Romania

Not all one way

Nelu, Daniel and George have all been to the UK as guests of SKCC, and at various times have attended the Salt and Light European Leaders’ Conference.

In the summers of 2003 and ‘04, teams from Bethel, including three of Elisei’s children, were able to come to the UK to take part in Re:Act. The team also spent time in Folkestone and Hythe and very good relationships were formed between the Romanian youth and SKCC youth.

Humanitarian Contacts

As well as working with churches, SKCC has built up other good contacts over the years, mostly in the Brasov area.

Even with all the advances taking place in Romania, many terminally ill people are sent home from hospital to be alone, often with no help to relieve their pain or the suffering. A large number of the population still lives in poverty. Since 1992 Hospice of Hope has provided care for around 4,000 patients in and around Brasov.

Prior to 2002 Casa Sperantei (house of hope) worked out of a small office/dispensary and visited patients in their home.  In the mid-‘90’s they acquired a property which they converted into a study centre.

This is now used as a base where medical professionals from all over Romania and other Eastern European countries can come on courses to learn more about palliative care. In 2002 a new purpose built centre was opened enabling the hospice to care for in-patients as well as continuing home care. Part of SKCC’s annual giving to overseas work goes towards supporting the general work of the hospice.

Over the years SKCC members have visited people in the in-patient unit and also those being cared for in their homes, helped to run a children’s camp and entertained both adults and children in the day care centres.

If you would like to know more, you can visit Casa Sperantei’s website www.hospiceofhope.co.uk

Aurora Christian Association (ACA)

ACA is a UK registered charity formed by Malcolm and Christine Ford, an English couple who divide their time between the village of Vulcan near Brasov, and their home in Devon where they have a purpose built collection point for sorting, storing, and packing all the aid they receive before transporting it to Romania.

Many projects for the poor and needy are run from ACA’s base in Vulcan including a baby milk feeding programme, the giving of regular food bags for old people, handing out aid and also feeding very poor children a daily hot meal at a purpose built canteen. They also have a well established kindergarten and just recently began a school for gipsies who have dropped out of the education system, often through no fault of their own.  Although a lot of the hands-on work is done by Romanians, it is overseen by Bill and Sue Owens and Gary and Nico (a Romanian) Sims. Both couples are permanently based in Vulcan, while Malcolm, Christine, their daughter Anna and son-in-law Paul travel out regularly over the year.

Gary’s expertise lies in the area of IT and part of his role is to makeover 2^nd hand computers sent out from the UK. ACA then gives them to schools and other organisations who cannot afford to buy them; even the local police and the mayor have benefited. This in turn has opened many doors.

ACA has built up a good relationship with the Romanians who live in Vulcan and the surrounding smaller villages and hamlets.  It is here in the villages that the worst poverty can be found because people can easily be forgotten! They also work with the gipsies who have their own large settlement dotted on the hills just outside the village. Unemployment is a very serious issue in Romania with many now out of work. Most people who do have jobs earn a pittance and the cost of living is soaring. Many families, some quite large, live in small hovels with no sanitation and often no electricity because they cannot afford to pay for it. As well as wanting to meet the massive humanitarian needs of these impoverished people, Malcolm and Christine’s main passion is to tell them of their need of a Saviour, that they are also spiritually poor and only Jesus can meet their needs. Everything they do is soaked in prayer and they trust the Lord to provide for themselves as well as for the people they seek to serve. They depend on financial support from people in the UK including regular sponsorship of workers and individual children.

SKCC’s involvement with the Hospice and ACA

SKCC is involved with both ACA and the hospice practically and by giving financial support.  Teams go out at least twice each year and, amongst other things, have helped with digging out foundations for the hospice study centre, decorating the interior of the new hospice building when it was first built and helping with building and electrical work for ACA. We have also been able to send out several consignments of old computers which have been donated from local organisations and schools in the Folkestone area. SKCC also collects clothes and other items of aid and transports them down to Devon to be sent on by lorry. In the autumn of each year SKCC has a special “Love Offering” and a substantial amount of money was generously given for a small team to take out to Romania recently.

This team undertakes the purchasing and packing of bags of groceries for poor families who are cared for both by the hospice and ACA. Everything is readily available in the large Cash & Carries but just too expensive for those in need.
SKCC has provided bags for 75 hospice families and 40 families in the villages. Each family had two large carrier bags. As well as the bags the team also purchased and wrapped a gift for each child connected to the hospice (approximately 250 this year) and gave money to ACA to buy a small treat for each child catered for at the canteen.