Giving Help To Improve Children's Lives

Sally Rodger looks back at My Weeklys work in Romania and finds out how things have changed thanks to our projects.

- Sally Rodger, Sally Wood-Lamont, Mary’s Meals

One of the first institutions we visited in Romania was the residential school for visually impaired children in Cluj, in the northern part of the country.

Many of the children had been abandoned or orphaned, and there wasn’t a dry eye among the team as we watched the children open their surprise boxes, carefully feeling, smelling and in some cases, tasting each item they found. The joy on their faces really brought a lump to our throats.

And it was while we were there that we discovered that the boiler had broken down and for nearly two years the children had been showering in ice-cold water. So this became the first project the Helping Hand Appeal undertook.

We bought a new boiler and revamped the shower area, with a damp proof course, new floor and new tiling and finished off with colourful shower curtains. Can you imagine how a nice hot shower must have felt after two years of freezing cold ones?

In the years that followed, when we made regular trips to Romania, we continued to visit here, and were always met with a rapturous reception by the children and staff. They would put on a little party, and would sing for us.

We were later able to give further financial aid to repair and extend the heating and refurbish the gym, and we also purchased some Braille typewriters.