Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she writes about the homeless children living around the main train station in Bucharest, Gara de Nord. 

The homeless children around Gara de Nord represent yet another cause. Sadly there are many causes here in Romania, and as an expat in this country, it is important to know at least what is happening here, in this adoptive country that in many ways offer us such a great life.

Last year I went with a friend to Gara de Nord (in English the name would be North Railway Station), and he showed me around where the homeless were living. I talked to some of them, and what surprised me the most was their age. Some of the homeless children were around 10-12 years old, even younger, and most of them sadly were inhaling glue from bags, making it at times difficult to talk to them, because the fumes would get in my face, or they would doze away. Life is not easy for anybody on the streets, but for a young child it seems even harder. During summer it's better because they can sleep in parks, but winter is tough and they sleep in underground tunnels where they manage to get shelter.

When you talk to a 10-year old boy - bright and clever and indeed just a child, but talking like a grown up, as he has been toughen by the street life - about surviving, about how to find a place to stay, or how to get food, it does affect you. You can see he has no toys, he doesn’t talk about birthday celebrations or about what he wants to do when he will grow up, since there isn’t any goal to look forward to in his future. And you can't help but thinking this 10-year old should be playing football with his school friends instead of focusing on his survival, on how to fill his empty stomach, or how to get money to buy drugs.

You could probably ask yourselves: “Why should I care about some homeless children in the streets?” But it is a serious problem for everyone. No 10 year old deserves to live on the streets and be on drugs, and nobody wishes that for themselves.

Many would probably say it is their own fault, and they should just stay away from drugs. But when I talked to the young people on the street, I heard heart breaking stories and understood why they had to run away. Let’s just put it nicely: stories about really messed up childhoods, with absent parents. And not to be completely on their own, some just stay at Gara de Nord, where the fine line between hanging around and ending up on some kind of drug is very thin. Most of them want to go to school, but since they have to live off something to get food, water etc, they work instead, and they take almost whatever kind of work they can get.

But maybe you care, like I did when I recently read about the lack of funding for Asociatia Romana Anti – Sida ( SIDA = AIDS in Romanian ), which had been handing out new needles and condoms at Gara de Nord. After 14 years, they had to close down the project, as they were out of funding, and this raises concerns about an HIV and hepatitis epidemic.

Agentia Nationala Antidrog (the National Anti Drug Agency) promised that they in a few months will give money for medical supplies, but until then viruses like AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis will spread in this group.

Recently I was contacted by a friend, who asked if I could help the homeless boys at Gara de Nord, especially one boy, Nico, who is only 10 years old. He was really sick and the others asked my friend, if he could help. Nico is now in hospital suffering from AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis. What he needed the most were clean clothes, since he arrived there of course with nothing. A dear lady, Raluca Pahomi, who has her own little association for the homeless in Romania is taking care of Nico, and visits him every day to see how he is. He is all in all okay, very skinny and not really aware of how sick he actually is, and he doesn’t wants to stay in the hospital, but Raluca is trying her best to make him stay there.

This is not meant to be a tale to scare you, but just to let you know that this is happening out there in Bucharest, and that this problem can turn into a severe one for the public health of Romanians and expats living in Romania. Just think how many people who go via the Gara de Nord daily.

If you step on a needle, well you can get a problem, but tuberculosis is airborne when in the active faze, meaning the homeless around Gara de Nord can be virus bombs.

So before you pack your bags maybe on the way to the seaside going by train from Gara de Nord, why not make a difference from the people there, who indeed do not have the possibility to go on a holiday. You can contact Associate Homeless Raluca Pahomi, if you have spare clothes for men and women, children especially for girls, women products, diapers, toys, food products, cleaning products. Or if you want you can donate money so they start handling out free needles again, to limit the risk of AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis spreading.

By Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe, columnist

Eleonore is Danish, she holds a BA in Organization and Management and specializes in Corporate Communication & Strategic Development. She is also a Market Economist and a Multimedia Designer. She is currently working in Bucharest as the Executive Director of UAPR the Romanian Advertising Association. As a Danish Viking in Romania, with a great passion for ’covrigi’, she has a burning desire to find out more about Romania especially Bucharest, and enlighten the small differences in the culture between Denmark and Romania.. Her weekly columns will give you insights into an expats life in Bucharest written with humor and a big Danish smile.