Vis de Copil (A Child's Dream)

Christmas 2011 at the "Secret Garden"

2012-01-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

We had five Christmas parties in total with different groups of children, families and street folks. It was hard work, REALLY hard work, but worth while! We had groups of children and young people from Kindergartens and schools come to bring gifts and carol sing to us and our folks sang to them in return, it was lovely.

Local people came in droves with gifts of clothing, food and even money. We had some money given towards Christmas parties from our partners, PCF Romania Projects in Perton Wolverhampton but apart from that everything was donated locally and the quantity of food and other gifts we received was quite overwhelming! Even Rosie and Yasmina made some cakes with Amy! We are so thankful to all who helped to make the parties memorable for all who attended.

Christmas card workshop!

2011-11-28T04:17:00.001-08:00

At last ... photos of the pre-Christmas activities ... I thought I had already posted some, but it must have been on Facebook and I was confused! Our all time favourite activity, enjoyed by all was making Christmas cards! Kate's Uncle Bill came to visit, (a regular "wise man" bearing gifts!) card making materials and led a workshop on card making ... he was a huge hit with the kids and parents alike. In between making cards he fixed sinks, showers and one of the hundred year old blinds!

It was a messy activity but such a big success that we want to continue card making ... Ist March is a celebration here, then there's 8th March "ladies/mothers day", followed by Easter ...

winter is upon us

2011-11-26T02:10:00.000-08:00

Some famous Romanian once said "Vine Iarna ... si Iarna nu e ca Vara!" (Winter's coming ... and Winter isn't like summer!) Probably in reference to some political event or situation, I don't know ... but HE WAS RIGHT! Our summer this year lasted right up to October with temperatures still hitting the 30's and then suddenly, minus temperatures and frost .... brrrr!

daily life at the "Secret Garden" drop in centre

2011-11-20T00:43:00.001-08:00

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Justice for the poor?

2011-11-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

The Bible speaks a lot about the importance of justice for the poor. It is clear that God holds justice very high up in his priorities. We, his created beings don't share his passion for justice, and that's a tragedy.

Our street folks were condemned today - officially branded guilty of being an organised crime gang trafficking human beings. Sentences ranged from 5 years for the one in the so-called gang who is still a minor, to 14 years for the "head" of this super organised gang.

Several of the "testimonies" of the witness against them stated that they formed a single "very well organised" gang with Stelian at its head. Said witnesses denied large parts of their statements in direct questioning by the judge. I was informed by at least three of the so-called "victims" that a policeman called "Domnul Nicu" affered them cigarettes and 10 lei if they would sign declarations which he had written. All the so-called victims were sought out by said policeman, none of them went of their own initiative to the police.

Police statements that these "gang members" had been under close observation for several years then begged the question of why they had done nothing earlier - if said victims were locked up, beaten daily and forced to beg and prostitute and the police knew about it then why did they wait from 2004 until 2011?

The whole case is extremely suspect. As I have said before, I believe that the majority of Police are decent people trying to do a good job, but there is a minority who are corrupt and without mercy or humanity ...

Obviously, in this case at least there is no justice for the poor. God help them and forgive those who have treated them so unjustly ... one day they will all face a greater judgement - may God have mercy on them at that time, they will surely need it.

trial of street "kids" has ended

2011-11-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

The trial of 8 of our young folks from the streets has finally ended. I hope the judge will see the "evidence" for what it is ... contradictions, mistakes and some downright lies with some truths thrown in occasionally for good measure! It was awful sitting through all the court sessions and not being able to say anything except for the one occasion when I testified as a defence witness.

I know there is a lot of pressure on the police and the judicial system to put an end to organised crime and human trafficking, and rightly so ... but this is just nonsense. While a fortune has been spent on the trial of 8 poor homeless people, the real traffickers go free.

The judge now looks through all the testimonies and "evidence" and she will make her decision on the 3rd November ...

Financial support

2011-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Running a small charity is always a struggle. We never have enough money and struggle to pay the bills, especially in winter. We feel a huge weight of responsibility to those whom we serve ... daily we worry - Will we have money for food? Will we be able to help a mother buy medicines for her sick child? Can we afford to put the heating on yet? Believe me, it's a terrible thing to be surrounded by such poverty and suffering and to be able to do so little about it.

However, the work does have a positive side, it is always such a great delight when we hear of a gift from a generous friend or member of the public, even a small amount makes a difference. A few months ago Kate's uncle came out to Arad to visit her mother who had been very ill. Within a few short weeks Uncle Bill had begged, borrowed but I hope not stolen from his friends and neighbours to sent out boxes of craft materials and clothing! Other donations followed including a large one from a local small church in Royton which Kate's uncle doesn't even attend! Following up on this we have just had a donation with the payment for shipping of a box of clothes and £100 in cash from Graham Young, the new MD of Uncle Bill's old company Naughton Finance Direct Ltd, Leeds. What a unexpected surprise that was!

We have had many other donations, many of which are regular gifts and for them all we are extremely grateful - without them this work would not be able to continue - PCF Romania Projects, Humanity at Heart, West Glasgow New Church, Vis de Copil (A Child's Dream) Scotland and many individual donors both known to us and anonymous. As an example of what your donations can do, £100 will pay for a simple nourishing meal for 30 people for two weeks ... thats 300 meals!

Thank you everyone who has helped in any way, it really does make a difference in the lives of some of the poorest people in Europe. We cannot thank you enoough ... you know who you are!

trial of street "children" continues

2011-10-12T03:14:00.000-07:00

Of course the "street children" concerned are all now over 18 (except one) so no longer children in the eyes of the law. However, it should be mentioned that these are all people who have lived on the streets for many years, in some cases from quite young childhood, have little or no education and have had several years of continued solvent abuse. All these factors have affected their mental capacity and those of us who work with them would consider them to be people with "diminished responsibility" who shouldn't even be on trial as "normal adults" in the first place.

One of the boys, when the judge read out the accusations against him, turned to the others and said "what did she say?". The judge repeated the charges and asked him "do you understand the accusations?" and he replied "uuuh ... what?" at which the judge tried a third time. By then I could keep quiet no longer and I called out in court "No he doesn't, he hasn't a clue what he's accused of and the others don't fully understand either!" The judge didn't look too happy at my shouting out but she did have the grace to ask me to present myself! I then explained very briefly who I am and that I have worked with street people for 11 years and that they don't realise the severity of the charges against them.

The day I was called to testify, three of the "victims" made some accusations against me, that I have tried to force them to change their testimonies. I suspect that the same policeman put the idea into their heads as part of his way of making my testimony invalid. When I was called before the judge to answer the charges I said that I had at all times advised all of "my" folks, accused and accusors to tell the truth, nothing more, nothing less.

The next court date is Monday 17th October so we will see what joys that holds for us. In the meantime, we continue to hope and pray for justice and mercy.

Victims on trial

2011-09-08T05:05:00.001-07:00

For the past few months we have had an on-going case with eight of our street folks who are accused of being an "organised crime gang" and of human trafficking. Irina and I have appeared as witnesses for the defense ... the only ones so far, as opposed to more than 20 witnesses for the prosecution - all fellow street people and all approached by the same policeman and strongly encouraged to testify against the accused. It was quite a frightening experience for me, my first time on the stand and in my second language, I was quite emotional about it all.

As I have said before, it is society which has failed these young people, they are not complete innocents and I don't want to pretend they are, but guilty of organised crime and human trafficking - no, no and again no! This is a trial in which both the victims and the accused and are victims ... victims of a European society that doesn't want them.

I attend the court every time, not because I think I can actually do a lot to help, because the truth is that the odd are against them, but to show them that we care, that they are not forgotten - not by us and more importantly, not by God. The photo above is of two of the children waiting outside the court for a final glimpse of daddy before he is taken away from them again ...

building team from wolverhampton

2011-09-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

In August, immediately on our return from our flying visit to England, Scotland and France we had a small team come out from PCF Romania Projects in Perton, Wolverhampton.

PCF - stands for Perton Christian Fellowship (now renamed Lakeside Community Church, Perton) were our earliest supporters in the work and have remained faithful during the past 11 years of our service here in Romania.

Andrew Bradley came out with Elliot, Richard, Lucy and Dave (his two older brothers Matt and Dan have been out several times to help)

Most of the team's work was at the house, to improve the team/volunteer accommodation, but they did a couple of jobs at the Secret Garden too ... they prepared the wall for our new disabled access and painted the courtyard walls.

The walls of the courtyard at the bvack of our day centre were previously painted in ultra-dazzling brilliant white ... on a sunny day (and most days are sunny here!) you couldn't even open your eyes it was so bright! The guys painted them a nice apricot colour (though it looks more of a yellow in the photos!)to match the colour of the new office extension ... it looks much better now and has the added bonus that you can actually see the children when you're out in the back playing with them ... and believe me, that helps!

The wonderful Irish!

2011-07-13T03:51:00.001-07:00

For four weeks of the summer we had a great team working here in the Secret Garden.

They came from Northern Ireland for a month in total, two groups each here for two weeks.

The team shared their time between three centres in Arad, so they split into three groups, with one group coming to us each day on a rota basis.

With there being only Kenneth and I running the charity, doing everything - running the day centre, doing the accounting, keeping authorisations etc up to date, co-ordinating teams and volunteers, home visits and caring for our two young children (not to mention trying to "be there" for our three grown up children) it's hard.

