Young, HIV positive, and out of work

Healthy and strong men cannot find work in Medgidia, a town in economic and social crisis. What are the chances for an HIV positive young person to find a permanent job in these conditions, moreover when he has health problems or comes from a divided family? This is the story of an eight-member HIV positive young people’s group from Medgidia, with whom World Vision has been working since 2007. This is their struggle to find jobs and become independent.

Medgidia is a town in economic and social crisis. A medium sized city, located 47 km from Constanta, it is severely lacking in both jobs and the prospect of jobs for its 36,000 habitants.  An industrial town, Medgidia was very badly affected when the most important company – IMUM, a manufacturer of agricultural equipment and tools, with almost 6,000 employees - closed its doors in 2010. Lafarge Romcim, the second largest company in this area, is continually laying off employees; the last collective discharge saw 460 go.

Unfortunately, the city inhabitants can’t work in agriculture, due to Medgidia’s terrain: it is a naturally disadvantaged area (as declared by the government) – rocky, with reduced quantities of rainfall and high summer temperatures, inauspicious for growing crops.

“People don’t know where to find a job. We have only small food stores, drug stores, kindergartens and schools,” Claudia, a World Vision part-time employee from Medgidia, explains.

Without jobs and long term plans, many people have left town, in the hope of searching for new opportunities. In 2008, Medgidia numbered 50,160 people; today, there are only 36,000 people who are living here and trying to survive.   

Healthy and strong men cannot find work, in other towns or as daily workers. So what is the chance for an HIV positive young person to find a permanent job in these conditions, moreover when he has health problems or comes from a divided family?

None.

“The eight member HIV positive young people’s group from Medgidia, whom World Vision has been working since 2007, is a problematical and difficult one.  Most of them came from disorganized families, with separated parents, live in poverty and have a low level of education. But what is characterizing this group and creating lots of problems is the denial of their health condition. They don’t really accept that they are infected with HIV and don’t take consistently the treatment, which is dangerous especially for their life sex partners, uninformed about the risk they are exposed to. Anyway, nobody gave to these people a serious alternative to change their life style, to have a job, to have a life partner and a future.  All of them are desperately and psychologically affected by the disappearance of two of their friends, who died last year of AIDS,” said Anca Done, a speech specialist who is the World Vision coordinator of the HIV Project in Constanta. 

Even in such difficult situations, these young people have been coming weekly, unpaid, for the last five years, to the World Vision Art Club, to meet each other and to manufacture decorations and jewellery from beads.  

Every one of them wants to work. Selina is a 23-year-old Muslim girl who has never worked and never gone to school. She learned to read and to calculate from her older brothers and has an extraordinary dexterity and patience with delicate handmade things. “Selina is serious, skillful, learns fast the techniques and is a good teacher for others. Is a little bit shy but has imagination and creativity,” Claudia, her art teacher, says.

Asked how she would pack up a natural soap, she thoughtfully answered: “I would use flexible, dry leaves in order to keep the natural aspect.”

Ionut, 24, has been trying to find a permanent job for four years. Through World Vision’s intervention, he worked for three months as a TV repair mechanic, in Constanta. Unfortunately, the owner let him go after the probationary period, without reason.

“Ionut was destroyed when he stop to go to work. He was bored and wanted to do something useful,” Elena, mother of Ionut, confesses. The boy continued to search for work and finished a Corel-Drop course, at the ADV foundation. He sent more than 20 curriculum vitae to some food stores, restaurants and other companies, without obtaining an interview. Ionut would like to be a graphic designer, to promote the products manufactured in their social workshop. And he is sure he will be capable of doing this, because this boy has entrepreneurial spirit.    

Sorina, 22, was infected recently by her HIV seropositive husband, who didn’t tell her about his condition. Unfortunately, their two year old son was also infected. Sorina is working 2-3 hours a day at a food store. Her husband is working in construction, but the money is not enough for the family.

“Before having the baby, I worked in a food store, without legal forms. The firm bankrupted after one year and I was fired. I wish to have a part time job into a protected workshop. It will be a great help for me,” Sorina adds.

In a similar position are two other HIV positive young women: Dana, 24, a mother of two children and Milica, 23, mother of a three year old child. Both of them are separated from their husbands and support their children on their own. Dana left the little ones with her mother, just for a couple of hours, to come to the World Vision club and create jewelry. 

“When I am stringing the beads I am calming myself and I don’t think any more to the daily problems. Is like a therapy for me,” Dana explains.

Her friend, Milica, is struggling with more acute problems. Beaten by a violent husband, Milica is living now with her 65 year-old grandmother and her little child, in Cuza Voda village, 5 km from Medgidia. She tried to restore her life after she met another man, but her ex-husband heard of this and spread rumours that she was HIV positive. Milica has financial difficulties and is living on social assistance. Right now, Milica cannot come to the activities because she can’t afford the 14 lei in transportation to get there. But, in the past, she took part twice a month at the Art Club. A permanent job would give Milica and her child financial independence and a fresh start.

Laur, 24, lives with his brother and grandmother. His mother works in Italy and his father has remarried. Laur finished only grade eight and doesn’t have any qualifications. He is working in construction, without legal documentation and at the mercy of those who occasionally offer him jobs. He is a good, strong, hardworking young man but his future is uncertain.

Cristi is only 17 years old but he finished high school and is desperately searching for a job. He was working as a waiter’s assistant in Eforie resort, but his daily commute made him car sick and he had to leave. Cristi is eager to work.

Miron, 24, is eager too, even he though he is suffering from advanced cirrhosis and does not feel very well.

This industrious group wishes to work together in a protected, social workshop and to produce something useful. They are beneficiaries of Together for the Future project, developed in Constanta County by World Vision in 2005.  The project supports 80 HIV positive direct beneficiaries and their families. In Medgidia, it is functioning as an Art Club where the HIV positive teenagers and young people produce art objects and sell their goods at art exhibitions organized twice a year.

They would like to manufacture bio soap, as they know that it is a marketable product which would be easy to sell in Romania, and thus profitable for their group. 

The art club sells the objects and reinvests the profits. World Vision assists these young people by paying for vocational courses, making inquiries about employment and providing emergency assistance.