Tucked away between agricultural fields and industrial sites in Bihor County, Telechiu is one of many Romanian villages fighting for survival at the periphery of the economic and social transformation of the past decades. With about 250 households, 100 of which are estimated to be Roma, Telechiu ranked as the second poorest community in Romania, according to a 2008 study by the World Bank and the Government of Romania.
Tucked away between agricultural fields and industrial sites in Bihor County, Telechiu is one of many Romanian villages fighting for survival at the periphery of the economic and social transformation of the past decades. With about 250 households, 100 of which are estimated to be Roma, Telechiu ranked as the second poorest community in Romania, according to a 2008 study by the World Bank and the Government of Romania. Half of its Roma population lives in a segregated settlement near the village, by the main cemetery, and at that time most families lived in wooden and mud huts, with no running water, electricity or road. Of the 70 children aged zero to three, only two or three attended kindergarten, while most adults had no basic schooling and no stable income.
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