We had an incredible journey through Romania, mainly helping the Roma people (also known as the "gypsy" population) in Baia Mare, which is in northern Romania. We were able to spend a couple weeks supporting the mission of a local community center run by Caritas. They provide a safe learning and development environment for the children - also including parenting classes for the adults and providing showers and laundry for the families as they have no running water in the community. Awesome work they are doing for these Roma people.
A special thank you to travel blogger Carey Carpenter, who runs CareBear Abroad (https://www.facebook.com/carebearabroad) for her awesome video skills!
Walking through the Craica slums, where the Roma children we helped live - you can see the horrible living conditions.
There was a Roma slum in the news a few years back because the Mayor put up a wall that separated them from the surrounding neighborhood. We visited and loved the children we saw!
Carey painting her Care Bear - started as an Ewok, but turned out great!
The Director of the center, Alexandra, is an amazing artist and decided to get in on the fun - she painted this free-style by just looking at the RAKlife logo! Thanks Alexandra!
The Roma children during recess - they were all amazing to work with and help and simply couldn't stop smiling for the camera and hugging us!
With our new partnership with Everyone Eats (https://www.every1eats.com) we were able to feed the entire community center! Most of the children had never had spaghetti and only eat a hot meal once every couple weeks.
Matt's favorite Roma man walking through the community! He was sassy!!
The masterpiece the team worked on - Team Unicorn leaves it's mark for the enjoyment of the children until we return next year!
RAKlife team with the leaders of the community center - middle is Alexandra, the Director; the right is Roxana, the psychologist. Also pictured is Carey from CareBear Abroad, and Glenn, who has helped RAKlife a couple times in the past! Thank you so much to all for all your hard work.