Monica Borcea

In the summer of 2001, thanks to funding by USAID, Fundatia de Sprijin Comunitar’s newly hired program director, Adriana Oatu, started a conversation with a four-year-old boy begging in the Bacau railway station.  A few days later she met his mother, Monica, and invited her to enter FSC’s brand new Ready, Willing & Able (RWA) program.  

Monica Borcea is a 27-year old-woman of Roma descent.  But she didn’t grow up in a painted wagon or a Gypsy village.  She grew up in an apartment “bloc” in Bacau, one of seven children. Her father worked on the production line in a shoe factory where her mother was a janitor.  After a conflict with her eighth grade teacher, Monica walked out of class and never returned.  She sold sunflower seeds on the street for a couple of years.  At 16 her first child was born.

When Adriana met Monica she was living with her two sons and the children’s father in a windowless storage shed near the railway station.  Essentially they were squatters – and were constantly being threatened with eviction.  Unlit and unheated, their bare room had a crumbling cement floor and was furnished with boxes.  Neither she nor her husband had regular work.  They survived by occasional day-jobs, and her youngest son, Cristi, was already proving to have a knack for begging.   

Adriana explained to Monica that being in the program required her (1) to enter a three-month work training program and (2) to prevent little Cristi from begging and (3) to have her school age children registered and attending school regularly (and also not on the street).  She would be paid $2 per training session and her older son could get a free hot lunch if he attended FSC’s “Stefanita” after-school program. 

Monica was skeptical about this “Ready, Willing & Able” thing but she was also desperate, and it seemed like a pretty easy way to earn $2.  She showed up at the first mothers meeting and every subsequent meeting.  We were impressed with her equanimity and carriage.  Within a month we had placed her as a housekeeper in the newly opened American School, a tuition-based kindergarten and primary school. 

At the graduation ceremony of our first group of trainees, the City Hall’s director of public housing was so impressed with Monica’s story that she promised on the spot to find her better housing.  But – as the Secretary of the City Council was quick to point out –  in order to qualify for “family housing” you have to be married. Consequently, Monica and the father of her two children were married shortly thereafter.  The RWA team had a wedding shower for her and gave her a stove and a small amount of money. 

She was very grateful to have steady employment and worked hard and reliably.  But it was not an easy year.  In February her father died.  Romanian Orthodox tradition requires families to invest heavily in a series of events following a death.  So there was a big financial set back on top of the emotional distress. At Easter time, she had her two sons baptized, something that had long been her dream.  During the family gathering following this ceremony, Cristi was struck by a car.  (He spent several days in the hospital but eventually recovered fully.)  In the spring Monica was beset with a series of medical problems.  The doctor gave her a two-week leave of absence, but Monica didn’t take full advantage of this “work benefit.”  After a couple of days she was back on the job. 

Things took a turn for the better in the summer.  Her husband obtained a construction job on the recommendation of the RWA director.  After repeated visits to City Hall by Monica and many phone calls on the part of the RWA staff she got a letter from the Mayor’s office in September of 2002: there was a one-room apartment available that her family could move into immediately.    

From the beginning Monica had sent her older son, Darius, to the Stefanita after-school program. Darius caught the attention of the Stefanita team with his sweet manner and beautiful singing voice.  Last winter he was recruited for the new Stefanita singing group called “Zmeuris” (The Rasberries).  He sang in front of 200 people at the Bacau Community Awards Dinner and for the Mayor at his famous summer birthday party.  When an American who read about our program in a U.S. magazine offered a scholarship to send a Gypsy child to the private American School, Darius was everybody’s favorite.  Today Cristi is in the Stefanita kindergarten and Darius is doing well in the American School’s second grade class comprised of children of mixed social and financial backgrounds.   Last Saturday Monica, her family and several RWA staff members celebrated Darius’s ninth birthday in the family’s new apartment. 

If it weren’t for this program, Monica would not have been employed for 14 months, would not be married, and would not have her own apartment; it is possible that little Cristi might be in an institution by now, and almost certain that he would not be attending kindergarten.  Monica can now obtain health care and can control her family’s growth like middle class couples do.  Both of her sons are getting the best education that Bacau has to offer, in direct contrast to so many other impoverished Gypsy kids. 

Monica is a role model to other women that you can escape the cycle of poverty and discrimination with a lot of work and perseverance – and a little luck.  The philosophy of Ready, Willing & Able is that the best way to avoid institutionalization of children is to provide impoverished families with access to housing, medical care, education, jobs and self-respect. 

Perhaps the most important long range effect of this program is in making the community aware of such success stories, boosting morale among “Roma-Romanians” and improving their image with other Romanians.  We do this by having the children perform at every possible public function and giving the local media lots of good news.  It is a slow process but it is working.   

November 15, 2002