https://reasonstobecheerful.world/moldova-making-orphanages-obsolete/
"Milena Malanciuc clearly recalls the day she was sent to an orphanage, when
she was just five. She had been playing in the park with her older cousin. On
their return home, they found a large black car waiting at the gate of Milena’s
house. Strangers ushered her into it without explaining why, or where they were
taking her.
The orphanage, she says, was a big, stark building made up of lots of
corridors, filled with adults and children — 200 or so children in total,
separated into dorms of around 12.
“When the car drove off, I was confused, wondering what would happen to me. I
didn’t understand why I was there, where my mother was, or where my freedom had
gone,” says Milena.
“On that first day, I just sat crying and calling for my mother, who never
came.”
It transpired that the child’s mother, who had been single, unemployed and
living in poor conditions, had died in hospital of an unknown illness —
something Milena would not be told until two years later. She had aunts and
uncles, but they weren’t in a position to take her in.
Milena would spend the next year in that orphanage in her native Ukraine,
before being transferred to one in Chisinau, the capital of neighboring
Moldova, where she stayed until she was finally adopted at the age of seven.
Her memories of the Chisinau orphanage are of a robotic, unchanging daily
routine in a place she likens to “a cold prison,” staffed by caregivers who
were often aggressive towards the children."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
