In the summer of 2001, hedge fund managers Kevin Gundle and Ian Wace visited Camin Spital, a state-run institution in Romania, where abandoned children were housed behind barred windows alongside disabled and mentally ill people.

Under the Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, who was president between 1974 and 1989, both abortion and contraception were forbidden, leading to a rise in birth rates. Children were abandoned and holed up in state-run institutions, where they were subjected to neglect and abuse.