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Conditions in Romanian orphanages remain an issue

20 years on, John Mulligan is hoping that a song about their plight can help to raise awareness of a problem that never went away.

“WE’RE NOT EVEN looking for money so much. If we get some it’s great, but we are more interested in raising awareness.”

For someone who has spent his adult life trying to help those who can’t help themselves, John Mulligan knows that money is not always the solution to the problem.

It is through the raising of awareness regarding the conditions in Romania’s orphanages that he hopes help will ultimately find those who have been forgotten about – again.

Those who were in the orphanages 20 years ago as children have now reached adulthood. Many, however, are no better off.

This is the issue that “Who will take care of the children?” attempts to tackle.

(innyriver/YouTube)

Written in conjunction with Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan, all proceeds from its online sales will be donated to charity organizations that work in Romania.

Having originally started out working with Trade Aid to help improve the country’s infrastructure, Mulligan then focused on lobbying at government level “from Washington to Bucharest”.

In his previous attempts to effect change, Mulligan came up against many obstacles:

They [the EU] said it would be fixed when they allowed Romania in, and then when they did so [in 2007] and things didn’t improve, their view then was that they couldn’t do anything about it.

Mulligan feels that the wool has been pulled over too many eyes for too long. “When Romania was trying to impress the EU,” he says, “they said that there would be no children under three kept in institutions.”

“When I asked them how they solved it, I was told that they were now kept in the maternity hospital instead.”

“People in Romania have a lot on their plate,” he says, “and we think we have problems.”

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    Mute martin byrne
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    Feb 19th 2025, 10:23 AM

    Could the journal not just say ” stalking “

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    Mute Niall Carty
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    Feb 19th 2025, 5:44 PM

    @martin byrne: it’s a quote from the WTA statement.

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    Mute Ray Ridge
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    Feb 19th 2025, 10:56 AM

    What do they mean by “fixated behaviour”. Was he looking at her or what.

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    Mute Jed Ward
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    Feb 19th 2025, 2:01 PM

    @Ray Ridge: rumour has it, he was playing a little bit of tennis with his own tennis balls. His serve was a master stroke, and Emma was his opponent

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    Mute Papa Kilo
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    Feb 19th 2025, 10:39 AM

    Why wasn’t he arrested instead of kicking him out.

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    Mute Justin Robinson
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    Feb 19th 2025, 11:32 AM

    @Papa Kilo: Without wishing to make light of a potentially serious situation, for what exactly? The bloke who walked 23 miles to knock on her front door on the other hand….

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    Mute Phil McCabe
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    Feb 19th 2025, 7:16 PM

    @Justin Robinson: I’m sure Emma knows when she is being stalked. There is no need to second guess her intuition. If she felt unsafe then that is enough.

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    Mute QuinsStoop
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    Feb 19th 2025, 10:14 PM

    @Phil McCabe: let’s hope we don’t start banging people up on “intuition”, or “how she felt”

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    Mute Dave Campbell
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    Feb 20th 2025, 1:46 AM

    Whatever terminology was used is pure semantics. The poor girl was obviously in a very distressed state and needs to be taken seriously. Some of the comments here give the impression she was over reacting. There are a lot of freaks out there whose behaviour is deliberately borderline, in order to create the impression that there isn’t really anything going on. This is a shockingly sinister development and needs to be treated as such.

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    Mute Gavin Healy
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    Feb 20th 2025, 3:31 AM

    @Dave Campbell: the cynics probably too young to remember the what happened to Monica Seles

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