Throughout all of this, the country was starving and the government was exporting almost all of their goods, all while Romanian families produced even more children. Kids were turned out in the street, abandoned at the hospital following birth, or left at orphanages, and the orphan and street kid population skyrocketed very quickly."
One of the conditions of Romania's acceptance into the European Union in 2007 was that the government make a concerted effort to reduce the number of children living in orphanages. International Teams Canada (ITCA) is organizing to meet this need in several orphanages and group homes, supporting a team of volunteers that run a bi-weekly ministry program and a summer camp for the orphans in the area. Bob believes they are just scraping the surface as far as ministry opportunities are concerned.
"Impact Romania has been an ITCA program since 2005, and we're learning more and more about what it means to help these kids. What we've realized is that our biggest point of input has to do with kids that have already been released from the orphanage. We have 15 volunteers, and half of them are orphans that meet and work with us and receive one-on-one mentoring and purposeful discipleship. We have a continuum that we work by that focuses on healing, restoration, growth, and then mission, and all of our community is somewhere on that continuum. We know for the orphans, healing is only going to happen as they have opportunity to share their stories."
Bob says that they have also discovered that the older orphans feel valued when they are given the opportunity to do ministry themselves with younger orphans, as well as opportunities for intimate, honest fellowship and community. As the quality of their community increases over the long term, orphans will learn the foundational value of honesty and trust, which will ultimately improve their quality of relationships, as well as their ability and motivation to learn, receive guidance for decision-making and support for their personal relationships with Jesus Christ. "I truly feel we are in a great place for the next few years, as we create and develop a culture of supportive growth in community for our orphans."
