Rumor has it that this popular folk hero has been seen roaming about Romania, doing what he does best – helping needy children cope and survive!
In January 2009 the C4C Robin Hood team set out on its first pioneer trip to Romania, visiting orphanages and hospitals, setting the stage to support struggling children in this poor country on a more regular and sustainable basis.
As Chance 4 Children (C4C) has become more of an international presence in recent years and is reaching out with aid to countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, it has been only a question of time and available resources, when to include Romania into this circle of activities as well. It seems that the time has now come.
While there is no doubt that the current situation in regards to socially handicapped and institutionalized children here in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is far from ideal and much in need of improvement, there is even less doubt that the further East one goes, there seems to be an exponential increase in hardship for these children. The situation in Romania seems especially exacerbated. It is in many ways hard to comprehend that here, in the heartland of the European Continent, such harrowing conditions still exist.
“It’s been on the drawing board for a long time to address the urgent needs of children at risk in Romania”, says Lech Nawara, C4C’s director for education and development. “But it took this field trip to really drive the message home how needy and forlorn institutionalized children in this country still are”, he added.
What our team found was heart-breaking and touching at the same time. The conditions these children still endure are at times astonishing, but the appreciation the Robin Hood team was shown by the children, the institutions and the authorities was overwhelming and moving.
“We are grateful that you sacrificed your time to be with our children, for the gifts that you brought and for giving them attention and special moments,” reads one of the official letters we received from the Timisoara Social Assistance and Child Protection Department.
The trip was organized in cooperation with Jan Franke, organizer of the “Gifts of Love – In a Shoebox” initiative in several shopping centers in Southern Germany. Setting up stands during the Christmas holidays, Jan collected gifts for Romanian children from holiday shoppers – and had them conveniently packaged in shoeboxes. Before moving back to Germany in 2007 with his lovely wife, Paula, and their two children, Jan and Paula had been long-serving volunteers at the Chance 4 Children volunteer facility in Kladno.
Making up the team were Jan, C4C’s Lech Nawara and Aneka John, assistant manager of the City Gallery Aschaffenburg, Germany. The forth team member was C4C’s faithful 3.5 ton Iveco transporter who braved the challenges of the trip admirably. In addition to 350 shoeboxes of presents for children of all ages, and large quantities of donated quality chocolates, C4C contributed approximately 25.000 Euro worth of new children’s seasonal clothing from its warehouse, filling the transporter to the brim.
Besides providing gifts and clothing to hundreds of children, the team made time to perform music and clown shows in every institution they visited, to add a personal touch and closely interact with the children. This particular part of the program proved to be wildly popular with the children, who participated enthusiastically. A visit to the children hospital Clinic de Urgenţă “Louis Ţurcanu”, in Timisoara, planned originally for only 1 hour, stretched out to 5 hours, as the children insisted on the clowns visiting every room. “The response was just overwhelming”, explains Jan, “the children just didn’t want to let us go. Of course we were happy to oblige, as this was the very purpose of our trip – to share of our abundance and our time to help these children forget their situations and predicaments!”
They travelled a total of 3000 km through dismal winter weather, tackling blizzards and icy roads along the way, while visiting institutions and hospitals in Arad, Lipova, Timisoara, Lugoj und Recas before they returned, exhausted but inspired, to home base less than a week later. “This wasn’t exactly a cake walk, especially in this weather”, smiles Lech. “We packed so much into the few days we had. But it was definitely worth the sacrifice. Our payback was the many smiles and cheerful faces that followed us wherever we went.”
