Thursday, January 16, 2014

Neighborhood Meal

Starting the New Year 2014 the Gusterita Church hosted a neighborhood meal on the school sports ground.

As it is planned to develop an ecological garden from spring onwards, it was advised to make a first contact with the Roma population in Gusterita. The church grounds are frequently being entered and used in an unpleasant way. To ensure a peaceful co-existence with the Roma community we served a hot one-pot meal.

In spring a project will be started aiming at reducing the drop out rates of school children.

The Sibiu confirmands helped to serve the meals and went for a round of soccer with the local Roma kids.

ARAPAMESU, a local American NGO shared in the organisation of the event. They keep good relations with the Roma community and help more than 40 children with their homework, and humanitarian aid.

Not all families attended the meal - for reasons of embarrassment, we found out. Therefore a team took a huge pot of stew door-to-door. They shared their shocking experience with us.  None of us had known the situation there.