Every year, 10,000 babies are abandoned
in Romania's hospitals.
Since the fall of Ceaușescu 18 months ago,
around 10,000 children, have been adopted.
The Romanians are trying to introduce a fairer
and more efficient way of finding family homes
for the tens of thousands of children, in institutions.
Claudia, was born with one arm
and placed in state care as an infant.
Her mother died from complications arising from childbirth.
She grew up in four orphanages in different parts
of Romania until she was 18.
A huge system of orphanages
was created in Romania during
the Communist dictatorship of Nikolai Ceaușescu.
His dogmatic vision turned motherhood into a state duty
as he attempted to increase the population
in order to fuel the economy.
As the population increased by more than four million
he exported food to pay off the national debt
while he rationed supplies at home.
The Romanian people were left hungry
while Ceaușescu built himself huge palaces.
In December 1989, a violent revolution began.
Within weeks, the regime was defeated
and it's dictator executed.
The world then discovered the most haunting legacy
of Ceaușescu's remaining.
The fate of over 100,000 children
abandoned in the country's dilapidated orphanages.
Today Claudia works as a supervisor
as the Ion Holban Institution in Iasi,
Romania's second largest city.
It's the same institution where she lived as teenager
20 years ago.
Ion Holban is due to close in 2019.
Just over 7,000 children
live in Romania's 163 institutions.
All of which will be closed within the next decade.
It's part of a global shift to shut down large institutions
which can often reduce a child's potential
and expose them to abuse and exploitation.
The charity Hope and Homes for Children, has worked with
successive Romanian governments to close down 31 orphanages.
Any institution like Ion Holban should be closed.
They do not offer family, love.
They do not offer the child what a child needs most
which is to belong to a family,
to have a mother and a father, to feel special.
It's about a simple paradigm shift.
We look at where the children come from and we have
a program to prevent child separation from families.
We look at where they go to and we see how many of them
could be re-integrated back into their own families,
extended families or in foster care,
for those for which foster care is an option.
Some former residents of the Ion Holban
Institution have already made the transition
to a new family home, funded by the state.
The Minole sisters had lived at Ion Holban for five years
following a family tragedy.
Having raised their own children, uncle and aunt,
Theodore and Marie-Chica
decided to foster their five neices.
The Minole sisters have been lucky.
Around the globe, over two million children
still live in orphanages.
For those who cannot be reintegrated with their families,
their future hangs in the balance.
Many older children are likely to be relocated,
not into families, but into smaller state-run group homes.
After years in institutions,
some can find this overwhelming.
The global shift away from state institution care
has it's risks.
Finding new homes for vulnerable young people
can only work if their well-being can be ensured
as they make the transition to independent life
outside of state care.