On a daily basis at the centre there's usually only me and Irina, Kenneth often being tied up with so many other things.It was particularly helpful for us to have a group here doing activities with the children, young people and parents. They were a really well organised group and didn't need "looking after" which is always a bonus!

Our Irish volunteers did a wide range of activities with the children and older folks, including finger painting, making jewellery boxes from lollipop sticks, (I remember that one from my own childhood!) painting t-shirts and much more ...

Nneedless to say everyone loved them and we were all sorry to see them leave. Still, we're hoping to see them return next summer!

A highlight for me was seeing one of our young mums make a jewellery box for her boyfriend who is in prison awaiting trial and then to my delight seeing her write a lovely letter to him! Three years ago this young woman could neither read nor write and wouldn't have dreamed that she would learn to do so!

an unjust world

2011-05-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

Just before Easter eight of our street folk were arrested on charges of human trafficking. Are they guilty? Of trafficking in the true sense of the word ... definitely not. Are they guilty of being victims of society who live their lives on the streets ... yes they are. Street life is harsh and the "street kids" live in "families" in which the younger ones produce the money and the older ones protect them, and look after them, and yes, ocasionally hit them if they refuse to go out and make money.

Is it wrong? Yes it most certainly is. Do I agree with this way of life? Do I sanction it in any way? No I don't. Do I recognise that it is a sad part of the reality of life on the streets? Yes I do!

International pressure on Romania to "do something" about the problem of trafficking is probably the main reason for the arrests. The real human traffickers, the ones who make good money out of it are too clever to get caught or have connections in high places and escape justice. As is so often the case in this unjust world in which we live, it is the ones at the very bottom, those who have no money or influence, those whose lives are already a tale of woe and suffering who pay the price.

Several of the "witnesses/victims" in this case are illiterate, yet their statements display a high degree of literacy, using words and phrases which I am convinced they have never heard of or used in their lives. Three have told me that they were offered cigarettes and a small amount of money by someone if they agreed to the statement and put their fingerprint of cross on it.

As both the accused and the accusors are all young people with whom we work, I love them all and feel only pity for them - all are victims in one way or another. If found guilty those accused face up to 20 years in prison ... a lifetime locked away, and for what? For trying to survive life on the streets in whatever way they can.

Do I blame Romania, the prosecution or the local police for this travesty of justice? Ultimately, (with a couple of exceptions) no - most of them are just trying to do their jobs in the best way they can ... the pressure on the "system" here in Romania to be seen to be doing something is immense. Because of its geographical location Romania is a country of origin, of transit and of final destination of trafficked human beings but the traffickers are from all over Europe and beyond. Once again, Romania's geography is against her, just as it was in past centuries when she was repeatedly invaded and looted by armies from every direction.

Finally ... we can use the dining room

2011-05-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Since managing to renovate the dining room last year we have not been able to use it for its intended purpose. We needed a space for an office and also for private conversations or counseling so we improvised, using the dining room and continuing to serve food in one of the activity rooms. But finally, thanks to the new office, we now use the dining room every day and it has made life easier for us, no more need to carry bowls of hot soup all the way through to the activity room. When Irina is here she's great at keeping order, as you can see from the photo below ... she doesn't put up with any nonsense at the table!

new kids on the streets

2011-05-11T11:30:00.005-07:00

From time to time a new child or young person appears begging somewhere on the streets of Arad. For the first contact we just chat to the child and if they say they are hungry we buy them something to eat, as in the case of this young boy who was begging outside one of the supermarkets. We try to put the child at ease, over a period of time building up a relationship so that the child trusts us enough to come to the day centre.

These two rascals were begging on the main boulevard of Arad and were very suspicious when we tried talking with them. They refused to give names or any information about themselves, assuming that our intention was to take them away and put them in a children's home! We persevered for a while and then I remembered that I had some toys in the minibus which someone had donated and hadn't yet been unloaded at the day centre ... two skipping ropes later we were chatting away happily. I invited them to come to the centre but don't expect to see them for some time, it is usually a while before children feel safe enough to come.

"Inviere" - Resurrection service

2011-05-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

Just a few images from the Easter Resurrection service at our local Orthodox church on Easter Saturday night. It's the one part of Easter that we really wouldn't miss - hundreds of people all meeting together at the church before midnight and then all walking around the church carrying candles ... beautiful and very moving. After three times around the church there follows a small ritual where the Priest knocks on the church door three times. Each time someone inside shouts out and asks who is knocking on the door of the house of the Lord and each time the Priest answers "we come in the name of the Risen Lord". Then usually the church doors are opened and everyone enters the church but this year the Priest said that as there were so many people, the service would all be held outside.

At the end of the service around 0200 a spotless lamb is brought into the service ... the photos didn't come out of the lamb as it was so dark, but it was beautiful and thankfully it's just symbolic ... no actual sacrifice takes place!

Decorating eggs for Easter at the Secret Garden

2011-04-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

Romania has a lovely tradition of decorating eggs for Easter and each year we continue this tradition in the Secret Garden, as best as we are able! This year one of our mums gave us a lovely idea, to varnish the blown eggs and to decorate them with an assortment of tiny beads, sequins and table confetti kindly sent by Kate's uncle Bill!

The results were lovely and when Amy came for a very short surprise visit just before Easter, she loved them and took them back to Scotland, where she sold them - profits will go into the daily food budget!

Our new office ... at last!

2011-04-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

After many months of obstacles to the building of our office, it's finally finished (well, very nearly) and in use! While the builder was working we had unseasonal flooding and a whole host of other problems which slowed down the work, but it's been worth it all.

With a grant from USAID via Peace Corps we have been able to purchase four laptop computers and other office equipment. We opted for laptops as they will be used in the office and also for computer training of both staff and clients, they give us the flexibility to work anywhere.

Shaneka, our Peace Corps volunteer for the past year and eight months worked with Amy (our daughter and former volunteer!) on the grant application and we are grateful to them both for all their hard work. The photo shows Kenneth and Shaneka using the office for the very first time to discuss (appropriately) the computer training programme. Shaneka has left us earlier than planned due to personal issues so the computer the training will be carried out by Kenneth as and when he can fit it in, until we find someone willing to take it on.

Christmas 2010

2011-03-17T09:39:00.001-07:00

Christmas was an awesome and humbling experience for us this year (or should I say last year?) We had two Christmas parties at the Secret Garden and we were seriously worried that we would not be able to provide adequate food and drink. We had no money in the foundation bank account, minus money in our personal account and a week before the parties, no offers of help! Above is a photo from the first party, for the children and families who come for the morning programme. Irina organised all the children to sing Christmas carols and say poems for the assembled parents and other adults. You can't see them all on this photo, but the room behind the visible children you can see was pretty full, we had around 60 people in all. We also played musical chairs, several rounds of it, we divided the children into age groups for safety - you can imagine what great fun it was with 15 children in each round! Then we danced and played more games before eating. The food was donated by local people and there was plenty for all. To complete a lovely day we were able to give each person a Christmas gift thanks again to Blysthwood Trust who again sent over Christmas shoeboxes for us.

On Christmas Eve we had our party for the street folks. Given that a week before the party we had no food and no money for any and we were beginning to wonder what we were going to do and how we were going to feed people. We had tomato soup donated by Blythswood Trust in Scotland - thousands of tins of it ... but apart from that, nothing! By the day of the party we could not believe the meal we were able to serve to our homeless friends ... a four course meal for 40 people is no mean feat!

We were overwhelmed by the goodness of God and of our Romanian friends who brought in ready made food. When you think that Christmas eve is the main celebration meal for Romanian families and all these good people had taken up precious time (and money) in the middle of such a busy family time, it's even more special. Home made soup was followed by stuffed cabbage leaves (traditional celebration food) and then by roast chicken thighs and mashed potato, served with plates of homemade pickles on the tables. To finish we served a selection of cakes and biscuits and coffee for any who wished it and a Christmas shoebox as each person left. When our family arrived at Nelu and Mariana's house later in the evening, we were completely exhausted but still caught up in the wonder of it all ...

Our pal Conor

2011-03-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

Conor is 10 and lives in Falkirk, Scotland. he came out to Romania in summer 2009 with his whole family and helped us with our work. Conor has a new blog which I recommend to you - it is interesting and entertaining and yes, to fans of the Highlander films, he really is called Conor MacLeod! www.conormacleod-thereisonlyone.blogspot.com

new web site

2011-02-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

I will post photos of Christmas and after soon ... honestly, I will but it's been such a busy busy busy time and fraught with personal problems. To name but a few, my mother has been very ill, my father died (I wasn't even informed, I found out three weeks after the event which was pretty distressing), Kenny has been unwell and my laptop had to be sent away for repair. I now have Amy's old laptop which is newer than mine as Grandad bought her a new one for Christmas so I'm up and running again.

