University of Craiova

Faculty of Social Science

Emilia Maria Sorescu

Ph.D. Lecturer
ROMANIA IN EUROPE
Craiova on the map of Romania
• The University of Craiova was founded within the
university center system in Romania in the second half of
the 20th century (1947), being, chronologically, the fifth
university in the country, following the ones in Iasi,
Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and Timisoara.
• The academic community of our university met a growing
evolution during its six decades of existence, offering the
young generation training conditions for 131 fields, among
which 62 were university studies, 49 master fields, and 20
doctoral studies, covering a wide range (20 faculties).
• Over 32.000 students.
First christian centuries – mutual aid, charity / philantropy
Medieval era – social welfare institutions were founded by the wealthy, including the prince, the
head of the country, for help orphans, poor people, disableed, elderly or sick people,
especially near the Monasteries. Many monasteries founded special places for those
vulnerable groups.
1704 – The first hospital - “Colţea”, with 24 beds;
1775 – “The Box of the Charity (Mercy)” – similar with the fee for poverty from
England;
1780 – The first law about the protection of the children;
1831 – The first laws about the social work institutions. The state assumes responsibility in the
protection of the disadvantaged people.
1881 – The first social services belonging to the Bucharest City Hall.
Second half of the 19 century – many attempts to make laws and social services for blind
people, many achievements in the social work of the children.
1910-1920 – The first laws of the social insurance for accidents, invalidities, and old age.
1929 – First high school of social work- university level, “Princess Helen”.
– “The Social Work Review” (until 1944);
– The foundations of the specialized social services system;
1936 – The first Census of the social work units;
1938 – The first Congress of Social Workers in Bucharest;
Very developed network of social work institutions, offering social services
to a very large category of population, especially in the urban area.
It was developed a scientific social work, founded on social research,
thanks to the sociologist Dimitrie Gusti and their colleagues.
There are many social services for many categories of vulnerable people
(including the delinquents, homeless), and with great emphasis on
the family.
The nonprofit sector is developed in this period.
• After the second War, in Romania was a complex social
work system, with a social worker to 30000 people.

• 1962 – The first schoolbook of social work, authors Ioan

Matei and Henri Stahl (the ex-students of Dimitrie Gusti).
At this time, the social work was eliminated from the
university.

• 1969 – The profession of social worker was removed

from the classification of occupations.

• There remain only 2 NGOs – one for the deaf, and one
for the blind.
Ideology: The socialist society is perfect: no poverty, no social problems.
The need of social work does not exist, because the problems can
be resolved by politic and birocratic-administrativ measures.
• Social work schools are eliminated (1952 and 1969).
• The disabled people, the elderly and the abandoned children are put
in institution by very big capacity – hundred of places, and isolated
from society.
• The number of children in institutions was very big .
• Universal benefits – medical assistance, benefits for children and for
the families with many like 3 children, free of charge education at all
levels.
• Very high level of work occupation of the people.
The situation of institutionalised children was so
dramatic, as photographs published albums and
won awards having as subject of their work this
children. They were given examples in human
development textbooks and were subject of
important research about effects of
institutionalization of the children, as Charles
Nelson end his contributors.
 Abandoned children, with or without
handicap, in social work institutions in 1990
 Photo: 1990, Frank Fournier

A new problem – the children

Street Children
with HIV / AIDS
Photo: 1990, Frank Fournier
A new problem – the
children living on the street
Some of those children had the chance to be adopted. Here is
a 19 years girl, a very talented player at oboe, and in the first
photo is the same person, but in 1990.
The legislative framework:

1997 – first laws package about the children in distress and adoption;
2000 – the law on associations and foundations (NGO);
– the law on social work of the elderly;
2001 – the law of the social work system (replaced in 2006 and 2011);
2004 (June - approved) – 2005 (January - came into force) - Current laws
on child protection and adoption.
- Quality standards for residential and at home services.
Children in Child Care

76509 100%
(active cases by 31
December 2005)
source: ANPDC

 Children in foster care 47723 62.38%

- by professional foster parents from public social 17213 22.50%
services;
- by professional foster parents from private social 348 0.45%
services;
- by relatives; 24689 32.27%
- by other foster persons or families; 5140 6.72%
- by future adoptive parents viewing the adoption. 333 0.44%
Children in residential care 28786 37.62%
Children in Child Care

58013 100%
(active cases by
30 June 2015), source: ANPDC
Children in foster care 37126 64%
- by professional foster parents from public social 18902 32.58%
services;
- by professional foster parents from private social 77 0.13%
services;
- by relatives; 13904 23.97%
- by other foster persons or families; 4243 7.32%
Surce:
Children in ANPDC
residential care 20887 36.00%
- in public residential services; 16844 29.03%
INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILDREN IN ROMANIA, JUNE 2015 (by age)

REZIDENTIAL
under 1 1-2 years 3-6 years 7-9 years 10-13 years 14-17 years over 18 TOTAL
CARE
public 221 331 1439 2106 4503 5793 2451 16,844
private 6 39 479 674 1220 1203 422 4,043
TOTAL 227 370 1,918 2,780 5,723 6,996 2,873 20,887
procents 1.1% 1.8% 9.2% 13.3% 27.4% 33.5% 13.8% 100%

Surce: ANPDC
 The evolution of children number
between 2002 and 2015

25 23.7
22.33 22.27 22.21
21.21 21.14
20.13
20 19.08 19.1 19.12 19.11 18.91 18.76 18.75

15

10

0
04

06

13

15
0

07

08

4
9

1
0

1
20

20

20

20

20

20
19

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
Percentage of children in the total population
• 1990 – 5.5 millions children – almost 100000 in child
protection system (1.81%), almost all of them in
institutions.

• 2005 – 4.7 millions children – 76509 in child protection

system (1.61%), 28786 in institutions (0.60%).

• 2015 – 3.7 millions children – 58013 in child protection

system (1.56%), 20887 in institutions (0.56%).
 38%
2005 Children in foster
care
Children in
residential care

62%

36%

100%

64%
1990 0% 2015
• Introducing foster care.
• Developing alternative services that provide basic
services to families who have difficulties to stay together
and to keep children in the family.
• Setting up new types of residential centers.
• Developing standards of social services.
• Introducing the case management.
• Putting in law the obligation to care all children under 2
years in families.
Depriving a child by an emotional relationship in
which he feels safe, by an attachment figure,
has disastrous effects on his physical, mental,
emotional and social development. They affect
both development potential and physical and
mental health.
Intuited early as 50 by John Bowlby, the attachment theory
was confirmed and developed as a result of subsequent
experiments, like those of Mary Ainsworth and Harry
Harlow.

This theory emphasizes that a secure attachment

relationships in early childhood has a vital role in the
psycho-emotional development of the child.
Attachment = an affectional, durable tie that one person forms to
another specific individual; a relatively long enduring tie in
which the partner is important as a unique individual and is inter-
changeable with non-other. (M. Ainsworth)

Parent = the secure base from which the child can explore the world
and to which he can return for comfort and protection. (J.
Bowlby)
• The child who does not enjoy a strong attachment to a
warm, loving, attentive, constant parent will be an adult who
finds the world as a difficult, hostile place, will have
difficulties to get along with others, and will be a problem for
society.
• All children need to form strong attachment to a figure that
gives a „good enough” paternity.
• Social workers working with children who do not have
attachments or have insecure or disorganized attachments.
• The first objective of social work is to give the child the
opportunity to form a strong, secure attachment for a
parental figure, giving him a permanent attachment figure.