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.