|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
Transitional home for orphanage graduates Our Computer Training Center provides high-school-aged orphans with important vocational skills. The young students, most of whom had never touched a computer before, are trained in typing and basic computer-related skills including layout, creating spreadsheets, and managing files.
Building on the aforementioned program, we established a transitional home for young women who leave the orphanage after graduating high school. All government care stops at this point for these young people and many of them end up on the streets. Due to a severe shortage of housing and very low wages, it is almost impossible for most orphanage graduates to find a decent place to live.
Most of these girls have gotten training with us in computer skills, and learned English, as well as grown tremendously in self-esteem, and have a lot to offer the world. In the transitional home, we train these young ladies in various aspects of independent living, while continuing to provide a secure environment for them. They run the home themselves, receiving instruction in such areas as budgeting, nutrition management, sanitation, workplace-related challenges, dealing with bureaucracy, and so on. We also help them find employment and/or get enrolled in further job-training courses. An important aspect of this new home is that the residents still have caring adults involved in their lives. Simply put, they learn independence in a mentored environment We can never fill the gap left by a lack of parental attention, but we continue to be there as friends and counselors. With encouragement, guidance and moral support, we are proud to see these young women make it in the outside world. One of our students, Geanina, was recently selected to represent Bacau County in a national computer-usage competition held in Bucharest. * * * * * * * * * * Anisoara is a young single mother who grew up in an orphanage here, and was in quite a difficult situation when we first heard about her. She had gotten pregnant shortly after leaving the orphanage, but the father of the child turned out to be abusive and a heavy drinker. Anisoara was working in a clothing factory with terrible conditions; she had no contract, no insurance and receiving only about $35 a month. She and her baby were sharing a room with four other people. The baby was very sick, undernourished and in need of special care. In cooperation with some others, we have helped Anisoara to get a fully-furnished room of her own. The baby is now in daycare, much healthier and eating normally, and the mother has a better job, with a reasonable salary. We are trying to arrange monthly sponsorship for this young mother, as her $60 / month salary is not sufficient to cover all the living expenses for herself and her child. Positive Repercussions of a Changed Life Ramona was perhaps the most challenging case of all the girls to come out of CP2. She had never received loving attention from anyone in her life, and it showed in her comportment. She lacked even the simplest of social graces and was always getting into trouble. Even when she attended a couple of our free computer and English classes, Ramona had not applied herself to learn anything. Ramona had been abandoned at birth and never knew any relatives. When it came time for her to leave the institution she grew up in, she begged us to take her into the FAVOR Transitional Home. The director of the institution and their superiors all counseled us against this, as did our own common sense. But, after prayer, we felt led to give Ramona a chance. She had a dream of working with children. I told her that in order to do that, she would need at least a collegiate high-school degree. Ramona said she would go to night school for three years to obtain this, while working in a factory in the daytime, if we would take her in. No one really fully expected her to make this goal. But we told her that if she was determined, we would do all we could to help her make it. Over the next three years, Ramona learned to apply herself and reached her goal. There were many tests for us along the way also, as it seemed that her problems and needs for help would never cease. After finishing night school, Ramona was offered work in Italy, where she has been caring for a baby and some elderly people for the past two years. She has kept in touch with us, phoning once in a while.One day, Ramona called to ask if I could help her find a room in Bacau. She said she'd been working very hard, and had saved up enough money to buy a little room. This was like a dream for a girl who had never had a place to call her own , and who no one had expected to achieve anything. We were really proud of her, knowing that she has had the inner strength to fight hard for a long time to reach this goal. But I didn't know if the money she had saved up would be sufficient for a room. The first day I went out to search, I was led to a very small, but clean place, selling for just the amount she had saved up. What's more, it just came on the market that day! When the owners agreed to wait a few weeks for payment, I knew that this was the place . I was able to sign a pre-contract in Ramona’s name to secure the room for her, and a few weeks later she came to Bacau to finish everything. Ramona told me, “I’m not going to live in this room. For now, I’ll give it to two of my friends from the orphanage. They can stay there for free.” It was wonderful to see how she, like many others who have benefited from the Transitional Home program, want to pass on the good that has been given to her. Ramona’s friends, who have really been struggling since leaving the placement center, could hardly believe that she was giving them this room to live in! Ramona left with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment, both from having worked to get a place of her own, and from being able to give it to her friends. And we at FAVOR were very happy to have been able to be a little part of it.
