In 1995 we were invited to visit a house for one hundred and forty seven elderly people in Bucharest.

We could not believe what we saw seven or eight poor old people in one room a few square meters with walls oozing dampness. They lay in old metallic beds with little comfort.

The room hadhad no hot water for a few years so no hope of a warm bath there! The depressing list could be
much longer. One more thing we should mention is
that the building itself was around eighty years old and, presently, unsafe.

When we visited the basement with Father Peter and we
saw the quality of the structure he remarked:”We cannot ignore this problem. These poor people are in
danger.”

So, Lawside Romania Project and Servite Trust with full support of Mr. Harry Mulligan and Father Peter, developed a programme to repair the building and to beautify and furnish every room.

What a transformation in the whole atmosphere. The residents and stAff were so uplifted they couldn't hide their joy. After eight years it is good to visit that home and find the residents still full of gratitude and so happy like the first day when we reopened that repaired house!

Starting from this experience we realised how serious is the problem of elderly people.

Reading the statistics we were terrified to find that there are a few hundred registered elderly people living on the streets of Bucharest and could be more.


When our eyes were opened to see the situation of these unhappy old people, we noted how great are their needs.

It is so sad to see such persons who worked all their lives, begging near the church or supermarket or near the metro station.

The sadness in their eyes tells its own story, a story which cannot have a good ending without help from others. So, we do not hesitate one moment to help an old lady or an old man in trouble whether on the street, at the gate of the Church of Even in a cold room, living in fear of being evacuated.

We have a dream to join our efforts with your efforts and with the enthusiasm of youth from the church to develop
a new programme ”Care for Elderly”.

We do intend to send youth to visit the worst cases of the old people and to bring them some food, some medicines and, maybe most importantly, to have a so necessary chat.

We are sure that this will be a big joy for the visited old people and also an important experience and lesson for the youth. We hope this dream will materialise very soon.

We are encouraged in our activity be seeing that even the local authorities are giving more attention to this particular problem. We are so pleased to hear that, very soon, a new house for elderly people will be opened in Sector
4 and Lawside Romania ProJect, “My Weekly” readers and
Servite Trust have joined hands to help this happen faster.

What greater inspiration can we have than the words of
Jesus himself.

“For I was hungry and you gave me to eat;
I was thirsty and you gave me to drink;
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I needed clothes and you clothed me;
I was sick and you looked after me”

(Matthew 25)