News Letter 2017

Welcome to the 2017 News Letter from the Charity People-in-Need ( Worldwide ) Danny Thompson and Joseph Walker.

Wednesday 5th April

07-30 Joe Walker arrives at my house with the Land Rover Defender, loaded with donated items from his home town of Rotherham, consisting of unwanted wheelchair’s and walking aids from his local hospice were he is a volunteer.

All the items are unloaded into my garage with the many other items donated from the Parish of Skegby and Teversal the Seventh Day Adventist Church Sutton-in-Ashfield and Leicester consisting of books pencils, toothpaste and paracetamol, hand knitted blankets and from the Complete Freedom Mobility shop, walking aids and an electric scooter, all safely stored we called it a day.

Thursday 6th April

Joe arrives my house then we go to Perry’s Van Hire Chesterfield to collect the van, before proceeding back to Sutton-in-Ashfield to commence loading the many items.

After seven hours the items have been carefully packed into the van, we call it a day.

Friday 7th April

It’s time for last minute shopping and packing our bags ready for the Saturday departure.

Saturday 8th April

I leave home in Skegby at 15-30 hrs to meet Joe at his house in Rotherham then we leave for Killinghome to board the Stena Transit for our overnight crossing to the Hoek van Holland courtesy of Stenaline North Sea.

Sunday 9th April

We arrived Hoek van Holland on time after a very comfortable crossing thanks to the Captain and crew and Jerry Stubs who went the extra mile to make our crossing really special.
We disembark and travel to Woerden Holland to meet our very good friends Nola&Dick Beusekom and collect some top quality clothing donated by the company Nola works for, we get loaded have a nice cup of tea then start our journey to Romania, after a good days traveling we arrived 21-00hrs at Meggenhofen Austria for our overnight stop.

Monday 10th April

Depart Meggenhofen and continue our journey, we cross the Hungarian border purchase the Vigenette ( a road tax ) and continue on our way, we are have almost crossed Hungary when we are stopped for a vehicle and Vigenette check and there seems to be a problem, the officials doing the check say our Vigenette was not in order and we had not payed the correct amount, I’m convinced we had paid the correct amount of €19 but this official made us pay an extra €54, which made me very angry and we will not be happy until we’ve looked into this payment by some official source, I’m still thinking something underhanded as been done, but they would not listen to our point of view so I paid the money and we continued on our way, arriving in the Town of Deva Romania 20-45hrs, time for a couple of beers then bed.

Tuesday 11th April

We leave for our first stop in Romania at the town of Victoria Nr Fagaras, it was a for a sad meeting because the retired director of the Special needs School who was a very good friend had sadly died with three of her family in an horrific road accident just five miles from home, and we left for the family a solar powered lantern with the ladies picture inside in her memory, after making arrangements to meet with the new director and colleagues at a later date in Brasov to purchase items for their School, it’s 12-30hrs we say farewell to continue another six hour drive to the City of Bacua in the part of Romania known as Moldova, not to be mistaken for the Republica Moldova, our plan is to deliver extra equipment to the Special-needs-School in Bacua, it’s late and we have to deliver next day, we find a hotel for the night.

Wednesday 12th April

We leave the hotel go to The Special-needs-School in Bacua which is now open and we installed a new LED light and a set of tumble mats, time is moving on and much to the amazement of the director, we have to leave the City of Bacua on a another long drive to the City of Barlad which is we’re we installed sensory lights at the third of our Special-needs-School projects, we arrived late and Mirela the director of the placement centre had arranged accommodation for us.

Thursday 13th April

After a very tasty breakfast We go to the sensory room to replace the solar light that we took back to UK last year it had malfunctioned we then checked the rest of the lights and everything was working perfectly, then towards lunch time we had to visit a young man who was having treatment for a cancer and People-in-Need had made a donation towards his treatment, and it was good news his scan was showing that there was no further sign of the tumour spreading.

Friday 14th April

After breakfast we said goodbye to everyone at the placement centre Barlad then it’s of on a one and a half hour journey to Vaslui, and there we meet past president Vasile Popa from the Vaslui Rotary Club, Who took us to the town of Vulcani to visit a hospital for the mentally handicapped, here we gave toothpaste and brushes walking aides and the electric scooter. After a lunch in a nearby restaurant we made our way to the Laza district of Vaslui and the village of Munastirea to meet our old friend Stefan.

