europe2europe.co.uk
What we do
Our Romanian staff are involved in a number of projects/initiatives
It's not possible in a few words to describe adequately the breath and depth of all the work undertaken by our Romanian staff and volunteers. If you want to get a broader idea of the projects that the Charity's involved with, please look at our latest Director’s Report (a link is provided at the bottom of this page).
We run residential "refuge" homes housing young men & women with severe social needs including physical/psychological disabilities, homelessness, post-institution and post-penal rehabilitation. Our homes are run on the basis of "social contracts" between us and the young people living in the homes. The contracts presume a commitment to growth in skills, work & character - individualised to each person.
Each week our staff continue to provide Social Work advocacy, Basic Skills training and Education projects in Arad Women's Prison & the Maximum Security Penitentiary. These sessions are highly valued by inmates and prison staff. Perhaps our most important initiative is the development of the first adult literacy course in Romanian.
As time and resources permits, we're seeking to develop our Siria farm project, aimed at popularising and extending access to the rich local cultural, archaeological and historical legacy of the area. This will support development of children/youth from both rural & urban neighbourhoods.
The type of work our charity sustains is highlighted by the story of a boy called Alexandru. During this winter we heard that Alex, a 17 year boy,
was living in a pigsty (or more correctly he was about to die in that pigsty). At
17 Alex was too old to live in the state institution for children anymore, so he
was put out on the street with no ID card or papers, and no benefits or support.
He had nowhere else to go, so a pigsty became the only refuge offering some shelter
from the ice and snow. When our staff found him his legs were so black it was feared
they might need to be amputated. Alex has Type 1 diabetes but he had no supplies
of insulin. If our staff hadn't found him and cared for him, Alex would have died
within a day or two. Our team and young people provided him with clothes, food &
compassion and arranged for him to be admitted into a hospital. It took us a couple
of months to get Alex identity papers and to secure the state benefits he's entitled
to. Alex’s story is uniquely harrowing, but it's typical of the many boys and girls
that our charity serves - children that nobody cares about who are left on their
own without hope in deplorable situations.
Adriana Talpos
Senior Social Worker
Mihaela Miculit
Executive Director and Co-ordinator of Educational Programms
