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If anyone has missed this I am going to volunteer as a mental health
worker in Romania in November for six months. The charity I am working
for is a small UK based charity; Volunteers for Mental Health (VfMH).
Until relatively recently, many Romanians struggled to survive
under the Ceacescu dictatorship. Basic services were unavailable and
mental health services in particular were impoverished.
Many of us will remember the plight of children found abandoned
in appalling conditions in state run orphanages – it was well
publicised in the west and huge appeals were rightly made to address
some of the problems. What was less known about in the West and in
Romania itself was the condition in which adults with mental health
problems, learning difficulties, adult orphans and other vulnerable
groups were living.
Living conditions for patients have improved in recent years and
as a new EU nation, top-down pressures from the government and beyond
to improve the internal environment of the hospital are increasingly
supported with EU funding. This is however, a slow process.
In line with the thinking of the developing NGO sector in
Romania, we have identified an urgent and ongoing need to provide
therapeutic activities for the patients as well as simple
opportunities for them to leave the locked wards and enjoy a more
social atmosphere. This goes some way towards breaking down the
physical and emotional barriers that isolate these very vulnerable patients.
Since 1998 VFMH has work in partnership with Tarnaveni Hospital
and Romanian charities to improve the lives of some of the most
vulnerable people in Europe and to raise awareness of mental health
issues amongst the general population in order to ensure that funding
for this traditionally neglected sector is made a high priority.
We rely on donations to keep this work going so in aid of this I
will run, swim, cycle and walk the distance between Bucharest and
Tarnaveni (218 miles/ 351km) between now and 1st November. Please
support me in doing this. Pictures to follow!
*UPDATE*
Some people have had trouble donating so here is a quick guide.
Donating with a card (not through PayPal): click “Give”, enter the amount and click continue, in the next window click continue to PayPal; this will open the PayPal log-in page and you can click “buy as guest” to pay by credit or debit card.
Donating through PayPal: as above but use PayPal log-in.
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