The work of GNfR has continued despite lockdown/COVID-19.
Thanks to wonderful supporters, we’ve been able to complete the Rosca’s kitchen build, install water on the land of Dana and her children, provide food and gas for cooking on a monthly basis, help with medical bills and we’ve been able support and help with funeral costs for Oana and Florins baby Eva who sadly passed away when she was born.
Below are some thank you letters from Oana and a thank you card from us and the families we
support.
Thank you for the continued prayers and financial support.
God bless.
Love David & Kath xxxx

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Dear friends,

Well, I think we can all say it’s been a tough time over the past months, but thankfully we and everyone in Romania is safe and well. Like here in the UK, everything in Romania has been affected by the virus, not least the children’s schooling, the worst affected are the Rosca boys, Tiberiu and Sebastian as they don’t have access to the online schoolwork, we just hope they pass their studies this year and aren’t held back a year in their schooling. The Rosca build: As you know, we had major concerns about the Rosca house sliding down their land so raised funds to have the issues dealt with. Unfortunately, a relative objected to the kitchen part of the house being demolished so we made the decision that we wouldn’t get involved with family disputes. This has meant that we, in discussion with the family, decided to build a separate kitchen which is not uncommon in the villages of Romania. The work started in late October 2020 and is going well to date, although there was a long delay because the plastering inside the building was taking a long time to dry out, minus12 daytime temperatures didn’t help! This family is by far the poorest family we support and sadly, their solar panels also failed in December so they were left without any light or power again, Christmas wasn’t the best time for them. We didn’t have the funds to sort this issue but thanks to the help of The Association of Delia’s Friends and other supporters here, we were able to get new batteries and transformer in late January, but unfortunately, the transformer wasn’t the right one so we are just waiting for the new one to arrive to solve the problem. We would love to put panels on the roof of the kitchen but again, lack of money (around £1700) made it impossible. All being well, the build should be completed in the next few weeks, it will be wonderful! We have been contacted by Dana Diaconu to ask if we could possible install water on her land for her and her two children, Andreea and Beatrice. We have committed to doing this as soon as the weather is milder and again, thanks to The Association of Delia’s Friends, we can do it. This will mean they won’t have a long walk to the well for all their water, and although sometimes they go to the Church which is nearer, unfortunately, the water there often contains sand so isn’t ideal. The water on their land will be a stand pipe out side their home so will be much healthier and more convenient for them. There is great excitement there as they anticipate this being done for them. Oana Rosca (Stancu) is being a huge help to us. She’s had a tough time recently. Oana and her long term boyfriend Florin (a really good, hard working, caring man) were invited by a relative to go and work in France (close to the border with Italy). He worked hard for a month and then his boss wouldn’t pay him. They had a real struggle and Oana was very unhappy and missing home, so they made the long journey back to Barlad, vowing never to leave Romania again. Florin has got a building job but the pay is very low so life isn’t easy. Oana was very happy to announce to me as soon as she found out that she was pregnant. Her baby is due in May. There was some concerns that she may never be able to have children as some of you may remember, she became ill when we were on camp with her in 2015 and was diagnosed with tuberculosis meningitis and almost died. She and Florin are delighted and although they have money worries about affording everything, they can’t wait to be parents. Oana helps every month by going to buy food and supplies for her parents and brothers (Rosca family) and for Mirela and her 5 children, Crina Stefania, Stefan, Valentin and Gabriel. If anything is needed for any of the families, I only have to ask Oana and she is more than happy to help. She delivers food from GNfR to them each month and always sends photographs of the receipts and photos of the families too which is great to see. Mihai Munteanu (he is doing the building work for us and will install the water for Dana) and his wife Oana and children Timotei, Raysa, Salome, Amina, Elisei and Abiel are doing well, they’re a lovely Christian family. Their 5 children are beautiful and although GNfR doesn’t give them as much support as worse off families, they appreciate the gifts we send at Christmas and other times when boxes are sent over there. Madalina’s girls Stefania and Rebeca are doing well, they’re working hard with their schooling and are bright children. Again, because their Dad Vlad works as a mechanic, they don’t need the same help as other families. Oana Zanet and Mum Maria