NEWS ARCHIVE
(current news items are available by clicking
here)
Old stories from the site:
Camp
Romania 2003
“Once
again a well worthwhile trip. The kindness and love towards
the children was overwhelming, they can’t wait for the
next holiday.”
Bill Hampson Director of
Camp Romania.
“A Fantastic experience, a real eye
opener and I can’t wait to go back.”
Alison Picton describing her first
time on the trip.
“I enjoyed being part of the team
and taking the children away was a lot of fun! I also made some
really good friends in the orphanage.”
Amy Jones talking about her third
trip.
“Thank you for everything!”
Ion Vlasici - Director of the Lugoj
Orphanage/Special School
These are just some of the comments from Camp Romania 2003.
As with previous trips a group mainly from the north-west of
England ventured out to Romania with the intentions of taking
orphaned children on a holiday. The Epiphany Trust has long
lasting relationships with the orphanage/ special school in
Lugoj and with the mountain resort of Sinaia, the two destinations
of the trip.
Earlier in the year Carol Jones, a dedicated campaigner for
Epiphany’s Romania Appeals, died of cancer at the age of
56. Carol’s family thought it a fitting tribute to donate
money raised in her memory to a cause that was so close to her
heart. Carol’s daughter, Amy, 17, joined the group for
her third Camp Romania.
This was the first year in which we were able to take two groups
of children away so giving opportunity for more of the disadvantaged
and disabled children to enjoy a wonderful holiday. Memories
that will stay with the children include being on local television,
water fights, visiting their nation’s capital, Bucharest
and shopping for toys.
Thinking of a particular memory that puts the “icing on
the cake” is tough. Just take it there’s a whole lot
of icing on this cake!
^^top
Update From the Burmese Border, 2004
Sarah Burley has recently returned from the refugee camps around
Mae Sot in Thailand. Click
here for her report.
^^top
Half-way house update (June 2004)
Next December marks the 15th anniversary of the Romanian
revolution.
In
the years since the fall of Ceaucescu a great deal of coverage
has been given to the plight of the orphans of the Communist
regime. These children have now grown up but their life has
not got any easier.
After a childhood of being institutionalised, a lot of the
orphans are now finding that keeping a job in the outside world
is tough. Sadly, some will end up on the streets and others
will end up in adult institutions.
Epiphany hopes to help bridge the gap between institution and
the working world with the setting up of their half-way house,
'The Arc'.
The house, in the mountain town of Sinaia, will be completed
by December and, as previously reported in Epiphany News, will
accommodate up to nine children and support them as they make
the step from state care to living without it.
Throughout May one of the Trust's employees, Gareth Hill, a
qualified joiner, worked on the construction of the house and
is delighted with the current rate of progress.
Gareth said: "It is coming on in leaps and bounds. The
house is now watertight with all three floors having windows
fixed and floorboards laid. It's now starting to look like a
house rather than a building site!"
Gareth's dad Bob has also been involved in the project, spending
10 days on the site.
^^top
Cycle or Ramble
the Carpathians
Why not cycle or walk with us in the beautiful Carpathian mountains
this summer and raise money for Epiphany Trust's Child Action
International projects?
Cycle, at your own pace, or join in a walking holiday to remember
and enjoy some of the most breathtaking scenery in Eastern Europe.
From
our base in Sinaia, where you will stay in a very comfortable
hotel, both holidays will be led by experienced guides with
extensive knowledge of the mountains.
At the same time sponsorship money raised will go to our projects
in Romania, some you will have the opportunity to see. We particularly
want to support our new 'half-way house' which will be the home
of young people in transition period between spending their
childhood in an orphanage and living in the community.
For further information call Bill Hampson on 01942 671581,
email bill@epiphany.org.uk
or drop us a line at the address below.
^^top
2003:
Ambulance for Romania
In the year 2000, with lots of valuable help from voluntary
groups around the area, the Epiphany Romania Appeal, in partnership
wih Lowton Churches, was able to send a much needed emergency
ambulance to Romania. Three years later the ambulance is invaluable
to Sinaia and other hospitals throughout the Prahova valley.
What has made the ambulance extra special for everyone in Lowton,
was that it was donated in memory of James Dickinson, who was
just nineteen when he died in 1999. James visited Romania over
a dozen times during the 90’s, working with special needs
children in Lugoj and enjoying skiing in the magnificent Carpathian
mountains around Sinaia.
James’s
ambulance is the only emergency ambulance based in that area,
which serves a widely spread resident population of 30,000,
who live each side of a 25 kilometre stretch of the Prahova
valley, a population which is supplemented annually by over
350,000 skiers, climbers and other visitors.
Now the Epiphany Trust, again together with Lowton Churches,
are wishing to obtain another ambulance. Between now and the
end of September £4000 is needed purchase it and drive
it to Romania. Once in Sinaia the Ambulance will be fitted with
a whole range of emergency items including respiratory systems
and cutting equipment.
This new ambulance will be donated in memory of Carol Jones,
who was a lifelong member of Lowton Independence Methodist Church
who died in January last. She was a tireless campaigner for
the orphaned children of Lugoj and support for many "Camp
Romania" groups, when young people from the UK travel to
Romania in the summer and take the children from the orphanages
away on holiday.
If you'd like to donate money towards this appeal, please contact
Gareth Hill on 01942 671581 or write to Romania Appeal at the
address below.
^^top
2002:
Hospice Opens in Brasov
This summer saw the opening of
hospice Casa Spirantei (Romanian for Home of Hope) in the city
of Brasov, Romania.With the British Ambassador and visitors
from the UK, USA, Canada, Holland and Sweden in attendance,
the hospice was opened by Dr Mary Baines OBE (who is now the
longest serving hospice doctor in the world). The children's
wing was opened by Emily Firmin creator of the famous children's
television cat "Bagpuss" after whom the wing is named.
