|
 Last month, the
Smiles Update featured Aurica Rostas because of her work with
the Vision Project at the Tileagd Medical Centre. 3 years ago, Maria
Cimpoca (Director of Smiles Romania) wrote “Aurica has never attended
school and can’t read or write”. Now she is able to undertake this
very responsible job as a technician for the Vision Project.
This
is very much part of the Tileagd Miracle!
Aurica’s
responsibilities now don’t just demand
her to be able to read but require her to be able to understand
numbers and not just to count to 100 or add and subtract! She has had
to learn to work with decimals for example. Aurica has had to take a
lot of giant steps to reach where she is today…
and she has managed to do this because she knows God is helping her.
It has always been
one of the Craft Project’s aims to teach women in the Roma
Community to read in their own language as well as in Romanian.
Aurica has worked the hardest but she is
not alone.
She
is also one of the key workers embroidering bags, cushion covers, banners,
book covers and spectacle cases, but again she is not alone.
There are now 18
women working each week and able to earn money for the work they
produce that week. They are mainly working with hemp/linen/cotton -
material grown and woven on hand looms during the Communist period –
organic, traditional and local. Our newest bags however, have been
made on a
handloom with donated wool but using traditional techniques.
The aim of the
Project is to empower this group of Roma women
by providing them with fairly paid work
for their embroidery and handwork in a place where there was only
poverty and unemployment before and to refute the lie “These women can
do nothing.”
It is only a
beginning but it is a beginning and God is blessing the project, the
women and the community in wonderful ways.
 A selection of
the product is available from consignment stock held by our
Development Associates and some Ambassadors for sale at local
fund-raising events. When ever the
Tileagd Children’s
Choir are touring, product is available for sale at all the events.
If you would
like to order items for yourself or would be interested holding a
small supply for sale at your local event, please contact
crafts@thesmilesfoundation.org
or telephone 0113-276-5060.
|
