It started out as a feeling… « Viaţă, Speranţă, şi România.
Please read the above post by Aislynn – it really does a good job explaining the why of her decision to go to Romania!
Proximity Partners is pleased to support Aislynn Beckstrand in her Proximity efforts this fall. Below is a note from her:
Dear Friends-
I am traveling to Iasi (pronounced “Yosh”), Romania in the fall. The group I am going with is part of Brigham Young University’s Romanian International Internships. This is not a typical study abroad where students are expected to take regular college classes with the advantage of soaking up cultural perks. The Romanian Internship does allow us to enjoy cultural immersion but our focus is entirely dedicated to the children we will be working with. We are not college student tourists but rather individuals offering our time and love to those in need.
I will be working in a placement center for children with disabilities. A placement center is similar to an orphanage because many of the children are without parents. But some of the children have families that are unable to care for them because of their disability. There are about sixty children in this orphanage, ages ranging from less than one year to eighteen. Most of the children have major disabilities including cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, deafness, blindness, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. My job as an intern is to play with them and help them reach their fullest potential. Play is essential for children as it helps with social development, fine and gross motor development, language development, and emotional development Basically, I am there to give them love. Although this might sound simple, our bodies are wired to be loved- if babies and children do not receive caring attention, they will begin to develop extreme mental and physical disabilities that will hinder their relationships and abilities to function later in life.
After volunteering at the orphanage in the morning, I will work in a children’s hospital (spitalul de copii) in the afternoon. In Romania, the family of the child in the hospital provides food, medicine, clothing, and diapers. The medical staff does not provide these essentials. They often administer medication as well. For parentless children, these everyday essentials are not always readily available or non-existent. The hospital often runs out of diapers for these patients. Some babies have been found unchanged for over two days. One of my friends who went last semester found a small baby laying in her own waste. The nurses, doing the best they could with what they had, put a Maxi-pad inside of a plastic grocery sack and tied it around the baby girl. Diapers are not something that should be considered a luxury in the life of an innocent child.
I am writing this to ask for your help! As part of my duties as an intern, I will buy diapers and take them to the hospital and change, feed, and love the babies. The money for the diapers will come out of my own pocket, as the hospital does not have a ready supply on hand and has few other means by which to obtain diapers. I am asking for donations to buy and stock up on diapers for these lovely children. A week of diapers cost about 55 lei, which is around $20 U.S. dollars. Even a little donation will go a long way!
I would like to make it clear that I am not asking for money to fund my own expenses. I have all my expenses paid for through scholarships and grants. 100% of the money that you donate will go towards buying diapers for the babies.
These children that I will be working with have so little. If a clean diaper is the first step to making them comfortable, then let us give them at least that.
You can make donations by visiting http://www.proximitypartners.org/ You will see this post, and scroll down until you see the donate button. I am also working on putting together bake sales and yard sales later this summer to also raise money.
Thank you so much for your help in this endeavor! I am so excited to go and serve these children. I am sure this will be a wonderful life changing experience, and I am REALLY looking forward to it : )
If you would like more information about the internship and BYU, please visit these links:
La revedere!
Aislynn
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Once again, thank you so much for helping to support Proximity.
This is what I will be doing in the fall! The view of the apartments at the minute mark in the video is where I will be living. Cool, eh? I think the coolest part about this video is the quote:
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
— Leo Buscaglia