Romania

A Friday Note from Mia

 in Art / Bucharest / God / Mia's Children / Orphans / Recreation / Romania / Sports  tagged art exhibit / business / Children's Day / Iraq / soccer / You Can Make a Difference by

**Wonderful news this week from Mia. We’ll probably provide more details on some of this later. For now, parentheses ( ) have been added for clarification.**

Dear Family,

We had a blessed time where the Lord showed again His glory! We praise his Holy Name, His love and care for all what He is doing every day!

The art exhibit was in Iraq a successful! There were auctioned about 47 art work and we need to receive in our account 8200 of $!

Thursday we’ll have another great moment: The art exhibit and the movie (“You Can Make a Difference”) will be showed first time in Romania and the concert will be  performed by some important Romanian artist(s). The event was worked totally – other than the art part  and the movie – by Ioana Mantulescu and her husband.

Saturday and Sunday, Gabriela, Mihaela, Rivaldo were involved in a soccer national competition. And our team gained the first place at the age between 7-9 years old! We are part from winner team!!!

We went to the park in the county No. 4 where a group of big hearts women from The Business Women made a special day for orphan children, trying to bring them some joy around Children Day. They gave us a tent for garden, so we can have some shade and some other stuff, fruits, school items…

Seems that people started to be more  interest in what’s going on with our work.

Well, I let you (go) for right now. I’m tired and still need to work for something. Miss you a lot.

Blessings,

Mia and all your(s)

Pray for Romania’s Public Employees

 in Economy / Education / Mia's Children / Prayer / Romania  tagged lei / pension / prison / protest / schools / strike / teachers by


Romanian currency: a banknote for 10 (zece) lei

On Monday, hundreds of thousands of Romanian state employees participated in a massive strike to protest wage and pension cuts.

Over 700,000 medical staff, teachers, emergency responders, and prison workers joined for a one day strike. Many of the workers joined to show solidarity with school and public institution employees, who plan to strike indefinitely.

But despite overwhelming dissatisfaction with the cuts, Romania’s plan to implement a 25% wage cut and 15% pension cut to all state employees still became effective as of yesterday.

Let’s pray for these teachers in particular as they continue to strike. They are the men and women running the schools in which the children we support spend every day. We need them to be examples of love, dignity, and courage for the youth of a broken nation.

And let’s pray for Mia’s Children as they educate and nurture young people in Romania, even when no one else can or will.

No More Missing Romanian Children

 in Abuse / addiction / Bucharest / Family / God / Home / Mia's Children / poverty / Romania  tagged Balkan Insight / crime / disease / drugs / foster care / missing children / prostitution by

BalkanInsight.com reported yesterday that missing children cases in Romania are on the rise.

Over 3,200 children went missing in the last year, which is ten times more than five years ago. About 90% of the children are suspected to have run away from home and foster care voluntarily, sometimes in order to make money on the street.

But Mia’s Children knows exactly what they’ll find on the street: crime, drugs, prostitution and disease.

Many of our youth came from similar circumstances. Some of them were forced to work in crime for money, and some of them left voluntarily to escape the poverty and domestic problems at home.

We try to work with the children as well as their families, because families broken from addiction and poverty are what causes this danger to Romania’s young people the most.

But sometimes the families do not want help. The parents are not ready to beat the addiction, or are abusive, or feel that they cannot provide anything better than the streets for their children.

In that case one thing will always be certain:

No child is missing from God’s sight, and with his help, they can be found and loved again at Mia’s Children.

“Shame on Them!”: Romanian Workers Protest

 in Bucharest / Economy / Education / Health / Mia's Children / Romania  tagged AP / debt / EU / IMF / protest / taxes / Traian Basescu / World Bank by

The IMF Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday (a few hours ago, US time), tens of thousands of Romanian workers took to the streets in Bucharest to protest massive wage and job cuts by the Romanian government.

Approximately 40,000 people marched and chanted, “Down with the lying government!” “Shame on them!” and “You have pawned our future!”

The protests follow an announcement that Romania will be cutting all public salaries by 25% and pensions by 15% beginning June 1. Romanians fear debt will only continue to skyrocket while taxes increase. Romania accepted a $24 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union and World Bank last year in order to pay state wages.

Police officers, teachers, and health workers are calling for the government to resign. The unions are threatening a large-scale strike. Public jobs comprise 1/3 of Romanian employment, and such a strike would leave the country without health care or law enforcement.

