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This is the February 2014 Newsletter of Vis De Copil
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Vis de Copil is a small charity
who aim to serve some of the
disadvantaged families in Arad,
Romania, where we run a small
community centre called
‘The secret garden’
March
2014
A look into what we have been up to this month!
VIS DE COPIL
VIS DE COPIL
Dental Clinic
Andreea’s story
Street kids
Day center program
London Marathon
Odd socks campaign
Quentions people ask
Liviana’s visit
Prayer points
A dental room and a dental hygiene education program have been
one of our more ambitious goals but with such great need it will
make a huge difference.
The dental clinic has been slowly
developing for some time now.
Those involved know how long it
has taken to con-
vert the basement,
source donations
of medical equip-
ment and labori-
ously satisfy the
extensive legal pa-
perwork required, all of which
has paid off as we are now on
the home stretch! We have offi-
cial approval for the dental clinic
from the health department,
and we are looking forward to
getting started very soon.
With poverty, poor
hygiene, lack of educa-
tion and no facilities,
most of our clients
have poor teeth and
are in desperate need
of urgent dental work,
not to mention that almost all of
the children have never been to
a dentist.
The mother of Andreea, one of
our girls, passed away two weeks
ago. This is a huge tragedy for
Andreea, her four
brothers and her unem-
ployed father.
We try every day to be a
support for Andreea, we
see she is willing to work hard at
school, she comes to do home-
work every day and we see a real
improvement in her character.
We strongly believe that she will
succeed in life despite the tragic
experience she went
through.
Without an educa-
tion it is very difficult
to get a job when
they grew up and we do not want
them to steal or depend on social
assistance. We told them to be
proud of being Roma
(gypsy), God has a great plan
with their nation and they
have to change the impres-
sion of Roma (Gypsies) by
the example of their lives
There are different 'varieties' of street child - there are what
we sometimes refer to as the 'full time' street children -
children and young people who live intirely on the streets,
never going 'home' and having no links with parents or oth-
er family members. Then there are the seasonal street chil-
dren who live on the streets during the warmer seasons but
in the harsh Romanian winters return to the place
some might call 'home'. Thirdly, there are the children
and young people who spend most of their time on
the streets, begging, selling, prostituting but at night
return to their 'homes'.
You can read more of this story here
Ian Campbell will be running the
2014 London Marathon in aid of of
Vis De Copil and CLICsargent.
Ian needs your support to raise the
funds required to enter the mara-
thon.
Please conider sponsoring Ian,
more information can be found on
his website.
Everyone has
odd socks, a pile
of mismatched
socks destined to
never to be a pair
again. Why not donate your odd
socks (or even a matching pair)
to our Odd Sock Campaign.
We are constantly asked for
socks, especially in the winter
when the temperature can
get below -20c These are
essential for preventing frost
bite. However socks are one
of the items that just don’t
get donated
To further improve the help we offer, we have expanded the pro-
gram to have time for each activity. In the morning we are helping
poor families with donations, many mothers come for clothes and
The afternoon is for Roma (gypsy) or children from very poor fami-
lies who wants to have better results at school. They come to do
homework at they are supervised and guided by a teacher. Children
are also encouraged in building a good character and motivation for
work and honesty.
Every week we have a theme that we develop, last week was the
theme of friendship and each child made a promise to choose a
person to be a good friend this week.
shoes for children. Also children who do
not go to kindergarten or school come to
us for education, painting, they learn to
write to read, develop their creativity and
skills.
My name is Liviana Oprea, I was born in Arad, Romania and currently I live in Sydney, Australia. It was always on my heart to help the under-privileged and find out more about ways in which I can get involved in some kind of missionary work. At the moment I work for SIM Australia, an organisation which sends missionaries in many parts of the world.
Liviana’s Visit
Please pray for Andreea and
her family in this difficult
time.
Please pray for the success-
ful launch of our dental
work
Str Ludovic Szantay Nr 15
Arad, Romania
www.achildsdream.co.uk
or find us on Facebook
visdecopilarad
I remember that one day when I was singing a song in the church “Here I am wholly
available...as for me I would serve the Lord.” As I was singing, I thought are you really available or are you just far too busy to notice the needs around you. The bible passage from Matthew also spoke to my heart.
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
– Mathew 25:40 Together with Bianca my daughter, we arrived in Arad on the 14 Sep-tember, 2013. Since then we have been so blessed to meet and partner with the team from Vis de Copil. At the centre our time has been such a blessed experience. I treasure the smiles and the hugs from the under-privileged young people I've watched them saying the Lord’s prayer and gratefully having their meal, and telling Philip that he is the best cook in the world. Then the homeless older street boys come to the centre. You don't have
to be afraid of them because they speak polite, wait patiently for their meal and I feel so happy they trust me enough to tell me their life sto-ries. I would love to hear all of them but on the other side my heart is broken. Why is there no hope for them to get a job when they want to work? Why there is no hope for them to get a place where to sleep at night when they have a baby? I won-der how would we feel to be in their place, what would be doing? What kind of hope for future they have? None because they can’t read or write and a street person has no hope for a better life. Today I have spoken with a homeless young man telling me how he had to live on the street because his parents’ house burned down when he was young. Every night when I go to sleep in my comfortable bed it is hard to imagine them sleeping on the street or in an empty building, or under a bridge. I would like to encourage you to go and spend time at the centre and support them in any way you can because changing lives is the most rewarding experience, and it is al-ways about making a difference.