Weekly update 20/24

Yesterday Nico and I returned home safely from a useful and interesting trip to Romania. The main goal was to discuss the progress and the start of the season on the farm in Marghita with Attila.

We were lucky with the weather, it was really spring, and the sowing and planting was in full swing. A beautiful period when you see what happens until the harvest period. I have often written that farmers in Romania are having a hard time due to... the low prices they receive for their products. Unfortunately, quite a few are now in danger of going under.

Attila buys a large part of his planting material from a company in Hungary. A modern and large company that grows seeds into small plants under optimal conditions. During the tour we received, I asked, among other things, how future-proof this activity is. The answer was simple – as long as people continue to eat, this will continue.

Enough ideas were discussed, the future will show what will become reality.

Here is the link to photos.

More and more products go to relief projects. The Romanian government simply treats the healthcare sector poorly. Always plans, controls and inimitable rules, but their financial contribution is not forthcoming. We were there when Attila's phone rang and the request for a children's home came in. Could he please give me potatoes and vegetables, they had nothing left. Child benefit was also not paid or was paid much too late at the end of last year. People from the hospital in Oradea came to pick up cake, to do something extra with the Int. Women's Day. Just a few small examples.

On Friday we were in Breaza and Imola had decided that together with community nurses from Fundatiei Crestine Diakonia, we would visit some of the people they cared for. In Reghin, in an otherwise neat neighborhood, there were three dilapidated houses belonging to a family. An alcoholic brother lives in shack 1. A sister lives somewhere at the back of shack 2. In shack 3 a mother lives with her boyfriend. Together with her schizophrenic daughter and her child. Both of the mother's lower legs were amputated. She can't get out of bed, it's impossible for a wheelchair to get in and out. Another 12-year-old girl (the daughter of the schizophrenic woman) sleeps on the edge of the bed. I have developed deep admiration for the community nurses of Diakonia. I don't know how this can be solved, the government should intervene, unfortunately this won't just happen. As soon as a shovel is dug in the ground to make the houses somewhat habitable, the family is at each other's throats.

Here is the link to photos.

Then we visited a former surveyor in a deprived neighborhood. He had become addicted to alcohol, had a lower leg amputated and contracted tuberculosis. His room has been disconnected from electricity for ten years. Heating involves burning wood in an open fire with a pipe leading outside. He can't go downstairs, there is no elevator and he lives on the fourth floor. There is a shared bathroom for the entire floor, indescribably dirty and gross. Too crazy for words of course. Imola has managed to arrange for him to be admitted to a sanatorium for three months. Here too, Diakonia is the only one doing something.

Then we went to Band, we brought bread and cake. The children were having a delicious meal, as were a number of old people. The construction of the houses by Marin and his team is making some progress. Of course, it also remains a hotbed of activities that shouldn't be there. Many of the young men will soon go abroad again by bus to work.

Here is the link to photos.

Viorel sent his weekly message again together with a request to build a few houses in Haranglab.

Here is the link to photos.

Henk Muller ditto, I can't figure this one out so quickly this time. There are similar messages on Facebook about his activities.

Here is the link to this page.

A trailer for Breaza was loaded in Broek op Langedijk on Thursday. Next week we will clean up and the goods will also arrive for the Easter packages. So there is plenty to do and it is and will remain useful work. Looking out for each other is very important, no matter where you live.