Saturday 15th April

We have a rest day at the home of Stefan and his family, enjoying some reminiscing and a few beers.

Sunday 16th April

09-30 after breakfast we said farewell and started another 6 hour drive to the Danube Delta crossing the river by ferry at Braila to visit the Tichilesti Leprosy
Hospital, here we left wheelchairs and walking frames, disposable gloves and aprons,
Dressings, Paracetamols, soap and toothpaste and brushes, it’s getting late and we have to leave the hospital and make our way back to the ferry, with it being Easter Sunday they could possibly stop running early evening, our day ended halfway between the city’s of Bazu and Ploiesti.

Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th April

We arrive in the Ploesti region and distribute walking frames, woollen blankets, clothing, the last of the paracetamol toothpaste and brushes, in the villages of Podenii Noi, Matita and Baltesti, it’s been a bad day weather wise and we call it a day.

Wednesday 19th April

Mid morning we arrived at the town of Ghimbav to visit the Samariteanul Milos Children’s home, upon our arrival we were soon helping with the laying of concrete to make a new floor in the cellar, we finished about 16-45hrs went to our new accommodation took a shower and ventured out for a few beers.

Thursday 20th April

After breakfast we continue helping with the laying of concrete finishing at lunch time, we then went to Brasov to take a Nebuliser for a young lady with Need, afterwards we made a short journey to the next town of Codlea, to fit a new set of batteries on a young ladies electric scooter, having completed the job we are invited to stay for the evening meal of lamb pork and vegetables, followed by some amazing home made cakes, after a nice meal and chat we returned to Ghimbav.

Friday 21st April

The weather as taken another turn for the worst, at least two feet of snow as fallen and it’s still coming down, we have an appointment with the national TV company DIGI 24 HD who have been told of the work done by People-in-Need workers Danny Thompson and Joseph Walker and they sent a camera crew to the Samaritenul Milos Children’s home in Ghimbav to interview both Danny and Joe and Maja Scheytt ( President ) of the foundation, and also her director and some of the older Children, this Took most of the morning then our afternoon was spent visiting a shoe factory in Codlea.

Saturday 22nd April

The time as come give our annual donation to the director and colleagues from the special needs school in Victoria and and we go with them into Brasov to purchase stationary equipment and paints for their school, it’s mid afternoon before the final purchase is made, so we decided to call it a day.

Sunday 23rd April

Rest Day

Monday 24th April

A few jobs get cleaned up we finish concreting and help with new safety fence at Samaritenul Milos now the snow as started to thaw, but the snow clouds are forming again many of the locals can’t remember it being this bad in April, so we decided to do our last minute shopping pack most of our bags, then tidy the van ready to start our journey home.

Tuesday 25th April

We have a break in the weather and have decided to leave this morning, the journey goes better than expected and we are able to travel to Tatabanya Hungary.

Wednesday 26th April

Having made good progress yesterday, and having got through the Hungarian and Austrian borders with no hold ups we knew that it would be possible to make Germany this day, we did have one serious hold up of one and a half hours without moving on the autobahn, we called it a day 2hrs from Frankfurt.

Thursday 27th April

We leave our hotel and make our way to Holland and were welcomed by our friends Nola&Dick Beusekom in the town of Woerden.

Friday 28th April

After good nights sleep we have breakfast, then take the van into town for a good wash we can now finally relax and enjoy the hospitality of our friends.

Saturday 29th April

Time for some shopping in Woerden then after lunch we say goodbye to Nola&Dick and head for the Hoek van Holland, sadly this time we are not able to meet Ms Eichhorn our dear friend who makes our travel arrangements with Stenaline North Sea, to Hume we send our sincere thanks for all their help and support with our outbound and return crossing From Killinghome to the Hoek van Holland.

Sunday 30th April

After a brilliant overnight crossing from the Hoek van Holland we arrive in Killinghome Lincolnshire, and after a reasonably short drive home the van is emptied of our personal items and returned to the hire company, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading this years insight into our charity work in Romania, and on behalf of the Registered Charity 1104645 People-in-Need ( Worldwide) we send our sincere thanks to all our friends and supporters without Whom our work would not be possible.

Best Regards,
Danny Thompson and Joseph Walker