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Although Romania is now an EU member, the country is considered to be the “poorhouse” of Europe. In the town of Caransebes with around 30,000 inhabitants in the south of the country the poverty is glaring. Many families live in wooden huts fit for demolition or containers with no electricity and running water. Clean drinking water is a rare commodity and hunger is part and parcel of every day life for many children.
The Franciscan nuns from Salzkotten look after these children. Since 1992 the sisters have run a day centre for children from socially deprived or large families on their Order’s premises in Caransebes.
The Peter Ustinov Foundation has been supporting this project for three years now. With the help of donations, the Franciscan nuns have erected a new building for the children’s day centre and this was officially opened in November last year.

This “Thank you” letter was sent to the Peter Ustinov Foundation by the congregation of Franciscan nuns:

Ladies and gentlemen,
The children’s day centre in Caransebes, Romania is now complete.
We are very pleased about the decision to erect a new building. Thanks to your commitment to provide support yet again, you contributed greatly to this decision. After we had moved in, it became even clearer to us that what was originally the favoured solution to extend and renovate the old children’s day centre would have been the wrong decision. Thanks to your generous support, the building we now have for the children is really fit for purpose in that they are encouraged and given the facilities to come to terms with themselves and their environment. Here they can really be children.
We are attaching a few photos. You can see from these that the building is really successful and the children are very happy there.

On the day before our new children’s day centre was officially opened, we again witnessed the need of the families. The children who live in the Nato blocks and the impoverished huts really are the poorest of the poor. Here a major task still awaits us and that is to involve the mothers in our work.
In the new building we have two large rooms for playing and teaching, a dining room, a dormitory (also multi-purpose room), a kitchen and sanitary facilities.
The spacious entrance hall can be used for many purposes. The premises and fittings are just right to meet the children’s desire for exercise and exploration.

It has since been possible to purchase a plot of land in front of the children’s day centre and a children’s playground is being created here.
The children now come to the day centre and are looked after here. They are given clothes, breakfast, lunch and a meal in the afternoon. After they have attended the day centre for a few weeks, the children already look much healthier and are more active. The five-year-olds are prepared for school. We try to maintain contact with the children after they have left. They receive food for school and, if they want it, they are given help with their homework.

We would not be able to do this without the generous support from the Sir Peter Ustinov Foundation.
With our heartfelt thanks and kind regards,
Sister M. Arnoldis Straßfeld

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