“I’ve never met an ordinary human” C.S. Lewis
ADD R IA L ESS: IN Ciu MOLD K ROM rchi A ANI A 46, VIA TEL Iasi , E Rom PHO 004 ania 0 72 N 8 44 E 4 52 F 1 00 ACSIM 40 2 I 32 2 LE 39 1 00 FUN
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September 2013
BUILDING HOUSES WHY?
Fundatia Link wants to invest in the long term development and sustainability of deprived communities across rural areas of Romania. The house building project is a remarkable project where voluntary teams work together to construct homes for poverty-stricken families. Throughout rural Romania there are many families living in sub-standard housing without adequate sanitation or harsh weather protection. Link Romania works within the community to construct and to provide a better standard of living and to bring them better sanitation and living conditions.
Issue 4, New Edition
www.linkromania.ro
SPEND A WEEK IN ROMANIA FOR £350 AN INVITATION FOR THE NEXT YEAR TO TEACH, BUILD, OR JUST CARE
WHAT WE OFFER
We offer the fantastic opportunity to work alongside the community in constructing homes and other construction projects such as wells, animal holdings, and fencing. You will be able to see the immediate and significant difference you will make to the community. You would stay at Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia Hostel.
Homes are traditionally made of sticks and mud.
COST
The Project costs £350 per person for 1 week including local transport, accommodation, food and building materials, for teams consisting of at least 4 persons.Accommodation works out at £15 a day for a single bedroom with showers and toilettes close by. A meal will be provided each evening working out at £10 for 4 person team.
FLIGHT DIRECTLY TO IASI!
F lights from London Heathrow to Iasi international airport. (Flights not included in this price). See also page 2
Playing with children and educating them.
They get a few visits every year.
As life became again very difficult in Romania, we need more than ever the practical and financial help of all who know and support us. We would highly appreciate if you would consider coming for a week in this beautiful country and do whatever you know best: work with the children, teach the Bible, or build something.
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46, Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www,linkromania.ro
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Invitation to the building project of the year 2014
By working with groups and teams from
abroad and working within the local community we work together to help with all aspects of building and renovating homes and other buildings in the city and rural areas.
IN OUR NEWSLETTER’S NEXT ISSUE WE WILL SHOW THE PICTURES OF THE WORTHWHILE PROJECTS WHICH WE HAVE COMPLETED THIS YEAR.
Over the past few years Link Romania
Moldovia has constructed many houses and is looking for self-funded groups and teams to
THEY WILL BE AN INVITATION TO
come and get involved in construction projects
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK THAT
in rural parts of Romania as well as in the city. Get your hands dirty and get involved in building houses for poor communities and other
BRITISH CITIZENS HAVE DONE OVER THE LAST DECADES.
development projects. Not only will you have a building adventure but you will have the fantastic opportunity to work and live alongside the community who will benefit from your effort and support whilst you will also learn a lot of new skills and some of the difficulties of living in one of these communities.
As well as the home building project Link
Romania also works to construct all aspects of building such as pig sties, chicken coops and wells. Which all invest in the future of local communities as we believe it leads to sustainability.
Yet with such a sheer scale of work, we
can’t do it alone. We look for groups and teams to join us, who are behind everything we do.
Our vision and aim is to build one house
each year, as well as aiding the local community in other building projects. We can build homes easily for those whose only hope is from abroad.
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46 Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www.linkromania.ro
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This year’s building project We have worked during most of the year with a family that we did not know for so many years, but who was recommended by one of the people who used to be supported by our charity, an ex-homeless who became vice-mayor of his village. Trusting his judgement, as he knew our ethos and policies, we gladly involved the family in our projects. Their daughter Andrea has serious problems with her kidneys. she has to go monthly to the hospital in Iasi to check the quality of her blood, and whether or not there are infections caused by the poor activity of her kidneys. Her father Nelu is both diligent and skilled in his construction work, so it was, again, easy working in this project, as we did not have to employ people to do his work. They live at about 20 kms from Iasi, the main city, and the parents do not have constant jobs. Nelu is working in the neighboring villages, whenever somebody calls him. His wife is a house-wife, spending most of her time with their daughter and in their small household. The house that we built is almost ready. We will have to cover it with a roof - including the old
part of the house, and but the materials for plastering. As you can see in the bottomright picture, we also built, with the help of a British school, a pigsty and chicken coup. This will also need plastering, too. A B r i t i s h g ro u p o f 1 2 generous persons have decided to sponsor the daughter with 50 Sterling Pounds per month. We buy every month quality food from the local hypermarkets, and we deliver it to the village - having in this way a reason to keep in touch with the family, and always paying attention to possible difficulties that they would face and that we could help to overcome. We are grateful for every helping hand and support we get from Britain.
The doors are very ornated.
The roof is ready for the tin.
The windows are made of fir-wood, for easy maintenance.
Waiting for Christmas, in a new home.
