Updates–2019

Link to the 2019 Day Centre 2019 gallery here

November 2019 – This autumn has been great for our children and their newly employed mothers in the village we are helping. At the Day Centre the children are getting all the help they need to keep on top of their schoolwork. Overcoming failure is such a lift to their lives. Because the weather was so good, the mushroom season was long giving the women a lot of work out of this project. They are very hard-working and so were hired to keep working as the nut season began. Being able to provide the basics for their families is their joy.
Mirela my right hand over there told me a few weeks ago that she was talking on the phone to Dorina at work at the state group home and she had all the children up and listening to music. Mirela said she could hear such happiness in the background as they tried to sing and make noise, and we know how they move as best as they can. Music is therapy for these neglected children and they seem to forget their handicaps.
Please see the annual newsletter for more information.

August 2019 – It was a very good summer with children attending the Day Centre getting help with their summer homework, being fed and having activities. It was important that the young children of the mothers we got to work, had care. All the children were prepared for the new school year, backpacks and school supplies were donated, and we bought them each a badly needed pair of shoes. Now 36 children are ready to begin!
Cornelia is extremely happy that 6 year old Roberta who has hydrocephalus is now walking on her own. These years of work with her have been so worthwhile and now the child is just as delighted in being able to move on her own. Two and a half year old Bobi has learned to walk too.
Dorina and Zorita spent the summer helping the severely disabled children cope with the heat waves by more bathing and getting them out into the shade. These mostly immobile children know love and attention, and so to not leave them sweating in bed means a lot to them.

June 2019 – All the children passed their school year again, being supported and taught at our Day Centre, and so we are extremely grateful for those who help make this happen. Oana with her passion goes to companies asking for food, clothes, shoes and school supplies, and a local farmer gave her 24 hens so the children can have fresh eggs. But it is we who pay the salaries for the previously unemployed women to work with the children at the Centre.
The 10 parents going to work at the mushroom plant are very happy with being able to provide for their families now, and we have managed to add 8 more unemployed, unskilled mothers to the group. It took some time and effort in the mornings helping them to organize and get ready for work (the first job for most of them) but they are all just so happy now.
Geanina who started teaching parents literacy this winter is working with their children at the Centre during the summer so that they can go to work knowing that their children are being cared for and learning. They join the other children whose parents found seasonal jobs. The adults will continue their literacy classes in the fall.
The new manager at the hospital where we were caring for abandoned babies is not allowing any foundations to help there anymore. We are very disappointed but are increasing our focus on the Day Centre and its village where we are changing many lives which have already begun a new direction.
We are also striving to keep our women working with the abandoned children with disabilities in the state group homes. These very disabled children desperately need love and affection. The ones who can't communicate but understand everything come alive when our women lovingly interact with them, getting them moving, playing and laughing.

April 2019 – Six month old Zaharia and 8 month old Abel have again been left in the hospital. They are being loved and fed cereal and bananas along with Otto who is 10 months old. Calina is a pretty 2 month old baby that will be going into foster care soon.
Zorita was so happy to tell me about 11 year old Sebi and his learning to talk - he's now calling her mama! He calls the manager of the house a version of her name, but Zorita is more to him. Sebi is very physically disabled but good-natured and understands everything. His success in learning to talk makes him very happy too. His emotional intelligence is developing from all the love and interaction he gets from our women.
Evelin who Dorina has taught to walk can now do it by only being held by the hand while slightly supported from behind. She is extremely noisy when it comes to her desire to walk, and happy and calm after the exercise.
The beginning of May, 10 unemployed parents of children who go to our Day Centre will begin going to work, and they are no longer illiterate! They have been learning these past couple of months to read and write and because the mushroom processing is shift work, on their days off they will continue to go to the Centre to learn. While they are at work, others will go to learn, and so through literacy and therefore a better chance for employment, we will help these parents be able to provide the basic necessities for their children.

February 2019 – There was more sickness than usual this winter in the hospital and out but the abandoned babies in our care all recovered.
Our women are working especially hard with Cornel the 13 year old to get him to walk. He’s doing amazing already and there’s great hope that he will be able to walk with assistance.
Winter holidays were wonderful with Cornelia helping the girls catch up with their schoolwork, and teaching them to cook simple things. She is also teaching them how to mend clothes. They are becoming teenagers and Cornelia is very focused on the practical!
We are so happy that we have been able to start giving literacy classes to 10 of the unemployed parents of the children going to our Day Centre. Geanina, a 23 year old university student from the village is teaching them in the mornings while the children are at school. We are feeding them breakfast to help them start. They are worried and nervous about learning but they know and respect Geanina, and she is the best one to teach them. They need to see that someone from the village can succeed. Oana and Marius found a businessman to hire these parents to start work in May to do mushroom processing. These families without the basic necessities just need a hand up.