We had the pleasure of being able to go to Romania in October. Here are some highlights from our trip.
Marghita is very dear to us! It’s not that the city itself is beautiful, especially not now when the whole main street is dug up and turns to mud when it rains! No, it’s all the wonderful people we had the privilege of knowing when we lived and worked there that makes Marghita so dear to us. It feels like coming home!
Our son Anton came with us for the first time. He loved the close encounter with all the animals; cows, chickens, turkeys, sheep, dogs, cats and horses. What an adventure!
We visited FCE’s relatively new project ”After school”. Here many poor Roma children have the opportunity to receive help with their homework. This enables them to manage and keep up in school despite the lack of help from home, as many parents are illiterate. The children also get a hot meal and the opportunity to have their clothes washed and have a shower.
Many Roma live in great poverty and misery in Romania, some of which we meet outside the shopping centres here in Sweden. By offering children help with education provides hope for a brighter future.
Several of the children and young people, who we got to know in the state orphanages, are now adults. For us it was a great pleasure to be invited home to them in their apartments. They served us with very good food! They all have heavy baggage to carry from growing up in an orphanage. The scars are many and great. The fact that many of them now live in rented accommodation and manage a job is an amazing miracle in itself. Several of them have expressed that to us; ”Where would I have been without the help and support I received from the foundation? Probably I would be on the street.”
FCE’s long-term work has shown and continues to show positive results! It’s incredibly exciting for us to see and experience it.
We know that God has his hand over all those impacted by the work and he heals their hearts. We have so much proof of this. An example is one of the boys who used to be full of bitterness. His father beat him as a child and the parents abandoned him at a state orphanage. For many years he was feeling very bad. A few years ago, he moved back to his father who is seriously ill and he was able to forgive him. Now we see the joy in his eyes and he has positive thoughts about his future.
The last day was a sad day for us. We visited the state orphanage where we used to work. We had expected that it would have changed in a positive way, that the children there would be better off now than before. However, we were very disappointed when we realised that this is not the case.
We realise once again that Romania has a very long way to go to be able to rebuild its country and raise human dignity. This calls for a lot of people around the world to be a part of this and support the process.
FCE’s work contributes to a brighter future for Romania. It is wonderful to know!
Warm greetings from Carolina, Tomas, and Anton Ström