Philip has very kindly started work on a new website for us. As yet it doesn't have a huge amount on it but we will be adding to it and of course it has a link to my blog. Please click on the link and have a wee look anyway ... and I will get back to blogging as soon as possible! We are in Scotland just now primarily to meet with our trustees and support group and to attend a fund raising ceilidh being held by West Glasgow New Church in Cleveden secondary school on Saturday evening (tomorrow). The last one they held was amazing and great fun so we are looking forward to it and hoping it might cheer us up a little along the way!

a hard winter

2011-02-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

Winter hit us in November with some very cold snowy weather, and again in December we had loads of snow before Christmas. During the week before Christmas the temperature suddenly rose from well below zero up to an incredible 13 degrees C, unheard of here in December. It was good news in terms of heating bills which are always a struggle to pay but unfortunately didn't last and on Christmas day during the evening the snow returned and with it, the cold. Since then the temperatures have remained a good bit below zero and the snow is thick on the ground everywhere. Christmas was, as usual an extremely busy time for us with Christmas parties and shoebox gifts to organise -I hope to find time this week to download photos from the camera and post some ... but don't hold your breath!

Eye Testing

2010-10-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

We only returned from the UK two weeks ago but it seems like an age. Last week I was away at a conference Monday and Tuesday, while on Tuesday Kenneth picked up two Optometrists from the UK and headed off with them to the next county to do eye testing in two different towns. They returned to Arad on Thursday night after midnight and on Friday spent all day testing at the Secret Garden and today (Saturday) all day in another town. During the year we carry out screening clinics and then all the referred patients are re-called to be seen by the Optometrists. It's a very busy week for them and us. As I write it's 2315 and Kenneth, Jane and Ian are still busy making up the glasses - there are a lot of pairs to be made!

In addition to all the busy-ness of the last week, Angelica dropped a real bombshell on Friday - she has been offered the chance of a good job (with a good salary) in Spain from next week. We We didn't demand that Angelica works her notice because she would lose the job if she wasn't available immediately. Angelica is a wonderful woman who has been a real pleasure to have as part of our small team - in spite of pretty awful home circumstances she is never ruffled and has provided us with a calming influence that has greatly helped us all in our stressful work. Her leaving means I will have to go back to being on site pretty much all the time ... there goes the time I thought I had for looking for funding and sponsorship!

Viki

2010-09-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

We lost one of our regular visitors to the Secret Garden while we were in the UK. Viki had been ill with cancer for a good while. A very poor woman who didn't have much of a life, she used to come regularly, bringing her two daughters with her, one with severe mental disabilities and HIV positive and the other with two young children, one a baby with health problems. Viki refused our offers of help to get to the hospital in Cluj 5 hours away, where she had a chance of a new treatment. She said to me that she couldn't go because she had to look after her family for as long as she could.

The last time I saw Viki was just before I left for the UK. She came in a wheelchair as she could no longer walk. We do not yet have a disabled ramp due to lack of finances but we usually manage to lift people up the four steps. Viki was swollen up with fluid and too heavy to lift, but she struggled out of the wheelchair and crawled up the steps on her hands and knees as she wanted to have a shower. I cried as I watched helplessly at the sight of this poor lady struggling away in order to be clean. After her shower Viki talked to be about the future - she was worried about her daughters and grand daughters and she said to me "I'll do my best for them while I still breathe but when I'm gone then God will have to take care of them, there's nothing more I can do."

Falkirk mobile library moves to France!

2010-08-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

Kenneth and I are over in the UK visiting friends, family and supporters. It's the annual marathon of rushing around the UK for a few weeks traveling to as many places as possible and seeing as many people as possible in as short a time as possible - great but exhausting! Sincere apologies to those we don't manage to visit.

Our "French Connection", Malcolm and Jan have been trying various initiatives in order to raise much needed funds for the work. Malcolm's latest project has been selling books in his local market in France. Then he and Jan came up with the amazing idea of buying the former Falkirk mobile library and taking it out to France. Malcolm and Andy from our Scottish support group set off yesterday to drive to France ... what an adventure! So if any ex-pat Brits in the Poitiers area of France are reading this blog, get over to Malcolms mobile bookshop and get yourselves some bargains!

As you can see by the photo below, Yasmina fancied taking a turn at the driving ... it was a hard job parting her from the steering wheel.

Roma (Gypsy) slavery

2010-07-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

As a people the Roma (Romanies, Gypsies) have been devalued for centuries. Most likely originally from northern India they migrated across Europe or were brought as slaves, possibly slave soldiers. Slavery already existed in Europe when the Roma came, non-Christian groups including Muslims and Jews were enslaved and according to the customs of the times it was considered normal to have Roma slaves. Roma slavery was finally abolished in Romania in the mid 19th century.

Discrimination against Roma is widespread - Ian Hancock, a Roma university professor from the US cites several modern examples of shameless racism against Roma: A Romanian woman when asked about murders of Roma in Hidareni said that killing Gypsies wasn't murder because murder is when human beings are killed! Hancock quickly adds that such opinions are by no means confined to Romania, quoting a member of the British government who declared publicly that Roma were "not human beings in the normal sense" and an Illinois detective who stated on television that American Gypsies had not yet developed genetically "like other people" to know right from wrong. Unbelievable!

In our work at "Vis de Copil" (A Child's Dream) we work with many Roma families and we also work at building bridges between the Roma community and the wider population. Our experience is that people are people, no matter what their nationality or ethnic background - most Roma are just honest, decent people trying "to make ends meet" and bring up their children.

The Secret Garden - a safe place

2010-07-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Dina usually comes to the Secret Garden once or twice a week and stays for two or three hours. She is in her twenties and has mental health issues and is a very timid young woman, easily scared and very wary of us getting too close. We don't know so much about Dina's past but the scars she bears tell a sad story of abuse and neglect. There are so many Dinas in this world - unloved and unwanted, passed around children's homes and finally ending up homeless on the streets of one of the world's many cities. What can we offer this young woman and others like her? Sadly, not a home, nor a family ... but we can offer her a safe refuge and a place to which to come and not be judged or ridiculed or worse.

daily activities in the midst of renovations

2010-07-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

The renovation work on the basement medical room is almost completed - we are just waiting for the plasterwork to all dry out before the final finishings can be done. It's taken much longer than planned because of the unbelievable weather - May and June have had more rain than ever for the time of year since records began and their have ben incredible storms and severe flooding in parts of the country. During the course of the work in the basement the workers were flooded out several times.

But as they say, the show must go on ... and we have continued the daily programme almost as normal, without the use of the courtyard for the children to play outside. Children who come daily to the Secret Garden are enjoying the more leisurely programme during the school holidays. We still put them to do a little school work to keep them up to date because the holidays are long and children forget but we do more games and leisure activities each day. Yesterday we completed the lovely forest scene pictured above - isn't it great.
As well as various activities some of the children have showers and all of them have a meal (we try to feed everyone who walks through the door!) Recently we received another generous donation of frozen food from a local company - we have had several donations of frozen fish and profiteroles, this time we received lots ... and I mean LOTS of traditional dumplings stuffed with a mixture of fillings - chocolate, sweet cheese and apricot! We couldn't store them all so we spent a whole afternoon and evening driving around delivering them to other charities in Arad and some very poor families in our own community. For two weeks now all our clients have been eating soup and dessert.We try to get the mums and other carers involved in our activities and they often take part, but sometimes they just want to sit and watch and relax a bit ... can't blame them, they have such hard lives.

Below is a tableau of paper flowers made over the past couple of weeks by Dana, Angelica and the children. It's painstaking but the finished effect looks beautiful on the wall of our entrance hall.

homes for the homeless!

2010-07-02T13:51:00.001-07:00

After weeks of queues and form filling and anxious moments waiting for home visits to check current living conditions Irina (friend, colleague and former street girl) was one of the fortunate ones who finally received the keys to her new "social housing" apartment today! It has been a stressful few months for Irina (and us) and many others of our "clients" but today was truly a sight to behold.

Irina was so overcome with emotion that after signing and receiving her keys she threw her arms around Erica Stark the Director of social Services for Arad city! Erica used to be the manager of the emergency section of the Arad County Child Protection and we have had many years of fruitful collaboration with her.

Irina has known Erica since she was a young child living on the streets of Arad and has many fond memories of "Doamna Erica", so it was particularly special for Irina to receive the keys from her.

Argentina (yes, her real name) is one of our regulars at the "Secret Garden" day centre. This young woman and her husband and two young children have been living in a makeshift hut in one of the poorest communities of Arad for several years. If you met her, Argentina would impress you with her quiet faith and attitude of thankfulness for what she has ... which has never been much.

Argentina and family, overjoyed with their first ever proper stable home. One room, a kitchen, bathroom and store room might not sound much to some of you, but for this family it's a palace!

This wee darling also comes to our centre, her family one of the many who have come to us for showers ... now they have a real bathroom with a bath and running water!

After receiving their keys some of the disabled young men from our dear friend's Linda and Harold's foundation asked for a lift back into town ... then two of our street folks who have been given an apartment joined them ... then one of our poor families ... but will they all fit in, wheelchairs and all?

Yes of course they will ... and as my father used to say "a good day was had by all"

first aid training!