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46 Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www.linkromania.ro
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The latest developments with Marcel Just to refresh the memory of our readers, we have built a house two years ago for Marcel. Marcel was raised up in an orphanage, and at the age of 18 he had to leave that place, as the Romanian government wouldn’t support the adult orphans. He stayed with an other charity for a few years, while he had a job offered by our charity. He proved to be ambitious and diligent. He married a girl, and they had an ill baby child, who died at the age of two months. Both of them were shocked, and they separated. He moved to Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, where he spent quite a while. Afterwards, he came back to Iasi, and he asked for our support again. After a few years, in a Spring, he received from the Local Council a plot of land, and with the help of a few British teams we have been able to complete a house for him. We e v e n p a y e d f o r a connection to the electricity network, but the Mayor did not allowed to be connected to the network, saying that Marcel is too poor to afford to pay his bills. So now in fron of his house there is an electricity poll, without the wires. We did not give up helping him. On the contrary, being very annoyed by the Mayor’s attitude, and with the help of some generous supporters, we fitted a solar panel on his house, and as you can see on the top right picture, during the evenings and
nights he has free electricity. we then fitted a second panel too, and we hope that during the years we will add other panels - provided that he will marry and he will need the extra power. We have also bought him a horse, as we already purchased a cart the previous year. He also decided to keep some rabbits and chicken - for that an other team built a chicken coup, but Marcel added a special annex. So for the past years it was an enriching as well as challenging experience with him. In a way, you all were his enlarged family. We work a lot with other homeless young adults, but just a very few of them are ready to change. So I asked Marcel what does he believe would be the reason why he accepted to confront the difficulties of life, and others like him stay on the streets, some of them with a very bad health. His answer was surprising: t h e o t h e r s d o n’t h ave a ny ambition! I am so glad he has “ambition”, and now I am waiting (not very) patiently for the top of his ambition: his wedding and his babies.
Light generated by solar panels.
Checking if the horse can pull a cart.
With his female horse, at the market.
He proved to be a good whelder, too.
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46 Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www.linkromania.ro
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Andrea, 2, has a kidney that is not working
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We buy her quality food, that she can’t get from her parents.
CHILDREN SPONSORSHIP SCHEME: £20-50 MONTHLY SPONSORSHIPS MAKES CHILDREN 27 TO 40 PERCENT MORE LIKELY TO COMPLETE A UNIVERSITY Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia wants to make a great and sustainable impact on poverty in the rural area of Romania which especially affects children. We are committed to a more long-ter m change in developing communities and creating a difference. Child sponsorship is a great way towards sustainable change. Through child sponsorship we can work with poverty-stricken and vulnerable children, many with health implications. We work in providing food for the children especially children requiring a specialist diet due to the health reasons, with the provision of health care and medication to children up to the age of 10. Our vision is to provide a head start in a fulfilling life for children with limited opportunities living in poverty and material deprivation. According to a study published/ reviewed on the Christianity Today’s
June 2013 website, conducted on over 809 individuals from Uganda, (and then expanded to Guatemala, the Philippines, India, Kenya and Bolivia to 10,114 individuals) the children sponsorship had “large and statistically significant impacts on educational outcomes for sponsored children”. The study also shows that sponsorships makes children 27 to 40 percent more likely to complete a university education. child sponsorship also appears to be the great equalizer in education: in areas where outcomes are worse, such as subSaharan Africa, impacts are bigger. The academic paper containing the full methodology and results of the study appears in the June issue of the Journal of Political Economy. Edited by the department of economics at the University of Chicago, the JPE is comparable to The New England Journal of Medicine for medical researchers.
Our bank account in Great Britain: Lloyds TSB Branch: Littlehampton Account no: 01681355, and Sort code: 30-95-09 Cheques payable to: FLRM, 50, Bryce Crescent, Currie Edinburgh EH14 5LL
VISIT US AT: WWW.LINKROMANIA.RO
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46 Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www.linkromania.ro
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Serving the Roma communities BY TEACHING THE BIBLE, SUPPORTING THEIR HOMELESS, AND HANDING OUT FOOD & CLOTHES Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia
fulfilling life with the aim of
the community in home building
has been established in working with
education and enjoyment.
projects, running groups, child
Roma people for the past 10 years
support and other community
running projects with the vision to
change the lives of Roma living in
individuals and Roma children we
poverty. The projects run not only
also run projects within the
benefit individuals but work in the
community such as our home
simple yet practical and durable and
larger community to bring long term
building projects, which can offer
also cost next to nothing, which is
development work which is
great support and sustainability.
why with the support of groups and
sustainable to supporting new
Fundatia Link Romania
charities we can make a large impact
generations.
Moldavia has constructed many
on the community in changing lives
houses in the past with the help of
and giving the Roma a chance to live
amazing and awe-inspiring groups as
up to their full potential.
With the much appreciated
As well as our work with
support of British charities and
well as the contraction of wells,
groups we have had an established
animal holdings and fencing.
center working within the Roma community offering many projects
Our vision for the future is
such as computer courses, bible
simple. Its to create more long-term
studies, pre-school center and camps.
sustainable work within the
Through our work with these projects
community and we are looking for
we can offer a more enlightening and
hardworking, dedicated and motivated groups to work alongside
Working with the Roma teenagers in Slobozia.
projects alike. The homes we construct are
We are thankful to all of those who involved in our projects and help us financially or practically. They must know that their help is much appreciated, and it has a good use in the lives of the poor of Romania. Visit us at: www.linkromania.ro/posts.
Feeding the homeless by the river.
Fundatia Link Romania Moldavia, str. Ciurchi 46 Iasi, Romania | 0040 728 444 521 | www.linkromania.ro