Welcome. Here you can see what Altrincham Methodist Church and friends have contributed to help disadvantaged children in Romania since 1999

'STEPS Romania' has a new web site:  www.stepsromania.org.uk

This section contains a summary of the latest news about our work in Romania

2014

A team from Altrincham Methodist Church was in Sacele, near Brasov, Romania, from Sunday 20th to Sunday 27th July 2014. It was led by our Minister Rev Kevin Johnson, with an adult helper and four teenagers. The objective was for the young people to see for themselves the plight of the Roma people in Romania and what volunteers are doing to help. This report was received mid-week:

"We are having another great time here, plenty to do and see. We've been busy working on the shed that Phil and I built three years ago; it's now to become a children's centre in Zizin. We've insulated the outside walls, plastered and varnished...."

2013

At the end of March a team of eight people from Altrincham Methodist Church spent a week at their own expense helping complete the Mission House and helping Roma families build houses in the Roma village of Tarlungeni, near Brasov, Romania. They worked with the Romanian charity FAST. A house costs about £8,000 and the team is expected to contribute £4,000 towards this. They had various fund raising events and exceeded this target. They kept a daily blog of their activities, which can be found at:

http://sacele2013.blogspot.co.uk/

2012

A team of people from Holmes Chapel Methodist Church, friends of Altrincham Methodist Church, spent a week in Sacele in September helping the Romanian charity FAST. They built a large garden house for the use of Roma children visiting the Ziurel Welfare Centre.

‘Muriel’s Kitchen’, built onto the Mission House in Tarlungeni with funds from Holmes Chapel, has been completed and is now very busy.

Background

Teams of volunteers 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.  Until 2013, AMC was part of STEPS Romania.

	A dreadful hospital needed a children’s playground -  we helped build 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 helped renovate a hostel.
	Roma children needed a welfare centre - we helped build one.
	A Roma school needed a carpentry workshop - we helped build one.
	Roma families need better homes - we are helping build them

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.

Here is an extract from the web site of a Romanian charity 'Link Romania':

“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 work 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.”