2010-06-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

The recent visit of a group of nurses from Scotland brought with it many laughs as they tried their best to teach us all first aid! We took them out and about in some of the very poor communities doing "street clinics" where the people would queue up for advice and help from the nurses. Problems ranged from minor cuts or skin irritations to fairly serious infections and worse. We had many happy patients, particularly children who managed to get a plaster out of the nurses (band aid for our American friends!) But the highlight of the trip (for us at least) has to be the staff training ... while obviously being essential for our staff and volunteers, it was also hilarious!

sewing workshop

2010-06-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

We recently had the privilege of having Michelle Ellel (trying saying that three times quickly!) from Humanity at Heart in the UK with us teaching a group of ladies how to do patchwork. Michelle showed us photos of some of her own work ... we definitely don't aspire to anything as wonderful, (if you're reading this, Michelle, you're an artist and ought to be rich from the proceeds of your beautiful work!) but hopefully with time and patience we might eventually produce a quilt or wall hanging!
Michelle explained to us all about patchwork making traditions in the past, where groups of women would get together and make quilts as a social event ... during the time they cut and sewed they chatted and gossiped.
Most of our women are so poor and so disheartened by life that it's extremely hard for them to find the motivation to do anything. We don't expect miraculous results but if we can offer women a relatively simple activity to do while they chat over their coffee then it's worthwhile. The main point of the exercise for us is that it's something women can do together and enjoy each others company while at the same time making something beautiful and practical.

Who knows, with time they all might end up with a pretty wall hanging or bedspread to brighten up their simple homes.

Linda Rushbrook

2010-05-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

Our hearts are heavy today as we remember our dear friend Linda who passed away yesterday afternoon. Linda was an amazing woman who worked here in Arad for many years with some of Romania's most neglected "orphans". The many young people helped by Linda and her husband Harold grew up in "orphanages" for children with physical and/or mental disabilities and for many of them, knowing Linda was the first experience of love and acceptance in their lives.

Linda gave of her time and love sacrificially and never ceased in her efforts to make this world a better place for some of society's most marginalized people. We have been privileged to be her friend and to work together on occasion. In a conversation with Linda seven years ago she said to me "As a Christian what can I do that others are not doing? I can love unconditionally and never, ever give up on them!"

Linda never gave up on people. Those for whom she laboured might not always have been fully capable of appreciating what she did for them, but they will surely miss her and there will be many tears shed in the coming days for her passing. We will never forget her.

Scottish Gymnastics at the Secret Garden!

2010-04-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of visitors and activity ... we have had four different lots of visitors and have also been away visiting two projects in another city. First came Dave and Michelle, with whom we travelled to the city of Petrosan. Dave is our partner in vision care from the UK - he came to check up on Kenneth's testing and glasses making techniques ... ha ha! Michelle is from "Hunanity at Heart" a small charity in the south of England which is very kindly paying our social worker, Dana's salary for a whole year.

While we were in Petrosan with Dave and Michelle, visiting two separate charities there, our next visitors, Robert and Jean Callahan from Falkirk arrived, having driven over from Scotland with a van loaded with goodies!

Next to arrive were Lau and Vali, very dear friends of ours from Galati, on the far side of the country. Lau and Vali have worked for many years with street children and poor families in Galati and the distance between us prevents us from seeing each other more often - it takes a 9 hour train jouney followed by a three or four hour one to get to Galati!

When lau and Vali set off back to Galati, and Robert and Jean back to bonnie Scotland, Lynsey and Callum finally arrived (also from Scotland), having been delayed by the volcanic eruptions in Iceland and ended up coming across Europe by train instead of by plane.

So ... April was indeed a busy month. Our children and young people have cartwheeled, back flipped and roly-polyed to their hearts content, our ladies have learned to do patchwork with Michelle and we have all benefitted from the song/dance children's cd's Robert and Jean brought for the warm ups ... "

millenium centre comes to secret garden

2010-04-09T02:20:00.001-07:00

For the past couple of years we have been privileged to have young volunteers joining us from all over Europe via the Milennium Centre in Arad. So far we have had young people from Estonia, Spain, Poland, Georgia, Slovakia and many more (apologies to volunteers whose countries I didn't mention!) We have had some truly amazing young people helping us at the centre and the children and young people have appreciated the great variety of volunteers. Here is a video made by Eve from Estonia and Magda from Poland ...

Day in Kathy center
ÎncÄ�rcat de evearm. - Discover more life & style videos.

watch this music video

2010-03-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Amy drew my attention to this song by a group called Daughtry ... it has very thought provoking words and moving images:

visit of liz kearsley, photographer

2010-03-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't believe it's a month since I proudly declared that we are "back on the air"! It's quite ridiculous ... where does the time go? You might think that in neglecting my blog I've been keeping up with everything else ... not so! Still not got the photos of Christmas - my friend Estela from Peru took them as I was so busy and worried about Kenneth etc that I forgot the camera. I will get them and post them soon ... I will ...

In the meantime why don't you have a look at Liz Kearsley's blog. Liz is a professional photographer from Scotland (and latterly Wales) who recently moved to Canada ... confused? She probably is! While with us in Arad she took some excellent photos of our work and then travelled to visit two other charities working in Romania. Here is Liz's blog address, just have a look at her lovely photos and read her account.

http://lizkearsley.wordpress.com

back on the air ...

2010-02-19T04:19:00.000-08:00

After a run of illness, culminating with Kenneth being very ill with pneumonia over Christmas, a broken laptop and an annoyingly erratic Internet Service Provider we are finally back. As soon as I get my act together I'll post photos of our Christmas parties.

Life at the Secret Garden continues to keep us all busy and never bored. Yesterday the first half of the day was quiet with only a few children and two women from the homeless shelter coming, but at 1500 with the arrival of the street folks the relative peace quickly disappeared. We did a random control for solvent which resulted in 5 being sent away (we have a strict rule that no alcohol or solvent) enters the premises ... three went quietly, as they say but the less said about the other two the better!

One of our boys (I'll call him Marcus) arrived clutching his neck and covered in blood, having cut his own throat. After an initial few moments of panic a closer look showed me that the wound wasn't as deep as it first appeared. Marcus refused to go to hospital and in the absence of a medical person at the centre at the time, I had to clean him up and pull the wound together with adhesive strips and then put a sterile dressing on. Marcus has been having a rough time the last few days and he was so sad that I found myself crying with him as I cleaned him up. What kind of a life is it for these young people?

our newest volunteer

2009-10-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Petre (pictured here with his neice) is one of our street boys who we have known since first coming to Romania. Petre, his brother Cipri and their three sisters all ended up on the streets. Petre has been coming to help for a few weeks now and he is proving to be a good help. He is keen to make a better life for himself, but as with all the young people from the streets the temptations are many and hard to resist. We're pleased that some of the young people want to help others like themselves and in the long term we want to encourage it as a form of peer education - after all, who knows better than a street kid what life on the streets is like and what the dangers are?

winter's hardships begin

2009-10-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

We had a very cold spell which caught us all by surprise, but the weather is milder again. The mornings are often misty and quite chilly and in the evenings the temperature drops considerably, but the days are mainly warm and sunny, around 20 degrees which is pleasant, especially for October. The cold mornings and evenings remind everyone of the cold weather to come and as we go about our work we hear people talking about the winter and wondering how they are going to manage. At this time of year there is always unspoken fear in people's voices "what if ... ?" Many women like this one pictured here come during the day for a while to do their washing or have showers or just to chat while the children play or do school work. Living in such poor conditions as most of our families live, life is hard all year round, but in the winter washing clothes or dishes becomes a major task.

Our work becomes harder too in the winter. Firstly because it's hard to see children and families and work with them knowing the conditions to which they return each day. At the end of the day it's so difficult seeing the street folks all leave, knowing that they have no proper homes to go to. In addition to that they bring with them more dirty clothes to wash and generally make a lot more mess in the day centre ... more cleaning for us when everyone leaves at 1900.

human trafficking

2009-10-21T05:02:00.001-07:00

Trafficking in human beings has been around for centuries and the effects of the slave trade in Africa devastated a continent. In recent years trafficking is again on the increase, according to some sources being more profitable than drug trafficking. One of our street girls was recently taken to France and sold to some older man and another girl, only 11 years old has also been sold. Obviously we are well aware that these things happen every day, but even so, when it comes to girls we have known personally for a years it's painful to hear about it. Our street girls and also those from very poor families who are not adequately supervised are greatly at risk of being trafficked, but finding out the names and nationalities of the trafficants is not easy. Getting victims or friends of victims to speak out so that we can contact the police and Interpol is not easy because there are huge sums of money involved and people are threatened with physical violence if they dare to say anything.

a little about the roma (gypsies)

2009-10-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

“We pass like the wind on the lake of the world without leaving a mark. And yet, without us nothing would be the same. Always thrown out, always hunted. Despised and envied. And always unknown … “
from Tchalai’s Zigane Tarot (1984)
Many of the children and families with whom we work are Roma (Gypsy) and as such, live on the edge of society, often in squatter communities on the margins of Arad and surrounding towns and villages. Pictured are two of our Roma girls who come daily to the centre. They are lovely, warm, kind hearted people who have become friends. Here they had just dressed one of our volunteers in traditional skirt and the red ribbons usually seen in the hair of little girls (just as I used to see when I lived in India!) Roma have been the victims of discrimination and mistrust for centuries. Linguistic and anthropological evidence indicates that the Roma people originally came from northen India and migrated across Asia and Europe between the 10th and 13th centuries.

Throughout their history the Roma have repeatedly suffered forced assimilation, persecution, banishment and deportation. Few people realise that the Roma were also victims of slavery in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere until 150 years ago. During the Third Reich in Germany the Roma were targeted for extermination by Hitler but I am not aware of any special memorials or days of remembrance for them and if such things exist then they are not well enough publicised.

