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 "How good is the Argentinian Ladies Handball team? It is hard to see how the first day of this trip could have gone any better. Our flight to Budapest was on time, transfer to the small but perfectly formed Moldavian Airways plane to Chisinau was swift and smooth, and the complementary chocolate biscuit on arrival in Moldova was of high quality.
In fact for me the only blemish on an otherwise excellent journey was when I inadvertently spilled water over a member of the Argentinian Ladies Handball team – travelling companions to Budapest – when retrieving a bottle from the overhead locker. Going by her agility in avoiding the torrent, and general equanimity under pressure, I’d say Argentina are a good bet for a podium finish in the Ladies Handball at London 2012.
Having become used to the chill and damp of a British summer, we have been taken aback by the weather here. From stifling heat at Budapest airport, to a balmy al fresco evening meal in Chisinau, the contrast with the UK was marked. We spent the evening with Lilliana and Sergio from Hope and Homes for Children’s local team. We discussed the challenges this energetic and tenacious small charity faces in changing the lives of children here.
There is large scale economic migration from what is the poorest country in Europe. In recent years, up to a million people – a quarter of the population – have left for Russia, Romania and other destinations. In many cases, young children are simply left behind.
Lilliana also described the difficulties in finding foster homes for children from the institutions Hope and Homes for Children is working to close Fostering has only recently been introduced in Moldova, and there is an apparent reluctance among institutional staff to embrace it even though there are financial advantages in doing so.
We are all acutely aware that it is a rare privilege to be able to see at first hand the genuinely life-changing work that Hope and Homes for Children do here. And, by extension, to get a sense of what Zurich Community Trust’s support can mean to real people in real, desperate situations.
By this time tomorrow we will have visited an institution, and met both local officials and some of the reintegrated children Hope and Homes for Children has helped. We will have been challenged, enlightened and moved by the experience." John | 