THE INTERVENTION OF THE NGOS AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE CATEGORY OF STREET CHILDREN IN BUCHAREST

By Cristina Bezzi1 Keywords Romania, Ethnography, Street Children, NGOs Abstract After the 1989 revolution in Romania the phenomena of street children suddenly came to light. Since 1990 the presence of western NGOs has grown exponentially from year to year, developing a variety of different projects in order to help the situation of the many children living in the street. I will analyze the how the category of street children is a social construction defined in opposition to the western model of childhood and exported by the western policy makers and NGOs during the last fifteen years. Through ethnographic research, the effect of this construction on the lives of children, the majority of whom are now adolescents, is critically assessed. The participant observation focuses on the coalescence of the twin perspectives of the NGOs and children involved. The paper provisionally concludes that often the NGOs enacted projects with an ethnocentric perspective toward childhood, without taking into consideration the specificity of the Romanian setting and the childs point of view.

PhD Candidate University of Siena, Italy, Correspondence should be made to cristinabezzi@yahoo.it

An Introduction to Romania
The 1989 Romanian revolution swept away the regime of Ceausescu and for the first time western society was able to see the legacy of the communist era. The global medias attention was then focused on the circumstances of the countries institutionalized children, who were a product of thirty years of the policies of the communist government. The prohibition of abortion in 1966, accompanied by government subsidies for families with many children was an attempt to bring about an increase of the birth rate, in order to expand the workforce and the countries economic strength. The government policy of urban and rural expansion came to a halt in the early 1980s as the Romanian economy suffered from its first major downturn one that severely affected most of eastern Europe. The rural areas became relatively poorer and the cities overcrowded as housing construction fell behind its targets, the overall economy and the general welfare of the populous contracted. Subsequently the thirty year policy of state intervention in the family (Kligman, 1998), combined with the economic problems, resulted in a sharp rise in the numbers of children who found themselves raised by the state in large orphanages, (Zampfir, 1997). During the early 1990s Romania began the difficult process of market liberalization. Social protection, guaranteed under the communism regime, disappeared, as the new government imposed financial constraints as a response to pressure placed upon it by the world bank, the IMF and the European Union in order to achieve the criteria for entrance

into the EU. As the burden of reduced social protection fell on the poorest members of society, the state apparatus2 that monitored the population was similarly dismantled. Children, previously trapped in state orphanages or poverty stricken families could now freely live in the street and escape their often violent and inevitably poor situation. Bucharest became the largest collector of children who migrated to the city from all across the country, in particular the very poorest areas of the north3 (Teclici, 1997). During the 15 years since the fall of communism, the presence of western NGOs has increased exponentially, year on year, driven by the global media exposure of the appalling conditions of children, both in the state orphanages and in the street. Recently, academic literature and material research produced by international development agencies avoids using the term street children, and prefer to refer at them as urban children at risk, (Panter-Brick, 2002). I will, however, make use of this expression extensively in this paper. In fact, the term street children, translated into Romanian as copiii strazii, seems to provide for many of the children, adolescents and young adults of Bucharest, with whom I was in contact, a means to represent themselves and to interpret and understand their past and present lives. In 1983 The inter-NGO programme for Street Children and Street Youth, stated that street children, are those for whom the street(unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) more than their family has become their real home, a situation in which there is no protection supervision or direction from responsible adults, (Panter-Brick, 2002 page 149). This definition has been substantially reworked since 1983 by many organisations and translated into a variety of languages and introduced into numerous
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Primarily the Securitate, the communist secret police. Romanian Sociologist Zampfir (1997), argues that such an elevated number of abandoned children must be the result of some national group mentality generated by the prevailing social conditions off the communist period.

cultural contexts. Nonetheless certain aspects of the definition remain constant, the relationship between the children and the street and the absence of adult supervision in their lives. As Panter-Brick, (2000) argues, the framing of any definition, in the most part, results from the modern ethnocentric western view of how a proper childhood should be. It is a fact that street children are living lives that offer a complete contradiction to the idealised norms that pervade the western social structures, a concept of childhood which holds the young as innocent beings, in need of protection and who are dependent on adults. Glauser (1997) argues, the necessity to conceptualize the street children comes from the need to define a situation, which deviates from the normal rule of the society. The same term street children is based upon an ethnocentric point of view which consider the connection between children and street as aberrant. The attitude of the NGOs toward these children is often to rescue them, and bring them back within the society at large, very rarely do the organizations take into consideration the perspective of the children and the autonomy that they claim with their life in the street.