The Roma are one of the most persecuted ethnic minories in Europe. Racial stereotypes and myths developed over the centuries in order to justify the persecution of Roma – they were accused of being lazy, thieves, witches and child abductors “The Gypsies are coming, the old people say. To buy little children and take them away …”

Any study of history shows us that a people who are marginalized and rejected have to find alternative ways to survive in society and often such people become the victims of social problems such as alcoholism and unemployment. Discrimination in all it's forms is an evil to be fought against and we at Vis de Copil (A Child's Dream) constantly look for ways in which we can help break down the barriers which exist between the Roma and their neighbours.

I'll finish here with the words of Indira ghandi, the former Indian Prima Minister in her opening speech at the International Romani festival in Chandigarh in 1983:

“There are some 15 million Roms dispersed across the world. Their history is one of suffering and misery, but it is also one of the victories of human spirit over the blows of fate. Today the Roms revive their culture and are looking for their identity. On the other hand, they integrate into the societies in which they live. If they are understood by their fellow citizens in their new homelands, their culture will enrich the society’s atmosphere with the colour and charm of spontaneity.”

crisis in the government

2009-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

The following is from the BBC news website:

The government of Romania has fallen after losing a vote of no confidence, the first such measure since the end of Communist rule in 1989.
Parliament voted 254-176 to oust Prime Minister Emil Boc's government, which lost its majority when its coalition allies pulled out earlier this month.
Romania has been hard-hit by the global economic recession and is dependant on an IMF loan to pay state salaries.
The vote followed the collapse of the ruling coalition 10 days ago.
Mr Boc has been struggling to pass economic and social reforms which were a condition of the IMF loan.
Speaking after the parliamentary vote, he said it was "an honour for a government to fall for pitching reforms aimed at suppressing privileges" and that he was convinced the reforms would be passed.
Under the Romanian constitution, President Traian Basescu, a close ally of Mr Boc, will appoint a replacement prime minister to run an interim government until presidential elections on 22 November.
Mr Basescu, who is favourite to win the vote, said he intended "to keep this period of crisis as short as possible".

Please pray for the Romanian people ... they deserve a better deal than they get.

that's a lot of washing!

2009-10-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

I love this photo with all the washing hanging to dry, and just imagine, those of you reading this from the comfort of your modern home complete with washing machine ... all this was washed by hand with water carried from the pump several hundred metres away from the houses! These are homes to some of our Roma (Gypsy) families on the edges of Arad - people who live on the margins of society wherever they live, all over Europe.

winter ... with a vengeance!

2009-10-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

After an early warm Spring, a very long hot Summer and an extremely pleasant warm and sunny Autumn, Winter arrived yesterday with a vengeance. The day was cold and windy with driving rain and the weather forecast said we could even have snow soon ... All who found their way to the Secret Garden were soaked through to the skin and pleading for dry clothes. We managed to give children and adults alike some warm clothes and socks, but I found myself thinking how good it would be if we could provide everyone with waterproof jackets (the cheap plastic kind that look awful but don't let any water in at all) and wellies (for the non-Brits that means rubber or plastic 'wellington boots'.

At the end of the day it was so hard seeing the street folks head back out into the wind and rain, knowing that they have no proper homes to go to. Some stay in derelict builings like the one above, others (the fortunate ones) have managed to built shelters around the hot water pipes that feed the city.

Poor families usually have home made stoves which run on sawdust, like the one below.

our first time at the n.g.o fair

2009-10-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today the annual NGO fair (for the uninitiated, non-governmental organisations)in front of the Primaria (Town hall) took place. For the first time we participated, even though we had little time to prepare and were afraid of not doing a good job of it ... imagine taking place in an event which is meant to raise the profile of your charity and making it a laughing stock instead!

... In the end after a couple of anxious weeks and a lot of hard work and stress it all went well, including my presentation of our work - in Romanian so I was very nervous! while I was away at a conference a couple of weeks ago, Kenneth and Dana attended the planning meeting for the fair and volunteered me to present our work ... how very kind of them! On both days there was quite a lot of interest from the public. Dana, our new Social Worker did a great job of talking to all the interested people, telling them about our work and outlining volunteer opportunities. We offered sweets and face painting to all the kids and Shaneka our new Peace Corps Volunteer braided hair - it was a big hit!

flying seagull again!

2009-09-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

We were honoured by a second visit from the Flying Seagull team at the end of this summer, led by the slightly crazy Ash Perrin (sorry Ash, but you know it's true!) and many of the children and young people with whom we work again had a fantastic time. Ash brought with him Matt who we knew from last year and three others, all lovely and a pleasure to get to know. We took the team into some of the very poor commuities in and around Arad and brought a little joy into a lot of lives.

These families live in conditions of abject poverty with little to bighten their days and were over the moon to see us returning. We drove through the communities, some of the team on top of their van and Ash leading the way on his springy stilts (sorry again Ash, don't know their technical name, but they're great fun!) and the kids all running after him in hordes, sort of like the pied piper, only without the pipe and a lot taller ...

With all the kids and some parents following Ash and his team led the way to a suitable place for a performance, in this case the nearby forest. It was a fairytale setting, the sun's rays filtering thought the green of the trees and for the children what followed was equally fairytale as they watched the show and joined in with the games and clowning.

One of the days we had a performance in the Secret Garden ... of course the young folks loved it and thoroughly enjoyed themselves joining in all the fun and doing some clowning.

sometimes we fight ...

2009-09-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just the other day one of the street boys (we'll call him Stefan) came to the Secret Garden very drunk. We don't turn them away if they are drunk or high (some days there'd be no-one there if we did that!) but we do insist that they don't bring alcohol or solvent onto the premises. It was one of those days when you feel the trouble simmering just under the surface and you find yourself waiting for it to erupt.

Sure enough, as the afternoon progressed, one of the other boys, Claudiu kept making wee comments and annoying Stefan. I repeatedly told him to leave Stefan alone and to keep his mouth closed before he ended up getting a beating ... but would he be quiet? Of course he wouldn't! I had to leave the room for a minute and heard what sounded like a murder being committed. Running back to the activity room I saw Stefan in the process of throwing himself at Claudiu, stool in hand. Times like this are thankfully rare, but you have to act quickly so I placed myself in front of Stefan and put my arms around him while talking to him to calm him down and leading him outside. Once away from the source of his anger, Stefan calmed down and apologised in tears. When I told him I had two young workmen inside working in the kitchen who had heard the commotion and were probably scared out of their wits, he hung his head in shame and asked me to apologise to them for him!

more clokes!

2009-09-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, two weeks late and after a long labour baby Rafaela Alisa More honoured us with her presence! Mummy, daddy and baby are all well, though it was a stressful time, especially for daddy! No time to write more just now, but thought this photo of her wearing the bonnet her great auntie Betty knitted for her was rather sweet.

working together

2009-09-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

One of the agencies we collaborate with is the "Anti AIDS association" in Arad. At least once a week staff from the association come to the Secret Garden and engage in informal education about sexual health and other topics. They also offer help with contraception, counselling and AIDS testing.

Staff from the association approached us some months ago, having heard about us from the young people who live on the streets in the station area. They said they had heard that we had a good facility and would like very much to use our place for counselling sessions and health checks. We were delighted as we are always happy to collaborate with others who wish to help the street community and we are especially pleased to share our Secret Garden with anyone else who appreciates it's healing qualities!

back home (in Arad) at last!

2009-09-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

Eric, a good friend in darkest Wolverhampton took this photo of us. We hardly ever get photos taken together and never put them on blogs, so this time I thought I'd make an exception.

In July we had friends from Falkirk in Scotland visiting us, along with their two children. It was lovely to have them with us ... we hope they feel the same! They drove back with us to Falkirk, a journey of three days and the kids (Conor, Rachael and our wee Yasmina) were absolutely great.

For three and a half weeks we travelled around visiting and talking about the work here in Arad. It was good but very tiring for us and while over we received some very bad news. The son of dear friends here in Arad died from cancer - we were shocked and deeply saddened by the news. Then two weeks after that we received news that an old friend was found in the river Clyde, no-one knows exactly what happened but she was a lovely person who devoted her life to helping others and was still only in her 30's. On our way back through Europe we received the news that a colleague in the eye screening project also died, also from cancer. Then on our arrival in Arad Johanna's father-in law had finally lost his long battle with cancer. Words are inadequate at such times and we feel deeply for those left behind.

A new life in France?

2009-06-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

One of our street families left Arad yesterday in search of a new life in France (pictured with me and Irina and Viorel at either side of them. Secret and Tatiana and their wee girl Amalia came to the Secret Garden to have showers before leaving for the bus station. Life is very hard for young people who live on the streets and it is extremely difficult for them to get a new chance at life with all the ties that bind them to street life. Several of the homeless young people we know have moved away from Arad, some to other countries in search of a new life. For a few it seems to be working and the change of scene has enabled them to leave behind old habits but sadly for others the basic problems in their lives remain and they end up on the streets elsewhere or eventually make their way back to Arad. Secret and Tatiana want a better life for their daughter, it's not going to be easy for them but we hope and pray that they succeed.

The Secret Garden ...officially open

2009-06-10T01:57:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, we had our official day centre opening on the Saturday 6th of June. We had lots of work to do to get the place ready so we would like to thank all the various volunteers and visitors who helped us get everything together and supported us on the big day. We'll post pictures soon, but here is a presentation of the "Secret Garden" Day Centre accompanied by some lovely traditional European Roma (Gypsy) music!

