Sponsored children in Romania
20/11/2007
Please note that this letter is written by someone whose first language is not English
Dear friends,
As he has gotten us used to, time has flown away one more time and it is time for you to hear from us again. The year has started peacefully in the Village, after the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. What was quite unusual for our country this winter, was the weather. It was one of the warmest in our recent history. We had no real snow (the little snow that fell melted straight away) and almost no rain. Of course that all this meant for our children, was changing the gloves, scarves and winter boots for sneakers, light jackets, bicycles and footballs. Regardless of the weather, children will always find a way to make the best out of it with their positive spirits and genuine enthusiasm. It was as if they had an earlier spring.
One of the important events of this spring was the Easter celebrations. In preparation for this, we were asked by the local authorities to get involved in a big project. This project was supposed to bring together children from our Village, the local community, the family strengthening programs, state institutions, group homes and foster parents. The main initiator and sponsor of this activity was none other then the Mayor of our District! He came together with his staff and personally gave each participating child a big bag of different sweets and treats. A total of 300 children and 100 adults got together in our Village. But what made us really proud was the artistic program of the event. Everybody was asked in advance if they would like to present and artistic moment for the opening round of the day. We have consulted with our pedagogical staff and Mrs. Gabriela Voinea, our long time volunteer, who’s been giving dance and ballet classes for the past 9 years in our Village. She offered for her students to give a short recital. It was amazing to see our children, from ages of 6 and 7 to 17 and18 perform beautifully and without any serious stage fright in front of 300 other children. They got countless rounds of applause and cheers and made us, our mothers and their instructor really, really proud. By the end of it, we all had a day to remember! Receiving the visit of the Mayor, the Director of the Child Protection Department, 300 children from all walks of life and their care-takers meant a lot of organizational work, creativity, extra time and dedication from our staff. Thank to all of the hard work involved it all came together beautifully and most importantly, the children had a great time.
Following this event, we had the Easter celebration itself. The mothers in all the houses, with the help of the children, made “cozonac” (a typical Romanian pastry), colored eggs and countless other delicious dishes. Everybody was anxiously awaiting the “Resurrection Night” as the night before Easter is known in our country. In preparation for this, we had a day of coloring eggs for all the staff and children. It was a time for all of us to go back to our childhood and, adults and children, mingled together, competed in drawing and coloring the most beautiful egg (even though the paint seem to adhere more to our hands and faces then to the eggs themselves:). Needless to say that the artists of the day were the children and their eggs were by far the nicest! In the following night, all the older children and the mothers went to the Church for the great ceremony. After recalling the event that has given birth to Christianity, the priest lighted up a candle, as a symbol of hope and renewed life. From it’s candle, the priest lighted up the candles of the people that were nearest to him, and from them it went further and further, until everybody was carrying its symbol of the resurrection. After the service, the children and mothers came home to the village, with their lighted candles. It was such a view to see little lights coming through the gate of the village and then spreading along its pathways like fireflies in the night. As the lights were spreading to reach each house, you could also feel how hope and happiness has following it. The following day was a day of celebration, with delicious food, cracking eggs competitions and plenty of laughter and joy. In other words it was another traditional Romanian Easter Celebration.
Over two years ago, our Village implemented its first Village Development Plan. What this meant, was that each year, a Village Committee is formed (as a form of representation of all professional categories and children). This Committee evaluates the overall functions of the Village and makes suggestions for improving our activity. The suggestions turn into objectives and actions and by the end of the process, we have an action plan designed to better the life of the children for the following year. Our main focus for this year was to increase the quantity and the quality of interactions between our children and the staff that doesn’t normally work directly with them. As a result, one of the major events in the plan was the spring clean-up of the Village. The idea was for as many adults as possible to come together with the children for a day and work and have fun together. We decided on a specific Saturday and list of activities that we would perform. We had six teams that did things going from picking up garbage and construction debris to digging in our small vineyard. While the six teams were busy making the Village cleaner and more beautiful, a seventh team made sure that the children and adults would have a nice surprise at the end of their work day. This meant a biiiiiig barbecue for all of the participants, as the plan was to end everything up with a nice party. Everybody worked really hard, from 6 year olds to 60 year olds. Big piles of dead leaves, many garbage bags (as we did not only clean our Village but also the surrounding outside area), countless rocks and dead branches were gathered and it was so obvious to see how much effort everybody put in. By the end of it, we were all drawn towards our little apricot plantation, where the barbecue was spreading its luring aromas. The meat rolls, sausages and grilled champignons were such a pleasant reward for day where adults and children worked side by side, enjoying each other’s presence. The team that stood out was the rocks gathering team. After most of the rocks, bricks and other construction debris were piled up by the side of our driveways, a team was assembled in order to go and load them in the back of a van and carry them away. The team loaded and unloaded pile after pile with no time for rest. You could see the van stop, kids jumping out, loading everything in the back of it, jumping back in, stopping again until the van could carry no more. Then they would go to our camp fire place and arrange all the rocks around the fire place, to make it even safer and give a good use to the rocks. After the fifth trip, everybody else was finished and started to enjoy the delicious foods and drinks. Instead of stopping, the rock gathering team just looked at them, smiled and jumped right back in the van for another round. Nobody stopped until the last of the rocks was picked up and placed around the fire place! At the end, we were all exhausted but happy, filled with joy and positive energy. What a way to end our Village Development Plan!
Another important event of this spring was a big round of planting trees. We were approached by a major chocolate manufacturing company that is currently running a program called “One million people, one million trees”. Their aim is to plant as may trees in public spaces, such as parks, gardens and etcetera, as possible. They offered to plant 100 trees of our choice in our village. They would come up with the money for the trees, their transportation, getting a professional equipment to drill the holes and also with the volunteers from their staff that would come and plant the trees. We saw this a great opportunity to get everybody involved- children, mothers and the rest of our staff working side by side with the volunteers. We have also enlisted the help of some of the families in the Family Strengthening Program (a social program that is designed to help poorer families with many children recover from their social and financial predicament in order to keep their children in their family). We’ve set up teams of 5-7 people for each tree, and starting from one end of the Village, under the supervision of our Village Master, we planted all of the trees. You could see top management staff members of the multi-national company working side by side with SOS children and the parents of the children in our Family Strengthening Program. People that otherwise would have nothing to say to each other were working together and enjoying each other’s presence. The entire day was a complete success and we’re happy to report that almost all of the trees have rooted well and now are growing their first leaves.
In closing, we would like to thank you for your continuous support of our programs and their future development
Alin Paun
Village Director, Bucharest
Relevant Countries: Romania.