We are all aware of many good causes and will help in any which way we can...sponsored bowling or Race for Life. We would now like to raise the awareness of a charity which many people do not know about. And as the founder of this charity is an Old Chelts Netball Club member, what better time to tell you about it!

Heal Romania is a charity set up by Leanda Morris after spending a year in Romania in 2001. After seeing the squalor that many children and families had to live in...or watching kids from as young as 5 beg on the streets, Lea decided to set up a foundation to help these kids get a better start in life.

The charity has been up and running since 2002 and is funded by people like us. But without donations or fund-raising activities, the charity struggles to continue to help the Romanian children and families; to pay for food, a temporary roof, or staff to give these families love and a new start.

Therefore we need your help! If you would like to give a donation or want to raise some money please speak to Lea. We would also love you to spead the word...the more people you tell about this worthy cause, the more chances we have of raising funds.

Below is just one example of how donations help Heal Romania.

We are all aware of many good causes and will help in any which way we can...sponsored bowling or Race for Life. We would now like to raise the awareness of a charity which many people do not know about. And as the founder of this charity is an Old Chelts Netball Club member, what better time to tell you about it!

In February 2006, Ana Doina (the Heal Romania Social Worker) found three children from the same family begging on the street. They told her that their family had eleven children and their father was too ill to work, so they were starving. The oldest children came to Bucharest to beg for clothes and food for the family. Ana Doina took the three children and went to the family home in a village outside Bucharest. The oldest children had dropped out of school because the family could not afford the bribe that every child in Romania has to pay to their teacher to put them up to the next class. Their house has three rooms with no heat and only cold water from a nearby well.

The Craciun Family

Since finding them, Ana Doina has bought them enough wood to last until May and managed to enrol the children back into school. She has also successfully applied for the family to receive one free meal a day from a government scheme. This month Ana will apply for disability allowance on behalf of the father to give the family some money. We will supply the family with food to supplement what they get from the government and wood to heat the house. The children no longer have to beg and sleep on the streets of Bucharest.

Lea can be contacted on leandamorris@hotmail.com. Or please come and speak to her at training.