When my boss Alisdair rang me and asked me to lead the forthcoming May Supporters' Tour to Romania, I was thrilled to once again be going to see our children, staff and projects over there and to be able to introduce sponsors to their sponsor child and the staff who care for them. It also got me thinking about some of the people I have met over the years through the charity. So, let me introduce you to some of them..................
In the town of Cernavoda where our first hospice St Laurence's was built, the townsfolk gave CID a plot in the local cemetery for us to bury our deceased children (of which there were a large number in the early days) so imagine my surprise when, on our very first Supporters' Tour, one of the ladies on the trip startled everyone by running with gay abandon, arms outstretched, down through the children's graves exclaiming that "it was the best part of the tour!"
On another tour one of the supporters was a very elderly lady, well in her eighties, very plainly and soberly dressed, straight hair, in fact a very 'ordinary' lady (no disrespect to the lady in question, just trying to let you imagine her!). Well!! Imagine my surprise when some weeks after the tour a large brown envelope arrived for me and on opening the envelope I found some exquisite bookmarks and paintings done by the same lady using encaustic wax. She had sent me them to sell to raise funds for our children. I was totally blown away, not only by her work, but by the fact that this quiet unassuming lady could produce something so beautiful and full of colour and imagination! Definitely a case of "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover!"
On another tour, our CEO Alisdair found himself sat between two ladies on the minibus who spent the entire two hour journey trying to 'outdo' each other! The two ladies in question were actually childhood friends and one of the ladies was a much loved long term supporter of the charity. This is how some of the conversation went....................."During the war, we could only have one sausage between me and my brothers" - "What? You had SAUSAGES? We didn't have any at all!" "On a Sunday, I had to wear my best coat and shoes to church" - "You had a BEST coat and shoes? I was lucky if I had a coat and shoes of any kind". "It was raining on my wedding day, do you remember?" - "Oh the sun was shining on mine". .........................and so it went on, and on, and on!! Poor Alisdair closed his eyes at one point to pretend he was asleep but oh no, the ladies weren't having that - they elbowed him "awake" to take part in the conversation. Fortunately I was sat in the seat in front of them; I hope they didn't see my shoulders shaking with trying to suppress my laughter!
We have had all kinds of people, from all walks of life, accompany us on our Supporters' Tours but they all, no matter how 'quirky' they are, share one thing in common; a love of our children and, after a trip to meet the children and staff and view our projects, they all end up inspired to do more to help us and start and plan their next visit.
Then of course there are the children.......................Florin who, the minute you sit down anywhere near him, brings his book and proceeds to tell you all about it (in Romanian of course so there is a lot of gesturing); Rafi who is a human whirlwind and 'eats for England' (or should that be Romania?!) - he is a real imp, a lovable rogue who, the last time I visited, started wearing his glasses (complete with eye patch!) on top of his head just because that is where my reading glasses were on me! Then when he had had enough of chasing round, climbed on my knee, carefully folded up his glasses, put them into his shirt pocket and cuddled into me calling me 'Mama'! Maria, Nicoleta and Darius, always smiling, little Andrei so severely disabled with hydrocephalus, yet he also has a big beaming smile when he is spoken to..........................there are so many like them and they all have one thing in common; they all respond to the love they receive from their carers.
In a future post I will introduce you to some of our staff and friends in Romania.
Jane x
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Hearts, chickens and rabbits
Well we're all tidied up from Christmas now, had a breather and what's ahead of us? Valentine's Day with Easter looming up not far behind.
My new craft group and I have optimistically booked our local hall for a Coffee Morning and Craft event on Saturday 12th April with the intention of having a stall filled with Easter goodies. In my role as fundraiser for Children in Distress I am always trying to think up ways of earning "a few bob" for our children so try not to let events like Valentine's Day and Easter pass me by without having some money making scheme or another! Monday afternoons see us around my kitchen table feverishly knitting, crocheting, sewing and decoupaging hearts, knitting chickens (which will be stuffed with Cadbury's Crème Eggs!), checking out patterns for rabbits (just how did rabbits become a part of Easter.................does anyone know?!) and searching the internet for some different Valentine's/Easter ideas. We have also, so far, made some fashionable headbands adorned with hearts, bows and flowers, some baby/toddler's boots (an updated version of bootees) as well as the aforesaid hearts and chickens.
In view of the vast array of goods we are going to make (now there's optimism for you!!) I have purchased a large (very large!) plastic lidded box and as items are finished they are placed in the box - one corner is filled at this moment in time! When we have a decent and varied amount of things made I will treat you all to a preview on here.
