Welcome to the web site of STEPS Romania

STEPS Romania AGM – come and hear what we’ve achieved in 2011 and what we will be doing in 2012

7.30pm refreshments, 7.45 meeting. Friday 2^nd March 2012.

Swan Bank Methodist Church, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 2AA

STEPS Romania was set up to help disadvantaged children in Romania. Teams of people with some, little or no D.I.Y. experience spend a week at their own expense working on projects to provide facilities for children in Romania.

	A dreadful hospital needed a children’s playground -  we built one.
	There was a serious problem of children with AIDS - we helped build a hospice.
	We found street children living in the city’s sewers - we renovated a hostel.
	Roma children needed a welfare centre - we helped build one.
	A Roma school needed a carpentry workshop - we helped build one.
	A kindergarten in Slobozia needs an extension so we are building it.

Romania is still a very poor country. Some people are rich but the vast majority are very poor. At the bottom of the pile are the gypsy Roma, and in the very poor families it is often the children who suffer most. In Roma villages near Iasi, a Romanian charity ‘Link Romania’ is helping very poor families. In the desperately poor village of Slobozia near Iasi, Link Romania has a small building which is used as a kindergarten, a homework club, for youth clubs, mothers’ groups and bible studies etc. This small building urgently needs extending to help more young children. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 we are working with Link Romania to help them fulfil their ambitions. With your help we will.

Here is an extract from the Link Romania web site:

“The Roma children are neglected both by their parents and relatives, and by the Romanian society. They receive a very poor education. The parents are busy. The mother and older sisters are working in the household with the younger children. Meanwhile the fathers are out in the surrounding villages with merchandise, to earn the income for the family. They don’t get any sort of welfare benefits. The only income they have is the child allowance, providing they have identification papers for them. We believe that by educating the people they will become financially independent and they will not get involved in criminality. This is an ongoing project, even during the holidays. We believe that the children need attention, education, involvement. They live in very bad areas, and because they do not have a playground or somewhere decent to play in they get involved in gangs and later in crime.... they lack the education to become skilled people and so earn money honestly.”

More information on the Slobozia project