Romania, living on the fringe
ita engValentin and Mirela are a Romanian couple, aged 57 and 52. They live in Podu Văleni, a small village about 40 km from Bucharest. Theirs is one of those almost invisible stories, on the fringes of society. Valentin used to work as a mechanic and custodian, before a second stroke forced him to retire. Mirela suffers from mental problems and, like her partner, from epilepsy. They receive about 1,780 lei each per month (about 350 euro) from the Romanian state, which they use for medicines, electricity and food.
Mirela and Valentin were evicted from the flat they were renting when it was put up for sale, and their current home is crumbling. A blue plastic bin in the courtyard next to a cage with chickens is the only ‘’toilet’’ they have - a condition of hygienic deficiency that the couple shares with three million other Romanians.
According to the latest Eurostat data, one in six people in Romania (15% of the population) live in a house that is not connected to the water and sewage network. Although the figure has almost halved compared to 2017, the situation remains alarming. And it currently affects around eight million Europeans.
Photos by Lola García-Ajofrín, Romania correspondent for the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial , our partner in PULSE. Read the story.
This photo gallery was produced in the framework of PULSE, a European initiative coordinated by OBCT which supports cross-border journalistic collaborations.