Humanitarian Aid to Romanian Institutions At regular intervals, we travel to Germany and Austria to collect tons of goods to distribute among institutions and needy families here in Judetul Bacau. The aid usually consists of a variety of needs: dry food, medical needs such as motorized hospital beds and wheelchairs, plus clothing, shoes, baby equipment, computers, and bedding.
Much of the clothing and toys are gathered through our
kindergarten partnership programs. We partner with five kindergartens
in Germany participating in this project. The German parents and children
involved have a personal connection with the orphan or children here in
Romania who receive their gifts. The photos and letters we send them from
the Romanian children are posted on the walls of the kindergartens.
Motorized hospital beds have been donated to the reconstructive surgery section of the main county hospital, along with many walkers and crutches. Additionally we pass on wheelchairs to centers for severely handicapped children and amputees. Sometimes we outfit schools with desks, chairs and other school furniture.
We also distribute packages of food, clothing, bedding, and toys to needy families who are very poor and many live in extreme hardship conditions. We visit their homes, bringing the goods and as much encouragement as we can. Along with blankets and warm clothes, the families each receive on the average 35 kilos (77 pounds) of food — basic supplies of rice, flour, semolina, and powdered potatoes — so it’s quite a significant help.
After our distribution at the orphanages, we usually still have left significant supplies of clothing and shoes for adults and young children. What we do at that point is set up a “Free Store,” where poor people come and select things they need. We work out a plan with the City Hall Department of Social Assistance, who typically supply a place for a few days and gave us lists of needy people. If there are 100 families on the list, we’ve come to expect that at least double that amount will show up! We have devised a system of coupons, whereby each family coming into the shop would be authorized to select a certain quantity of clothes, depending on the size of their family.
By the time the Free Store is set up and ready to open for business, a crowd is gathered outside the door. For three days it becomes the most popular shop in the city! We often enlist policemen as fulltime guards, to help us maintain order. Volunteers from the social assistance department and some of our girls from the transitional home assist our FAVOR team.
As we said earlier, we make an effort to directly distribute all aid that we bring into the country, and that is oftentimes done very personally! For example, one time we received 65 tons of canned food from Austria – three huge trucks full! There was no way we could distribute these 57,000 cans and jars house to house. Still we followed through on our policy of distributing this directly to needy families. With the help of local officials, we organized distribution days in the cities of Bacau, Comanesti and Tirgu Ocna. The food was given out in proportion to the number of members in each family. Some folks brought horse-carts to transport the food for all their needy neighbors. In total, this food was a blessing to over 6000 people in 950 needy families, two nursing homes and 18 placement centers.
Another example concerns donated computers. We not only
deliver the hardware to the recipient institutions, but also set them
up and install software, plus teach the folks how to use them. Otherwise,
they would probably end up sitting unused for months.
Aid to Orphans Some of the aid that we bring in from Europe is earmarked for distribution at various orphanages, Institutes CP2, CP7 and CP8. These are each residential schools for learning-disabled children, half of them orphans and the other half from problem families. CP7 has about 160 boys and CP8 about 120 girls. Before going to these institutions, we take a day to organize and prepare the clothing, so that when we arrive, we set up shop and have the children come in small groups to choose what best fits their needs and sizes.
Another institution we deliver aid to is a newly-formed center for street children. There are 24 kids there at present, who until recently have been living on the streets and begging, and sniffing glue. Some ran away from their homes because their parents forced them to bring home a certain amount of money daily. (The kids could raise in one week of begging what an average worker earns here in a month.) Can you imagine parents forcing their children to beg on the streets and telling them not to come home without a certain sum of money? Try to think of what effect such an upbringing would have on a child’s emotions, self-image and vision for the future. Could you blame such a child for deciding not to return home? Now most of them are turning around, and back in school.
Another special place that we visit, and try to help out however we can, is a center for children suffering from AIDS. This place does not get many visitors. For many people, facing the children there is just too painful. This is because most people don’t have enough faith in God’s promises of eternal life and heavenly happiness. The AIDS kids know that they won’t be around in this life very long, but they are not sad about it. We bring them a message of hope and redemption, presented with lots of good times singing, laughing and chatting with them.
To donate to this Family Care Foundation Project, please note Project NAME and then click here. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
