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

July 2004

Nursing and Respite Care Home It’s finished!

We are very pleased to be able to report that building work on the nursing and respite care home is now complete. Thank you to all of you who have played a part in making this happen. Some have given money, others prayed, still others come to Romania as part of a team – thank you all very much for the part you have played.

The home was opened on Friday 18th June at a ceremony attended by about 60 people including Bob Napier head of the DFID mission in Bucharest, the Prefect of Suceava, a government minister, as well as 8 people from the UK and representatives from all the local media in Suceava. Positive articles were carried in the 3 Suceava Newspapers and the regional television channel Antenna 1.

We are handing the home over to our Romanian partners Bethesda Foundation to run, but it will probably still be several months before the first residents arrive as we still need to obtain all the necessary approvals to operate – a huge bureaucratic task in itself.

Looking to the future, the 18 long stay beds should all be self financing, but we would like to arrange sponsorship for the 4 respite care beds. This would allow people to benefit from respite care without having to worry about where the money will come from – if they had to cover their own costs, the poorer people would not be able to come!

We estimate that each respite care bed will cost £35 per week (that’s £150 per month or £1820 per year). Would you consider sponsoring a bed? How about choosing a particular week to coincide with an anniversary, or even taking on a month or a year either as an individual or a group.

Thanks again for all your support to date … we look forward to hearing from you.

Fundatia Romania Care

In July this year, we completed setting up a Romanian charity called Fundatia Romania Care. For legal reasons this charity will own the new nursing home in Ilisesti, which is being run by Bethesda foundation. The new charity will also give us the opportunity to undertake further charity work in Romania.

Holiday Clubs

Once again this summer we are sending teams out to Romania to run holiday clubs. One club will take place in Fintinele from 19th to 23rd July and a second in Clit from 26th to 30th July. Please pray for them - for safety in travel, good health, that they would convey something of God’s love to the children, and build strong relationships both within the team and with the local village people.

Those taking part this year are : Peter Halden (Sudbury), Chrissie Blake (Codicote), Malcolm Offord (Sudbury), Becky Jeffery (St Albans), Judith Offord (Sudbury), Julia Parkhouse (St Albans), Gay Layburn (Sudbury), Paul Clark (Suceava).

Possible New Project

Back in May of this year a man approached Paul Clark in Romania. He had heard about our previous projects and wanted to help. We had a meeting with him, the week after the opening of the Nursing home, at which he said “I have several successful businesses (Mill, bakery, restaurant, furniture factory, farm etc..) and I would like to do something to help others now. God has blessed me with money—I don’t need any more!” He then went on to offer us a 48 room building to use for a humanitarian project. The structure of the building seems sound, but it would need to be decorated, have water and electricity re connected, soil pipes, toilets, basins etc replaced...

Over the next few months we will be looking at the seriousness of the offer and the feasibility of setting up a project to help children coming out of the orphanages—giving them skills training and a roof over their heads!

Please pray for us - for wisdom to know whether we should undertake this new project.

Family Foodbox Appeal 2004

After the success of last year’s appeal we will once again be running a Christmas foodbox appeal this year. This will enable you to send a food box containing 3 kg sugar, 2 kg rice, 2 ltr sunflower oil, 1 can brown beans, 1 kg noodles, 250g dried soup, 500 g margarine, 200g cocoa, 3 kg washing powder, 1 bottle shampoo, 2 Toilet soaps and 3 candles to a poor family in Romania at Christmas time.

To do this, put the following in an envelope :

Then send the envelope to Romania Care to arrive before 6th November. For more details (posters, flyers etc.) contact the office or email us at foodparcels@RomaniaCare.com

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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. We are also looking at adding the ability to give on line by debit and credit card

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