an afternoon in the park

Last Sunday volunteers from the Milennium Project in Arad organised games and activites in the children's park. Volunteers in the project come from all over Europe and further afield - we have young folk coming to help us at the 'Secret Garden' from France, Holland, Germany, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.

It's great to have such a multicultural group of volunteers and that in itself is educational for our children and young people. Our children and also our 'older children' (!) enjoyed fishing for prizes, making bracelets and getting their faces painted!

Birthday boys and the BBC!

Yesterday two of our boys celebrated their birthdays - Petre's was yesterday and Cipri's (pronounced Cheepree) is today. To our amazement the boys turned up at 1330, half an hour before our programme with street people begins with several carrier bags full of bread, salami, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, cakes, biscuits, juice and non-alcoholic champagne! Petre and Cipri served everyone with champagne. Kenneth was in Timisoara with Johanna at the time - Johanna has Pneumonia but had an exam and didn't want to miss it. she couldn't manage buses and trains so Kenneth took her and then waited for her..

Meanwhile the party got under way, everyone enjoys dancing and singing ... and in the middle of it all Irina came and said "Katy ... those two English Gypsy guys are here again". Sure enough two Romanies from England who have been here several times on visits to Romania had turned up again. On previous visits they have visited out day centre and been out and about with us to visit some of the very poor Roma families with whom we work. They contributed financially to the re-building of Cornelia's house last year (see earlier blog for more details!)

Imagine my surprise (horror? shock?) when Gypsy Billy and his pal were followed by a cameraman and sound man who introduced themselves as being from the BBC. They asked permission to film in the centre and after receiving permission from our 'clients' proceeded to film them dancing and generally being entertaining! When they asked me to do a short interview Amy (she comes after school whenever she can) burst out laughing ... "you can't do an interview looking like that - you look a worse state than the street people mum! As well as the street folk we had four volunteers in from various European countries and then, in the middle of my interview a Danish couple who have a small charity and want to become partners in our work arrived ... followed by Kenneth and Johanna with baby Yasmina. I'm obviously destined never to impress anyone because every time visitors come they find me in the midst of chaos!

Apparently the programme will be shown in September as part of a series on BBC1 called "Inside out". I said when they do a series called "Upside down" to give us a call ...

Truck arrival

Yesterday a truck arrived from Scotland - about a quarter of its contents was for us, the rest having been delivered to another charity. We spent from 1400 until 2200 unloading the truck onto the driveway and into the courtyard of our house and then taking some straight to the day centre and the rest into the house wherever it would fit. Trucks can't get into the wee street in town where the "Secret Garden" is ... it's the only drawback to our lovely centre! Still, we can live with that! Photos and more info to follow!

Sofi and Silvia

Sofi and Silvia live with Helen Evans in our village Sanleani. Helen is from Fife in Scotland and has lived in Romania for the past 9 years, working with young people who grew up in the old 'orphanages'. For the past few years Helen has worked 'under' Vis de Copil and has had a variety of young people live with her, some so disturbed that they have made her life a misery at times. However, Sofi (his proper name is Sorin) who grew up in the most awful conditions somehow managed to remain a kind, caring young man who loves Helen as a mother. When he was very young, Sofi was sent to the residential school for slow learners in Ineu, an hour and a half north of Arad. The infamous 'orphanages' of Romania were never really orphanages, they were either residential schools for children with special needs or children's homes for those whose parents were unable to care for them. However often due to the difficulties of poor families inability to travel to visit their children and various other factors most of the children ended up to all practical purposes as 'orphans'.

Three years ago we were looking for a home for Silvia who had grown up in a different 'orphanage' (school for children with learning difficulties), then at 16 been re-integrated with her natural mother only to then be sent by her mother to the centre for young delinquents. Poor Silvia ... after a year at the centre the staff had only good to say of her and pleaded with her to find her a place after she turned 18. We tried several options without success, and then Helen sad she would give her a trial even though up to that point she had taken in only boys. The rest is a fairytale come true ... Sofi and Silvia fell in love and in October 2006 got married.

Both managed to find a job cleaning apartment blocks and then a better job in a textile factory - Silvia on a sewing machine and Sofi cleaning. They have their ups and downs but we are all proud of them for the amazing progress they have made.

