Ceausescu’s Legacy: Family Struggles and Institutionalization of Children in Romania

Abstract

The significant numbers of children in institutions were among the numerous problems with which post revolutionary Romania had to contend. Since the cataclysmic events of December 1989 when the dictator Ceausescu and his wife were executed, countless orphanages were uncovered across the countryside of Romania. Thousands of children whose families were unable to support them were the direct out-come of Ceausescu’s stringent pronatalist measures and economic policies. Without existing alternatives, the children were placed in orphanages with minimal medical and social services resulting in high mortality rates and developmental disabilities. Another residual effect of the Ceausescu regime was the high rate of HIV among the institutionalized pediatric population. This article describes the sociocultural context of the institutionalization of children. Based on ethnographic research in a small town with an orphanage for the “irrecuperables,” this article will examine the circumstances directly and indirectly responsible for the institutionalization of so many children and, in addition, the struggles and living conditions of families with disabled children and adults who remained at home.