The story of Fabian

Fabian Robu was a veteran and passionate social worker at CONCORDIA Romania. He started working as a volunteer at CONCORDIA 28 years ago with children and young people who previously lived on the streets.

In 1993, CONCORDIA opened the St. Paul Social Centre in Bucharest's railway station for people who live on the street and have no home.

Fabian's voluntary year became his life's work. Since 2013, Fabian has been looking after the family-like housing group in Ploiești, Romania.

In the interview, Fabian talks about his work with the children at CONCORDIA: 

"From the beginning, I was convinced of the organisation's ability to find solutions to the "street children phenomenon" that emerged immediately after the Romanian revolution in 1989. Over time, the "street children phenomenon" has diminished and CONCORDIA has adapted its programme to the existing social needs and still does so very well today.

One moment I remember fondly is when one of the children asked me, "Fabian, why did you leave home?" This question was common among street children. We lived together, in the same building.

The activities we organised for them were aimed at convincing them to give up their life on the street, to become emotionally stable and to convince themselves that someone, CONCORDIA, is in their place and wants them to be safe. When all this was reasonably assured, we started literacy, their enrolment in school and so on.

The answer to this question was pretty clear to me, but I realised that the question was actually as serious as it could be and meant for me that I played a role in their lives and was accepted. Now it was my turn, like everyone else, to say why I left home.

Why did I leave home?

I said to myself, “Okay, a year of volunteering, helping people, I think that would help me.That was the reason, I wanted to have a social experience and that's why I left home.”