WHO ARE WE
We first got involved in Romania in 1990, shortly after the momentous events of Christmas 1989. At that time, we were an informal group from our church in South-East London, but we became a registered charity in 1995.
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We have had the privilege from the outset of being put in touch with an excellent group of people in North-East Romania (see the "Hannah" link above), and we have stayed working with them ever since, based around the town of Radauti. Once it became clear that we were in for the long haul, it was essential to learn to speak Romanian!
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Our work started off as humanitarian aid, trucking out supplies of food and medicines. However, it soon became apparent that there was more that we could offer. Romania had suddenly changed very rapidly (for good and for bad), and there was no-one to explore these changes with the young people. We felt we were in a position to talk about our experiences of "the West" which was flooding into their world - again for good and for bad. So we set up a series of conferences in Radauti, which were very successful.
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WHAT WE DID NEXT
We still support Misu and Livia, and their charity "Hannah", with their humanitarian work, and also provide some of the funding for their Children's Camps. However our main thrust nowadays is with our Student Conferences.
Of course the Romania of today is very different from the Romania of our first visit back in 1990. However, it is still the case that teenagers and young people have big questions about life - as they do everywhere!
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Nevertheless, the style of our conferences has changed enormously, with much more involvement by the young people themselves. They are a delight to work with, and many have stayed in touch with us for several years.
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Typically we would run a week-long Summer Conference at Misu and Livia's place in the mountains, with presentations, discussion, music, video, and lots of fun. In recent years, themes have included Alienation, Dust and Dreams, Truth, Who Am I, and we have also run weekend mini-conferences in April and/or November.
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The aim of these conferences is to explore life together with our students; we have insights to offer, and provocative questions to put, but it is for the young people themselves to discover their own answers.
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WHAT WE DO NOW
Then there was Covid. We had to stop our Student Conferences, although we continued via Zoom for a while. In fact we have just strated them up again (March 2024) via Zoom, which has been great.
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Then there was Ukraine, and Hannah were able to pitch in with help for refugees, and arranging the transport of food and supplies deep into Ukraine itself.
Then tragically Misu died suddenly in 2023. This has been a terrible shock to all of us, however Livia has carried on with Hannah's work with the poor, supported especially by their middle daughter Ionela. We continue to support them financially and in person, through prayer and by sending out our newsletter.