"rogues gallery"

2009-05-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

please pray

2009-05-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

For any of you reading this blog who are able, please pray for the son of very dear friends of ours here in Arad. Claudiu is only 23 years old and newly married and has cancer which has spread. He is very seriously ill. I don't know what else to say other than please pray for him, his young wife and his parents and grandparents.

the audacity of hope?

2009-04-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Our good friend and fellow Scot, Tom Kennedy called round this evening for a wee chat and he showed me something on the Internet that moved me to tears. If you haven't already seen the very ordinary Scottish woman from the wee village of Blackburn an hour away from our city of Glasgow now's your chance. Susan is 47 and it's been her life long dream to be a singer ... she didn't have a chance but she dared to hope! Go on ... click on the link and prepare to be moved. Thank you Susan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Easter at the Secret Garden

2009-04-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Easter in Orthodox Christian countries such as Romania was a week after the western Easter this year. It varies from year to year - it can be as much as five weeks later and only occasionally coincides. The Romanian word for Easter is Pasti (pronounced Pasht) and is more strongly linked to the Jewish Passover than in the West, the same word being used for both. It is a beautiful time with some lovely and interesting traditions. Our favourite part of Easter is the "Inviere" (Resurrection) service on the Saturday night. At around 23.30 everyone gathers at the Orthodox church and waits with candles in their hands for the priest to come out of the church. When the priest appears everyone lights their candles from him and then from each other and proceeds around the church following the priest and his entourage. After three times around the church the priest then goes to the door of the church and sings the words of the Gospel about Mary and the other Mary going to the tomb of Jesus and finding it empty. This is interspersed with the congregation singing a short refrain which goes something like this "Christ has risen from the dead, with (his) death trampling on death, and to those in the graves he has given life" and at the end of the "Inviere" a pure white spotless lamb is brought into the church (thankfully not to be sacrificied!)

Another of the traditions which we love and always keep is the painting and decorating of eggs. Eggs are hard boiled and then dyed a variety of colours, the most important being red or painted with beautiful designs.

At the Secret Garden we spent the whole of Good Friday (or Great Friday as it's called in Romanian) painting eggs, followed by watching the "Jesus" film.

As children arrived with their mums we presented them all with hard boiled eggs and felt tip pens and wax crayons and explained to them that we were having an egg painting competition.

The expression of the faces of some of the mums was comical ...

"not us, we can't do that!" they said ... "Oh yes you can!" we

replied, "but women like us don't do things like that" they argued ..."Why not?" we asked, and as they thought about it, they realised that there was actually no reason why not so they picked up eggs and pens and got stuck in! As you can see from the photos, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

It was a somewhat chaotic day in some ways as not only did we have a whole room full of people all busily painting eggs but we

had others coming and going.

Some came hoping for Easter food parcels, but we'd only been able to put together 30 this year as we had no money. We would have liked to be able to give to all the families who come to the day centre, even those who only call in occasionally but we just couldn't.

... and finally, as each child left they recieved a goodie bag and the mums a bag of groceries - not a lot, but a small help for them at this time of celebration.

you get knocked down ... you get up again!

2009-04-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Wee Amalia was so determined to ride the "trotineta". It's not easy when you've only just turned two and you don't know how to balance yet! She was so determined to ride it and so pleased with herself when she managed to gain her balance ...

what a great picture! Mum and dad stand proudly by, watching their daughter's achievment.

Look at me, look at me ... I can do it! I can do ...

Then comes the wobble ... can she hold on?

no ... yes ... no ... and she's off! Daniela looks on sympathetically, she's had her share of falls too.

Our wee Amalia is a tough wee thing, not to be deterred by anything so minor as banging her head on a wall.
"did you bump your head?" say daddy, "come on, it's nothing, try again ..."

All that effort finally paid off ... just look at her now! Isn't she great? Imagine this darling wee girl is one of several who live on the streets with their parents, sleeping wherever they find a derelict building or making a hut alongside some hot pipes in the winter. hard to get your head round it, isn't it?

Mary and Joseph

2009-04-11T02:35:00.001-07:00

Maria and Iosif (Mary and Joseph) are two very ordinary pensioners who have lived hard lives, through the years of communism and the latter years of the Ceausescu regime when there were ration books and food queues. They pop in to see us from time to time and when we first heard their names we joked with them, as no doubt many have done over the years. Maria and Iosif are such a sweet couple, struggling along on their far too small pensions but not complaining and not asking for anything. Maria told us sadly but without bitterness that two of her four children died and the remaining two moved abroad, trying to make a better life for themselves and their children. Their combined pensions bring in just over £100 per month - not really enough to live on but like so many of the people we know they scrimp and save and do the best they can to make ends meet.

Prices here are at the same level as the rest of Europe and in many cases higher for basic necessities but salaries and pensions in general remain pitifully small. We saw a report about milk production in Europe on the Euronews channel which stated that Romania is the second most expensive country in all of Europe for milk. Tea, coffee, breakfast cereals, rice, cheese and many other basic food products as well as utilities such as gas are all more expensive here and if you worked out prices compared to salaries then literally everything you can find in the shops is more expensive here than in the UK or elsewhere.

homeless families

2009-04-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

These children live with their parents on the streets and they're not the only ones. We have several families who visit regularly with their children. It is always hard to see the little ones and realise that they don't have much of a future to look forward to. Of course our hope is that one day we will be able to help families such as these off the streets, but at the moment that remains a dream. A father called in today who has lived at one of Arad's homeless night shelters for more than two years. He used to live there with his children but has now placed them in a small children's home so that they at least can have a chance of a better life.
Obviously our dream for all our young (and less young) people is that one day they will leave the streets, but for the long term homeless that sadly often remains just a dream.

Looking for wives!

2009-04-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

The boys asked me to post this photo of them and say that they are looking for wives ... of course they were only joking (I think). What a bunch of likely lads eh? These lovely young men all live on the streets and get by as best as they can. They are regulars at the Secret Garden, taking showers daily and keeping themselves clean and tidy. We hate it when people talk about "the homeless" as though they are somehow less human - they're not at all, they are simply hurting people who are loved by God and deserving of our love too. In among the hardship of their daily lives, it always amazes us that they manage to retain such a sense of fun. We who are so privileged by comparison have something to learn from them, don't we?

"One minute Romanian"

2009-03-29T09:03:00.001-07:00

Wow ... is such a thing possible? Wish someone had told me when i first came here! Eight and a half years later and I'm still struggling ... anyway, here's an email from a friend - anyone planning to come and visit/help, you might want to give it a try!

hiya
for a while I've been downloading various free language lessons from iTunes, all produced in Glasgow by radiolingua.com. i've discovered today that they'd run a romanian basics class in november 2008 at http://coffeebreakspanish.typepad.com/oneminutelanguages/one_minute_romanian/ and wondered whether you'd want to let your newletter recipients know - it may help for any who are wanting to come out and see you too. i haven't started yet - and i don't imagine in 10 one-minute podcasts we should expect to become expert orators but even if it just teaches "hello, how are you? would you like a coffee?" it'd be nice for visitors to feel less foreign!
hope all's well. i'm still waiting for house stuff to be sorted out and am yet again house-sitting waiting for my own place. not for much longer, hopefully!
David

... and in the meantime, here's a photo of our beautiful Romania!

look how hard we work!

2009-03-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

During the early part of the day at the Secret Garden children of all ages can come along and join in work and play activities. Many of the children who come should really be in school or gradinitsa (kindergarten) but for many reasons don't attend, often because their parents' lack of education makes it difficult for them to take such a step with their own children. Other factors such as extreme poverty and the transitory lives some of our families lead add to the difficulties of sending a child to school. We are trying to encourage parents to allow us to help prepare children to be integrated into the system this coming Autumn. Some are already too old for normal school so we will have to look at other options, others hopefully will be able to enroll. Sometimes when a child comes to us for the first time they literally cannot even hold a pencil or crayon and to see them make progress is truly amazing.

One wee girl, Vetta who started coming in January this year wouldn't even sit on a chair for five seconds (I'm not exaggerating) and she drove us crazy by her refusal to do anything at all that we asked her to do ... now she sits for as much as an hour colouring in, drawing and trying to write letters and is really sweet and desperate for our approval. For mother's day on 8th March Vetta made a card for her mum and learned a wee poem! Just look at her below on the left in the red top, isn't she a sweetheart?

Dancing on the streets?

2009-03-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't tried to put a video clip on before so will see if this works! Some of the young folk from the streets having fun and doing a bit of 'gypsy' dancing ...

Where's Yasmina?

2009-03-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

Johanna and Philip looked after Yasmina for us yesterday while we were out all day at the Secret Garden. She ususally has to come with us as we have no other option, but I don't really like it as I have to keep an eye on her all the time as well as trying to deal with all the people who come. It's not ideal for her or for me and it can be quite stressful, but at the moment there's no alternative. In the Autumn Yasmina can start 'Gradinitsa' (Kindegarten) so that will makes things easier.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I think Yasmina had a great day ... Philip lets her watch her favourite children's programme, "Balamory" - for those who have never seen it, you just don't know what you're missing!

