Winter in Romania is cold, hard and bitter and living conditions are poor and there are entire families living in the sort of poverty that we, in this country, would find difficult to imagine.
One family we visited, Elena and Shony and their 2 children lived in a single room and considered themselves to be one of the lucky ones. Shony had work in Cluj and walked into town each day (a four-hour round trip) and he brought home a wage - around £25 per week. Although this covered the absolute basics, it certainly didn't stretch to presents. I asked Elena if they would be having anything special to eat on Christmas Day and she replied 'no, they were simply happy to be able to eat, but they would be treating themselves to a bottle of coke.'
Children's Oncology Hospital in Cluj
The following day included a visit to the Children's Oncology Hospital in Cluj. One child, six-year-old Louis, was fascinated with my digital camera and began taking photographs of his teddy bears. Luckily, my camera was quickly forgotten about as he opened his shoebox and took out his first ever toy car - something he was engrossed in for the rest of the visit. I later discovered that it was probably Louis's last Christmas. He was suffering with a stomach tumour that had returned again, despite three lots of surgery.
Gypsy Village , Ticau
A lot of our time was spent in the van, travelling to some of the more remote parts of Northern Romania . A series of bumpy roads took us to the gypsy village of Ticau . Hundreds of wide-eyed, smiling faces greeted us and the children all sang traditional Christmas Carols, pretty much at the top of their voices! When distributing the boxes I was worried there wouldn't be enough, but thankfully, every single child received a shoebox. One little boy of about 10 went off into a corner to open his box. As soon as he saw a packet of pens, his face lit up. "It's the best box in the village!" he shouted. The pens and paper now meant he would be allowed to go to school - and he couldn't wait.
On one visit, a little girl was presented with her shoebox. She opened it, looked at everything in awe and then packed it all away again and returned the box. She could not comprehend that the presents were hers to keep.
Almost 13,000 shoeboxes were collected in Wirral for Operation Christmas Child and I can now say first-hand that every single one of these boxes was given to a child in real need.
To read Catherine's complete article about Romania click here.
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Andrei and Andrea
Louis
Local Villagers
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