Kenneth in Scotland ... Kathryn extra busy!

Kenneth has been away in Scotland for the past couple of weeks attending meetings, discussing the work and speaking at a couple of groups. He did also hope to get some days teaching work as we desperately need the money .. but by the time he was able to get away, exam time had come to Scotland and so the demand for supply teachers to cover for classes was lower. In the past he has managed to get a few days here and there, but this time, nothing at all.

However, it's still been good for him to be in Scotland spending time with family and friends, though as is always the case he is limited and can't see everyone he would like to. The photo shows him and Lauri (Vis de Copil Scotland) in a meeting (note the co-ordinated sitting position!) Actually the photo was taken the last time we were over together while we were making a Business Plan, but I don't have any photos of this trip!

Much has happened over these last couple of weeks including the addition of several new volunteers at the "Secret Garden". There is a project for young people in Arad called the "Millennium Project" which has volunteers from all over Europe and even as far afield as Turkey. I have been privileged to meet people from a wide range of countries including Germany, France, Holland, Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and UK. Some of them want to come on a regular basis for the rest of their time in Arad. They are a lovely crowd of young people and I think it's a great initiative to bring together young folk from so many countries to work together on projects. As well as social and community projects they participate in environmental projects such as planting trees.

We also have two young Romanian volunteers coming to the centre although at the moment they are in the middle of exams. Finally we have two girls, one from Poland and the other from Spain based in Arad with another youth initiative who also want to be involved in our work. It's exciting for us and very encouraging that so many people want to help us and be involved in our work with the poor and needy. Of course this doesn't decrease our need for long term volunteers but it means we can do more activities in the day centre. If Irina and I are alone it takes all our time to supervise and maintain discipline while making sandwiches, soup, teas and coffees ... at the same time loading and unloading the washing machine, and answering everyone's questions. Having an extra volunteer or two (or more) is a great help and really benefits both us and our clients. On Wednesday 5 volunteers came and played games and helped young people with drawing and basic literacy and yesterday a German volunteer came to do musical activities with the homeless young people.

Life on the streets isn't easy

While some of the young people have showers, chat or play table football, this tired street boy sleeps. He has had a hard life and is only too aware of the mistakes he has made. It isn't his fault that he grew up on the streets but he has had a few chances in the past to get off the streets and is aware of the fact that he "messed up". He is a very sad young man who struggles daily to come to terms with his regrets. It's hard at times working with these young people, at times I feel like my heart will break - there is so much we would like to be able to do for them, to help them to have better lives. However, the reality is that there is often very little we can do other than give them some love and attention. Our hope is that the "Secret Garden" can become at least a place of refuge where for a few short hours people can escape the harsh reality of their lives and feel like "normal" people.

Easter food parcels

Easter came, finding us exhausted and too tired to want to do anything. All last week was spent making up food parcels for poor families. We used the rest of the dried and tinned goods from Blythswood Trust and also a donation of tinned soup from a local church and anything else we could think of to make up boxes for families. Between 0900 and 1400 on both Thursday and Friday we had a constant stream of families calling at the "Secret Garden" to see if we had anything for them for Easter. (From 1500 every day Monday to Friday the street people come for their showers, to wash clothes and to relax a little.)

In each box we put rice, pasta, dried beans or lentils, cooking oil and other groceries, plus shampoo, soap and toothpaste and last but not least sweets and a couple of toys for the children. almost 150 families received boxes and in some cases told us that without them they would have had no food at all over Easter. In previous years we have been able to buy eggs for families to dye as is the tradition here and coffee as well as other goodies but with the current financial situation we had to make do with what had been donated. We wished we could have done more but we have to accept that, at the end of the day there's only so much we can do.

notice of eviction

Yesterday I felt weighed down by the poverty and hopelessness of some people's lives. This derelict house is just round the corner from our "Secret Garden" and has three families still living in it. From what we have been told the house used to belong to the state and has now been sold to a private owner. The residents were given notice to move out but stayed put and today had to appear in court. they were told that they must move out by May 21.

