Help with Food
Thank you for your gift that gives hope.
Our condensed featured story for you...
The Arnautu family lives in the poor Roma community of Babadag in the SE area of Romania. Living conditions of the family of 8 are challenging. Their house is a small room without electricity. Drinking water has to be carried in from the outskirts of town. There is no bathroom or kitchen, and the place has a clay floor. The bedroom is for all 8 members where they have a single bed made by planks. To warm up in winter, they burn cardboard found in dumpsters.
During this pandemic, they live on state children’s allowances and social assistance provided by the mayor’s office, a minimal amount for them. Usually, the father would go begging abroad to supplement his family’s income while the children remained in the mother’s care. Before the pandemic, the mother would occasionally work at a wedding salon in the Roma neighborhood, cleaning, and washing dishes. There is a permanent lack of clothes and food for the children. The climate at home is inadequate for their healthy development, especially their ability to do their homework and learn. They dream of a better future.
Babadag’s Star of Hope Center provided the opportunity to educate three of the kids in the family. They also received help with food, detergents, footwear, clothing, and the parents received parenting counseling.
Despite the living conditions, one of the boys enrolled in the learning center, Leonard, never misses a day. He was enrolled in the preparatory class when he started to come to Star of Hope center, and now he just graduated from the fourth grade with great success. This is an excellent achievement for a child from the Roma community.
Leonard is a hardworking child with a great mind and motivation to finish his education. During primary school, Leonard was supported with a lot of hours at the center learning math and how to read and write. In the past 4 years, we have discovered that Leonard is very good at math. Therefore, Leonard loves math and began to participate in several mathematic competitions. At one point, he obtained a diploma for the “best mathematician” in the class.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, activity at the center had to be suspended. Those 3 children no longer receive the daily hot meal from the center. Often that was the only real meal of the day. The mother can’t work anymore because every business closed their activities, and the father couldn’t go abroad.
During this period, the Arnautu family was visited by the Star of Hope staff, encouraging them to not lose hope and to deliver food packages.
Leonard is unable to attend online school classes because he does not have access to electricity, internet, or a smartphone. This is a big minus for a child eager to learn. The staff provided him educational material on paper to continue to practice math and the Romanian language.
We want you to get involved in these people’s lives, to be changed by your involvement in their education, and to be a wholehearted sponsor.
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Working toward a better future,
Mark Presson
