STEPS Romania at AMC
Registered Charity Number: 1092672
Working to help children in Romania
'STEPS Romania' is a small local charity, set up in 2002 by Altrincham and other nearby Methodist Churches to help disadvantaged children in Romania. Each year teams of volunteers spend a week at their own expense working in Romania.
In 1999 we built a playground for children in the big hospital in Constanta.
In 2000 and 2001 we helped convert a derelict building into a
hospice for children dying of AIDS.
In 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 we refurbished a hostel for street children.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008 we helped convert an old boiler house in Sacele near Brasov into a welfare centre for the Roma (gypsy) children. The Roma people live in houses made from scrap materials, with no running water and poor sanitation. The welfare centre is equipped with showers and a laundry, and activity rooms for less formal education to help the Roma children cope with school.
In 2009 and 2010 we built a workshop at the Roma school in Garcin, near Brasov. This is enabling the pupils to be trained in carpentry skills and so give them a better chance of getting a job when they leave school, and the opportunity to escape poverty.
From 2011 STEPS Romania has widened its objectives with teams from Plymouth and Altrincham concentrating on providing Better Homes for Roma families around Brasov and other teams working on new projects elsewhere in Romania where the need is most.
About £75,000 pounds has been raised by members of Altrincham Methodist Church for materials for this work and more than forty people from the Church have at some time spent a week at their own expense working on these projects in Romania.