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October 2023 visit to Moldova

Rob, Jo and Martin flew out to Moldova on 4 Oct. and headed up to Cobani for a week.  In the 4½ years since we last went, they have seen massive challenges, particularly the pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine.  Things have settled now somewhat, and at least for the time being the country has a government that is ensuring most of the foreign support coming in is being used to improve roads and infrastructure as intended.

Neemia’s core activities, such as the children’s after school club and meal deliveries for those elderly people in need were up and running, as well as many other activities.  We were able to meet with the team of young volunteers, including this year’s new intake.  They are a key part of delivering Neemia’s programmes and projects, and they receive training, personal and spiritual development.  With money we’d provided we bought food staples to be put into packages which we delivered to families with the young people, as well as adult ‘nappies’ that we also helped deliver during our visit.

Our visit was really useful in re-establishing more meaningful contact, and was a real encouragement to Victor, Lili and all those involved.  They’re the ones on the ground who’ve made significant sacrifices and commitments to do this work, and it is very humbling for us to be able to support them making a big difference in difficult places even in a small way. 

As well as the obvious social projects, Victor & Lili are key players in the local community, inspiring and facilitating others to start stepping up to do things for themselves as well.  One example is where Victor has helped secure funding for local play areas for young people.  Members of the community have come together to work on preparation, motivated by having somewhere their children can go for positive activities rather than lose them to something bad.

A useful time back in Cobani and we'll look forward to 2024.

We then had a few days before flying home to visit Chişinău and to catch up with Nicu & Lili in Ialoveni.  Their work in the town and surrounding villages continues, and recently we sent some funds to help them support a struggling family of 5 who were living in a single room of 4m2 (that’s not a typo: four) to enlarge their property.  This is typical of what they do to help families, especially children, living in difficult circumstances.  While some things in Moldova are improving, the social inequality gap is also rising so there remains much to be done.

Another area they have put a lot of effort into over the years is supporting and training teachers in the provincial and village schools, which are often poorly resourced and staff morale can be rock bottom.  We’ve been part of this over many and were encouraged to hear about one teacher who was involved in some of the Summer camps we did together, and we went into her class several times, just to do some craft, games and basic English teaching.  After a couple of years off for maternity leave, she is now her school’s principal, and has been a key part of implementing Agape’s training programmes at other schools.  These have done a lot to raise standards and morale, as well as providing much needed equipment.  Nicu rather graciously said that our little part in encouraging and inspiring her and other teachers had really helped contribute to this – you just never know!

It was great to be out in Moldova again, and it is such a privilege for us to be able to partner with such amazing people in different ways.