The young boy's dirty stocking cap hung off the top of his sagging head, and his blackened winter coat boasted of its wrong size. His pant leg was tied in a knot around the stub of his right knee, and he slouched over the erect, wooden crutches. Ionuts looked like an ensemble of Dickens's characters: Oliver Twist and Tiny Tim. The street boys nicknamed him “Piciu” or “The Kid.”

When Ionuts was 10 years old, he jumped off a moving tram. As he jumped, he slipped and fell under the rolling steel. The tram severed his leg below the knee. A passerby picked Ionuts up and drove him to the hospital where he remained for 6 months. Ionuts was then given no other choice but to overcome his tragedy. He limped out of the hospital and found himself back on the streets. Fortunately, there was always someone to make him a pair of wooden crutches, and Ionuts began to get used to hobbling around on one leg.

Ironically, the tragedy of a missing limb served to Ionuts' advantage. The entire city of Galati came to know him, and Ionuts became the symbol of all their street children. Because of his obvious detriment, people took pity on him and gave him money. With his newly achieved economic standing, Ionuts quickly became leader of the gang.

Although Ionuts had money and was the leader of the gang, he was not satisfied. He tried to fill his emptiness with shallow distractions. Ionuts used his money to buy alcohol; he picked up and toked on half-smoked cigarette butts; and he bought “aurolac,” a toxic paint that gives a euphoric high when inhaled.

In the winter of 1999, Ionuts was taken into a children's home. There he had a bed to sleep in. He gave up drugs and cigarettes. He quickly gained weight by eating healthy meals. Ionuts also began to read, write and go to school. But Ionuts was still stuck with a lifetime reminder of his past on the street – a reminder not easily forgotten by him or by society. When Ionuts went out into the city, people recognized the one-legged boy who would always be a street kid to them. When other boys from the home played soccer or rode a bicycle, Ionuts withdrew, staying inside by himself. In the home, not having a leg was not the advantage that it had been on the streets.

In the summer of 1999, a group of Americans came to Galati . Among them was a nurse who decided to take measurements for a prosthetic leg. A few months later, the group returned with a prosthesis molded to fit Ionuts.

Today you will normally find Ionuts back on the street. But instead of hobbling on his crutches, he is riding a bicycle. And society wonders whatever happened to the one-legged street boy that they used to take pity on.