Newsletter S.O.S. Street children - March 2015

Dear Friends,

How are you ? We are well. Here is our newsletter again, but in another format.  It is good to change it  after so many years.
The work we do is not only for street children anymore, but also for children of poor families.And there are many such families! I was in Romania again at the end of February. While I was walking to the railway station, I noticed that there are more young people on the streets who are homeless. They ask for food and you can clearly see that they are hungry.  I buy them some food and tell them how they can find some help. The situation in Romania doesn't get better and you can see the difference between rich an poor very clear.  Entire families come into problems and the children go to the streets because the parents cannot care for them anymore. Those youngsters then get in a bad condition and sick very often and become addicted to drugs.There are many who have pepatitis B and C.  They have a very difficult time to live on the streets with a sick body.

During a recent health check in Constanta they found out that 13 youngsters from our visitors, had hepatitis.  Also we often see tuberculosis. The younsters who visit us get regular health checks and also the people of our team. But there are also youngsters who are mentally handicapped or who have a severe handicap. They visit us regularly and we try to help them where we can.

Luckily we have a good doctor who helps us; he is also in the board of our Romanian foundations. We also try to help him with medicines from Holland, that are otherwise trown away. Here medicines, that are bought, cannot be returned to the pharmacy anymore to be used by other people.There is a lot of hunger; we even see it with our Romanian volunteers.It is important for them that they can eat with us. Many meals are given to people from the kitchen of Casa Sami. Luckily we have a good cook, Miora can cook very well.Our social worker encounters extreme problems that are often very difficult for her to help with. But we do what we can do.

Luckily there are also blessings. We see a group of children grow up healthy because they get good food from us and wear good clothes. We get second hand, good clothes, from Holland.They can get a shower regularly; hygiene is very important for them! And there is hope for them for the future because they can go to school. And they also get good medical help from our doctor.That is something to be vey thankful for! Also thank's to you all for what you do to help us, to help the children!
Greetings and God Bless!

Theo and Greta van Hoof