are doing ‘ok’ but struggle shut in their tiny apartment together. Oana has taken up crocheting during lockdown and is very very good at it. She was delighted to receive crochet hooks and wool from GNfR for Christmas, it has certainly helped her to cope mentally as she does struggle with mental health issues. Barlad d Andrei Dinca, the young man training to be a doctor is doing ok and his studies are going well. He has had some problems with his back and at the minute, he is coping ‘ok,’ he thinks it will be something he has to live with. He is now in his final year of studies and can’t wait to be fully trained so that he can put his knowledge to use. He is a lovely Christian young man who often tells us how much he appreciates all the help he has had to continue with his studies. He has a lovely relationship with Lavinia who is also studying medicine. They seem perfectly matched! Online support: Quite a lot of the young people have now found ways of getting online and chatting to Kath. Oana Z, Oana R and Andrei are the most regular at getting in touch, sometimes for emotional support and sometimes just to chat, it’s always good to hear from them and Kath is more than happy to chat and support them as much as she can. It’s been lovely to have communication from 2 of the young teenage boys Ruben and Cristian and hear that they’re doing ok. Some of the young girls that we spent a lot of time with on camp have been in touch and are very chatty, they’re doing well with their studies. Sadly, Milena Lunca was telling Kath that her sister Nicoleta is struggling. She was married, lived in Bucharest and has two boys. Unfortunately her marriage has failed so she’s back home with family but has been drinking too much and its affecting her health. All very sad, she’s a lovely Mum and tries hard to cope, the family are doing all they can to support her and we pray that her health issues will be helped with medication. Stela Petcu and her son Andrei are also doing well. Life isn’t easy but with the help of her boyfriend of around 2 years, she’s coping ok. The Delia Centre: Everyone at the Delia centre is doing well and working hard, although it’s been stressful with the centre closed because of Covid from time to time. The teachers, Coca, Lidia and Gabriela are amazing and so dedicated to helping these children who come from the orphanage or foster care. The children receive good food, teaching, physical exercise etc when they are there which they so desperately need. There is no charge made for these children to attend the centre, The Delia Association run by Laura and Lauren in America, with the support of David Conway in Essex, does amazing work helping these children with physical or mental disabilities and certainly makes a huge change to their lives now and in the future. Kath is in touch with the foster parents of two of the children that attend the centre and they can’t thank everyone enough for the love and support they receive. GNfR is thrilled to be able to be involved in this work too; we all work together and support each other, wonderful! Good News for Romania sponsors three children at the centre: Ana Maria, Georgiana and Rares, it’s good to be able to support these children who wouldn’t otherwise have any help. If you would like more information about sponsorship, please get in touch. Fundraising: Sadly, 2020 wasn’t a year where we could do our usual fundraising but thanks to you all, our amazing supporters, the work of GNfR continued! We prayed we would be able to continue to give all the support needed and we DID, praise God! The families have been fed, gas has been provided for cooking, the build has been done, solar panels repaired, and lots of boxes of clothing and goodies have been sent to the Centre and our families, bringing more joy and happiness than we can imagine. We’ve managed to have two fundraising online zoom quizzes too which has been great fun and has certainly helped to take care of the boredom caused by covid. 2021: We have no idea what 2021 will bring with regards to getting back to any sort of normality and it seems that for the foreseeable future, our fund raising activities are on hold. As for going to Romania, again, sadly we can’t plan anything. We would like to go out in June if possible but we will see! We have zip wire challenges planned for March 20th when Shirley, Suzanne, Mark, Jack and Kath will zoom down the Welsh countryside on a zip wire. We still aren’t 100% sure if this will go ahead so if you would like to sponsor any of us, please check nearer the time if this is going ahead. Thank you! We really can’t thank you all enough for all your love and support, especially during these past difficult months. Being able to continue to help those we support in Romania has been amazing and please be sure, you love has meant so much to everyone. Hope you like the enclosed bookmark showing just a few of the children we support receiving their gifts. Take care, keep well and God bless. Love and thanks, David & Kath (& Mandy Pateman in Newport Pagnell) Ps: We are sending boxes to Barlad early March with Easter eggs for the children, we are sure they will be happy! Pps: Online zoom quiz, Friday March 26th at 8pm. If you would like to join us, do get in touch!

