Currently in Romania there are over 19,000 people living on the streets, including hundreds of children. Some such children are taken care of in shelters. In this video portrait, Alberto, a 14-year-old from a shelter home in Bucharest, explains what it’s like to live in an orphanage and how he got there in the first place.
“The shocking part of this story is not that he has no parents or a family, but that he had them! The reason why his mother left him there was the only too well-known reason of money problems. With the father out of the picture, his mother didn’t have enough money to raise him at home, and the heartbreaking part is that he couldn’t go to school because he had to stay at home and take care of his younger brothers, which he dearly did–he loved them to pieces. A major reason for Alberto being where is is that he couldn’t stay away from them. He said that his mother couldn’t afford the rent, they didn’t have a proper place to sleep or take a warm shower, they could barely afford daily food.
“In spite of the hard life he went through, he still had a very positive mind.”
– Filmmaker Nicolae Constantin
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/116757265″]
Very sad film. What a strong little boy, I hope he doesn’t loose his strength.