Sat 17 - Sat 24 June
roa, with help from Wirral Libraries, Streetscene and Wirral News is launching an urgent appeal for ‘back to school’ stationery for disadvantaged children in Romania.
We are asking the public to donate:
- packs of pencils and crayons
- biros (NO felt tip or fountain pens please)
- pencil sharpeners and erasers
- and exercise books
to help orphaned and abandoned children to get an education. Without these basic items children are not allowed to go to school.
From Saturday 17 – Saturday 24 June donations can be placed in the special wheelie bins which will be in every Wirral Library. Please note that the libraries are closed on Saturday afternoons and all day Wednesday.
Schools, groups and clubs are invited to get involved and start a collection in their local area which can then be donated at libraries.
A member of the roa committee, Elspeth McPherson, has just returned from working with a very special ‘self-help’ project for abandoned children in Romania. The initiative is the work of a Romanian orthodox priest, Father Nicolae Tanase, who for the past 15 years has been trying to help abandoned street children and homeless families by building communities where they can live, work and support each other. His work, and the houses he has built, are based in a beautiful valley in the foothills of the Carpathians, a two-hour drive north of Bucharest.
There are approximately 300 children and up 30 adults at any one time living and working in the community. They are all involved in working on the new houses, even the children help out when they can. But, they are in desperate need of basic materials to help the children to get an education. So, roa are sending out school stationery this summer in time for the start of the new school year for these and other children she visited during her stay. The roa has been supporting the community for the past 8 years along with other orphanages and institutions in cities and towns around the country. They send out basic aid up to three times a year on lorries packed here in Wirral.