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Dear Friends,

This is just a short update of the work of Good News for Romania in the difficult year of 2020! Sadly, Covid-19 has affected lots of things this year, not least, lots of cancellations of fund raising events and our planned trip to Barlad in August. However, the work has continued. Thanks to amazing supporters, we have been able to continue to provide food, gas for cooking and help where needed each month. The Rosca family has had water installed on their land, so instead of them having to go the well for water, they now have a stand pipe, they are thrilled. Also, their home is collapsing and urgent work is needed so we are in the process of getting that sorted at the minute. We continue to work with the Association of Delia’s Friends, supporting disabled children who are in foster care or who come from the orphanage to the Delia Centre (a day centre) in Barlad where they get help with their education and physical needs. It is wonderful to see how much they are thriving getting the help they need. Sadly, disabled children are known as the forgotten children as there is no provision for their education. We are currently wrapping Christmas presents for each child that we support including those who go to the centre (45 children). We are collecting NEW underwear and socks, sweets and chocolate so that the children will know they are not forgotten in these difficult times. The boxes will leave Bolton around the 18th November and arrive in Barlad in plenty of time for Christmas. Thank you all for your support, we could not do this work without you! If you would like more information, please do get in touch. God bless. David & Kath xxx

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Dear friends,

Well at last, winter is almost at an end, we are sure most of us are looking forward to some warmer, drier weather, they are certainly feeling the same in Romania. Changes: Lots of changes are happening for GNfR at the moment in the sense of Claudiu & Ada’s help. The company Claudiu works for have now insisted that he has to work in Germany, hence he doesn’t get back to Barlad too often. Also, Ada now has a job in Bucharest so that too, has taken her away from her home town. They do get back ‘occasionally,’ but it isn’t enough to support the families that GNfR support but, we know it’s all in God’s plan and we now have more involvement with the Delia Foundation and the Vibrant Kids Centre in Barlad! You may remember Laura, the founder of The Delia Foundation found and contacted Kath online almost 2 years ago explaining about their work in Barlad and wanted a connection and so the story goes on. Laura from Phoenix in Arizona, Lauren from New York and David from Essex are all involved and they just ‘happened’ to be in Barlad when we were there in October 2018. It soon became very clear that we all had the same heart for the children and families in the Barlad area and wanted to help to make a difference in their lives. The Vibrant Kids Centre is for children who are either in foster care or from an orphanage and have autism or some degree of mental or physical disability. They go to the centre at various times, Monday to Friday each week, where they get whatever help they need by trained paid staff, for example, physiotherapy, teaching, healthy food etc. This help is not available to them from the state because of their disability, it’s a wonderful place and the children all love going there and definite improvement has been seen in their behaviour and abilities already. The Delia Foundation runs the centre but also helps poor families when a need is made known. This is amazing because since Claudiu & Ada haven’t been able to be there so much, when Laura and David have visited Barlad, they have taken help from us to our families. Kath has also been able to make contact with some of the families directly so the help from GNfR continues. The Rosca Family: The winter has been a difficult one for this family with Dad not being well, including being admitted to hospital. Oana, their daughter, contacted Kath to ask for help when her Dad was admitted to hospital saying the family had no money to pay for his insurance to stay there. Kath made some enquiries with Costel, a friend in Barlad to ask about costs/was it not free etc and he explained that poor people and pensioners used to be exempt, but not any more. The only exception is if you’re admitted to A & E, then it’s free….unless, for example, you chop off a limb with a chain saw then it’s not free because it was your fault, you have been careless, unbelievable! Fortunately we were able to help with Dad’s hospital bill and medication and he is now at home recovering although he is quite fragile. The good news is that with the help of Oana, GNfR has been able to install a stand pipe on their land therefore eliminating the need for walking over ½ a mile to the local well for every drop of water. We have also been able to purchase a small, low wattage television that runs off the solar panel we installed a few months ago so they are very happy indeed, especially the boys, Tiberiu (14) and Sebastian (11), who often had to go to the well for the water. Having a television is a real treat for them also and they are very happy that we continue to pay for their bus fares to and from school which is over 3 miles each way. Dana, Andreea and Beatrice: In our last newsletter, we mentioned that Dana was living in fear of her relative who owned the house where she and the children lived. He had just been released from prison for murdering someone when we visited her so it was worrying and she genuinely looked very anxious. Fortunately, she has been able to move to a new place which we haven’t seen yet but GNfR was able to provide a new stove for heating the house for her. She continues to struggle but is doing ok. Dana is sister to Oana, Sebastian and Tiberiu Rosca. Mirela and her 5 children: We have continued to help Mirela and a few months ago, we were able to give her new flooring in her home as her living area