We are open to suggestions/ideas of more items we can make.................would love you to comment below!
One more thing before I go and continue with my chicken-knitting, please ignore the time on this blog; it's set to Pacific time not GMT and I can't change it! (Just thought I'd say so that you're not wondering a) why I said Goodnight on my previous post but the time was shown at 3.47 when actually it was 23.47 and b) why I'm supposedly up at 5.41am writing this when its actually after 2pm in the afternoon!)
Jane x
My new craft group and I have optimistically booked our local hall for a Coffee Morning and Craft event on Saturday 12th April with the intention of having a stall filled with Easter goodies. In my role as fundraiser for Children in Distress I am always trying to think up ways of earning "a few bob" for our children so try not to let events like Valentine's Day and Easter pass me by without having some money making scheme or another! Monday afternoons see us around my kitchen table feverishly knitting, crocheting, sewing and decoupaging hearts, knitting chickens (which will be stuffed with Cadbury's Crème Eggs!), checking out patterns for rabbits (just how did rabbits become a part of Easter.................does anyone know?!) and searching the internet for some different Valentine's/Easter ideas. We have also, so far, made some fashionable headbands adorned with hearts, bows and flowers, some baby/toddler's boots (an updated version of bootees) as well as the aforesaid hearts and chickens.
In view of the vast array of goods we are going to make (now there's optimism for you!!) I have purchased a large (very large!) plastic lidded box and as items are finished they are placed in the box - one corner is filled at this moment in time! When we have a decent and varied amount of things made I will treat you all to a preview on here.
We are open to suggestions/ideas of more items we can make.................would love you to comment below!
One more thing before I go and continue with my chicken-knitting, please ignore the time on this blog; it's set to Pacific time not GMT and I can't change it! (Just thought I'd say so that you're not wondering a) why I said Goodnight on my previous post but the time was shown at 3.47 when actually it was 23.47 and b) why I'm supposedly up at 5.41am writing this when its actually after 2pm in the afternoon!)
Jane x
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
New Year's Resolutions
We all usually start the New Year with resolutions to give something up, be it smoking, junk food or other seemingly bad habits so I thought I'd be different and start the New Year 2014 by starting something..............a blog!
I'm new to this so you will have to bear with my ramblings until I find my feet and actually manage to say something that you will enjoy reading..................please!
I should start off by introducing myself; I'm Jane Russell and I'm a Funding Development Manager for Children in Distress. I work for the charity from home (most times a blessing but sometimes not especially when I can't leave my work alone and just have to finish something - if I worked in the main office I would just leave at the end of the day like everyone else!). I love my work; I love taking supporters' tours out to Romania to visit our projects; seeing supporters finally meeting children they have sponsored for a number of years, I love giving talks to various groups, meeting lots of different people stirring up their interest with tales of the children, of what we are achieving in Romania and what we hope to achieve.
On a personal level, I love my family first and foremost - my husband, three kids (plus kids in-law!) and eight grandchildren, secondly I love all types of crafts and carry this over to my work life by running a Handcrafters' Guild for CID. I knit, crochet, sew, decoupage and over the years have tried my hand at all sorts of crafting.
That's enough for a first post - don't want to bore you to death at my first attempt!
Goodnight (noapte buna if you're in Romania)
Jane x
I'm new to this so you will have to bear with my ramblings until I find my feet and actually manage to say something that you will enjoy reading..................please!
I should start off by introducing myself; I'm Jane Russell and I'm a Funding Development Manager for Children in Distress. I work for the charity from home (most times a blessing but sometimes not especially when I can't leave my work alone and just have to finish something - if I worked in the main office I would just leave at the end of the day like everyone else!). I love my work; I love taking supporters' tours out to Romania to visit our projects; seeing supporters finally meeting children they have sponsored for a number of years, I love giving talks to various groups, meeting lots of different people stirring up their interest with tales of the children, of what we are achieving in Romania and what we hope to achieve.
On a personal level, I love my family first and foremost - my husband, three kids (plus kids in-law!) and eight grandchildren, secondly I love all types of crafts and carry this over to my work life by running a Handcrafters' Guild for CID. I knit, crochet, sew, decoupage and over the years have tried my hand at all sorts of crafting.
That's enough for a first post - don't want to bore you to death at my first attempt!
Goodnight (noapte buna if you're in Romania)
Jane x
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