The younger children have been on a trip to the salt mines at Praid Transylvania and the five older ones went camping.

David and Eric Hardwick have just completed a sponsored bike ride for Friend of Children in Romania. They followed the River Severn, from its source in the Welsh mountains to the estuary near Bristol, finishing on the Severn Bridge, a distance of 225 miles. The Severn is the longest river in England, rising on Plynlymon, the highest point in the Cambrian Mountains. They walked up to the top before getting on their bikes and cycling back through Powys, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and Avon over four days.

“I visited Harja two years ago and it was a wonderful experience. There was such a sense of warmth and of everyone looking after each other – it was inspirational,” said David.

If you would like to show your support for their fundraising effort you can donate here.

Denise was awarded her form prize for the year and Lidia celebrated on holiday

All the children made cards for the 1st of March. They are to wish everyone the happiness of Spring.

I am just back from a few days in Harja. I arrived on an evening of brilliant stars, and there was a sense of spring at last, even a few snowdrops had pushed through the still dead, brown grass.

Stefan celebrated his 7th birthday. He had asked that 2 boys from his class should be invited. Well before 4 o’clock, the appointed time of their arrival, he sat on a small chair by the door in rigid fear that they would not come. The minutes went by, Elena started building a garage with him, he relaxed and the boys came!

Mary.

Have just had a most happy skype with them; they are thrilled with their Christmas presents and the atmosphere was wonderful.
Betty full of joy and excitement, Puiu (her husband), too and her friends.

Rares joined the family at Harja just before Christmas. He is 3 and had recently been abandoned in hospital by his father, his teenage mother had disappeared soon after his birth.

He is very happy now to be outside (it seems that this was something new to him). He sledged with the best of them this week when they all went to the hills behind a restaurant owned by one of Betty’s friends. All the carers sledged and, of course, Betty – for nearly 4 hours! And Rares is funny, laughs a lot and is very much part of the family.

It has been a very cold winter. Betty sometimes has to get up 3 times in the night to stoke her fire. So we are having to buy extra wood – that wood which heats all the houses and the hot water.
Many small donations, specially those given monthly with giftaid, would be a great help. Betty is negotiating with the Finnish owner of the forest and the full amount is likely to be something over £3,500.

So if you can help, please do.

Mary

We have a house for holiday rental which helps support the charity. Set in the beautiful Carpathian mountains, it is a great base from which to explore rural Romania. Awake to the sound of cow bells and birdsong; explore flowery meadows and return to the comfort of a wood-burning stove.

The full details are here.

We would love to see you.

The BBC’s renowned investigative journalist, who on October 14^th lost her brave fight against leukaemia and complications arising from its treatment, was one of our charity’s directors.

Sue had reported on the selling of babies from Romanian orphanages in 2000 and became a director of Friends of Children in Romania in 2012. She was a great friend to the project and we shall deeply miss her wisdom, her insight into the needs of the children and her practicality.

Before her illness, she had started organising a fund-raising dinner and concert for ‘her Romanian charity’, which would have taken place this month.

Two years ago, Marcel, Ali, Georgiana and Diana had a marvellous action-packed holiday in her hotel in Mallorca:  she was very fond of them and a second visit was planned for this August.  Sadly, this was not to be.

Reporting on her visit to Romania in 2000 she said:  ‘Give me a war zone any day but spare me the emotional trauma of 100 children searching for a mother’.   Through her support for our charity she helped children like these, giving them a chance to grow up in a real family.

She will be greatly missed.