was just an earth floor. This has made a huge difference to the family and they are delighted to have a nice looking, clean living room. We have also continued to give help with food and school books etc. We have just found out that Oana Zanet that we also support is working as a volunteer teaching English to children at an after school Club and Crina, Mirela’s oldest child, is being taught by Oana, it’s a small world! The Priest in the town has been very good with them too and has also sorted out a warm meal for the children at the club every day which is great news. Oana and Mihai Munteanu and family are doing ok. Dad works really hard with his market garden business and although during the winter months business isn’t quite so good, they have managed ok. Oana has just let Kath know she is having another baby in June and the family are all very excited. Oana Zanet has had a lot of struggles over the winter months. She suffers from bi-polar and other mental health issues and although she tries very hard, she still has times when life seems too much. She too has been in hospital and again, GNfR has been able to help by paying for her stay in hospital, medication and tests. She is currently going through tests on her spine because she has been suffering with bad migraines/sinus problems/feeling exhausted etc and they seem to think an issue with her spine could be the problem. We await her results but continue to help and encourage her as much as we can. Barlad d Andrei Dinca is a young trainee doctor that we have been supporting through his studies. He too has medical issues and has just been in touch to say he has to have his coccyx removed and has to see a neurologist about pain and numbness in his legs, he is in a great deal of pain but his biggest worry is that he is well enough to complete his course which finishes next year, please pray he will get treated very soon. He is currently in Italy for part of his studies as this will help him to improve his knowledge of different techniques and use of different more up to date equipment. He should return to Romania in autumn to complete his studies. As yet, we don’t know if he will need any financial support for his treatment or operation but he is keeping in touch regularly. Minibus: We had a conversation with Claudiu about the minibus in view of the fact that Claudiu isn’t in Barlad too often now. Claudiu explained that he didn’t think it was worth keeping the minibus as it was standing outside his home most of the time. We chatted and prayed about the way forward with this because ideally, we didn’t want to sell it. We decided to ask The Delia Foundation if they could use it and they were delighted! We have donated the vehicle to them and this means it will be used to transport the children to and from the centre daily, take them on outings and hopefully take them on a camp at some point and it will also be used to visit the families we all support. When Laura and David were in Barlad in February, they got the keys etc and although there are a few administrative issues to sort out, hopefully the minibus will be a blessing to them all. Camp: Sadly it’s not looking like camp will go ahead this year which we know will be a huge disappointment to the children. However, we are hoping to be able to give the children some treats, hopefully outings and maybe even a short camp with the Delia Foundation….at the minute its unclear. We are grateful to everyone who has supported camp over the years and if any of you feel you would like to contribute to the children having some treats, we would be very grateful! Boxes: We have got some boxes ready to be sent to the Vibrant Kids Centre and our families for Easter. We are sending clothes and chocolate for Easter and know they will all be very happy to receive these gifts just as they were at Christmas. Kath, Suzanne Guy and her husband Mark and Shirley Clarke, are all doing a sponsored 3 line zip wire down the mountain side in North Wales on April 18th, if anyone would like to sponsor any of them, please see them personally or do get in touch. All the money raised will go to support the families and children we’ve mentioned. The plan was to jump out of a plane but Kath’s doctor told her because of her Hashimoto’s disease, this wasn’t advisable. She did do a 1 line zip wire challenge a few years ago to raise funds for the minibus and her screams could be heard all down the valley so keep your ears open this time!! David, Kath and Mandy will go to Romania in early August. The first part of the visit will be a short holiday to hopefully meet friends and celebrate David and Kath going to Romania for 30 years. They will then go to Barlad to visit the families, the centre and meet the children who are on the waiting list to attend the centre. There are many children who want access to this support so we hope to be able to help financially to enable them to have the help they desperately need. David Conway will be in Barlad at that time too and possibly Laura, we are very excited about these new openings and know the Lord’s Hand continues to be on this work. THANK YOU! We can’t thank you enough for all your love, support and encouragement. It isn’t always easy, particularly at times when there are numerous needs and we feel a bit overwhelmed, but the number of times we receive an encouraging message, phone call or an envelope drops through the door with an encouraging note and donation is so uplifting! We have been very humbled recently by everyone’s love for our Golden Wedding Anniversary on Valentine’s Day. We received generous donations for the work of GNfR and for us personally for our visit to Romania in August, thank you, you are all amazing, without you, we really couldn’t do this work. We are going to miss the involvement of Claudiu and Ada but hope we can stay in touch, they have been a huge blessing. Much love to you all and thank you again! Have a great summer, maybe see you at the coffee morning on June 20th if not before! Love & thanks, David, Kath & Mandy

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