Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. In May 2012 I will be giving my time and effort in a sponsored cycle ride through Moldova - Europes poorest nation, to support several of Link Romania's projects

So you are aware from the start, I have paid for my own travel, accommodation and food for this trip. Hence, every single penny that you donate goes directly to the projects

In 2008 I took part in a Link Romania sponsored trek in the Carpathian Mountains, a team of 16 of us managed to raise £35,000 towards the supported projects. I was also lucky enough to visit 2 of the projects

The first was the 'Farm of Hope', this is a project in Iasi, NE Romania that takes in boys 18+ who are orphans living in railway stations or under the street.  Some have come straight from orphanages and are traumatised by their experiences.  The project feeds, clothes, teaches, trains and loves them back to life again

The second was to the shanty town of 'Dallas' on the outskirts of the city of Iasi in north-east Romania. Conditions are very bad and most houses do not have running water – it must be fetched from a well in the street. There is very little electricity – candles are used which are particularly dangerous. No heating - wood has to be gathered before a house can be made warm. Children are being born and growing up in these towns and know no other life. One of Link Romania's central aims is to bring education to people and especially children to help them out of poverty. One particular project we have is to run a kindergarten on the edge of Dallas Shanty Town.  Families who live without basic facilities send their children off in their clean(ish)  - and sometimes only set of clothes - to the kindergarden to learn about subjects they could only dream of.  They want to invest in their childrens futures and they know they are the fortunate ones to have got a place at the kindergarten.

To visit 'Dallas' was the most humbling thing I have ever done. To see the conditions in which whole families have to live, to see some of the children running around barefoot as they have no shoes and this in Europe!

PROJECTS

Here are some of the other projects that my ride is helping to support

Youth and Community Centre – Dancu, Moldova

 

Youth and Community Centre – Dancu, Moldova

Chris and Helen Ducker who we have worked with for two years now are committed to building a Youth and Community Centre for the villages of Dancu and Cioara. The asking price has fallen several times, and has come down from €30,000 to €8,000! The site includes the two houses , but also other buildings which the project could develop in the future (e.g. a canteen for feeding poor villagers, a day centre for the elderly, etc.) as well as land where they could grow vegetables in polytunnels. These would be then be sold to cover the running costs of the Centre.       

                              

In 2011 we are supporting Chris & Helen Ducker in developing plans to open this Youth & Community Centre. Chris & Helen see the Centre as a natural extension of their work with the community of Dancu and somewhere they can scale up their youth programme and start new activities - a youth club for pre-teens, vocational training for older teenagers, English and I.T. classes, after-school clubs, workshops for youth leaders.

 

 Each summer they work with 150-200 children from Dancu and Cioara and they want to reach out to them through a range of activities all year round.

 

The inn of Love – Dancu, Moldova

In Dancu village many people live below the poverty line. Old people are without someone to care for them and with no income they are desperately in need of support. To help the most vulnerable in the community a service has been started providing nutritious meals twice a week: 20 people are brought into the Inn and 20 others who are housebound are visited. Some of the people visited haven’t eaten in the previous 2 or 3 days; others won’t have seen anyone since the last time they were visited and are desperately lonely. The first time we visited, many people were in tears that someone cared for them.

 

This has now evolved into feeding 40 people twice a week on a Monday and Thursday.  This from Chris Ducker who runs the project

 

"This afternoon we fed people at the church and at home as usual, though we also gave them a plate of biscuits and sweets as a treat, together with a printed card with a Bible verse and a message from our team. In the last month 2 of our old people have died so it was sad to be missing them.

So far, 53 meal days and 2107 meals served up! This project continues to make a big impression and a big difference in Dancu. We've had people asking if they can join up but we're at full capacity as things stand"

 

Chris and Helen are hoping to extend the Inn of Love from 2 days to 3 days.  This would cost another £2,000 a year to cover food costs and wages.

So cycling 50 miles a day for 7 days is not really a hardship when weighed against all that is it

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