His nickname Haiduc means gangster, and that suits the tough Nicu well. He lives in a harsh world: addicted to drugs, he ran away from home at the age of seven and spent years living underground, in the sewers beneath Bucharest, Romania’s capital.
For a while Nicu found relative safety there, among a small community of street children who have lived in Bucharest’s tunnels since Romania’s orphanages emptied in the 1990s, hiding from a life with no other options. But the sewers offered no real escape. Years of drug abuse have taken a heavy toll on his body, and the world underground has left its own scars.
Today Nicu lives above ground with Raluca, a caregiver who supports street youth trying to rebuild their lives. Living with her gives him a chance he never had before, but it also confronts him with a choice he can no longer avoid: keep using and risk destroying what is left of his health, or fight to get clean and build a different life.
