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Casa Fericirii:
The summer months have been a great time for the young people at Casa Fericirii. Below you will read about how together with the youth of Cernavoda they enjoyed various summer camps run from the community centre. They also had a few trips of their own this summer to note. The first in June, they went on a week’s trip to the mountains with a group of boys from a charity in Slobozia and a children’s group from Bucuresti. It is the second year we have been to this centre and although there is nothing to do except walk, the young people from Casa Fericirii love it. The friendships they made in the summer are still strong. The highlight for most of the young people, was the day trip to the salt mountain (it isn’t actually a mountain but a large pile of salt). It was a long walk on a very hot day but the salt mountain is right next to a river. The young people quickly had their shoes and socks off and were wading in the river. Within a short space of time this turned into a full-scale water fight. I think only Baba got away dry, as it takes him so long to get his shoes and socks off, the fight was over by the time he made it to the river!
Soon after returning from the mountains the young people from Casa Fericirii went to the beach for the first of 2 camping trips and numerous day trips to the beach. For the first time ever we went to a town called Mangalia. The campsite was small but very near the beach, and importantly for Turkian, near the shops!!! It had a play area for basketball and also a bar, which had karaoke and dance classes. The young people loved it, Adriana especially loved the music. Unfortunately no one had the courage to join in the dance classes, but the play area was used each night for some great games. The second trip was another first, to the beach at Corbu, where we camped on the beach. It was a perfect night sky and the young people loved gazing at the stars and the early morning pre-breakfast swim.
Once again 7 young people were invited to join the charity West Runton Holidays, on a Christian activity holiday in Corbu. This year was particularly special in many ways. Daniela came for the first time and threw herself quite literary in some cases into the activities. She is a great sports woman and loved all the water sports, she found windsurfing a little difficult as she struggles with balance at times, but no matter how many times she fell in she was always ready to get back up on the board. Ramona after missing out last year due to her knee operation, came again this year. The day before we left for camp we still had one place left, and returning to Casa Fericirii that night, after helping at the planning weekend for the holiday, I was greeted by Ileana, who after three months of living at home, asked whether she could come and stay at Casa Fericirii. In order to re-integrate her quickly back into life at Nightingales she came along too, and has settled in well, quickly forming a close friendship with Mihaela.
The young people at Casa Fericirii are now preparing themselves for some major changes. Nightingales is planning in the next 12 months to refurbish the inside of the home and school areas. The home was originally designed and built specifically for 24 small children in 1998. Since then needs have changed and we are now housing 6 special needs adults and a mother with her child. Nightingales is planning to turn the home into 8 individual bedrooms with a bathroom and a living area shared between two. It will allow the young people to have their own personal space and a home that is geared for their current and future needs. If you would like to support this project please contact Gayner Smith, gaynersmith@bird-luckin.co.uk
Independent Living Units at Casa Fericirii:
The 9 young people living in Cernavoda have also had a successful summer. Mariuca finished class 9 of High School and has had a long and enjoyable summer. She, and the others from the girl’s flat, were included on all the holidays the young people from Casa Fericirii went on. Mariuca was also invited by the church in Constanta to join their youth group on holiday. At the end of the summer she had a week away with them, where they did paint-balling, paragliding and a whole host of other great activities. The girls’ flat is working well, Adriana has decided that she would prefer to live at Casa Fericirii leaving Ramona, Daniela and Mariuca in the apartment. The girls have got a new member though, Robert, their rather terrorised cat!
The boys’ flat continues to be renovated. They have made a decision to forsake a living-room so that they can each have separate bedrooms. Vasile has moved out of his bedroom into the living room. Paul, buying himself some new bedroom furniture has moved into Vasile’s old room. All three are now working again, with Dascaliuc finally realising that a life without working means a life without money.
Alexandru sunning himself in DenmarkThe boys’ house, has finally got a new roof, after a few years of persuasion, Alexandru and Marian have finally invested in putting a new roof onto their house. A much needed investment. Alexandru has also had an amazing summer. In the winter Claudia and he were asked to tell their life stories for a Danish film, and in September they both went for a week’s holiday in Denmark for the premiere of the film. Alexandru had a great time and everyone fell in love with him there. For both of them it was an experience they will struggle to forget, especially the vegetarian food, Alexandru is a huge eater and he found this rather difficult! If you would like to see the film trailer it can be found at www.heartkeepbeating.eu
Nightingales School:
Term has started well for the special needs classes, this year we have also been sent a speech therapist by the state for the young people here, which is a great bonus. She comes twice a week and we look forward to seeing the progress that she makes with the young people over the year. The pupils are enjoying being back at school, each morning they happily greet each other, the young people and staff at Nightingales. For many of the pupils the whole process of coming to school is the highlight of their day, getting dressed, carrying their rucksack and meeting up with the classmates. It is a very social time for them, and a great time of respite for their parents and foster parents.
On a slightly more disappointing note the pupils from poorer families, who for the last 13 years have attended the school, have been left without a school. The high school in the town and the state education department have decided that there is not a need for a school here even though there are at least 25 young people who are unable to attend state school because they haven’t been to school due to poverty, and at the moment have no hope of a future in education. It is something that Nightingales is fighting against but at the moment we seem to be a lone voice. We will not however be giving up.
