NEWS & EVENTS
ROMANIA: COVID 2020
As of November 15, 2020, Romania reported 360,281 coronavirus-related infections and 8,926 deaths in the country, since the pandemic began. Daily deaths reported >140, however, this is still much lower than other European countries: Italy, France, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Romanian hospitals do not compare with standard American hospitals and their system is being strained, yet Romanian medical staff has been able to provide an adequate level of medical care for their patients and maintain low mortality rates per capita.
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Because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Springtime House in Romania Charity (STH) has been unable to host a local fundraising dinner in Houston, Texas. In spite of this, STH has continued to support approximately 80 orphans and at-risk children plus 50 caregivers with food staples, clothes, shoes, medicine, and especially wood for heat and cooking. 120 at-risk children from Mociu & Samboleni Villages plus the orphan care homes have been supplied with their usual support including school supplies. As in the USA, many school children are being homeschooled, while others attend limited class time, depending on local lockdown phases.
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STH Romanian Administrator, Miriam Rus, her husband, their three children, parents Vasile and Elena Rus, brother Ruben and Lavinia plus their three children were quarantined while they all recuperated from the coronavirus. Romanians have had more frequent confinement, limitations on travel, and fewer commodities than the USA. Fortunately, everyone we know in Romania who contracted the virus has now recovered! We are very grateful to God!
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ORPHAN UPDATE: CASA PRIMAVARA
Floresti Cluj, Romania
All four of the oldest siblings, Roza, Martin, Miki, and Kati graduated and have jobs. Heidi is the last original sibling orphan supported by STH at Casa Primavara. She turned 18 and has two more years of special high school/trade school and presently is being homeschooled like her classmates. Last summer, Heidi was released from the state foster care system allowing Lavinia and her family to return to their own home after two years as guardians and mentors to the Lorincz children. We are all very grateful for Lavinia’s dedication and hard work as a foster mother, and of course Ruben’s strong support, through the teen years and into young adulthood.
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As Heidi is not yet able to live on her own, a new godly family was hired to manage Casa Primavara, mentor Heidi, and help her with her disabilities. STH welcomes the Craciun Family!
(father is Dani, mother is Adina, children: Anelissa 7, Levi, 4, Fineas 1 year.)
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The family jumped into their new role with enthusiasm and local support. A team of volunteers helped clean and paint areas of Casa Primavara where necessary. STH is delighted that this Christian family chose to live at Casa Primavara and to help Heidi adjust to new changes. In addition, Andrea Miron, a nursing student, has come to live at Casa Primavara. Andrea is an orphan from Moldova attending nursing school in Cluj. Andrea also has a job as a nurse technician, riding with a team in an emergency vehicle.
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THE LORINCZ ORPHANS
Update on Lorincz Siblings
Now young adults, the original 5 orphan siblings are becoming more independent and self-reliant, making choices to be independent after graduation and securing jobs.
Martin was provided by the State, his own government-reduced efficiency apartment. It needed considerable work before he could live there, but he is now living in it comfortably. Miki works at a Label Company; he moved from Primavara, married his girlfriend, Daria, and have a lovely baby daughter. Kati moved out of Primavara, lives in an apartment in Cluj, and works at Sketchers. Roza lives in her efficiency apartment and has two little children (a boy and girl); she is now on 2-year maternity leave from her job at a Label Company.
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SAMBOLENI ROMA VILLAGE, ROMANIA
The Cojocnean Family (1 baby girl, 4 daughters, and 2 parents) The father suffers from a debilitating foot condition, arthritic rheumatism, in the wet and cold winters of Romania. The condition caused him to lose his job working on a ranch and consequently a promised home. His poor family took shelter in an abandoned, one-room, uninsulated, leaky shack where the father had grown up in Samboleni.
Gheorghe Opris, founder of Charity of Hope (Asociatia Crestina de Caritate Speranta, C.I.F. 34913074), could not stand to see this family suffer another winter in that deplorable shack, so Fall 2019, he requested emergency funds from Springtime House in Romania-USA, Inc. After the funds were granted, Gheorghe arranged for the basic construction of a simple, new home before the cold weather set in. During the 2019/2020 winter, this family was blessed with a warm and dry house, a solid foundation, a metal roof, insulated windows and a door. For the first time, the family enjoys indoor plumbing and electricity. They now have the use of a kitchen sink and indoor restroom, with a new wood stove to keep warm and to cook.
With an additional grant from Christian Broadcast Network (CBN-TV) Orphan’s Promise, the Cojocnean Family now enjoys all of the finishing details which were added to the home’s exterior and interior in the spring of 2020. An additional coating of insulated, colored stucco was applied to the home’s exterior in the warm, dry weather. Furniture and other needs were also added as funds became available. The Cojocneans' desire is to become a self-sufficient family and have requested a dairy cow, a pig, a barn to protect their animals, hay, and feed, plus a fence to protect their property. A photographer captured this story and it may be telecast on CBN-TV in the future