DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709080028

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus 

SOURCE: BY LORI MONTGOMERY, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE 
                                            LENGTH:   53 lines

FOCUS: DISCARDED CHILDREN SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE OVERTHROW OF DICTATOR NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, ROMANIA'S ORPHANAGES ARE STILL FULL - AND ROMANIANS ARE STILL MAKING AND DISCARDING UNWANTED KIDS, SOME OF WHOM END UP LIVING ON THE STREETS.

this date.] ILLUSTRATION: KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE

Marian Ionut Iordanescu and Marius Gabriel, both 13, take a sniff of

glue from plastic bags at a cemetery that commemorates victims of

the 1989 revolution in Bucharest, Romania. Marian says he sniffs

the glue because he has no food. The boys say they left home at age

6 to avoid beatings by their parents.

KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE

Chrisit Mustafa, 12, one of 2,500 children living on Romanian

streets, lives at the Gara de Nord train station in Bucharest.

VP MAP

HOW TO HELP

KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE

If you want to help the orphans of Romania, here's where to

write:

Children's Relief Network (non-profit agency to save the street

children of Bucharest). 4113 Cott's Valley Drive, Suite 208, Scott's

Valley, Calif. 95033. Telephone: (408) 430-9097.

Foundation A.R.M.S. (Aid for Reintegration Medical and Social).

Operates Bucharest's only medical clinic for street children.

Contact Liliana Andronescu at 40.1.210.5677 or write AIDROM, Strada

Halmeu 12, Sector 2, Bucharest, Romania.

Organizatia SALVATI COPIII (Romanian Save the Children). Provides

a vast array of services for street children and abandoned children

and is working to coordinate children's charities in Romania.

Contact Gabriela Alexandrescu at 40.1.637.5716 or write Organizatia

SALVATI COPIII, Intr. Stefan Furtuna 3, Sector 1, 77116 Bucharest,

Romania.

Foundatia FOC. Runs a day center, shelter and other services for

street children. Contact Beatrice Diaconu at 40.1.330.3699 or write

Foundatia FOC, Strada Splaiul Unirii 12, Bl. B6, Sc. 2B, Et. 1, Ap.

50., Bucharest, Romania.

The foreign contacts listed speak excellent English. KEYWORDS: CHILDREN

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