Tereza Community Centre and the Summer Holiday Camps:
This summer has seen the centre come alive, most days you couldn’t hear yourself think there were so many children there making such a loud noise. It is amazing to see the centre being used to its maximum. In August, Dauntsey’s School in Wiltshire sent out 18 young people, a mixture of boys and girls. They ran a weeks activity holiday for between 40 and 60 young people from Cernavoda. The highlight was definitely the pirate day when all the students from Dauntsey’s dressed up as pirates and in the afternoon, after a morning of games, sword making and face painting, the children had to complete 8 tasks, the final one being a code they had to crack to find some treasure!!
For the rest of the summer the young people from the town continued to come to children’s groups at the community centre. These sessions have been run by various volunteers who came to help this summer; Lucy Rae, Livi Rhodes, Cici Stinton and Jenni Ho. All young people with a lot of maturity and enterprise in running the sessions. The children from the town, loved the activities and quickly developed a great relationship with all the volunteers and especially the two Romanian volunteers, Andra and Eliza; two girls from the high school who have started a youth club at the centre on Fridays during term time and supported the English volunteers during the summer.
At the end of the summer Nightingales also had two more Romanian volunteers - Elena, who was gaining some practical experience before heading off to work in Africa for 9 months and Luiza who came to experience life at a charity for a week. She quickly found that she had fallen in love with the young people from Nightingales and Cernavoda. Since her visit she has returned at least once a week to run a youth group. So, since the summer Nightingales is now running a youth club for about 35 young people from Cernavoda on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The young people, many from the poorest sections of Cernavoda society, love the sessions in which they cover a whole range of activities from education to fun games. Nightingales is also pleased to announce that the youth group at Hope City Church in Sheffield has agreed to sponsor the Nightingales youth group so that the sessions can be creative. It is also an exciting experience for both youth groups to have a chance to make a connection with people from another culture.
The children from Cernavoda are some of the pupils who will be coming to the Nightingales school and also other young people who come from very poor and disorganised backgrounds. The youth club gives them a chance to come and spend some time doing some fun and constructive activities. Many of them come hungry and often without clothes suitable for the weather, so Nightingales is also providing them with a sandwich and clothes. The food is provided by a group of young people from Constanta and Cernavoda who work with the children. The shower facilities at the community centre have also been used regularly as many of them haven’t seen soap and water for a long time! The parents of these children are very supportive of their children’s attendance and we may start running sessions for them also in the future. It is an exciting new development at the community centre.
Independent Living Skills Program:
After a summer break the young people at Nightingales are back doing life skills twice a week. Continuing to learn more about themselves, the world they live in and, most importantly, the skills that can make them more independent. The nine young people involved in the program are, Valerica, Ileana, Mihaela, Turkian, Ramona, Daniela, Adriana, Baba and Elena. Each of them has a set of four targets they are trying to reach and I am pleased to say that all of them have reached at least three of their original targets and are now working towards their next set of targets. Baba still hasn’t been able to master not talking while others are talking but at least he doesn’t have to be reminded daily to brush his teeth!! Later this month Sally Valadini, from West Herts College, the college in England who are partners in this project, will be visiting to see how the project is evolving and to offer more advice. In the last few months the Prince’s Trust Charity and Head Start, who also work at West Herts want to become involved in the work that Nightingales is doing. It is a huge honour for all of us at Nightingales to become involved with such prestigious organisations.
In the state run orphanage in Constanta where the project is also running, the young people there have been having life skills sessions up to three times a week. It started with very fixed groups, but the orphanage staff quickly saw the benefits of the sessions and started asking for the most difficult children to be involved, this was a massive compliment but also led to a hard summer. The orphanage has been very supportive of the project, where social services have not. At the moment together we are trying to persuade social services, to allow 2 Romanian volunteers to help teach the life skills, so that more children can come to the groups and so that the project can expand in the future.
The next stage of the project is already underway, the moving of young people from the orphanage into a half-way house where they can live and learn the life skills for 18 months before moving into their own accommodation but still be supervised by the charity. Nightingales has been offered the use of a building just outside of Constanta. Nightingales has been offered the building rent free till 2014. In April the first six young people from the orphanage in Constanta will be moving into this building, working in the Constanta region, and learning to live independently under the care of Nightingales. At the moment 85% of young people leaving state care in Romania end up on the streets, begging, in prison or in prostitution, usually not through their own choice but because they do not know what life choices to make because they do not have the life skills and the support.
Nightingales UK:
In September Nightingales UK had a successful AGM and we would like to thank all those who came to the meeting.
The charity ‘2 Wheel Appeal’ and Nightingales are putting on an auction of promises evening to raise money for the Life Skills project, if anyone has any prizes that could be auctioned or any experience in putting on such an event could they please contact Miki at miki1@ukonline.co.uk
Carina Saner is organising another day of carol singing in London’s Victoria station on Monday 21st December if anyone is available to join in for at least part of the day would they contact Carina,carina.saner@googlemail.com Please also ask friends to look out for them if they travel through the station.
