Where
Bistrita, Romania - and the towns and villages in that region.

What
All that Grassroots does in Romania is in partnership with Lidia & Iacob Murza and the  BENITA team.

One part of the support is raised by "Speranta4Romania". This is a organised by a group from Whitstable (in partnership with Tankerton Evangelical Church) who are seeking to assist very poor Romanian families to achieve a better standard of living than was previously possible. There are very many people living in very old dilapidated cottages which they are unable to maintain adequately. Benita identifies families or other very poor people whose housing can be very much improved by a simple building project. Once a year members of the group from the UK travel over and review the projects and say which ones they have the funds to support. Click here for the story so far.

Grassroots also sends a team once a year to visit churches and discuss other things that Benita is doing. Look at their website for details. Benita also runs fantastic youth and childrens' Christian camps where they give some of the poorest children holidays.

What can you do
To give financially to anything that Grassroots in doing in Partnership with BENITA or specifically "Speranta4Romania" then download this form and send it in. To give by credit card go here and write Speranta4Romania in the "note".

The houses that Speranta for Romania have been helping build are very simple and small, but in comparison to those that were there before they are magnificent. The idea is to take people (often families with small children or those with other significant challenges) who are living in extremely decayed shacks (see photo) and replace the building with a proper building with a loft space and stove.

There are three designs depending on the size of the family. Click here to see these designs.

Click here to see the before and after booklet.

BENITA has been supporting 100 very poor families with family food parcels and other care for a few years. The families are carefully selected in partnership with social workers and they desperately need more.

We are hoping that by the Autumn we will have visited Romania and met a number of the families, photographed the children and heard their stories and those of their parent/guardian. We will then be asking if you would give £8 per month or more to support one of these children. You money will be spent on school uniform, school books/supplies, medical certificates, Christian holiday and a few other things yet to be decided. 100% of your sponsorship money will be used for supporting the child you sponsor. (more details of this policy here) We also ask that you commit yourself to pray for the child regularly.

Sponsors will receive a photograph of their child, a certifcate of sponsorship (include some details about their life and who they live with) and an opportunity to send them letters or additional gifts that are appropriate. Sponsors can receive these either via email or in the post. None of the sponsorship money will be spent on this service as we look to the Lord to provide funds for the administration of the trust rather than take a percentage.

If you would like to start now please either go here to send annual sponsorship by credit card, or download this information sheet/donation and standing order form and send £8 per month or more.

There are regular mission teams that visit Romania to work with BENITA. Some of these trips visit building projects, review them and prayerfully consider which new projects can receive funding. Other teams go out to help with the building work on one of the houses. A third type of team meets the children that are being sponsored, takes their photograph and finds out how they are doing.

The next team to go to Bistrita is a BUILDING TEAM. Plans are still being finalised. We will probably be flying out on 13th June 2012 and will be hoping to complete a house for a very poor family over 7 days. (Previous teams did something similar in September 2010 and June 2011. There are details in the blog. See VIDEO tab for the story from 2010)