Ethnography
During my research in Bucharest I have analysed how the category of street children has been socially constructed in the Romanian context as an outcome of the interrelations between the western NGOs and the children, during these fifteen years. My initial intention was to concentrate the ethnographic research on the street children and their lives, the NGOs, originally, where an intermediary to establish contact with the children. However, it soon became apparent that it was important to include the NGOs as an object of analysis.

In fact, between the street children and the western NGOs there seems to be a dialectical relationship in which one subject constructs the other. In fact, the many NGOs couldnt exist without the street children just as the street childrens category couldnt exist without the NGOs. The NGOs, which I contacted were carrying out a variety of different projects for street children and were very different for structure, methodology and policy. In some cases the NGOs were Romanian and worked independently, even if the financing was sourced from western countries. In other case they worked in partnership with western NGOs and were supported not only economically, but also with regards to the actual running of the projects. Only two of them were partly financed by the government. The social workers I interviewed, were working with street children since the early 1990s, in various NGOs and had often changed between the associations for personal reasons or if the association had closed down. They expressed a bipolar perspective with respect to western organizations, within which they were working, and their intervention in Romania. In one side the intervention of the western NGOs was considered very important, because they provided many indispensable services that the government could not offer and additionally they exercised a positive pressure which determined positive challenges in the civil society and in the realm of the children social policy. In contrast, the social worker highlighted some negative features.

Juliana a social worker from Save The Children, stressed that in the period immediately after the revolution the NGOs that intervened had a negative welfarist attitude towards children. She argued4: The western NGOs bring here a lot of money, but they dont know how the people live in Romania, []. A foreign cannot understand that this chid living in the street, has not nice clothes, however there are many other children, which are at home and also dont have nice clothes. They should have teach these children how to fish and not give them fish. Others social workers contested that many western NGOs did not have any flexibility in adapting their philosophies to the Romanian setting. Lucian a social worker form the NGO Stravapoles, financed by an Austrian association, argued: The foreign NGOs came here in Romania and open organization or their branch. [] many foreigners came here and impose to us a methodology, they say: with these children you have to do so and so! But these is the Romanian reality, these are our children, which does not have to be confounded with the street children of Germany or Italy. These children did grove up in our culture and not in their culture. Many social workers accused the NGOs of inefficient cooperation and collaboration and that it caused confusion and a dispersion of power and resources. In particular, there was a great disapproval of the NGOs, which took food to the children on the street. For example Claudia, the director of the Romanian NGO the Open House, remarked: In this moment, my biggest problem is with the NGOs that give food to the children on the street, I am very angry because this is the most damaging thing you can
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The interviews in this paper were recorded by the author in the summers of 1999 and 2001, all transcripts are taken from the thesis: I bambini di strada a Buccarest. Saggio di ricerca etnografica, By Cristina Bezzi available in the University of Perugia library.

do for a street child, give him food and money in the street [] without asking anything in return, such as respecting some rules or actually having to make a conscious effort to do something about their situation. The delivery of aid to Romania after 1989, in such a disorganised fashion, has I believe, led to the perception amongst children, that to be classified in the social category of street child, (a term that was introduced by the western NGOs and the mass media) offered a great advantage. As illustrated Luminiza, a 21 one years old which has been living in the street since she was 10 years old: If I was again young, I would come back in the street, but in the street of a time ago, not of now. When I was a child, I had even fun in the street. Also in the Gara de Nord5 it was different, in the first years after the revolution, it was the NGO Caritas6 which gave food, clothes and toys to us. The social category was constructed, not only as a product of the situation of these children, but as a construction built by the children and NGOs as they interacted. Many of the street children, whom I met during my ethnography, have participated in a variety of programs developed by the NGOs, during these years, but in many cases they have decided to come back and live their life in the street. I tried to understand during my

