B----- (M), 15
Foster-child
Introduces Himself
My name is B-----, and I am fifteen years old. I’ve been living here for ten years in Snagov…
I like to listen to music and I love girls - I’m crazy for girls. And I like very much to be filmed, to be in the media - because that’s what I’ve always wanted, and probably that’s what I’m going to do.
On His Origins
I was born in Curtea-de-Arges. My mother left me with a children’s home in Curtea-de-Arges.
From there I came to Colentina hospital, and there I stayed for several years until Ms Anne took me. [Anne McNicholas, Founder of Health Aid UK]
And it was like a nightmare for me. Because in those moments I really wanted to have my mum next to me. To feed me. I was very young, and she shouldn’t have done that. Like any child I wanted to be with my mother, to be pampered, to be kissed, to be sung lullabies in the evening, but none of this ever happened to me. But they happened to me here.
The first day when I came into this world I wasn’t sung any lullabies, and I wasn’t very happy. And I was mistreated all my life ‘til I came here to this organization. This is my life as a baby.
On why he was abandoned
Probably my parents didn’t have any money. There is another [possibility] – that my parents had unwanted children. There’s another [possibility]. They came to collect me from the hospital, but when they found out I was HIV positive, they left me here forever. These are the three [possibilities] for why my parents may have left me here. Probably they were afraid that other kids might catch it from me...
Mrs Tina and Ms Anne [Tina Rotariu and Anne McNicholas, of HAR and HAUK respectively] told me that the conditions were very bad in those days. All the syringes were un-sterilised. We were left down, and they didn’t change us. We were left with the same nappy till the evening. And they didn’t feed us with good food.
And that’s what I thought, too - that in hospital, you can’t have the good food that your mum cooks…
On Health Aid, the organisation that cares for him
Doctor P----- always liked me, together with N---- and G---- [other Health Aid kids]. Us three. …He’s always helped us. And he never left us to our own devices. He’s tried to direct us toward the future. Towards a more normal life. Towards what normal people do in a normal society. To make us feel like normal people, like people who have nothing to hide…
…With Mrs. Tina he always tried to bring us to a better future...
To see what he spent all this money for. If they wasted it.
On His Foster-Parents
…That they came here pleases me very much, because they are very nice parents. I can tell you that you can’t find such parents even in a [normal family]. They’ve treated us as if we are their own kids.
…They gave us a hand. We’re very happy since they’ve come. We’ve had all sorts of celebrations. It’s like a continuous party. Especially Florin is a very good man. He loves us a lot. Every time mum told us off he would defend us. He loves us a lot. He has a lot of mercy in him. He loves kids a lot.
And he doesn’t want to disappoint us. Like – ‘he used to love us before, but not any more’ - no. Daddy and I get on well. Every time I have a problem I go to him because he’s my real dad. I couldn’t consider my natural father my father. But these people have a good heart. You can trust them. You can tell them both good and bad things, because they’re going to solve your problems. They’re your right hand.
On Appearing On television
On the first of June they made a programme where there were only HIV+ kids…
…We played, we had fun, that’s why we went – and we enjoyed ourselves very much. And later the evening came, when [the programme was shown]. What could I do but watch to the very end?
And at the end they said - these kids are going to die. They’ve got HIV, and they’re going to die. And I said that he’s going to die – because he’s got HIV in his head! How could he say that we’re going to die? When we’re being cared for by Dr. P----, by Mrs Tina, by the whole organisation?
We’re not going to die – the man who said it might die sooner than us. Everything that was said there was wrong.
Kids in today’s world don’t die so easily. HIV+ kids are being treated by the state, and they get free medicine… …We can’t die.
Well - if God wants us to die, we will – but we won’t die simply because [the TV programme] said that. This is very bad to me - that someone would tell me “B-----, you’re going to die tomorrow”. I would tell him - “You sick man! What do you mean I’m going to die tomorrow?” Could he read our future? He didn’t. He has no way of knowing that we’re going to die in two-thousand-and-something.
What [the presenter] said was a stupid thing. He had nothing better to say at the end. He probably got bored - and thought, oh, I’m just going to say something stupid. It was a big, stupid thing. Probably he might say it again. Because he probably still thinks that we’re going to die.
On Living With HIV
We’re not going to die if we’re being treated seriously, by all the people who care for us. We can’t die. This is like - like a threat for us.
It’s like, if a kid had HIV from birth, that he’s going to die twenty minutes after. No. If you know how to treat the kid, he’ll live for years - years and years. 180 years he’ll live. Or… maybe a hundred. Or at least 101 - because there are people who live to 101!
But there are people who have this disease and live very well and freely – they have a family, they have kids, they don’t have any problems, they’re healthy and - and attracted to life.
They’re not like, “oh dear, I’ve got HIV, what am I going to do? I should go away from here”. No. There are people who take this seriously. And it’s right that you should take this seriously – but you should treat [people with HIV] just like you treat other people. Not say - “He’s got HIV and you shouldn’t pay attention to him”. Or talk to him from a distance of two metres.
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