Care-leavers in Italy, Bulgaria, France, Romania and Latvia would be thirty thousand. They are the victims of a double abandonment: by the family and by society, which tends to leave them at the margin. This datum emerged within the fifth annual meeting of Eurochild (a network of 57 European associations taking care to defend children’s rights) ending in Budapest today (Budapest, 5-7 November). Italian care-leavers are 4,252. 6,326 young Rumanians between 18 and 26 live under state protection; 694 young Bulgarians from 17 to 21 live in residential structures; 1,753 Latvian people over 18 receive money benefits from the State; 17,331 young French from 18 to 21 years of age live under state protection. "Behind the story of each of them stated the Association Friends of the Children, taking part in the meeting there is a common denominator: the obligation to ‘exit’ the children protection system without being ready to face everyday life independently. Therefore, social exclusion is the first risk met by the adolescents who spent their whole childhood without a family supporting them". (To be continued)” “