There are several children living here and if they don't find another place they will join the other homeless families on the streets. Even if they find a place it will most likely be in one of the "squatter" communities who live in home made hut type homes on the edges of the city.

The housing situation in Arad as elsewhere in Romania is desperate. There are far more homeless families than homes available. The local authorities have already built some new houses and apartments but the needs are too great. Part of the problem is that a law was passed a few years ago which allowed people to reclaim formerly owned property. This meant that even people who have settled in Germany, Israel or the US, and in many cases received housing there from the respective states could re-claim their properties. Sadly, many re-claimed only to sell for a profit. While I have sympathy for anyone who had their home taken off them, I can't help feeling that if their lives are so much better now in their new countries and they have no intention of returning to Romania that just maybe they might have chosen not to make others homeless.

Food donations gratefully received!

We have been blessed with a couple of donations of food from Blythswood Trust Scotland. It has been wonderful to have basic groceries to give out to the street people and to the many poor families who visit our centre. We regularly help over 100 families with food, toiletries, cleaning products, when we have them and of course shower and clothes washing facilities. Every day the street children and other homeless people come and have showers, wash their clothes (we have rotas!) and eat whatever we manage to offer ... at the moment instant soup and sandwiches.

As Easter approaches we are trying to put together food parcels for families with what remains of the pasta, rice etc from Blythswood and whatever we receive from local people. Unfortunately the foundation has no funds at present (we receive no money specifically for running the centre other than Irina's salary) so we will not be able to buy fresh food for families to add to the parcels but most people are grateful for whatever they receive.

The present lack of funds means that we may have to curtail shower and clothes washing facilities for a while. it's good that Spring has come so the need is not quite so desperate, but nevertheless it will be a blow to many who have been enjoying the facilities.

Fire at the three lids

This area next to the railway lines is home to a small community of people living in huts built around the pipes which carry hot water around the city for the central heating. In Romania during Communist times people didn't have their own centrall heating systems but were connected to a city wide network. This system has advantages and disadvantages to the community in general but a major advantage to the homeless of Romania and other eastern European countries is that it provides them with free heating and even hot water in places where the old pipes leak a little. However, sometimes there are accidents and someone gets badly burned either from leaning against the pipes or by the hot water in places where there are leaks.

This particular community have had their huts all burned down several times during the last few years. A couple of days ago it happened again. As far as we can gather, the cause of the accident was a young child playing with a candle. As the huts are made from wood and other flammable materials the fire spread quickly, leaving the whole community without homes.


There are at present 7 families in this wee community, four with young children. we took some basic groceries, toiletries and what we could manage to put together, as well as socks and underwear but at present we are very low on clothing and have no blankets, sleeping bags or duvets left. Fortunately the weather is getting warmer and until next winter the need isn't so great.

There are several small communities like the "three lids" and their future prospects are not good. Many of them have moved to Arad from other counties and so their ID cards are based elsewhere which means that the Arad local authorities are not obliged to help them, the responsibility lies with their home county. Also, those working within the local authorities feel that they have more than enough homeless or almost homeless people of their own to try to help without having to stretch the already stretched services even further.

As a small charity working here in Arad with the poor and homeless we obviously would like to help families such as these and have requested a piece of land from the council on which to build 6 very small but adequate houses. As yet we don't have the land, neither do we have the funding, we don't even know how we would go about choosing which families receive a house but it is nevertheless a project close to our hearts.

a home of sorts

The poorest families in Arad live in all kinds of places. I've no idea why this concrete hut on the edge of a disused railway line was originally built but an enterprising family found it empty and moved in. Of course such families have no running water in their homes or access to sanitation but they are glad to have a place, any place that they can call home.

Their neighbours, further along the railway line, live in this hut built from a mixture of materials with their 6 children. In winter its a pretty dismal place but the parents say they are grateful to God for providing them with even this most basic of homes. It makes our western affluent lives seem sinful.

Better late than never ... Christmas!

