"Early on the morning of Aug 3rd ten of us met together from all over the country, our purpose being to give disadvantaged Romanian children the time of their little lives.  We flew to Budapest where we were met by Nicu our partner in his car and his mini bus driven by Ovi an 18 yr old young man who I remember from Camp 6yrs ago where he proved to be a 12yr old football ‘star’.  What a treat for me. 

Our journey into Romania took about 4hrs up into the Carpathian mountains where 48 children excitedly awaited our arrival.  They had already been sent to bed but sleep was the last thing on their minds!  The scenery around us was just breathtaking with an abundance of wild flowers.  We made the most of this by going for a walk each day and on one occasion collected beautiful things for a collage on our return. Our daily programme as well as this was ‘Discovery Time’ when we sang a lot and told stories, fun team and party games, football of course and craft sessions where treasures were made to take home to parents or carers. 

A special treat for me was five young ladies who came to help.  I first met these girls in 2000 when they came to camp from their orphanage, grey skinned and very skinny.  At 18 they had to leave the orphanage with no life skills but fortunately Nicu and Miha took them under their wing helping them to find somewhere to live and to find little cleaning jobs.  They also supported them financially.  Now I could hardly believe what I saw, beautiful, healthy young ladies with proper careers.  One is a nanny, another an hotel receptionist, another cares for abandoned children in the hospital etc.  They still live together but in an apartment with three bedrooms all beautifully kept.  What a joy to see them and spend time together.

When the camp children went home we then moved to the city of Oradea and worked in the near by village of Urvind within a gypsy community. Sharon, one of our leaders, had been out in May working with a group of mums with a group of young mums from her church.  The faces of these ladies when they saw Sharon was amazing; they could not believe she had come back and brought us along too. The Roma gypsies are such lovely people, gentle and loving even though life is very hard. 

We had such fun with their children aged between about 4 and 16.  Only very simple crafts were possible but they were proud of what they made.  Unlike last year’s community these folks were well integrated into village life and the children able to go to the school.  Nicu and his charity ‘People2People’ are busy raising funds to provide a pre-school so these precious children will be up to flying speed when they start school.

As always I am not sure who had the best time, all these dear children or me!! My grateful thanks to all of you who helped to make this possible.

With love,
Judith"