Members of Hitchin Christian Centre (HCC) have forged a partnership with the villagers of Risipeni to try to provide the basics for life taken for granted throughout the rest of modern Europe.
The church has even financed its first support worker to convert a dilapidated hotel into a modern centre to provide accommodation and care for elderly people, support that they badly lack now.
Sharon Eason has left Hitchin to travel the 1,300 miles to Moldova to oversee conversion of the disused hotel, which is rapidly being turned into a haven for people expected to survive winters with temperatures plummeting to minus 25 degrees Celsius without heat, constant light and still using toilets made from rough outside trenches.
There has been a substantial link between HCC and Moldova for some years. Sharon’s daughter, Samantha, and a member of HCC, met Leo, now her husband, during a gap year teaching in Risipeni 10 years ago. She saw first hand the poverty, pain and human suffering so near yet so far in terms of wealth from the rest of Europe.
Building work on the centre, funded by donations organised by HCC, should be completed by autumn. But HCC says more money – around £10,000 – is desperately needed before the shelter can be completed.
Says Sharon. “Most people haven’t a clue where Moldova is, sandwiched between the Ukraine and Romania in the far eastern part of Europe. So why should they have any idea of the enormous poverty faced by people living there, especially the elderly who are left to fend for themselves? We always think of Europe as rich and modern – but Moldova is a long way from that."
Winters are very harsh in Moldova, she continues, meaning that although the Moldovan government pays a small state pension of around £25 per month, it is mostly used to pay for firewood.
“Most adults move away from the rural areas, such as Risipeni, a tiny village of just 1,000 inhabitants, either to big towns and cities or even overseas to earn decent money, so ageing parents are definitely a much lower priority, left behind with many barely able to look after themselves," she says.
The new centre will also be used as a day centre for the community, hosting activities, clubs and providing support for young people and families struggling on a small weekly wage with only pickled vegetables and salted meats for food during the winter months.
Tony Summerfield, HCC’s senior pastor, adds: “The centre we are planning to create is fairly rundown now and has no running water. There isn’t even a flushing toilet or shower."
