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A dire economy has prompted many people to leave the mining town of Petrila in search of work elsewhere in Europe. Now more and more children are being left behind without their parents.
By Aline Fontaine, Petrila |
In Lavinia's ideal world, nature, cleanliness, and respect are the most important things. And above all, parents would not leave to work abroad.
Lavinia is 10 years old and lives in Petrila, a town in the centre-west of Romania.
The town used to boast 22,000 inhabitants and five coal mines.
The gradual closure of these mines has brought economic ruin to the town and prompted many adults to head to other European countries to find work.
Lavinia's mother, Gabriela, 38 and unmarried, is busy in her one-room home preparing to set off to pick strawberries in Germany, as she has done for the past three years.
She'll earn 1,700 euros over two months, enough to buy food and clothes for her family, before struggling to make ends meet until the next trip, getting by on a monthly 155 euros in state benefits. That will just about cover rent and bills.
"My three daughters cope OK during these times, but my son Vasile suffers more," says Gabriela.
The 14-year-old boy agrees. "When Mum leaves, I don't talk to my friends anymore and I clam up. Every time I come home I want to tell her something, but she isn't there."
According to the town's social services, there are 335 children in this kind of situation.
"In reality, they are at least twice as many, because not all parents report their departures," concedes the mayor, Vasile Jurca.
Driven by the desire to provide a better future for their children, some parents organize themselves around this new way of life.
"My husband leaves for two months, then it's me. We alternate," said Luminita, 45.
"This is affecting our eight-year-old daughter. When I am with her, I see she misses her father, and when I am in Germany, she asks me to come back, saying that money is not important."
In Petrila, most of the affected children are from single-parent families. Often, their grandparents raise them.
"Our priority is to prevent children being abandoned and put into care," said Daria Moldovan, a psychologist at the Salvati Copiii association, which helps some 50 of these children.
"We urge parents to appoint a legal representative, otherwise their children may lose rights such as access to school trips or healthcare."
Moldovan runs a program to monitor and provide activities for the children whose parents leave, and she can clearly see how the youngsters are affected.
"Luckily, we have not had suicides here, like there have been elsewhere in the country," she says.
"But we see that the children are changing. Nothing can replace the love of parents. Once, a boy staying with his aunt started biting his classmates. That's how he expressed his lack of affection."
In Salvati Copiii's offices, children's school diplomas line the walls.
"We do everything possible so that they do better than their parents. Going away for a few months to earn some money then coming back and going away again will not raise their standard of living," said the organisation's director, Valeria Popescu.
Popescu came to Petrila as a teacher in 1976 and has witnessed the town's decline first-hand.
Petrila's only hope of emerging from its nightmare is an economic revival.
"The last mine will close next year, leaving 800 people unemployed. The town hall will become the biggest employer," warns the mayor.
"I have sought European funding to set up a fruit growers' cooperative. If we get the money, we will train people to work there and run it. I have also lowered company taxes, but nobody wants to invest here, even though we have lots of labour that is not very expensive."
In the meantime, the exodus continues.
Adiana, Lavinia's elder sister, will finish high school this summer. Until now she has been taking care of her siblings while their mother was away. This time, she too is set to leave.
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