Casa Spirantei is Romania's first hospice charity caring for
patients of all ages with cancer and other progressive illnesses
and has been developed in partnership with the UK based, Ellenor
Foundation.Although some of the funds now come from within Romania,
the project depends for its continuation and development on
the generosity of individuals, groups and charitable bodies
who have concern for the people of Romania. We plan to continue
our small but hopefully significant support.
^^top
Camp
Romania 2002
Twenty
seven people, mostly teenagers, returned in late August from
an annual summer trip to Romania, well beating the number of
eighteen in 2001. Organised by Epiphany Trust the group spent
a week looking after and arranging activity programmesfor children
at the orphanage in Lugoj. A week later they took sixteen disabled
children 
on
the first holiday of their lives, to Sinaia, a resort in the
Carpathian mountains, and a town with a special ten year relationship
with our work.
The children had a wonderful holiday of first-time experiences,
riding on a train, visiting a castle, taking a cable-car ride
to the top of a mountain, and ordering their own food from a
restaurant menu. It was a great learning experience too for
everyone from England, who had travelled by coach accross Europe,
and who were continuing an annual programme started in the year
following the Romanian revolution.
Everyone
raised funds to cover both the cost of their own trip and all
the expenses of the Romanian group.
Already plans are being made for a number of trips in 2003
with, hopefully, even more people joining the group. If you
would like to be involved, drop the Trust office a line or email
bill@epiphany.org.uk
for all the details.
^^top
Obituary: Michael
Fogarty
Professor Michael Fogarty was the much-loved and respected
"grand old man" of Christian democracy in Britain. After Ampleforth
and Oxford - where he gained firsts in Classics and 
then
in Politics, Philosophy and Economics - he served with the Royal
Artillery until being invalided out of the army in 1940 after
Dunkirk. A career of academic research and teaching, coupled
with political activism, followed.
His early involvement with the Catholic Social Guild and what
is now Plater College, Oxford, led to extensive contact with
a wide range of continental Christian Democrat and Catholic
social organisations. He was the first in Britain to undertake
the serious study of a political philosophy, then hardly known,
much less represented here. In 1957 his classic, Chrirtan
Democracy in Western Europe 1820-1953, appeared and is still
the definitive work. Phoenix or Cheshire Cat and Motorways
Merge, appeared in 1995 and 1999 respectively.
But outstanding academic though he was, Michael was also an
activist from the first. He was a delegate to the Nouvelles
Equipes Internationales, the early forerunner of today's transnational
European People's Party to which he belonged.
Other aspects of his long and full life can be found in his
autobiography My Life and Ours (1999). Michael was a
good friend and supporter of the Epiphany Tryst and whilst
his formal Movement for
Christian Democracy (MCD) position of honorary President
suggests a token role, he was in fact a hands-on activist at
an age when others sit back. He generously made time, expertise
and money available to support a wide range of activities, including
the Christian Democrat element of Sarum College's distance learning
course. The weekend before his death he had attended a strategy
meeting at some distance form his home.
Michael was delighted to see the development of the Christian
People's Alliance and was ever the realist. He wrote: "When
the saints come marching in, the road is always paved with the
bones of their predecessors. Too bad for the predecessors, but
at least, like the often lonely pioneers of continental Christian
democracy, we can make the foundations our legacy."
Article by Michael Elmer
^^top
The Chicago Marathon
On the 22nd October 2001, four runners representing Child Action
International took part in the La
Salle Bank Chicago Marathon.
The 26.2 mile course snaking through the windy city was completed
by Sue Rivers, a teacher from the Wigan area, and her sister
Helen who is completing a PhD at Liverpool
University. Their times were 4:09 and 4:31 respectively.
The sisters were joined by Londoners Jim Williams (running in
his 28th marathon) who clocked a time of 4:07, and printer Ken
King who finished in 4 hours 57.
The quartet raised a magnificent £5000 for the projects
of Child
Action International in Romania,
Burma and Kosovo.
If you are interested in running the 2004 Marathons in either
Chicago, London or even Timisoara in Romania to raise funds
for the Trust please contact us.
^^top
Wigan
Metropolitan Development Company is seeking Eurocash to
back up its programme of help being offered to the Romanian
township of Sinaia. The programme involves advising Sinaia's
authorities how best to divide up a large factory in the town
into small managed work spaces, and supporting that with practical
advice on how to start up businesses successfully. Alan Evans,
a Wigan Enterprise Centre Manager, advises local business people
in Sinaia on how to identify their markets, understand the basic
skills of running a business, adage their cash flows, and thus
create local jobs.
 |
The
initiative has come about because of links already created
between the Trust's Lowton Churches group programme at
Lugoj and other orphanages in Romania. The mayor of Sinaia
and local industrialists have visited Wigan and are anxious
to pursue practical initiatives between the two towns.
Development Company secretary, Adman Hardy; "The
Romanians need all the business help and advice they can
get to regenerate their very shaky economy, create jobs
and even save lives." |
"The development
Company's whole ethos is about job creation and we believe that
this will be money well spent, especially if it can attract
further help from Europe. The sum we have put in is very small
compared to our company surplus as a whole, but we believe that
it will prime the pump and help to get things moving over there.
We are of course at the same time making good friends in Romania
and also creating markets and opportunities there for Wigan
businesses."
Wigan Metropolitan Development Company
is an independent body set up in 1981 with the help of Wigan
Council to further economic regeneration by means of loans and
grants to companies. It generates its funds by developing land
for industrial purposes.
A further delegation from Sinaia will
visit Wigan in November 2001. Whilst the business links will
continue a number of educationalists will be in the party to
further develop links with Wigan Borough schools.
^^top
