Weekly update 53 / 2020

Last week it was necessary to make a “last minute booking” and have a truck come. The Manna Foundation from Alkmaar was able to provide us with many beautiful products, a lot of food and all kinds of - tasty things -. To leave this until January 2021 was not an option. This became clear on Monday and a truck was already at the door on Monday afternoon. There are always Romanian trucks waiting for cargo somewhere and especially just before Christmas, the drivers want to go home.

Enough people were available on Tuesday to load the trailer. First to Alkmaar to pick up the goods at St. Manna and then load it. Truck number 57/2020 was loaded at approximately 2:00 PM. Half of this beautiful freight goes to Csaba and Imola in Breaza and the other half goes to Henk Muller in Deaj.

On Monday December 28, the driver will leave his hometown Beiuș for Breaza and Deaj to unload his trailer, the recipients will be happy with it.

Here the link to pictures of the loading.

Wednesday we would clean up our storage, but Max Veenstra from HRIF threw a spanner in the works. He sought help to load a trailer with beds and mattresses at a hotel in Amsterdam. These will eventually go to a project that HRIF has been supporting in Ukraine for twenty years. It took a while, but thanks to the help of six of our volunteers, the truck was completely full in two hours.

On Thursday a number of pallets with sunflower seeds arrived in Broek op Langedijk from Rotterdam, thanks to a contact from Henk Muller. It is a popular delicacy in Romania, among others, and nutritious too.

More and more photos and stories are coming in about handing out the Christmas packages etc., it gives a good picture why our help is needed.

This little boy in a photo of John Fracker, in the post on this blog last week, was wearing no shoes and almost no clothes and crying to. In any case, that has improved, we will try to find out more about the circumstances under which he lives. Perhaps we can do a little more, unfortunately there are many children who live like this, but sometimes something touches a sensitive chord.

Pieter Nagel sent this message and a newsletter, interesting to read. Pieter does not mince words and straightforwardly exposes abuses in a Dutch way.

Hello Maarten,

It was a strange year, but also a blessed year. Thanks to your help, we are always able to continue to help. The last transport was really good. We have already distributed a lot. Are working on the last mile to deliver Christmas packages this week. The youth also benefited a lot from the Christmas items and made beautiful gifts for the lonely elderly.

Thank you also to all your employees, too bad we can't meet that many at home anymore. Give them my best regards.

Greetings from us from Minis.

Blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Petra and Pieter Nagel.

Here the link to the newsletter.

Ilja Witte of the Phoneo Foundation sent a nice slide show of their activities and the distribution of the packages and potatoes. This gives a good impression of what St. Phoneo is doing under the leadership of Ronald and Pauline, that is a lot and good work.

Here the link to this presentation.

Reghina from Ticau goes on and on, highlights this week placing eight stoves, handing out packages and organizing a Christmas party. Great, what dedication and talent for organizing.

Here the link to photos.

In Botosani Cristi and all his people are busy making and delivering parcels, it is nice to see how this goes.

Here the link to the first series.

Here the link to the second series.

Imola from Breaza posted an update on her blog.

fazakasimola-csaba.blogspot.com

Henk Muller has also sent pictures again, this time of year for many people it is not life but survival. Cold, no food and lack of everything it is just bad that in 2020 this exists on this scale in Europe.

Here the link to photos.

Wikipedia has a lot of interesting information about Romania, including the omnipresent Romas. According to official figures, there are 621.000 living in Romania, but the Council of Europe estimates this number at 1.850.000, which is about 10% of the population. If the government does not come up with serious plans to tackle the problems surrounding this population group, the problems will only get worse in the future. Besides Wikipedia, there are other sources of information that are interesting.

For example this one.

Thus an eventful year has almost come to an end. Despite the difficult circumstances, the activities of St. Promotion continued in an adapted form. Thanks to our sponsors, the volunteers in the Netherlands and the relief workers in Romania, we have been able to mean a lot for vulnerable people in Romania. Waterproofing houses, the expiration of clothing, food and many more useful things, all basic necessities that are very important right now.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this.

Wednesday we will clean up, loading a car is unlikely, but you never know. In 2021 we will in any case continue with this beautiful and rewarding work.