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Helping poor
families and old people living alone
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In addition to taking care of children with disabilities who
live in our family homes, our mission in Romania tries to
help many poor families who live in our area.
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Many families still live in difficult conditions. Families with 3, 5
and more children live in shacks made of clay and straw, with only
one room, (about 4 meters squared) without water and electricity.
Although our priorities and our time are almost entirely absorbed by
people living in the group homes, we try to help these families.
Pauline, an Irish volunteer who has spent more than ten years living
in Romania, coordinates this project. She visits the families and
elderly people weekly, helping them with clothes, food, firewood for
the winter, medicine, hospital visits, etc..
During the
warm periods we work on many small projects, repairing
stoves, doors, roofs, etc. and other larger projects:
refurbishing homes, building extensions and in some cases,
building entirely new homes for many of these needy families
who otherwise would not be able to renovate their
dilapidated homes.
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In
recent years we have brought electricity to more than 25
families. The connection costs around 500 euro for each
family, a prohibitive cost for Romanian people. |
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Electricity means culture (news, television, radio, computer) and
civilization, it allows families a normal life otherwise forced to
live until the dark comes (in the winter at 5 pm), confined to a
single room by candlelight. |
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Food and clothes: donated in Ireland and Italy, with
trucks delivering goods here, are distributed regularly.
Wood for heating in winter helping many families to buy
firewood for heating and helping some elderly to cut and
store it.
Medicines, hospital costs, many families are unable to
pay for medication, the price of which has reached EU
standards. Even in the hospital, we are often forced to pay
the doctors who would otherwise not take care of patients.
Electricity connection: very expensive, impossible for
many families. We take care of the paper work, and the cost
which is often around 500-700 euro.
Renovation and construction of houses, roofs, rooms, etc.,
where necessary, refurbishing houses, rooms, roofs for
families with many children often living in very poor
conditions.
Documents helping many families and the elderly, poor
and often illiterate, who are unable, and who find it too
confusing, to make applications for many important
documents, such as pensions, health care, ID cards, etc.. |
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