Weekly update 46/24 Engels

Wednesday 13 November we loaded a trailer with mainly Christmas parcels, 33 pallets with 40 parcels each, so a total of 1,320 items. A small layer of other goods on top, not too much in order to reach the maximum permitted total weight of the truck and trailer. Although we were a relatively small group, everything went well. The truck was already at the door at 8:00 and at 11:30 it was on its way to the transfer station in Venlo for the train journey to Oradea.

The packing and collection jobs also went well, for a change not a long day.

Here is the link to photos.

Pieter Nagel from Minis received vegetables and potatoes from the farm and Christmas parcels are also on their way to him. Pieter said that this time the government has much less to spend on the really poor people, including many elderly people. A donation for the purchase of firewood and/or a food parcel is not possible this year. The government gives the reason that they have lost a lot of money on aid in the flood-affected area in Galati and surroundings.

Marin and Eniko from Band have cooked food twice for children and a number of elderly people. The building of a house for people from Valea Rece has continued. Marin had to deal with a sad death. The father of a family with five children went to work for a farmer in Hungary and died suddenly there. Not an official job, so no insurance, nothing. The family lives in Marin's neighborhood and soon the mother and her children were on Marin's doorstep. The mother has no money to pick up her deceased husband and his funeral. Marin has appealed to his "sources" in the Netherlands and can now arrange this. He is now in Hungary to sort things out.

An autopsy will take place on Monday and if nothing strange comes out, the body will be released. If all the paperwork is in order, the transport can be started. If everything goes according to plan, the funeral will take place in Band on Thursday. It's all very sad, good that there is someone like Marin they can rely on.

Here is the link to photos and Marin's question.

Here is the link to photos of building a house.

Here is the link to photos of the meal program.

Henk Muller is back in Romania and has reported on his trip to the Netherlands and Belgium.

Here is the link to photos.

In Breaza, the first 8 pallets with Christmas packages arrived on November 14th, together with other relief supplies. These were loaded on November 7th. They are going to renovate the outbuilding on the grounds of Imola and Csaba, it serves as after-school care. Now that it is also in use by the senior citizens' club, it is time for a renovation. You can leave this to Csaba.

Here is the link to photos.

Reghina also sent photos of her activities and wanted to know when the packages intended for her will arrive in Ticau.

Here is the link to photos.

Viorel and Elena cooked food for the people in Haranglab, after-school care has been started. A house has been built in Haranglab and people have been helped in a poor neighbourhood in Tirgu Mures. I have respect for the fact that they keep this up week in week out. At this time of year it is no fun at all, cold, wet, mud, people in trouble everywhere, you have to be able to cope with it. This also applies to our other contacts, it is nice work but there is more to it.

Here is the link to photos.

Joszi from Tirgu Mures also sent a photo of his activities. It is important work, especially with winter approaching.

Here is the link to photos.

It is good for us to know that our work is important and that it really helps people. A structural solution to these problems is unfortunately still a long way off.

Next Wednesday we will load two trailers with mainly Christmas packages and the last one will arrive on Thursday. All packages will then be on their way to the people they are meant for.