At one point during the day Yasmina went into her room and closed the door behind her. Johanna and Philip were sitting in the living room, Philip was working on his laptop, Johanna was enjoying a cup of tea and they weren't paying attention. After a good few minutes had passed Philip asked "what's Yasmina doing all this time?" so Johanna went through to have a look and got a huge fright. No sign of Yasmina ...

Johanna went right into the room and it was empty and quiet ... she was getting quite worried when she suddenly caught sight of Yasmina - she'd taken her 'noo noo' (her name for her dummy) out of the cot and crawled in between her cot, the book shelves and her ball pit and fallen fast asleep!

Winter wonderland

2009-03-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

When winter arrived this year, it really arrived! We had snow in January and February ... lot's of it and Arad turned into a wonderland of frost and ice, with icicles hanging off every building and a layer of frost covering everything and sparkling in the winter sun.

Arad is a lovely city with some very beautiful buildings mainly dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although of course we work in the less attractive areas among the poor and needy, we always like people to see the other side of this city which we now call home.

Our own "Secret Garden" as you can see is really a very pretty house and not only attractive but as all our visitors notice, it has a special atmosphere too. Covered in snow the house looked amazing, the photos don't really do it justice. the air is so cold here in winter that when we have mist, the water vapour crystallises onto the branches of the trees and gives a fairytale appearance to the trees and shrubs.
Vis a vis the Secret Garden and along our street are other lovely buildings, in need of some renovation perhaps, but beautiful nonetheless.

We feel very privileged to have found such a lovely house right in the heart of the city and the many homeless and poor people using our facilities appreciate having a 'pretty' place in which to sit and relax, play and learn.

We are busy every day Monday to Friday and the showers and washing machine are on the go non stop. In the early part of the day mothers (and sometimes fathers) and their children come. Any children who appear take part in activities, at the moment mainly drawing and colouring in, singing and playing simple games - most of the children who come to us have never even held a crayon or pencil before and so for them, basic education means literally that. For the past few months we have had a final year Social Work student volunteering with us. Dana is on maternity leave from her factory job as well as studying and has been a great asset to the project, her endless patience has resulted in several children who previously seemed unable to sit still for even one minute now sitting for half an hour at a time drawing, colouring in or learning to write letters.
During the later part of the day the "street kids" come. We have now 85 completely homeless children and young people on our register, although it's probably a good thing for us that they never all turn up on the same day! I don't know if we would be able to cope. Ususally anything between 12 and 25 young people come on any given day. We also have four older homeless people who have started coming, invited by the street kids with whom they share derelict buildings! All want to have showers when they come, so we have a list every day to keep order and make sure everyone gets a turn. Ususally several bring bags of clothes to wash so we have a rota for that too.

Our newest volunteer is a 17 year old girl, Tilor who has been coming since we first opened the doors. She's pictured here with her partner Georgie and their six month old baby Denisa. A few weeks ago I talked with Tilor about the fact that she can't work as she has no birth certificate and therefore no ID card, therefore cannot be employed. I asked her if she would like to become a volunteer and she was delighted. So far Tilor is doing very well and proving to be a valuable member of our wee 'team'.

Denisa comes every day with mummy and is a wee treasure. We have Yasmina with us anyway to look after and having recently discovered that Irina and others are pregnant, we will soon have a full creche!

Kathryn's visit to Scotland

2009-02-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, Kenneth just arrived back in Arad a few days ago and now I am over in bonnie Scotland but only for a few days. I will be speaking at a couple of meetings including a fund raising ceilidh on Friday 6th March in Falkirk (tickets available from Lauri Crawford - contact details on the side panel). Kenneth will 'hold the fort' while I'm away, helped by Amy, Johanna and Philip as well as our volunteers, Dana, Lidia, Tilor, Irina and Viorel ... well, truthfully, he'll need all the help he can get!

"Daddy Day Care"?

2009-02-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

Kenny had a week off university after his end of semester exams. He came to the Secret Garden daily and was very popular with the children. He helped entertain the wee ones while their mums had a cup of coffee in peace. The older street kids enjoyed having him around too - some of them have know him since we first came here when he was only 12 and call him their brother.

During the days we have a variety of younger children who come, some with their mums. One mother of a nine year old boy came to see me and ask if she could pay us to teach her son the basics of reading and writing. As with many of the Roma children, he doesn't attend school but his mum has realised that it would be an advantage for her son to be educated. Eventually we hope to be able to teach children the basics with the scope of helping them to then integrate in mainstream schools. We have talked with the education department and they are very supportive. Of course, as with everything else, this depends on us having staff and funding.

One minute we laugh, the next we cry!

2009-02-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

Although the renovations still are not completely finished we decided to open for a few hours each day. Our 'quiet' activity room is out of action because it's still full of all the donations we had to move from the new dining room.

We have had quite a few volunteers over the past few weeks, which has been great. some girls came from a local church a couple of days and did a programme with groups of children - the children loved it and keep trying to sing the songs. One lady from a local church, Lidia is brilliant with the young ones and as soon as they see her they come running to me to ask if they can play the 'hanky' game with auntie Lidia!

For the past couple of weeks we have been blessed with MaryBeth from Edinburgh ... she has helped us burn (sorry, cook) the pastries, burn (I meant cook of course) meals and learn to dress and dance like a Romany! We have had a lot of laughs over the past couple of weeks, I hope MaryBeth has too!!!

As always though, all our happy days are mingled with sadness, working with homeless or semi-homeless people we are constantly reminded of the hopelessness of their lives. The wee girl pictured here sleeps at the homeless shelter with her mum and dad, look at her, she's absolutely gorgeous.

There is another family who come every day, a mum with her three children who has run away from her violent husband. For security reasons I can't picture them though I wish I could, because her children are so very cute and it's so absolutely awful that they have no home. We have been trying every possibility we can think of to try and find them a place. The maternal centre says they could take her if she had an Arad ID - but she doesn't. Our last hope is a charity just outside Arad called Networks which has a mother and baby home, we are meeting with the head of the charity tomorrow to let him meet the family and have a chat.

Wee Denisa pictured below, lives with her 17 year old mum and her dad and his family in a tiny apartment. She's a darling baby, so loveable and cuddly and very much loved by her parents even though they are very poor. Her mum, Tilo has been coming every day since we first opened the doors but recently has started helping us and is keen to be a 'proper volunteer'.

pastries and more pastries!

2009-02-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

Recently we have had several large donations of pastries in various flavours. We cook them at home -it takes ages but heats the kitchen up so that's nice in this cold weather, then we take them to the day centre where they are very gratefully received.

Up until now we have provided a basic meal every day of soup which we received from Blythswood Trust, Scotland along with sandwiches and tea and coffee.

Our 'clients' all appreciate
whatever they get, but it has been really great to offer them a treat of bolognese, plum, pizza or pumpkin pastries. Of course all of us at the crazy casa have been enjoying them too ... though I must say, I'm not sure I want to see pumpkin pastries again!

Christmas Eve with the "streetkids"

2009-01-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

Life was so frantic over Christmas and New year that there just wasn't the time to get photos downloaded and organised to put onto the blog.

After rushing around like headless chickens all morning we finally arrived at the Secret Garden to organise the food for the party. I use the word "we" in it's widest sense ... I didn't make it until about 15 minutes from kick off! I was at the Metro buying all the last minute things we'd forgotten to get the day before.

Before the invasion of the street kids the place looked lovely - newly painted, curtains all freshly washed and pretty tablecloths on all the wee tables. Of course the effect was somewhat spoiled when our guests arrived but the looks on their faces were worth more than pretty tables to us.

From the youngest present, baby Denisa, three months old (pictured with uncle Kenneth) to the oldest, everyone had a great time. Three homeless men turned up who are not amongst our normal "clientele" ... but how could we turn them away?

We had a fantastic team of helpers from several local churches and are indebted to them for helping the day to go ahead. We were so busy, tired and stressed that without their help this years Christmas celebration might have been a total flop. I told them all that as I thanked them for coming and helping to make it all possible.

The whole Cloke family was present, the street boys were especially delighted to see Kenny as they don't see much of him these days. The long term street boys have known him since we first came here and always talk about how they've watched Kenny and Amy grow up. Kenny had to pose with several of them as they all wanted a photo with him ... he's pictured here with Bodo, one of the boys who has lived many years on the streets.

There was plenty of food for all, one lady from our church, "Metanoia" in Arad brought a huge pot of traditional chicken soup withhome made noodles which went down very well as it was a good few degrees below zero outside. After the soup there was an array of sandwiches, salads, smoked sausage and other tasty treats. For dessert we had a selection of cakes and biscuits and fresh fruit.

Once everyone had eaten their fill (literally) we had a great time singing carols led by our "choir master" Calman (aka Bin Ladin) pictured here conducting the singing. Calman grew up in one of the former "orphanages" and when he left, ended up on the streets and has been there ever since. He's quite a character, very lovable and always ready to sing or even preach a wee sermon given half a chance! When he's high on solvent he can be a bit of a handful and on the occasions when he arrives high we try to sit him down in a corner until he comes down a little or let him into the shower first to "sober up".
The carol singing went on for a good while, I think our visitors enjoyed listening. We had hoped that we would be joined again this year by some children from the Oaza charity's children's home in another district of Arad but sadly they didn't make it. Also a group of children from the largest Roma area of the city were supposed to be coming along but Ramona who works with them told me afterwards that she couldn't get transport organised. it's a shame because had we known, one of us would have shuttled them in the minibus. Oh well, such is life, there'll be a next time!