Gara de Nord, the main station of Bucharest and is home to many of Bucharests homeless population, it is considered a dangerous area, not only by the general public, but also by the street children themselves. In fact it is here that the more powerful and older gangs of children and youths reside. The Gara de Nord is the place where the street children initially arrive if with he train form the countryside. The majority of street children have lived in the Gara de Nord at some point, but here life on the street is more difficult and hard. The area is considered to be violent and many prostitutes seek their clients here. For this reason the children try to move from the Gara de Nord and join other groups in other areas of the city, and manage their groups more freely. Never the less the Gara de Nord is considered a central point in the life of the street. A place where you can find the people who manage the illicit affairs of the city. The youths that I met in the street when speaking of the Gara de Nord, portrayed it as a place where street life is very different and dangerous. 6 Caritas, a large catholic organisation, was the first organisation working in Bucharest with the street children. They took clothes, toys and food to the street children.

ethnography, why these children, despite knowing the better material situation of living with the NGOs, still go back to the street. Many social workers are of the belief that the reason for going back to the street, was their inability to adapt themselves to a program and follow rules and to stop taking narcotics. On the perspective of others social workers and of the same children and youths many NGOs did not considered the need of autonomy of these children and their necessity to actively participate to the process of their reintegration. Luminiza says in this regard: I have been also to that association, and there I did not like. The social worker was to tell all the time what I could and could not do. You cannot arrive to a common point with them. I was young, but I had my character my personality, they couldnt make me do what they had decided for me. [] I dont like that somebody can say to me what I have to do simply because I am a street child. Many of the street children have now become adults and have started to have their own children on the street. Moving from one area, of the City, to another and from one association to another, now they appear to have adapted almost completely to the street and to transform the streets and the canals7 of this city into a home for themselves. As time has moved on to the present, these groups cannot be defined as street children due to the fact that most of their members are no longer children, as defined under the UN Convention. Because of this, several Western NGOs no longer work with many of the groups as large numbers within the groups are persons over 18 years old. Some NGOs still go to visit these groups in the street, bring them some food, distribute condoms and
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The underground of Bucharest is still characterized by the old communist heating system. Through canals and ducts where hot water is piped around the city. The street children access these ducts through man holes scattered throughout the city.

clean syringes, but step by step they seem to became invisible as have the many older people that sleep on the underground steps of Bucharest. But who are they? How do they see themselves? The youths that I met realise that the NGOs are no longer willing to take care of them. Some of them, realised the situation in time and left the street when was still possible. Luminiza, whom I met when she was 21 had just left her life on the street and through considerable determination radically changed her circumstances. When I met Stefan (a social worker) on the street, I did everything to convince him to take me to the social apartment, even if there was no more free places, because I understood that nobody really cared about us older children. Many things had changed, everything was more difficult and I was no longer a child, and I wanted to find a place. I meet her for the first time on the 1999, within a social apartment for street children and youth financed by an Austrian NGOs. In 2001 she was still within this organization but working there as a social worker. She understood that the category of copii Strazii, created by the NGOs was no longer sustainable, as the NGOs could not extend this category throughout the time. Many other youths, however, were still expecting the help that has sustained them on the street, during these years, and still refered to themselves and understood themselves as copiii strazii. One example is the case of Catalin, a 21 year old boy, leaving in the street, which told me: I met the founder of an association, from America, some months ago, he promised to open an association to help our group. He said to me if I wanted to join the association and quit heroin, I could become an educator, because you know me with my experience can understand better these kinds of problems. If the association will open in

September, all of us will go there and if all goes well I will go with the founder to Africa to help the children there. The perspective that these children have of themselves was not simply a product of their previous experiences of the past of their families or the state institutions. Their past only brought them to a specific place in time (in the street, after the 1989), their self perception was defined by the daily contacts to whichever association and other social agents they were exposed. The politics of the associations, the ways in which they packaged the children for Western viewing, actually created the social category, which then evolved as the children filled it. This category eventually does not give a definition to the ex-street children that now find themselves lost and without point of reference and the ability to place themselves in a setting acceptable to society. As age takes the street child into street youth, the social category struggles to account for this change, its ability to describe the situation on the streets of Romania fails. Here we find the limbo of the street youth, trapped between their category and their style of life. The new groups of youths who are considered ex-street children, those who have refused to be saved by the NGOs and are still living in the street, represent not just a symbol of the contesting of the socio-political and economic system, but as a deconstruction of the street children category itself.

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Kligman, G. (1998), Politics of Duplicity, Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescus Roamania, University of California Press, Berkley.

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