Missions - Romania

Romania- Caminul Felix, Casa Minunata, Oaza

CAMINUL FELIX
Caminul Felix literally means “happy home.” The children that have been rescued by this Children’s Home have been healed with love. Caminul Felix provides these orphaned children with a Christian family atmosphere. This gives them love, security and faith that all children have the right to. They are being prepared for integration into the Romanian society.

Even today, the abandoned children of Romania total over 300,000. Most state orphanages are overflowing in capacity and offer a poor standard of existence. The basic physical needs of the children are not met, and much less the emotional needs of love and nurturing. They are never held, talked to or loved. More children must be rescued.

The History
In December 1989, the people of Romania revolted against dictatorship and more than 40 years of communist rule. Following the revolution, the whole world became aware of the terrible plight of thousands of orphaned children in Romania. The Romanian orphanages were hidden, overcrowded, unsanitary and lacked adequate health care facilities to sustain a minimal standard of life. Romania needed a new model of care for the children.

Two Villages
Caminul Felix is composed of two villages. Village 1 opened in 1992 and village 2 was officially opened in 2002. Each village is composed of individual houses with a permanent set of house parents. These young Christians parent their new children into a life of confidence. Full time medical doctors and nurses are on the staff serving the needs of all the children and many more poor families. All the parents and personnel at Caminul Felix villages 1 and 2 are provided with extensive training in psychology, and current child care training information.

Casa Minunata

Casa Minunata School was built by Foundation Speranta and opened in October 1994 to welcome 30 children of preschool age with physical and mental disabilities. The goal was mainstreaming. Casa Minunata succeeded to mainstream 12 children in the first three years. However, numerous children were not able to be mainstreamed into the Romanian public education system, which still believes handicapped children are not able to be educated. As a result, Casa Minunata was
expanded and an elementary school was built.  Casa Minunata has created a new model for
education and  integration of children who need special support. There are 55 children who are being educated this year.

Oaza

The OAZA project based in Arad, Romania has become a focal point of the Amblecote Christian Centre missions program. The project is run by Laura Andres, and in 10 short years, Laura and Oaza have
managed to set up four children's homes and today look after over 35 children between 2 and 18 years of age.

Over 40 members of the Amblecote youth team visited the project in 2005 and 2006, financially and manually contributing to the building of the fourth OAZA home and an extension to one of the existing homes to house a further eight children. During these trips, we have come to have a love for all of the young people based at OAZA in a phenomenal way and hope to continue our links into the future.