Prevention and Social Assistance in South-East Banat Towns During the Late 18th Century and Early 20th Century
Prevention and Social Assistance in South-East Banat Towns During the Late 18th Century and Early 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: By being in a continuous process of development during the 19th and 20th centuries, the South-East Banat urban communities (Orşova and Băile Herculane) established a series of measures for social assistance and sanitary prevention, especially confronted with the diseases and animal pandemics of the times. A reference point in their evolution was the organisation of the Border Regiments, with all the measures to be applied by the local headquarters, but also the Church. Among these measures taken from sanitary reasons, a special place had the quarantine of Orşova and the spas of Mehadia (the future Herculane). The social assistance actions within the community were established as rules. After the dissolution of the Border Regiments (1871) these measures were undertaken by the local communities. Simultaneously, there are to be noticed situations which concerned protective measures for the persons who, due to different reasons, have not got the possibility to ensure their social needs or to develop their own capacities or skills in order to participate actively to social life. Also, the communities focussed their attention upon those who, due to various reasons, were in a temporary incapacity or in permanent impossibility to satisfy their needs using their own forces. That is why, the preoccupations of certain communities and religious groups or charitable persons, mainly based upon the generous sentimentalism and good intentions, intensified. Later on, all these became preoccupations of the civil society and public authorities of the local administration. They will take scientific forms during the post-December society. The manners in which such measures were applied are mentioned by archive documents or written works through which such information was valorised, but also through the newspapers of the time.

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