Romanian President Traian Basescu

But it is unlikely the protests or even a strike will change the government’s plans. The IMF will only give Romania the next portion of its loan when the country has enforced the wage and pension cuts. Romanian President Traian Basescu has continued openly seeking that installment, worth $1.15 billion.

Please continue to pray for Mia’s Children during this time of economic hardship in Romania. Our children depend on the public sector for school, safety and health resources. But we also try to provide such things privately to them through the mission. And as the dollar continues to grow in strength against the euro, please consider a donation to help cover the increasing costs in Bucharest.

(You can read more about the protests from the Associated Press.)

We’re on Facebook!

 in Mia's Children / Romania / Website  tagged Facebook / foundation / friends / interactive by

Better late than never! Mia’s Children Foundation has a Facebook page!

So to all our wonderful donors, supporters, friends and family:

Check out the page and click that you “like” us to become a follower.

You can also invite your friends to join: on our Facebook page, click “suggest to friends” under the Mia’s Children icon at the top left of the screen.

We will be updating the page regularly with news and special info. Feel free to write on the wall, upload fan pictures and start discussions on the page. Just make sure to use discretion, especially if you have pictures of the children, as it’s all public.

You can also access it on this website’s sidebar to the right of your screen.

Thank you for being an active part of Mia’s Children. We hope this will be a helpful resource for you and a fun way to interact with the organization!

What is Oina?

 in Bucharest / Mia's Children / Recreation / Romania / Sports  tagged baseball / football / Moldova / oina / P.E. / tee ball by

In our last post, we spoke about Ion (John), one of the boys at Mia’s Children involved in sports. Ion plays, among other things, the game oina.

Oina is like a mix between baseball and monkey in the middle, but it is much older than either sport. Invented in the 1300s, it has become the national sport of Romania because of its ties to the country and its long tradition there. In fact, there are only two oina federations in the world: one in Bucharest and one in Moldova.

Oina is similar to baseball. There are two teams: a team at bat and a team at catch. The weight of the ball for both games is nearly the same, and the bats are similar.

But while a play in both games begins with a pitch and a swing, in Oina the pitcher and batter play on the same team. The pitch is simple and close up, like in tee ball. And once the batter hits the ball, regardless of whether the opposing team catches it, the team at bat runs from one part of the field to another along lanes on the field (called advance and return corridors).

The opposing team waits in the outfield and tries to hit the runners with the ball. The runners can deflect the ball with their hands, but can’t catch it. If it hits their bodies, the opposing team scores and the player leaves the field.

The game only takes 30 minutes and thus is a popular P.E. activity in Romanian schools.

Sound complicated? Well, it is. But try explaining American football!

This video shows a partial game of oina:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTgScqdcU4&feature=player_embedded#!ref=0]

Consider the Motherless for Mother’s Day

 in addiction / Art / Family / Fundraiser / Home / Hope / Mia's Children / Orphans / poverty / Racism / Roma people / Romania  tagged Ceausescu / Mother's Day / orphanage / sacrifice by

This Mother’s day, we at Mia’s Children hope you have a special time celebrating with your love ones the great gift of motherhood.

In America we are so over-worked, over-played, overwhelmed that we sometimes forget the importance of sacrifice, of love and of a hot cup of soup when we’re sick.

Mia’s Children works with young people every day who have not known the love of a mother or a father. When precious children come along, they are too often seen as a burden more than a blessing, and they are pushed out.

We encourage our young people to show their mothers honor on Mother’s Day and every other day. In the past, we’ve even held special ceremonies for them!

But there are some children whose mothers will never attend those ceremonies. And here is what those young people have to say about Mia’s Children:

“I am coming from a family of 9 children. I lived long in an orphanage. Before I came here I never was loved. Thanks to you I can have love and a safe place to live in.”

“You gave me another life. I am what I am because of what the Lord did for me through you.”

“Here…I can experience the true love and I can dream and hope.”

“We feel you are our parents, big friends, forever bounded with us in the love of Jesus.”

This Mother’s Day, we ask that you will consider these children as you also consider your own mothers and children. Please consider making a donation to this ministry in your mother’s honor or memory, and we would be glad to send an e-mail on Mother’s Day with a painting by one of the children, letting her know about the gift in her honor. You can customize the message if you’d like!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to our donate page and make a donation using the options there.

2. Write us at info@miaschildren.org and let us know about your donation and in whose honor or memory it is.

3. If you want us to send an e-mail, include the e-mail address you would like for us to write to on Mother’s Day. We can send it to you so that you can customize the message, or we can send it to the recipient of the honor.

From all of us at Mia’s Children, have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

– Joanna Miller