One Swiss Man's Patient Work Towards A Democratic Romania

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Stephan Büchi applied for a short-term assignment in a Romanian children's home. This turned into a lifelong commitment to disadvantaged people and a democratic society. This content was published on April 13, 2025 - 10:30 10 minutes

Bruno is SWI swissinfo's global democracy correspondent as well as being a long-term foreign correspondent for the Swiss Broadcasting Company, based in Sweden. He is also the Director of International Relations at the Swiss Democracy Foundation, Co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and Co-initiator of the International League of Democracy Cities.

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My work focuses on multimedia content formats. I produce videos and photos for SWI swissinfo's various online channels and work as a picture editor. I hold a bachelor's degree in Multimedia Production and completed an apprenticeship as a mediamatician.

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Bruno Kaufmann (Text), Vera Leysinger (Video)

• Deutsch de Seit 1991 setzt sich dieser Schweizer für Rumänien ein Original Read more: Seit 1991 setzt sich dieser Schweizer für Rumänien ei
• Français fr Le travail inlassable de Stephan Büchi pour une Roumanie démocratique Read more: Le travail inlassable de Stephan Büchi pour une Roumanie démocratiqu
• Italiano it Il paziente impegno di Stephan Büchi per la democrazia in Romania Read more: Il paziente impegno di Stephan Büchi per la democrazia in Romani

“I'm very worried about my second home,” Büchi says. The morning after the first round of the Romanian presidential elections, we meet in a coffee house not far from the headquarters of the national electoral authorities.

“The rise of extreme forces is not a good sign,” he says, worry lines etched into his face, which seconds later raises a little smile.“But knowing the Romanians, they'll overcome this crisis too,” he says. Büchi, a 65-year-old Swiss citizen, spends half his time in Romania and half in Switzerland.

On November 24, 2024, almost 19 million Romanians in and outside the country were expected to elect a successor to President Klaus Iohannis, who has been in office since 2014.

In the first round of voting, the far-right candidate Călin Georgescu and the liberal candidate Elena Lasconi made it to the run-off. However, the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the election due to suspected Russian meddling in the campaign, which meant that the entire presidential election process had to be restarted.

The first round will now take place on May 4, with a possible run-off on May 18. Georgescu, whose renewed candidacy has been declared invalid by the electoral commission and the Constitutional Court, is no longer allowed to run.

Büchi's Romanian journey began over three decades ago. After stints as a social worker in the municipality of Köniz and at Bern's juvenile court, Büchi, then in his early thirties, was looking for a new professional challenge. He applied to various organisations to work abroad.

“I was actually thinking of working in Africa, as I grew up bilingual in German and French in Switzerland,” he says. He ended up accepting a post with the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation in Trogen, northeastern Switzerland. Together with a Swiss colleague, his task was to advise and support several children's homes in Bucharest and the surrounding area.

After an eventful car journey over several thousand kilometres, in spring 1991 Büchi encountered a reality completely different from his Swiss homeland in Romania.

“In the state-run institutions at the time, more than 100 children lived together and were brought up collectively,” he says.“They had hardly any personal belongings and their heads were shaved when they entered the home. There were many street dogs around the homes; sometimes the children had to defend themselves against them, sometimes the dogs defended the home against outsiders.”

Lucica Tudor with Stephan Büchi, around 2007. Tudor grew up in a children's home, did not know her parents and had never attended school. She was in contact with Büchi for 20 years, until her death in 2018. Courtesy

The“children's gulags”, which were covered by the media globally after the fall of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in the early 1990s, triggered outrage and, according to Büchi, unleashed“a veritable scramble towards Romania by aid organisations”.

However, instead of simply returning home after a short stay, having given some good advice to the overstretched authorities and distributed relief supplies, Büchi decided to stay.“The children's zest for life under these very difficult circumstances was amazing and infectious,” he says.

The only man in a girls' home

As the only man and foreigner in a home for young girls, Büchi not only worked to improve the facilities, but he also organised new beds and individual wardrobe compartments for each child and had the laundry and sanitary installations modernised.

He also used knowledge he had gained as a social worker in Switzerland.“It was about seeing and supporting each child as an individual and doing things that made the girls take responsibility,” he says.

SWI swissinfo

Among other things, he founded a newspaper run by the children themselves and organised excursions and camps.“My toolbox from Switzerland contained many playful and team-building methods that I had also taken with me to Romania from my time as a scout leader in Köniz,” he says.

