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SewerKids

  
       

TOADS Donations
(25-5-03)

£ 830
 
   

What is happening with the money we raised?

I received this email from Vic:-
 "I want to thank every single one of you for the superb effort at the recent TOADFEST.  I guess I always knew you were all great 'guys' but to raise over £700 is simply phenomenal."  I shall be flying out to Romania at the end of July ( 27th).  My itinerary will be split between a week in Bucharest, working with the Romanian team of City of Hope ( see http://www.hrc.ro/eng/ ), and a week with a group in Cluj ( NW Romania in the Carpathian Mountains).  I have decided to take the total amount with me, and to give it DIRECTLY to the Bucharest group.  The words of their director (Marian - call me 'Mike') says it all).  I have never met him before but know our friendship is going to grow. :-

 

QUOTE FROM MARIAN - City of Hope

"Since the first day I started working at the Center, I have been fascinated by the mystery I see in the eyes of the children that live on the streets. Eyes at times tearful and beseeching - at others, shining with joy for every tiny gesture of love given to them. At all times, they carry with them the pain of their past, like an identifying stamp on the children who never had a childhood.

When I joined the Hope Rescue Center, I couldn't begin to imagine how far I would travel on this incredible adventure. It has been an adventure filled with dramas and unsuccessful times, but also with deep personal revelation. Sometimes, I have felt that, from every soul who received a unique chance, I have been gifted with the power to float to heaven - to where there is Someone who loves these children in a special way"...  Marian Zaharia

   

 

 

 

Our Mission Statemenent

To bring hope to the hurting, impoverished children and youth of Romania by providing them with physical, medical and educational resources so that they may live a productive life and become agents of hope in their nation and around the world.

 
 
 
 
So - once again  :-
 
 
You are the tops - the greatest - thankyou on behalf of all street kids in Romania.  Stay in touch by checking out http://www.streetkidsmatter.org.uk  ( and PLEASE - pass the link on the others)
 
 
Vic Brown

 

   
    Life on the Streets 
In April 2002, Vic Brown spent a week in Romania producing video footage about the life of Romanian street children. He experienced sights which many people never see in their lifetime.
(Sept 2002)		    
 

Vic's website
Read more about the cause.  Read a diary Vic kept on a visit to Romania.
It is estimated that as many as 2000 children sleep rough on, or under the street of Constanta, Romania. The figure in Bucharest may be nearer to 5,000. For many, home is amongst the network of underground steam heating pipes which criss-cross both cities. In the winter, temperatures fall as low as –25deg C.

For many, there is no formal education - no social security - no access to free medical treatment - and little prospect of employment. They are prey to abuse, forced prostitution and frequent violence as well as constant harassment by the authorities.

Few people are aware that these conditions exist today – but they do. Charles Dickens tried to raise awareness in the England when he wrote ‘Oliver’ two centuries ago. Sadly the same conditions are a reality today in much of Eastern Europe.
 		    
    Making a Difference
Members of T.O.A.D.S ( The Old Apsleyans Drinking Society) have proposed that the profits of the next ‘grand bash’ should be used to help support two projects with which I am involved.

These are :-
  • Two care homes in Bucharest. These are mainly for young girls and single mothers. The girls have, in most cases, been living on the streets, often in forced prostitution. They now know what it is to be loved and cared for, and are beginning to develop the skills of caring for each other. 
     

A project in Constanta, on the Black Sea. This project is jointly between U.K organisations and the Romanian authorities. A 5-storey block of flats is presently home to 50 children ( both girls and boys) aged from 8 through 17. Many have been on the street but some come from orphanages.

When renovation of the flats has been completed, they will be home to as many as 250 children and young adults. The flats are in the very poorest part of town, in the shadow of the district heating plant. The children have their own rooms, and receive training as well as care and shelter. Several have now been placed in jobs and are beginning to make a new life for themselves.

How Your Money Will Help
In the last year, money that I have raised has been used to :-

  • Buy food for the children in Constanta - £200 brought enough food for 50 children for a month
  • Buy basic requirements for mothers and their children – 20 babies will use up 2000 disposable nappies a month, at a cost of 10million Lei ( approx £200)
  • Buy timber, with which the children help make the doors for their own bedrooms
  • Buy plastic window profiling which is being used, on-site, to make new windows and shower doors
  • Provide new showers and toilets. The present ones consist of a pipe from the sealing and a hole in the floor !
  • Buy treats for the children – things we consider as basic such as soap, toothpaste, soft toys, colouring books and materials.
  •  Pay Romanian workers who help care for the children and train them in such things as car mechanics and computer skills

Your money will be used in a very direct way, by caring people who have given up their lives to help these people. People like :- 

  •  Ron Brassey - a founder member of Operation Christmas Child, who lives out in Romania for much of the year. He lives off his disability pension, and takes very little for his own costs.
  • Sue and Ron Bates – they sold their comfortable Texan home in 1991, and moved to Bucharest. In addition to their work with street girls and boys, they also help Romany Gypsies and the sick, old and very poor of Moldavia.
     

How much can you give?

  • £5 per month will help allow a childs dreams to be realised
  • £10 will keep a baby in nappies for a month
  • £25 will provide hours of colouring fun
  • £50 will build 10 new doors
  • £100 will feed two children for a year
  • £250 will feed 50 children for a month
  • £500 will pay a Romanian trainer for 3 months to provide IT lessons
     

[Vic Brown - 25-9-02]
 

    
   


Vic's Web Site
 

 

 Romania Subway Kids
(April 2002)

This is the email I received from Vic

Was unable to get down to TOADS because, at that moment, I was 25 ft UNDER the streets of Bucharest with a group of street children.  A long story.  I was in Romania to do some video filming for a Church project in Constanta on the Blaclk Sea.  During research, I stumbled upon  some images by an American ( Kyle Cassidy)  [ search for street kids + romania using http://www.google.co.uk  ] who had been out in Bucharest.  He pointed me at a Texas couple ( Sue and Ron Bates) who sold up everything to do and live in Romania to work with street children. ( inasmuch@fx.ro )  They now care for almost 90 Romanian girls in two 'care homes'. and also take food, money and medicines to a group of street kids living in the sewers under the parking lot of McDonalds in Branconvancaeu, Bucharest. 
 
With a certain amount of 'bottle', I emailed Ron and Sue and arranged to see them when returning from Constanta to Bucharest.  On the Saturday evening, we went to take food to the kids in the subway.  What an experieince !!.
 
There's much more to tell if you are interested, or think you might be able to help in some way,

 

[If anyone would like to help Vic by sending money you can email him from here - Ron]

    
 


06 November, 2004         © Ron Moss