Child of Hope Foundation
Last November, I travelled to Romania with a group of 7 family members for an inspirational visit to projects set up by the charity Child of Hope. This charity, ran by my uncle and cousin, supports disadvantaged children in Romania and Uganda, by giving them an opportunity to go to school, work and take care of their hygiene and health. The goal of this visit was to inspect earlier projects, seeing if the help we offered is used correctly, monitoring ongoing projects on their progress, and gaining inspiration for future projects, all while stimulating the next generation of our family to continue the work my uncle and grandfather had started with. My personal goal for this trip was to be inspired to use my skills and talents to help people in need in any shape or form, in this article I will show everything we have done on this trip, while also sharing all I have learned and plan on using in the future during my career.
Background story
Romania has been in my heart since 2010, when we had our first 'work vacation' in collaboration with local Dutch churches and the Romanian pastor named Cornel Fedor (picture 1), Cornel developed a big love for the gypsy people of Romania, and decided to dedicate his entire life to helping these people with a chance to build a proper life amongst the 'normal folk', while also sharing the love of Jesus with these people, which they were completely unfamiliar with. Our entourage spent 4 summers in Vallea Drăganului working on a summer camp (picture 2) for the gypsy kids to enjoy a week off. The (young) adults of our group spend their week doing carpentry, painting, building toilets & showers and installing electricity & water supply, while the kids did everything they could to have as much fun as possible. These summers have been a big part of my child hood, playing sports, card games, and sharing food around a big bonfire with kids my age that don't even speak the same language as me. I returned to Romania as a young adult in 2022 to revisit all the places and people I 'grew up' with. This resparked my love for this country, so when I was invited to join the trip again last November, I could not decline. (Picture 3 shows my cousin and I in 2017 during our last summer camp)
Project St. Laleaua (8 Hours)
After arriving in Cluj-Napoca Airport, we were picked up by Leon de Rover, a distant relative of mine, who has been living in Romania for roughly 15 years, he is the head of the first project we visited this week. Leon started a free pre-school and after school program for children that cannot afford it, they have 5 classrooms for educating kids from all ages until 18. The school is called Laleaua, a Romanian word that means tulip, the classic flower connected to Dutch history and culture. Leon also has a university medical degree, that he uses to advise everyone in his community that are dealing with medical issues. What inspired me the most was the evening program called the sailors club, where kids from ages 12 and up learn everything concerning discipline, respect, motivation and gratitude. These kids showed a great amount of effort into the program. Learning new things seemed like the most exciting thing they had ever done in their life, showing good attitude and work ethic could earn them a higher rank in the sailors club. Picture 2 shows us officially being ranked as sailor, which is the lowest rank you can achieve at the sailors club.
Sightseeing
We spent our second day enjoying the beautiful Vallea Drăganului, a thick layer of fresh snow had just fallen out of the sky the day before, causing the valley to look like nothing I had ever seen before. We stayed at a beautiful mountain-top hotel, and revisited the camp and Dam we had been to many times during summer.
Pizza's and Prayer (8 Hours)
Sunday was all about church, we visited 3 different churches throughout the day, where we sang songs, prayed and shared food with each other. It was very inspiring to see with how much joy and trust these people sang their songs. They recognize their blessings, even though, in my eyes, they barely have any. In between church services, we visited members of the churches at their homes, spoke with them and handed out groceries and other supplies.
Grocerieshopping (8 Hours)
On the last day of our stay, we continued our work of handing out groceries and talking to people in many different communities, the supplies consisted of foods like rice, chocolate spread, flour, butter, sausages and sweets, but also cleaning products like soap and washing detergent. these supplies were roughly worth 20 euro's per bag, but one bag means multiple weeks of survival for the gypsy people. The thing that hit me the most about this day is the amount of gratitude the people showed towards us for helping them with basic needs. It felt odd to be praised for something that seemed like the bare minimum to me.
What have I learned?
This week I found something that I am just as passionate about as I am when it comes to music, which is making peoples day better, in any way, shape or form. If it's making people dance to my DJ sets and events, helping the needy with basic living needs, or just having a conversation with people about how their day was.
This lesson is something I will try to implement in my daily life, I believe that making other people happy will make me the happiest I will ever be :)
