Two Rhythmic Gymnasts Expect to Be Homeless on New Year’s Day

Carmen Afilipoaie remembers there were times when she and her younger sister would go to practice sessions without eating anything. They would feel so weak, they couldn’t even do a single exercise. It was this state of extreme poverty that pushed the mother of two national rhythmic champions, Monica (17) and Carmen Afilipoaie (19) to commit suicide by throwing herself in front of a train, seven days before Christmas.

"She went out of the house around six without saying anything", remembers one of her daughters, Carmen, who is a gymnast at CSS Corrado Iasi. "The day before, she said she was fed up with poverty, and she is so desperate she'll do something stupid, but no one took her seriously," explained Carmen. It was almost midnight when Victor, the girls’ father went to look for his wife, who was yet to come back. "He got to the railroad tracks around our flat, when our dog smelled the blood, sat down and started howling like a wolf. Dad came back home crying and told us he feels that mom has left us." The next day, a police officer knocked on the door and asked someone to come pick of the clothes of the suicide victim. The next three days, the two youngest daughters, Carmen and Monica, both competitive gymnasts, knocked from door to door in order to gather the 1 million lei required to pay the funeral house and bring their mother’s body back home. They could only burry her on December 22nd.

Ever since Carmen remembers, her family has lived from one day to the next. Her father, who worked as a tin worker, had a hard time finding work and an even harder time making ends meet. After a long period of unemployment, her mother found work as a seamstress in a clothing factoring, but the money she earned were just enough to buy 200 loaves a bread a month. "We lived off of bors [traditional legume soup] and lots of margarine. Meat? I don't remember when was the last time I ate that," said Carmen. "Sometimes, we would go to school on an empty stomach. We would be so weak, that we couldn’t train because we were feeling so sick. Then we would lie about having a bad day. We didn’t want to be pushed aside by our teammates," she confessed fighting back tears. She was 8 years old, when along with her two sisters, Monica and Alina, now 22, she went to the training center at Onesti. "We stayed there for a year and a half. Since I was the only one selected to be on the team and my parents had to pay for the room and board of my two sisters, they just brought them back home at first because they couldn’t afford it. I eventually followed. I was left all alone and I couldn’t bear being beaten with a stick by the coaches who worked there," she remembers.

They all came back home to Iasi this year and among other medals, the young Filipoaie sisters also added a national team title to their trophy case. Carmen also finished third in the all-around competition. Teary-eyed, Carmen looks at her trophies for a long time. She won’t have a place to hang them soon. For a couple of days, an evection notice has been sitting on the table, announcing them that due to excessive debt, they have to leave their apartment the day before New Year's.

The Afilipoaies' family income was never above 1.5 million lei /month ($50). "My father, a tin worker, gets paid for each job separately and it’s hard for him to make more than a couple of hundred thousand lei/month. My mother, who works as a seamstress would barely get more 600,000 lei a month ($20),” adds Carmen. The debts for the apartment rent jumped over $6 million lei and they still owe over 40 million lei in unpaid bills. Figuring in the interest rate, the family is more than $70 million in debt($2,300). The two Filipoaie sisters and their father will be forced to leave their apartment on December 31st.

At the latest international competition, held at Brasov, Monica had 50,000 lei to spend the entire week. "My mother was heart broken she didn’t have any money to give me for food. She cried," remembers the youngster. "Eventually, our older sister Alina, who works in a bakery and makes around 1.5 million lei per month, made a couple of quick calculations and gave me the [50,000 lei] bill." At the end of the competition, Monica finished in the top 8 in the AA.

Dana Encutescu, General Secretary of the Rhythmic Gymnastics federation found out about the Carmen and Monica Afilipoaie’s mother who committed suicide from ProSport’s reports. "I know the majority of our gymnasts from Iasi come from families who have very bad financial situations. There’s poverty everywhere," she said. "Constantin Radu, the coach from Iasi, always tried to encourage them and even take them to international competition. They have a mini-bus that they use to drive to France over the summer. They have a partnership with a French club," concluded Ms. Encutescu.

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