The child sold in Gorj recalls the time when Western televisions would broadcast deplorable images of children from foster care centers in Romania

After 1989, Western televisions would broadcast deplorable images of children in foster care centers in Romania.

Children kept in chains, in squalor, in overcrowded spaces, malnourished, traumatized.

The Romanian state had forgotten about them, as well as the families. What was Romania’s solution? To “sell” them. The mass adoptions of foreigners were too much for the “poor” post-communist Romanian bureaucracy. The whole context also gave way to less orthodox methods by which different individuals bought copies “wholesale”, no longer needing “boring” papers.

Moreover, given the current of the times, many other families resorted to this method by which, due to poverty, they managed to earn some money for tomorrow – by selling their child.

Even today, the total number of children sold in those years is not known. Groups and communities have formed on social media of such people who have been adopted and are now looking for their family members. Although many encounter difficulties due to the non-existent documents in our state archives, there are enough happy cases of family reunification – but mostly through the input of relatives and social networks.

The case of the minor from Gorj who was sold for 8,000 lei only revives an echo from Romania’s dark past: are we once again forced to sell our children to ensure tomorrow’s meal, while the state helplessly assists?

It is very sad and hard to believe that something like this is happening and it happened in the country categorized as “the most Christian in the world” (85% of the population considers itself Christian).

The lack of organization and the indifference of the employees in the responsible institutions allowed thousands or maybe tens of thousands of abuses, it is hard to imagine what many of the children from that time went through over time, especially if we think about the lack of monitoring prerequisites from the state.

Where did the debandada from 1990 lead? We attach a video from the time:

Is living in Romania so hard again? Are we heading back to desperate acts by under-resourced families? Hard to believe, especially since in 2024, in the most “Christian” country in the world, something like this is happening.

In 1990 foreigners came with trucks and humanitarian aid, but today, who else is coming?