While watching TV one day, 15-year-old Nick Simon, saw a program about the children NOT adopted from Romania. Orphanages were being downsized. Young teens were being turned out to the streets. Without families, most went to the only free place to stay-the underground sewers of Bucharest.
Nick, a former Romanian orphan, wanted to help. He started the Backpack Carepak project. Volunteers and sponsors collected enough backpacks of gently used clothing to help a 1000 streetkids in Bucharest.
Romania IS NOT the only country with streetchildren. Over 150 MILLION kids live on streets worldwide.
Nick wants to help them wherever they live. That’s why Orphan World was founded. Already, supplies have be sent two times to South America. A shipment leaves soon for Asia. Tons of supplies have helped homeless children here in Central Florida. Many projects are planned, including helping US foster care kids „aging out” of the system.
There are many reasons why streetchildren don’t get help. To some, they are an embarrassment. Countries want more tourists and economic development, not publicity about homeless kids.
Streetkids aren’t always cute, clean, or charming. They are part of the underground world that most people avoid.
Though they number in the millions, they have no economic influence. The powerful of society get headlines, not the poorest. Religious and human rights groups have many other causes. Few celebrities speak out about them. They don’t push any political hot buttons.
Though invisible to many, this young mass of misery is growing.
One youth DOES want to speak up for them. He isn’t a superstar. He just knows what it’s like to feel unwanted. He barely escaped being a streetkid himself.
I met him December 1990, in Bucharest, Romania.
For weeks, I had been struggling to adopt a toddler named Ana. Red tape, changing political climate, and one missing document prevented her from having a home. I had waited a lifetime to be a Mom. Now I was packing my bags to go home ALONE. Tears streamed down my face as I heard laughter and baby songs in the next room.
My roommates had all completed successful adoptions that day. They were having a party to celebrate. My heart ached to join them, but how I could I celebrate? Only an Academy Award-winning actress could hide the despair I felt.
A friend invited me to visit a little boy she thought would be perfect for me. His dad was dead. He had never had a family visitor. Perhaps he would be easier to adopt?
It’s hard for others to understand. I could not simply replace the child I loved with someone else. I didn’t want to go.
FATE…the Party made me go.
When we arrived at the orphanage, someone sent for him. He was told that his mother was there to visit him. As he turned the corner, they pointed to me.
My mind registered the cruel error. The tiny boy wore layers of smelly clothes. His head was shaved. He was shy and scared. The orphanage was freezing cold. However, I couldn’t open my heart to him. Ana’s situation was far worse and she was only two.
Perhaps some candy and a teddy bear would let him off easy?
I went back to my apartment more upset than ever. What would Paul, my husband, say?
I returned early the next morning with a doctor and friend to give him a check up and vitamins. AND to say good-bye. He sat close to me. He was so quiet, I asked the director if he could talk. She had him count to five. I knew enough Romanian by then to understand him. After saying some numbers, he looked up and spoke softly. Everyone in the room seemed startled. „What did he say?” I asked. She told him to „Repeate.”
He said, „Mama, Mama. Why did it take so long to find me?”
Even the director was moved to tears. I could not leave this young boy behind.
After trying for six hours, I finally reached my husband. He said, „Bring the little guy home. I will love him too.”
One week later, we were on the last plane out of Bucharest just before an airline strike. Mechanical problems and a blizzard delayed us two hours. I didn’t care. I was going home with my new son!
Fourteen months later, Ana came home too!
We believe in miracles.
Adopting a child does not mean living happily ever after. 5 1/2 years of institutional care took a toll on Nick. Babies must be held and loved to develop properly. Nick didn’t get much of that.
He had needle mark scars all over his legs from being tranquilized. He had never seen a swingset, a bathtub, a television set. We received frantic calls from school. „Nicky is under the school bus examining the tires.” „Your son fell out of the reading loft.” We stayed on constant alert.
Eventually, he relaxed and started to grow. He was the size of a one year old when we got him. A year later, he was six inches taller. It wasn’t from my cooking.
Nick shows us constantly why adults must NEVER give up on kids, no matter how old they are or what others say.
In middle school, he read on 1st grade level. Experts said he was too brain damaged to ever earn a high school diploma. The best to hope for was a certificate of completion. Testing, conferences, requested services, etc…nothing could get him what he needed to succeed. The „No Child Left Behind” act wasn’t making much difference in his life.
Kids learn best the younger they are. While experts tried to convince us he couldn’t learn, he was losing precious time. We searched the Internet and found a school that helped teens with severe auditory processing disorders.
It had helped college-bound LD kids since 1926. Once enrolled, Nick made incredible progress. It wasn’t rocket science to help him learn to read…just trained teachers using proven methods. Teachers who believed he could succeed.
In 2 1/2 years, he SKIPPED 8th grade and went from 1st to 12th grade reading level. He returned home to attend a regular public high school of 2300 students. He passed Florida’s FCAT test the FIRST try, took and passed Honors English, Honors Algebra 2, and Honors Physics. He graduated from high school at age 18 with a partial college scholarship.
Nick just completed his 1st year of college while working TWO jobs to pay expenses.
He was almost left behind in Romania, in school, in life. What a waste of human potential if he had been. Now that he can take care of himself, he helps others. That’s a gift we all have.
When I returned to Romania for Ana, I learned that Nick was the only child adopted from his orphanage before it was demolished. Thousands of children live in orphanages. Few ever know what it’s like to be loved. When they leave, they are forced to live on the streets. They survive the best they can.
Some think streetkids are too hardened to help or that there are too many of them. Skeptics don’t make the world better. Centuries ago, someone kinder and more compassionate said, „Look after ORPHANS and widows in their distress…” That command is just as appropriate today.
Several stories on our website show that streetchildren CAN turn their lives around…with help.
Sometimes when people help others, good things come back to them.
Word spread about Nick’s Backpack Carepak project. A Canadian family read about it and realized that they had adopted Nick’s younger brother, Joey. After more than a decade apart, the two brothers finally met in Orlando. What better place than the land of make-believe for such an emotional visit. Sometimes reality is better than fiction.
Nick has another brother who WASN’T adopted. He’s two years younger. He has disappeared to the streets. Nick wishes he could find him too.
Please pray for him and the millions of kids worldwide living on the streets. Even if miracles don’t happen, perhaps it will bring some comfort to their world…OR a HELPER of the O.W.L.S.
ALL kids are children of promise when someone loves them to success. If you believe that too, please let us know.
Email: orphanworld@aol.com
the feelings that this article made me feel are beyond words.i’m afraid we never take into consideration the fact that out there are people who are less fortunate than us.unfortunately, the social „segment” of orphans is to large.and if, instead of complaining about our life we started doing something with it, we would have evolved more than we can imagine.Nick is a lucky case. we shouldn’t forgett the others.just try to help them.or maybe that’s to much to ask?