Nightingales

www.nightingaleschildrensproject.co.uk

A Romanian charity aiming to provide stability and care for underprivelged children in one of Romania’s most deprived areas. Relying solely on the support of over seas benefactors and dedicated volunteers to reach out to as many of these children and provide them with the care and a small semblance of normality in a place of extreme hardship and poverty. The charity operates through the projects outlined below and for more information please visit the website above.

Casa Fericirii – Home of Happiness:

Has provided care for over 28 HIV positive Orphans and at the moment has 6 children and young adults living with fulltime care in the home and another 9 young people living in town under its indepedent living arm. It provides and has provided HIV positive orphans with a home where they can understand what it is like to live in a family and to experince the love of a family.

Community Centre:

Providing care, support and activities for over 300 young people and adults in Cernavoda, where the majority of young girls living below the poverty end up as teenage mothers or in prositution. it provides young people with a safe environment in which to spend their freetime and to learn a variety of activities.

Nightingales School:

Providing schooling for those who are unable to go through main stream education, 18 special needs children, 25 poor children from the town who can’t afford the books and pens to go to state school.

In addition to the projects detailed, we are also just setting up an Independent Living project to support young people coming out of orphanage institutions at the age of 18.  Ben Wells, who runs the project day to day, has links with a Church in Constanta, Romania and they have provided a building rent free until 2014, for us to use for this purpose, which we will call the Independent Living Unit or Halfway House.  We do however need about £10k to make the building fit for purpose – ie to house 6 people – and from then onwards, about £15k per annum to run.  Ben has found a life skills coach who will be willing to work with the individuals on a daily basis and we would then need night staff too, so staffing is the main cost of this, along with the maintenance and running costs of the building itself.

The aim is that for the first 3 months of their time in the Unit, everything will be paid for by us, and they will then be able to put the money they receive from the state aside to provide them with a backstop/savings for the future.  Thereafter they will need to start paying for their keep and ultimately they will move out into their own places and we can start again with someone new.

At the moment, the young people leaving state care receive little care and guidance and many end up either back in long term institutions or getting involved in unlawful occupations.  The aim of the Unit is to help these young people make a go of things for themselves for many of them have a great deal to give to society and also to help them have fulfilling lives themselves