Ridiculous as it may seem, we have been so busy that downloading the photos of Christmas and making them smaller to put on the blog just kept getting put off as there is always something more pressing to do! Finally Kenneth helped me out as I'm very limited with technology, get frustrated easily and quite often end up giving up "until tomorow". We chose to celebrate Christmas with the street people on christmas eve as this is traditionally the most important family day in Romania. We had quite a full house, with 26 street children and young people, our whole family and some volunteers helpers from our church here in Arad (Metanoia church)


What's a party without food? Our volounteers helped prepare things on the day. Some folks from church popped in and brought things that had been made at home or bread or juice. One friend from church arrived with 40 small cozonacs, still warm from the oven (cozonac is a type of bread but is semi sweet and contains nuts, dried fruit or turkish delight). Cozonac is traditional fare for special occasions and this dedicated lady wanted to be sure that there was one for each person - we were very touched that she had spent all Christmas eve morning baking for street people when she had all her own family preparations to make. We had bought food as we didn't know how much we would receive, but in the end we had an over-abundance which we were able to distribute to poor families afterwards as well as sending all our visitors home with "doggie bags".



We were joined half way through the afternoon by carol songers from Oaza charity. Oaza used to work with street children some years ago and now has two children's homes which accommodate around 20 children, some of whom were once street children. The children sang carols to our young people which was lovely and much appreciated. Then, not to be outdone, our lot sang several carols back to the children!

After an afternoon of much eating, drinking (juice, of course!) singing and generally having fun our guests were given their Christmas gifts - Christmas shoeboxes which we received from Blythswood Trust in Scotland. Need I add that our entire family was utterly exhausted at the end of the day, having had a lot of running around and various preparations to make, in addition to having spent the previous few weeks in non-stop distribution of shoeboxes. However, I must say that as I looked around at the motely gathering as they were singing Christmas carols I couldn't help thinking that this is what it's all about - Christmas, I mean.

Daily life at the "Secret Garden"

Every day the street children and young people and occasionally a not so young person come to the "Secret Garden" (or as Kenneth now refers to our Drop in centre "SG 1"). In addition to having showers and washing their clothes in the machine (there's always a queue for both) they play "Remi" (a traditional Romanian game with tiles which is similar to Rumikub) and card games or colour in. Most of these young people didn't have much of a childhood so its nice to see them enjoying themselves with such simple pleasures, though it's also sad to think about how deprived they have been. We have a real mix of homeless people coming, from babies and small children who come with their parents to the older 'street kids' like Bin Ladin (obviously not his real name ... though there used to be a street boy in Arad whose real name was Bosnia!) Bin ladin is a lovely boy, or rather I should say young man. He spent part of his life in one of the old State run orphanages and then ended up on the streets. He is quite a character but when he's not high on solvent he's really quite lovable! he has had a lot of contact over the years with various churches, including our own "Metanoia" church in Arad and can sing hymns and songs and Christmas carols in both Romanian and English.

One thing which visitors to the "Secret Garden" are all agreed on is that those who have the misfortune to live on the streets, no matter how rough some of them may look, when you get to know them they are actually pretty decent people with a great capacity for generosity and kindness.

In the winter months the street kids and other homeless sleep near the huge hot pipes which carry the city's hot water. Many of them used to actually live underground in tunnels (often incorrectly referred to as sewers) through which the hot pipes ran but most of these have now been sealed off. Several of the young people showed me their legs damaged from contact with the pipes, some have quite severe damage to their skin and maybe their circulation (I don't know I'm not a medic). Many of them also have terrible scars from burns which they have received over the years of sleping on or near the pipes.

Baby on board!

Our most surprising news is that yet again we find ourselves taking care of a young child. This is the child of a young street mum who is living in a derelict building in Arad. Last week her mum asked if we could take care of her for a few days while she looks for a decent place to stay and gets herself sorted out a bit. I know her mum loves her but the wee soul is terribly neglected and is one of the saddest looking babies we have ever seen. Obviously having her is a lot of extra work for us which we could well do without ... but on the other hand who could look at her and not want to help her? We don't know how long she will be with us but we will do our best for her in the time we have.

After over two years of recurring problems with our email we finally have broadband so we can access the Internet from home and hopefully update the blogs more often! For a long time our emails weren't arriving but we didn't know and were so busy that we didn't really notice that we hardly ever received emails any more! Meanwhile the drop in centre is proving to be a real godsend to many poor and street families with queues every day to have showers and wash clothes. We are coming to the end now of the cup-a-soups but it looks like winter is also coming to an end, so the need for something hot won't be so great.

