For Diane, it was Emma. For Elizabeth, it was Leaceline. For Tamera, Andrea. Each volunteer had a dear one by the time her two weeks were up.
Emma, Leaceline and Andrea were children living in an orphanage in Tutova, Romania, one of the poorest areas of Eastern Europe. Diane, Elizabeth and Tamera were among a group who spent two weeks caring for the children through Global Volunteers.
Called Failure to Thrive after the medical condition, the orphanage and clinic serve children who are underweight or disabled at birth because poverty prevented their mothers from getting adequate nutrition. Many children were sent to the clinic by a governmental child protection agency. Others were dropped off by their parents, particularly the migratory Roma, who knew they couldn’t provide sufficiently for their kids.
As the women described it, the poverty was vivid in the community and difficult to witness. Tamera remembers Roma children running along the road, covered in dust and dirt, stuffing handfuls of something bright red into their pockets. The red pieces spilled out of their pockets to the ground but the children kept running. They were sugar packets. The kids had stolen them from tables at an outdoor restaurant. They weren’t getting enough nutrients at home, and this was the best they could find.The Failure to Thrive clinic presently houses 41 children under the age of four. Needless to say, the staff has their hands full running the clinic and providing for the children’s basic needs. Volunteers at the clinic provide the vital support role of giving individual or small-group nurturing and attention. “I think about how even adults like to be held,” said Diane. “It’s a pretty basic need, and if we’re not here to do it, they don’t get held.”