“Stephan brought many new, fresh ideas with him to Romania, where children's homes were subject to a strict state regime at the time,” says Claudia Stefanescu, one of Büchi's first Romanian colleagues.“What particularly impressed me was Stephan's ability to recognise the potential of individual girls and provide them with concrete support.” Büchi benefited from learning Romanian very quickly.

When direct support from the Pestalozzi Foundation came to an end at the turn of the millennium, Büchi joined forces with friends in Switzerland and Romania to set up his own aid organisation to support disadvantaged children and young people in the country.

“We organised flats where young people could live together after leaving the children's home, talked to schools and employers, financed studies and training,” he says. Büchi is still in close contact with many of his former children from the home.“Stephan is like a father to me and has supported me all these years,” says Adriana Anghel, for example.

Children from the Hotarele children's home in 1993. The girl on the far right of the picture is Adriana Anghel. Courtesy

Anghel came to a children's home south of Bucharest as a young orphan and, with Pestalozzi and Büchi's support –“he helped us with our homework,” she says – later completed her schooling and trained as a nurse. Now 42, Anghel stands on her own two feet. She is married, has a three-year-old son and has been working in a London hospital for several years.“Stephan paid for my flight to the job interview,” she says.

From post-communist poorhouse to EU economic powerhouse

Since Büchi first arrived, Romania has undergone a remarkable development. According to the World Bank, gross domestic product per capita has almost quadrupled since 1995. Today, the 238,000-square-kilometre country with a population of almost 20 million is one of the“most stable economies in the European Union”, according to a study by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

Romania has been a full member of the Schengen area since the beginning of 2025 –“a ground-breaking moment,” declared Romanian Finance Minister Marcel Boloș on the abolition of border controls with neighbouring EU countries to the north and south.

Following the violent overthrow of Ceaușescu, the first free elections were held in the country in May 1990. That autumn the European Community concluded a trade and cooperation agreement with Romania.

An association agreement came into force on February 1, 1995. EU accession negotiations began at the beginning of 2000 and were finalised in 2004. In the same year, Romania joined the NATO military alliance. It became a member of the European Union in 2007.

“We are much better off socially and economically today than we were three decades ago,” Stefan Stancu, the owner of a Bucharest fruit import-export company, tells SWI swissinfo. He got to know Büchi at the turn of the millennium and became involved in several of his development projects.“This work taught me and many others here how important voluntary work is in a modern society,” he says.

Like Büchi's long-time colleague Claudia Stefanescu or the former orphan Adriana Anghel, Stancu is among the Romanians whose self-confidence and knowledge have been strengthened by Büchi's patient work, enabling them to contribute as responsible citizens to a democratic society in transition.

EU and Swiss funding projects

Thanks to his extensive experience and broad network in Romania, Büchi also began working as an adviser and evaluator on EU and Swiss cooperation projects in the country after Romania's accession to the EU.

“I know him as a very professional, competent and committed expert,” says Thomas Stauffer, a Swiss diplomat who headed the Swiss Contribution Office in Romania between 2010 and 2016 and now holds the same position in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Büchi evaluated several socio-educational youth projects for Switzerland at the turn of the millennium and later advised the Romanian Ministry of Education on issues of family protection and children's rights on behalf of the EU.

“The aim was to raise awareness among local authorities, doctors and teachers about available therapeutic services for children from remote areas,” he says. According to Büchi, Swiss funding policy differs from that of the EU.

Stephan Büchi, a 65-year-old Swiss citizen, spends half his time in Romania and half in Switzerland. Vera Leysinger / SWI swissinfo

“Switzerland is more selective and monitors more closely where and how the funds can be used as efficiently as possible,” he says.

Staying up to date

Büchi's Romanian companions tell SWI swissinfo how impressed they were by the“study visits” to Switzerland that Büchi and his association organised.

“On these trips, I experienced and felt how a functioning democracy can also deal with difficult issues,” says Stancu, describing the task of“promoting international democracy, which is enshrined in the Swiss constitution, as Switzerland's most important task today”. That includes in Romania, where the presidential election that was declared invalid at the end of 2024 will be held again in May.

Büchi keeps up to date: even though he is in Switzerland for now, he watches the main news programme on the public broadcaster Televiziunea Română every evening before the news on Swiss public television, SRF. And instead of inviting Romanian colleagues on study trips to Switzerland, he founded a one-man travel agency a few years ago and accompanies interested individuals and small groups to various places in Romania – continuing his many years of work as a bridge builder and his patient commitment to a democratic Romania.

Edited by Mark Livingston. Translated from German by Catherine Hickley/ts

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