Wood-project – A special thank you to Remko Jorritsma – Stichting in de Vrijheid
Thank you for showing mercy and warmth.
Hundreds of people including old people alone in their small dwellings and those suffering from illness as well as families with children including the youngest children of a tender age are the most vulnerable when the sub zero nights arrive in northeast Romania each year. There are even schools without proper heating including in Botosani County which is the most deprived and poorest of Counties in northeast Romania. Children arrive at school cold and wet, sit in class in hats and coats thus not the best conditions to learn in as the teacher speaks to them daily.
The County is filled with old aged people, the young ones have left as there is no future for them and they went in search of a better life in other Countries, yes, even the unqualified took their chances and left also. The once rich County with high yields of agriculture and record crops each year, plus industrial complexes of the communist times have all gone and nothing is left except unemployment and hardship for many. Re-investment in new modern business didn’t happen so nothing replaced the outdated old state companies that died with the end of communism.
An old lady who has a pension so small that there is nothing left for her winter heating wood to warm her small 2 room dwelling, that is old like her and as such has no insulation, says that pain in her joints wakes her up early each morning and that her legs and knees hurt the most. Lying there, she feels unloved, forgotten, alone as she struggles to even do the most basics in the small dwelling, knowing that there are also things to do around the house. She is though not alone as far too many endure this pain each winter and suffer in the cold.
I walked in to see an old man of 87 years last winter in his dwelling, he was sat by the small table on an old wood 3 legged stool and smiles at me as he saw me enter. The floor is simply beaten earth compacted over years and the extreme cold can be felt as it rises up above ones knee level and can be seen clearly condensation in the small window panes. Like others he cannot afford heating logs for his small soba heater on his small pension of less than 25 euro a week or a gas bottle either to cook hot food on, thus lives on cold food.
In another family I speak to a mother who has a young son with asthma and again no possibility of heating as simply cannot afford nearly 200 euro for a single cubic meter of wood logs as is more than 1 months income and she has 3 other children of school age as well thus all suffer the effects of cold in the small dwelling.
In all 3 cases mentioned above and including another 130 ones similar thanks to the generosity of Dutch donors and sponsors with Remko Jorritsma – Stichting in de Vrijheid in the last extreme cold term from last Autumn 2023 until March 2024 here in northeast Romania I was able to via funds donated purchase and have free of any charges delivered heating wood bricks to all of these very forgotten people. Here included people alone of old age often frail and unable to walk without a stick and of families with children who also had no hope of any form of heating without this valuable support from God above.
This life saving support has been ongoing for many years now via Remko Jorritsma – Stichting in de Vrijheid and all who support and I thank openly for this because I see myself here in northeast Romania where I have lived for over 30 years now the terrible effects of the cold on all who cannot afford heating. Illness and even deaths are recorded each year attributed directly to the extreme cold people face and this gift of mercy to allow them heating is more than a blessing as is an attribute that shows humanity to those left in suffering behind closed doors where no one sees and forgotten by the powers that should be helping them but has no heart. My thanks also go to the Mayor of Stefanesti and workers who each week help me to deliver freely this vital heating aid to all we find who have no warmth until we arrive!