The team leaves on 8 September 2010. We will fly to Cluj Napoca and then go to Rodna - which is about 30 minutes drive from Bistrita. The team will be helping with the building project below, ministering in church meetings and also meeting the children who are joining the Grassroots Child Sponsorship Scheme (£8 per month does so much... go to the "Sponsor a Child" tab for more details)

Here are details of the building project we are going to do. (We have three other house building projects in Romania that Grassroots is raising money for at the moment that need over 10,000Euros from the UK to complete and we'll give you those details on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

Rodna (pictures  – the lady in the middle of the four children is Lidia, who runs the charity)
Family with 4 children, all students. Their father died unexpectedly six months ago. They live in a Grandma's room. They have a nearby field where the father began building a house with two rooms, hall, bath, kitchen and pantry total area of 65 square meters. The house foundation and walls are made. This means the house is planned to be larger than we would normally build. Costs could be reduced by about €800 if we only complete indoor hall, a  room and the kitchen. The family is very happy in this case too.

Estimated costs: €5500 for the complete building. €4700 for the reduced size house – with the complete roof but only the rooms as detailed above. By using the building team we may save up to €1000+, but we will have to see after we finish the project. €1000 will be donated by Christians in Romania which leaves between €3000+ needing to be raised by Grassroots in the UK. If there is money over from funds raised for this project it will be invested in the next one. The Rodna house is much more work than the usual Grassroots funded projects because the size of house (which we can't change because the walls are raised already), but Iacob has arrange with a builder (Ilie) to join with us and take responsibility for part of the work. In this case, it will be possible to finish in 5/6 days.

Tools requested (in addition to those in our Safety document ): "electric machines for wood cutting (chain saw and mitre saw); electric machine for drilling and screws; electric extension cable 25 or 50 m; wall plastering kits".

During last week's trip to Romania Sharon spoke at an event for successful women in Bistrita. A journalist from the newspaper was present and this is the article she wrote.

Sharon and Lidia have put in the miles in Romania today.

"We started by travelling to the Christian TV station to do an interview. I was given 40 minutes to share. Big pressure but what a privilege!

Sharon Anson travelled to Romania this morning. She will be speaking at conferences, in church services and on television. She is being hosted by Lidia Murza (pictured with children that they support) who leads the Benita charity (based in Bistrita), and who is a close friend. Lidia has recently joined the grassroots teams to Tanzania and shared the vision of supporting children in Tanzania with her Romanian friends and been asked to share about this in various Christian meetings. As a result over 10 percent of support that Grassroots passes on to Tanzania comes in from Romanian donors.

We will put updates here to tell what is happening during this trip.

The group that has been supporting BENITA's work in Romania has recently changed its name to "Speranta4Romania". This is the report of their latest trip:

  Three of our group went to Romania for the period 11 to 15 June 2007. During the visit we saw three potential new projects, reviewed five existing projects and had positive meetings with local church to establish a new partnership.

Existing Projects

1 Bistrita – renovation of house for blind man and family

We were very thrilled to receive this photograph showing the core team of Benita (Grassroots' partner organisation in Romania) meeting with a group of local pastors.

The meeting had started with a slide show of the work of BENITA. This was followed by discussions over a meal, with questions and answers. All of the pastors were very encouraged by the work and promised they would lead their churches in prayer for BENITA, and all that the Lord is doing in reaching out with love into the community. Three of the pastors invited Lidia, Iacob and the team to come and present their work in a church service. The Baptist pastor asked if he could join the BENITA team of volunteers. Another pastor said that his church would help with agricultural produce (potatoes, beans and vegetables) for the children's camps.

Report from Romania on Housing Projects

(This is the latest message we have had from our partner charity in Romania - BENITA)

There was a nice time in this autumn and very good for constructions so that the houses are almost all ready. So I can give you a complete report of the work and the money which was spend until now.

So what is the main Grassroots Project in Romania all about?

Very simply we are seeking to assist very poor Romanian families to achieve a better standard of living than was previously possible.