A turning point in the campaign to close Romania’s dungeon-like orphanages and cruel homes for the disabled came with the shutting of Camin Spital, a grim block near the Ukrainian border with bars on the windows to stop people from jumping to their deaths.
“It was like Dante’s vision of hell — the sign on the door said it was a ‘Centre for Irrecuperables’ and it was a prison for children diagnosed with mental disabilities who would never leave,” Stefan Darabus, the national director of the charity Hope and Homes for Children (HHfC), said.
“We were warned not to go to the third floor or we would be attacked by the older children,” Darabus said of his first visit in 2002, adding, “Shutting it down was a major stress test for us.”