During my time in Bratca a German Protestant Foundation began to get involved at Bratca Spital, having worked in several other orphanages in Romania. They are employing trained Romanian staff to work alongside those already working at the Spital, and training the old staff to meet certain standards.

The state is also beginning to increase the allowance per child in the Spitals, and to set up a proper fostering system. There are now three 'kinetotherapists' working in the Spital with the children on their mobility and helping them to play. The holding room, where the children used to spend their days, has been abolished and proper bedrooms arranged for the children. They now spend their 'free time' in their rooms in groups of about 12 ,where they have jigsaw puzzles and building bricks. There are also scooters and tricycles for the children to play on, and each room has its own store of clothes, so that the children are no longer wearing what they can lay their hands on, and they all have their own shoes.

It is hoped that, by training the Romanian staff, the improvements will remain after the Foundation withdraws from Bratca. In fact, the only apparent downside of all the changes is the imminent withdrawal of the White Cross Mission from Bratca as their support becomes needed more elsewhere. They plan to focus more on the work at Remeti and in other Spitals, and at the Houses. Aid is still desperately needed in Romania as the economy seems on the verge of collapse, and the White Cross Mission is branching out from it's Cornish roots to help achieve the aim of supplying some of this.

Swivs' Travelogue Archive

Swiv

31.01.00. Front Page

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