What I found...
A Chance Encounter That Sparked a Mission to Help Romania's Forgotten Children
To this day, I do not remember how I got from Otopeni Airport to my hotel in downtown Bucharest. But somehow, I found myself alone in a hotel room in a city about which I knew nothing—with no connections, no appointments, and no idea what I should do next.
The next day, I set out with a short list of six non-profits that were supposedly located in Bucharest. I never found them. Then I went to the American Embassy to see if I could gain entrance to one of the inhumane institutions I had seen on television. The clerk I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about. Then she said, and I quote, “Oh, don’t worry about them. They will be dead soon.”
I have been blessed to have been born in a country with functioning social services and a capacity for empathy. After all, peace begins with empathy. And I do not blame the Romanian clerk for her bluntness—it was simply the reality she had come to know in a struggling post-communist society.
My week in Bucharest was quickly coming to a close, and I had made no meaningful connections. I had visited a showcase orphanage with an American church group and, while the people and experience were lovely, it did not bring me any closer to the reason for my visit.
On my last night in the capital city, I was walking down the street toward McDonald’s when I saw a group of young children huddled together in a corner. I walked over and said hello. They smiled, and one of the children spoke a little English. They were hungry and cold, so I came up with the idea of taking them into McDonald’s with me to get them some hot food.
Sheepishly, they followed me into the restaurant—where we were promptly ejected.
I got into a confrontation with the manager, who told me that homeless people were not allowed inside stores, restaurants, hospitals, churches, or schools. They were treated as though they were invisible—non-people.
I turned around and saw the disappointed, pale faces of the children to whom I had just promised a warm meal out of the cold. Indignant, I marched back into McDonald’s and bought enough food for everyone. I carried the trays outside to the waiting children standing near the entrance.
Sitting on frozen concrete picnic tables in the snow, I made a promise to myself that I would do something to help change this inhumanity. I took photographs with my small disposable camera, and that moment became the beginning of Archway—the Abandoned Romanian Children’s Way.