Throughout the Christmas period we were distributing shoeboxes - hard work with only three people doing it but worth it when you see the faces of the people receiving them. We had a Christmas eve celebration with 26 street children and young people and even though we were all to exhausted to enjoy a family Christmas day it was definitely worth it. Several local volunteers helped by bringing food and making up sandwiches and arranging the food ... more about Christmas later!

Busy days

The days have flown by since Christmas with the day centre in regular use for showers, clothes washing and simply a place of refuge where street people can find a warm drink and some company. We are still ploughing through the bureaucracy required to obtain all the necessary authorisations to function fully but we're getting there. One of the nicest things is seeing those living on the streets with young children coming and being able to wash their clothes and have warm showers and a cup of hot soup on these cold days. I would like to include a couple of photos but for some reason the technology is letting me down again ... or is it just my incompetence? Anyway, on that note, I'm signing off for today! We have been promised broadband in our village soon so hopefully that means more regular updates!

Christmas Presents

The past couple of weeks have been taken up with distributing Christmas shoe boxes which were kindly donated by Blythswood Trust in Scotland. Yesterday and today we spent hours and hours finishing off parcels for all those on social security or single parent benefit in Kekech, the largest poor community in Arad with over 4000 people living there. We put all the boxes for a family into a separate bag or box and then took them to the homes.

When we arrived in Kekech the minibus was quickly surrounded by people begging us to give them something. It was so hard, we had to keep explaining that we only had parcels for those on benefits, even though we know many others are also very poor. We will be going back to give other families, but sadly there are more extremely poor than there are shoe boxes. Still, hopefully most of the poorest will receive this year.

One family we were especially glad to have gifts for is the family of this 20 year old mentally handicapped girl who has a baby and lives with her parents. We recently were able to help her mother claim a disability pension for her by paying 6 months back money for her national health contributions.

Kekech in the winter is a bleak place. The poverty is stark, especially in comparison with other areas of Arad. Most of the houses are more like shacks than proper houses although the home made wood burning stoves do make the wee houses lovely and warm inside. Most families have only one small room which serves as living room, kitchen and bedroom all in one. They have no kitchens or bathrooms, walk to the main road, in some cases several hundred metres to the pump for water and have an earth closet toilet behind the house. Life is not easy and yet people retain their humanity and are often surprising in their kindness and generosity to others - a lesson to all of us whose lives are so much easier and yet complain so much!

Secret Garden

At last photos of our new day centre ... is it a strange name? How did we choose it? When I first saw the house all overgrown and mysterious looking, I thought of my favourite childhood story 'The Secret Garden'. When I first took our colleague Helen to see the house, her first words were "Oh darling, how wonderful, just like 'The Secret Garden', I love it!" Since then, so many people's first words on seeing the building have been similar and so we adopted the name. For the uninitiated the story is about an unwanted orphan girl and her newly discovered equally unwanted paralysed cousin finding new life through a hidden garden. Do read the book because it's a lovely story.

As yet we have renovated two activity rooms, put in two shower rooms and a disabled toilet, renewed all the mains drainage and installed central heating. Whenever funds become available we will continue with the renovation which will include kitchen, dining room and office. In the meantime we are delighted with what we have as are the street children and other homeless or semi-homeless people.

As yet we do not have all the necessary authorisations but we are opening on a casual basis for folks to come and have hot showers and a bite to eat, as well as a warm place to sit and chat or play games. At the moment we have a good supply of clothing and so we are also giving clothes to all who come according to their needs. The new washing machine has now been installed (by Jan) and is anticipated to be a big hit!

Hot soup and showers!

We are opening unofficially around three days a week to offer showers and hot soup and where possible clothes and other needs. Today we had invited three families to come for clothes and groceries but when we arrived some of our friends from the station were waiting at the gate! They all had showers and cup-a-soups (complements of Blythswood Care, Scotland ... thanks!) sang a few Christmas carols and played table football before leaving, sadly back to their 'homes' on the streets.