to ask what happened to the children from the Romanian orphanages in the 1980s?

[notknowledgeable]

Mentioned on another thread, and got me wondering - all those poor children in Romania in the news in the 1980s, children who had been confined to their cot for months or years, and so institutionalised - they would be in their 30s an 40s now. Does anyone know how any of them are doing? Are you from this back ground or know anyone from this back ground? many were adopted into western European countries.

I remember seeing a really sad C4 documentary a while back about a whole community of people, many with substance abuse issues, living in tunnels underneath a city in Romania. Many of them were from the orphanages. Can't of been all of them though.

You don't recover easily from that type of neglect. I suspect a lot will be dead. Which is horrific.

I knew a young woman twenty or so years ago who had been adopted to Sweden as a baby from a Romanian orphanage in the 80s. She was a lovely person and doing very well. I was young myself at the time and didn't think much of it. Now it seems a bit miraculous really.

That is great to hear

That is awful

There is more outrage and protest these days about pigs in farrowing crates than was in the news about those babies back then...

Was only wondering about this the other day… When you think of all of things you do to help your baby thrive. And that they had the exact opposite of that. Where are they now…

I know someone who adopted a child from Romania 20 odd years ago and he's so damaged. Tried to take his own life very regularly and is now institutionalised permanently. I know it's not the 80's but clearly still lots wrong.

This isn't something I specialise in, but the collapse of the Soviet Bloc has been a focus in what I have done and studied. Short answers: the orphanage experience had a massive impact, 'new lives' for many were not without issues but many things were of course better for them, there have been longitudinal studies of outcomes in the UK, search on Edmund Sonuga-Barke and work out from there. Most of course stayed in Romania.

2009 The English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project key findings:

English and Romanian Adoptee study - English-Romanian Adoption - Nuffield Foundation

Adoptees suffering into adulthood 2017 article, linked to KCL work reported in Lancet:

Adopted Romanian orphans 'still suffering in adulthood' - BBC News

Southampton report 2020:

deprivation of romanian orphans impacts adult brain size | University of Southampton and

That's not true, there were plenty of very harrowing programmes and news coverage about it then.

I'm sure there was something about those babies being part of a human trafficking scheme but I need to read up on it. I can't imagine many of those poor children will have recovered from that trauma.

Yes, I also wonder. I remember seeing it on the news as a child and it haunted me. Never left me. Wish I could have taken them all in myself.

I know of twins adopted aged 2 from Romania then who have had a great life here in Britain, one is a mother now the other is thinking about adopting herself. Neither have contact with anyone in Romania by choice

Yabu.

there have been various research studies

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27859330

many kids were adopted or fostered - the younger they went to a family, the better the outcome.

kids with learning difficulties were sometimes left - a colleague ran a charity that visited them and created activities and therapies (this was 20 yrs ago).

Actually I just went and looked for that documentary. It was from 2014. In fact, all of them had substance issues and HIV and most were a product of the orphanages.

I wonder if things have changed since then as that was 10 years ago now. It was so shocking and sad.

I remember it well. So many news reports on them and I remember seeing a huge response to help. But yes love to know that the children now adults are ok

wow, some very interesting ( and sad ) information here

There were horror stories of British people that hasn't thought it through and blindly adopted babies and children without any understanding of the trauma the infants had suffered. These people could not cope with the behavioural problems.

A terrible situation all round.

Further reading-

www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-9741657/amp/What-happened-Romanias-abandoned-children.html

Not what the original post is asking, but my school ran a programme in the mid/late 90s where sixth formers would go and do up an orphanage and spend time with the children. Clearly 25+ years on we know that this type of 'help' isn't what's needed, but the good news is that by this time the orphanages or at least the one I went to was very very different to what was found at the fall of Communism. What's interesting if you like history is that Romania had been for a period one of the more open and successful countries of the Eastern block, before becoming obsessed with a personality cult and paying off its foreign debt.

Yes. My mums friends have worked with Romania since the 80s
They adopted a girl who needed surgery on her arm and she knew no English then. She is still in England and has a degree and is working and living happily here
They still work with Romania raising funds and medical treatment

That's not true though is it? And how would you go about proving something like that?

That is awesome

I wont say too much but I know one man who was adopted as a baby and brought the the UK. He is successful, in a relationship and happy as far as i can tell. He is very aware that he has been lucky in the way it all worked out. He had a happy childhood and had the best case scenario. He's obvs very angry at the way these children were treated, im sure there is some level of trauma but overall his life is good.