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HOW IT ALL STARTED
Nightingales Children's Project started when David Savage MBE came to Romania in October 1992. He spent three months working for a charity in Cernavoda orphanage. The 200 children living there were suffering from a lack of appropriate care they were being left unmotivated, uneducated and unloved.
After three months David felt there was more that could be done; he left the charity he was working with and returned to work with these children and help better their situation. For the next year he worked alongside the Romanian staff, showing them how the children could benefit from love, care and attention. With sponsorship from the UK, he also organised the installation of washing and toilet facilities in the orphanage.
Gradually people in England began to hear about his efforts and volunteered their help, in this way Nightingales Children's Project was born. Nightingales has been working officially now since it became registered as a charity in 1995, to help the under privileged children of Cernavoda. Promising that every penny of every pound will go directly to the care of the children.
In time David established and equipped a building - Casa Fericirii - close to the Cernavoda orphanage and in 1998, he moved twenty-three HIV positive children from the orphanage into this, their new home and life. These children had spent the majority of their lives in an institution, without the care of a loving family. Here, with the support of housemothers, cooks, volunteers, etc they have had the opportunity to grow and develop in a loving and happy environmnent.
When they first moved into Casa Fericirii, due to their HIV condition, they were not expected to live passed their teenage years. Due to the support and care they have received, most of those moved into Casa Fericirii have developed into well rounded individuals who are gradually becoming self-supporting and who, as a result, have moved on to our Independent Living project. Sadly however, there are a few who, possibly as a result of lack of stimulation in their formative years or, due to illness, will always need our continued care and support.
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