Thirty-seven children live in the run-down state orphanage in the Moldovan village of Cupcui. But only one of them is actually an orphan. Many children in Moldovan state institutions have been placed there by their parents, motivated by grinding poverty, alcoholism, or other family problems and encouraged by a paternalistic state. A project spearheaded by UNICEF and the European Union to reunite children with their families, when possible, or place them in foster homes, hopes to change that.
