Autumn 2014MISSIONWITHOUTBORDERS

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When Romania joined the European Union in 2007, Romanians thought everything would improve. But now many people are doubtful.

More than ever, Romania’s poor people struggle for survival. As in 2007, many children still face daily poverty and misery. Besides those that beg on the streets, there are also children whose parents went abroad to take low-paid jobs to provide for their children remaining back home - children left at home alone or in the care of grandparents, aunts or uncles, if they are lucky.

This scenario plays out all over the country, but especially in the villages. No jobs and lack of government intervention perpetuate the problems. Villages preserve the traditions and customs of the Romanian people but are not considered important and therefore do not attract government funds. The villagers must choose between moving to town and to try to

find work, or going to find work abroad in order to keep their house and provide for their children.

It is this environment in which Mission Without Borders can make a difference in the lives of those who have long been forgotten.

Sighisoara, a medieval town of about 26,000, is one of the places where many struggle to survive. The main form of employment in the area is agriculture. Most of the families living here are connected to gas and electricity, but not all can afford it. The greatest challenges are the lack of jobs, the bad roads, the low wages and high prices.

Our new church partner in the area is the Christian Baptist Church Sighisoara. In the community around the church, most are Roma (gypsies) and get treated as the lowest class. Mission Without Borders has so far enrolled 35 children in the Child Rescue sponsorship programme and offers them tutoring lessons and a warm meal every day. Although this Afterschool

programme is relatively new, the success of the project is already visible. The children’s meetings take place at the church where there’s also a cooking and dining area. They usually start their meetings with prayer and then have lunch. Most of the children enrolled do not have anything else to eat when they go home, so this is the only meal they eat for the day.

They meet every day after school from Monday through Friday. The people involved are the cook who daily prepares the food and serves it to the children. The pastor of the church and two teachers help the children with their homework. One of the teachers also teaches the children how to play guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, drums or saxophone. The children also learn about God and the Bible.

One day, the cook, who is a Christian lady, wanted to see if anyone would notice if they didn’t pray before having lunch, so she didn’t say anything. Most of the children started eating, but after

Maria & Sile — getting food for Body and SoulBy Lavinia Campean, MWB Romania

MISSIONWITHOUTBORDERS (NZ)PO Box 56264, Dominion Road, Auckland 1446 Phone 09 309 6969 Email nzadmin@mwbi.org Website www.mwb.org.nz Reg. Charity No. CC37218Helping to Change Lives in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine

a while a boy called Vasile called out, “Shouldn’t we pray?”

Vasile is ten and comes from a very poor family. He is sponsored through Child Rescue together with his sister Maria, who is eight. They usually arrive at the meetings two hours early simply because they are hungry. Their parents are jobless and collect plastic bottles and iron for recycling for a little money. Instead of using the money to buy food for their children, they buy alcohol. Their children go hungry. Once they didn’t eat for two days and were so hungry, they

drank the only thing they found in the house - their parents’ alcohol. Vasile still remembers that his sister was drunk for a long time after. When the parents are out, the two children look after their one-year old twin brothers. Although the Child Protection Department has been notified, no action has ever been taken.

The Afterschool Programme gives hot meals to the two children and helps them survive. Once, while they were eating at the Afterschool programme, Sile (as he is called) was being naughty and hit his sister. The cook saw this and

explained to Sile that it was wrong and he must apologise. He answered that nobody ever told him that you have to say sorry for hurting someone, so he said sorry – for the first time in his life.

For some, coming to the community centre might just represent their daily food, but for others it can build a foundation for the rest of their lives.

Child Rescue International is the child sponsorship arm of Mission Without Borders.

You will see our new Child Rescue logo from April onwards.

Children doing their homework with help For most, the hot meal is the only food they will eat that day

Summer camps

This is the time of growing excitement as children in sponsored families find out if they are on the list for summer camp this year.

We will be writing to you about the camps in May as well as on our website and Facebook.