Kinderhilfe Siebenbürgen e.V.

Since 2014, alongside our Eastern Europe relief work, we have supported Kinderhilfe Siebenbürgen e.V. in Sibiu, Romania. There Jenny Rasche has built up children's homes for some 200 Roma children, and provides above all family support in the spirit of "help toward self-reliance".

The project began in 2007 with an after-school programme at the "Pippi Longstocking House" for the children of Sura Mare. By 2017 the premises were no longer adequate and the programme moved to the local school. Since then the house has served as a children's home, taking in foster children. Some children have been able to return to their own families or to be placed with other foster families — in part thanks to Ms Rasche's work in improving their living conditions. Since 2018 the house has served not only as a children's home but once again hosts the well-established after-school programme, this time for the children from the rubbish tip in Altâna.

Over more than ten years she and her colleagues have helped many families (380 are now cared for and supplied with food) move out of squalid dwellings — in some cases little more than rough shacks — into small houses they have built themselves with her practical help and advice, complete with sanitation.

Today around 1,000 children receive help in the form of food, clothing or medical care.