Children in Distress - St Nicholas's Report on the Children in Distress Christmas Shoebox Appeal 2009

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St Nicholas's Report on the Children in Distress Christmas Shoebox Appeal 2009

St Nicholas and friend

Holly House

Lapland

Dear Friends and Supporters

Well another wonderful Christmas has flown past and again your support and generosity has been exceptional, for where would we be without you? I was able to share all the wonder and joy of Christmas with the poorest children in Romania and Moldavia with each and everyone of your around seven thousand Christmas gift boxes.

This year my visit took me to too many places where there was a definite need. For instance when I got to Kindergarten 285, Bucharest, the little ones who live there during the week to allow their parent to work were having their afternoon nap, I found most of them asleep but one or two opened their eyes and saw me! I did try to slip away quite quickly but wasn’t able to do so; once they realised I was there, there was great excitement! sleepy heads became bright and alert and I was soon surrounded by a host of big eyed, happy, smiley little faces each clearly taken aback at seeing Father Christmas a few days early.

We even stopped at Calugereni, a village in Giurgiu, with little or nothing in the way of modern facilities but where the locals made a tremendous effort to make me welcome even down to a coat of still wet paint for the community room in which I was meant to sit. Fortunately there were so many children we all had to sit outside in the snow. This didn’t deter the kids a jot, singing carols with great gusto to keep warm and to welcome “Mos Craîcun” and my merry band of helpers.

We paid our usual annual visit to Father Gabriel and the street children at St Macrina’s, many receiving a Christmas gift for the first time in their life, shoeboxes once given out, were grasped tight by eager little hands, eyes full of wonder in anticipation of what surprise were in store when the box was opened.

The days flew by so quickly and I was soon on to my last “official “engagement. This was with the infants and children at St Margaret’s Hospice and St Nicholas Child Development Centre in Bucharest. Their new therapy extension was complete and as St Nicholas I was able to host all the children together in the new treatment suite. It was heart warming to see so many of the those little ones coming with their parent to this superb new Centre ; children once written off by local medical professionals as beyond hope; children who would never have had a chance to talk or walk to maximise their potential without the support of Children in Distress; children demonstrating that however difficult the problem with consideration, professional care, therapy and support it can be overcome; children who were now beginning to take their rightful place in their families and society thanks to Children in Distress. For me each and every child that day made Children in Distress, all the volunteering and all associated the hard work worthwhile.

My thanks to all the Christmas Shoebox Appeal’s donors and supporters and particularly my band of helpers across the United Kingdom and Romania. We could not do this without you. It is hard work but the faces of the children and the joy you help us bring make it all worthwhile. God bless you all and I trust that this coming year will be happy and peaceful for each and everyone.

St Nicholas

Mos Craîcun

Amanuensis Roy Wheeler