As a special treat we put some music on and had some dancing. some of our young people are great dancers and really enjoy themselves. A few of the boys had fun trying some hip hop dancing ... hilarious, couldn't manage to capture it on camera!
... and finally, christmas shoe boxes. Thanks again to Blythswood Trust Scotland who kindly sent us 1000 shoe boxes this year, less than last year but we are happy to know that they sent more boxes to India this year and having lived and worked in India we are delighted to know that needy young people there will receive the boxes.

All in all it was a good albeit very tiring day. Our helpers had all left during the afternoon as christmas eve is the most important family meal of the Christmas period and they had to get home to prepare for it. After the last young person had collected their shoe box and goodie bag we started to tidy up. After doing a quick clean up we finally left at 1900 and headed to my mum's to pick her up.

When we arrived back in the village we went round to our wonderful friends Nelu and Mariana to join them for their Christmas eve meal. As always Mariana had prepared the most amazing spread and although exhausted we had a lovely evening. Amy, either incredibly bravely or just stupidly, offered to take Rosanna, Yasmina and Irina's wee girl Daniela our carol singing! considering that it was several degrees below zero and snowing we were amazed some three hours later when Amy and the girls turned up at Nelu and Mariana's to carol sing for us having trailed all around the village. If I find the photos I'll try to remember to post some of Amy and her wee band of travelling carollers ...

Kenny's 21st and a few bits and pieces!

2009-01-06T01:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it - Kenny will be 21 tomorrow. I'm finding it hard to take it in, can it really be that long since I had him? Am I really that old? Here in Romania a person becomes a "major"at 18 and all things become legal at the same time so young people usually have a big party for their "majorat". Partly because we were so busy and partly out of ignorance (we didn't realise that all Kenny's friends would be having big parties) Kenny didn't really have anything special. He would like to have a party for his 21st but at the moment nothing is planned and I'm not sure how we will manage it ... so we'll have to wait and see.

Also can't believe it's almost a month since I updated ... time sure does fly when you're having fun! The weeks leading up to Christmas were so busy that Christmas week was upon us before we realised it. We had builders in right up until the 23rd, but that was good because the electricians came on the last day and it meant we had light in the newly renovated rooms.

On the 23rd we invited all the street people to come for showers and clothes. We had a few helpers that day and as each one merged from the shower they were handed a full set of clothes, starting with underwear.

As we have done for the past couple of years, on Christmas eve we had a celebration at the Secret Garden - 42 came and we had about 10 helpers so it was a busy day. We had plenty of food for all and one lady from our church even brought a huge pot of chicken soup which was especially nice as there was snow outside and the temperature was minus 7 or 8.

When Kenneth gets time to download the photos off the camera I will post photos so you can see everyone having a good time. A couple of people called us on Skype on Christmas eve and we were able to show them the street folks live enjoying themselves (much more entertaining than Big Brother!) More about Christmas eve in the next couple of days hopefully.

Many of you will be aware that the UK pound has been steadily falling in value for some time now, what you probably won't have thought about is how this affects people like ourselves working overseas as volunteers supported from the UK and trying to run charities. Over the past two years we have had an increase in the funding which both we and the charity receive but this increase has been cancelled out several times over by the decrease in value of the pound. Three or four years ago the pound was worth 6.3 new Romanian Lei, today it is worth less than 4.2 ... I'm not good at Maths but even I can see that's a big drop by any standards.

100kg of pastries ...

2008-12-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

How exciting can our lives get? At the close of play today we received a phone call to offer us 100kg of uncooked pastries, but the catch was we had to collect them right away. There are two flavours - bolognese and plum with pumpkin seeds on the outside. Unfortunately some had defrosted and needed cooked imediately, so guess what we've been doing all evening ... and guess what we had for dinner? The ones we had to cook will go out tomorrow to one of Arad's poor communities, the rest will wait a while in our freezer.

I talked to Kenny on the phone, He's all right though he must still be in some pain. Somehow yesterday I didn't catch the fact that he had two broken knuckles as well as bruises all over.

shoe boxes (photo from a previous year)

2008-12-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

We had 5 visitors from Fife in Scotland today, they have a charity and work with young people who grew up in an huge "orphanage" north of Arad. Kevin, one of their number was at Bible college with us and played the piano at our wedding, so we go back a long way! They are interested in our work, particularly the day centre, and of course there is some overlap between their work and ours as some of the young people from the "orphanage" have also spent time on the streets or in very poor conditions in Arad.

During the afternoon I had a text message from Kenny in Timisoara to say that he and a friend were beaten up last night and taken to hospital - fortunately he is only badly bruised, nothing broken. His friend's glasses were smashed, so we told Kenny to tell his friend we'll get him some new ones. This news coming right after Amy's being in hospital for an operation on Monday came as a bit of a shock as you can imagine, but it could have been much worse.

As we were preparing to say our goodbyes at around 18.00 I had a phone call from the driver of the truck with the shoe boxes to say they were waiting at the gate of our house! What a shock that was - we had no idea at all they would be arriving today and in fact did not want them delivered here as we have no space for them! However, as we learned long ago, it doesn't seem to matter what we want, what will be will be as they say!!!

We have only a third of the boxes we had last year as Blythswood Trust have sent many to India - for this we are delighted as we left part of our hearts in India when we worked there 20 years ago. We received a lot less than we had originally been told so will have to be extra careful to make sure they go to the most needy families.

At present the boxes are all sitting in our courtyard waiting until we can take them to the day centre. I Hope it doesn't rain, although it's so cold that if anything falls it will be snow!

Secret Garden renovation photos

2008-12-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

I had to be at home today because Amy just got out of hospital after having her tonsils out yesterday (under local anaesthetic ... ouch!) so at least I had time to check emails and to update my blog. I thought it was about time I showed you some of the photos of the renovation work or you might think I'm imagining it all ... Our initial phase of renovation involved the room next to the street and the one beside it. We decided to renovate two activity rooms and put in the bathrooms and put in new mains drainage and central heating throughout the building so that the centre would at least be useable. The plan worked and for the last year we have used just the two rooms, with an improvised "kitchen" area in the first which we used for making instant soup and sandwiches as well as teas and coffees.

This second phase of renovation is to transform the remaining two rooms on the ground floor to make a kitchen and dining room and also a staff toilet and small changing room for the cook (when we have one) Future work will be to renovate the basement and convert it into a medical room for basic health care, vaccination programmes and first aid, and to turn the old solarium into an office - the only factor determining when this will take place is money!

Firstly the builders knocked down several walls, blocked off dorrways and made new ones - there were several small storage rooms and what we think was a room used for smoking meat tucked in behind the two rooms. We needed a vegetable preparation area and a storage cupboard as well as the toilet and changing room so walls were demolished (of course leaving all support walls and pillars!) and rebuilt in different places.

In the dining room we are trying to preserve the original parchet flooring as we did in the first of the activity rooms (we lost the other due to putting in the new drainage), once the work is done we will have it professionally sanded down and varnished. The health regulations stipulate that the kitchen and bathrooms all have to be tiled, so in those areas and the hall areas they builders laid a new concrete floor which will provide the solid base for tiles.

All the walls have now been plastered and doors put into place. Kenneth chose simple wooden doors with a window to let as much light pass from one area to another and keep an open feel to the place. The photo on the left is of the dining room - the indented part is where there used to be a large walk in cupboard. The room seems so much larger now and will make a very pleasant dining room. We don't as yet know how many people we are allowed into the centre at one time - the health inspection authority will check the place over when it's finished and then calculate based on cubic metres of air space per person ... sounds very complicated to me, but there you go!

Vali's funeral

2008-12-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

We are just back from Vali's funeral. Only Kenneth, Philip and I were able to go - Johanna is in Scotland visiting a close friend who is ill, Kenny is in Timisoara, as he has classes on a Satuday and amy is staying at Granny's. We first went to the market to buy a wreath, and then on to the cemetary. It was raining heavily and few of the street folks had turned up for the service. We wondered about that and were quite surprised - usually they are very united when something happens to one of their number. The service was held outside at the cemetery, under cover from the rain but without protection against the cold. After the service we walked in procession to the graveside where we witnessed what had to be the quickest burial of all time. I think the combination of the continual rain and the fact that it was a street boy speeded things up.

Just at the very end as the men were hastily shovelling the soil back over the grave, a whole troop of street folks turned up. It was awful. We felt so sorry for them that they had missed the funeral. If the actual burial had been the normal 20 minutes to half an hour they would have caught at least that. They all spent a few minutes at the graveside saying their goodbyes before leaving. They were all asking us when the day centre will re-open and telling us how desperately they need showers and a warm place to come in the cold weather. Vali's death will hit them hard, reminding them of their own vulnerability and of the shortness of life.

Death of a street boy

2008-12-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

A phone call from another of the young men from the streets confirmed yesterday evening's call, Vali was found dead by one of the street boys with whom he lived. As yet we have no further details but we have offered to help with funeral expenses. Vali leaves behind a young child with his former girlfriend and somewhere, his natural family, though whether they have been contacted yet or not we don't know. We loved Vali, a very gentle young man and to see his young life wasted like this is heart-breaking.