Tikva in Romania is currently focused on finding employment for all able adult refugees. In doing so, Tikva has been able to reduce food costs by more than 50% as working adults are now able to provide breakfast and dinner for their families. Nonetheless, Tikva is still providing 1,500 hot meals a day: three hot meals for each child in our care and member of staff in our community, and one meal a day for the wider cohort.
Families have finally begun to lead a relatively normal family life, like they had before war broke out. They can now sit around a kitchen table, eating self-prepared meals together as a family, and with children doing homework at desks and sleeping in beds located within their own bedrooms. We have established a fully functioning orphanage for just under 250 orphans /social orphans who are finally somewhat settled, with a bed to call their own, after a year of sharing a bed with two or three other children in our previous accommodation. Psychologically, the children are responding well to the new structure, and they enjoy bedtime and playtime and walking over to the school building daily that is located within the same complex.
Tikva originally brought eight psychologists and their families to work with the children and adults in Romania. The team has now been expanded to twelve specialists who are treating the children and community daily as the reality of returning home seems less likely. Nevertheless, it’s a true testament to the amazing things Tikva has accomplished when our children tell us that they feel closer to one another now more than ever before, and that the close knit community, despite relocation, has given them hope throughout the year.