ROMANIA UPDATE
The newsletter of Romania Care, registered charity no. 1012759

January 2003

Nursing and Respite Care Project.

We give thanks to God that inspite of the very wet weather in Romania last year, the shell of the building was completed and weatherproofed before the winter snows came!

Looking to this year, we still need to raise another £45,000 to fit out the building. To help do this we are introducing a sponsorship scheme. There are lots of things available to sponsor ranging in value from £100 to plaster and decorate a room, to about £7,500 for the installation of the heating system. A full list will be available from early February.

Would you as an individual, a church or group, consider taking on sponsorship? How about asking the local school or youth group or Brownie pack to take on an item? The more groups that become involved the better, and as always we are happy to provide speakers where that would help.

Introducing our new part time administrator

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Emma Steed as our new part time administrator. Emma has been involved with the charity for a number of years and taken part in 3 trips to Romania.

Emma can be contacted on 01707—884202 Her email address is : eSteed@RomaniaCare.com

Fund Raising Event

“60’s and 70’s Night with Auction of promises” at Verulam School, St Albans on Saturday 22nd March 2003. See enclosed poster for further details. Please publicise this event and come along with a group of friends!

Relationship with the Orthodox Church

In November Peter was in Romania and met with the Orthodox Priests in Clit and Fintinele. He was very impressed with their openness and willingness to work alongside us, particularly with the childrens’ work. He says :

“One story really highlighted this new relationship for me. After we had returned to England Paul Clark found out that in some of the shoe boxes a well meaning donor had put tracts on how to become a real Christian. As these boxes were being delivered by the priest in Clit we felt it only right to warn him in case he objected. Far from the opposition we could have met he merely said 'not to worry I will tell them that I put them there!!' What a change!”

Please keep praying for the building of these relationships and that we might begin to build a similar one with the priests in Ilisesti.

Teams 2003

A number of teams will be travelling out to Romania with us during 2003. If you would like to be a part of them, we have spaces on the following teams :

July 19th to 26th in Clit. This team will be based in the village of Clit where the floods were last summer, and where many of the shoeboxes were sent at Christmas. The team will run a holiday club each morning, and do some basic DIY work at the local dispensary in the afternoons.

July 26th to August 2nd in Fintinele. This team will be based in Suceava. The team will run a holiday club each morning and be engaged in basic DIY work in the afternoons.

We are also looking at the possibility of sending people out to work in Ilisesti, at the Nursing and Respite Care Home. We are looking for plumbers, electricians, tilers… Dates for going to Romania are more flexible here - please contact the office if you would be interested in helping with this work.

We have kept the cost of joining one of these teams to £450 for 1 week or £500 for 2. We are also asking people to try to raise funds for the projects. Please contact us for an application form.

We have decided not to send teams to Moldova this year. This is because our main contacts in Moldova are no longer there! Pavel has moved with his wife Mihaela to be Pastor of the Baptist church in Pascani, a town half way between Iasi and Suceava. Uri and Lira have left Moldova to live with Lira’s parents in America. We will review this situation again in 2004.

Thank You

A big thank you to Bob Watts of Eastbourne who was sponsored to climb KILIMANJARO and raised £1200. If anyone would like to read his account of the climb please contact the office. Any other keen walkers/climbers out there??

Family Shoebox Appeal 2002

Last year’s Shoebox Appeal was a great success and over 1200 shoeboxes were sent out to Romania. They went to a number of different places :

500 went to the village of Clit which was hit by flooding last summer and featured in our last newsletter. These were delivered with the help of, Fr Sylvester Ilas, the Orthodox Priest in the village

500 went to Ilisesti.

70 were given out through a Kindergarten in Suceava.

50 were distributed through the Evangelical Church in Stamate

The rest went to the village of Solonet (a small village where we held a one day childrens’ club last summer), where they were distributed through the Baptist Church.

A big thank you to all of you who helped with this project … watch this space for details of next years appeal!

News on giving

It is possible to give by cash, cheque, CAF voucher, CharityCard and Give As You Earn.

More details of all these ways of giving can be obtained from the office.

Romania Care
Registered Charity No 1012759
Office: 4 Bury Lane, Codicote, Herts, SG4 8XT
Phone/Fax: 01438 - 822007.
Email: info@RomaniaCare.com