We just got back from a couple of days in another city, doing training for carers at a home for 12 children aged 5 to 12, all of whom have lived on the streets in the past.  The training went really well. The carers were inspired to help build the children's very low self-esteem.

We also got to spend time with the children. They are so hungry for attention and affection. Last evening we had 14 of them (including the house parent's two children) wanting us to give them personal attention all at once. It got a bit chaotic. At times we wished we were 14 people instead of just two. They are always so grateful for anything you do for them, however small.

They have material things as a result of the charity. What is missing for them is often years of lack of loving care.

These children wanted to talk. They asked us why we were taking the photograph and what we were doing. Then they were satisfied. 

I thought after nearly two years living in Romania I understood a little about culture. Yesterday I was going round the corner to the post office when a young girl (about 10 or 11) said the polite greeting to me, the usual one from a child to an adult: 'Saru mana' (literally 'I kiss your hand'). I replied: 'Buna ziua' ('Good day'). Then she wanted to engage me in conversation.

At that point I panicked and quickly hurried off to do my errand. I am so used to the UK culture, where talking to children in such circumstances would be viewed with great suspicion. I reacted with scare to this girl's polite desire for conversation.

Later I talked to a younger Romanian colleague who explained the unwritten rules about talking to children you meet in the street. It is fine as long as the child initiates the conversation. It is of course not OK to start talking to a child or to invite a child to your house without the permission of the parents.

Two other areas I've noticed are different from the West. Children in the UK are taught not to accept edible treats or rides in a car from a stranger. Here, very young children ask for food and money from the cars stopping at railway crossings. Children as young as eight or nine sometimes hitchhike for rides in strangers' cars in the villages rather than having to walk several miles to and from school.

Oh, well, we live and learn.

Roger

Typical Romanian house with ornate metal gates

Today we helped the young disabled boy we visit every Wednesday afternoon. His mother and his grandmother care for him between them. It is much more than a full time job, even though his mother works full time to earn enough to feed the family. He has no education at all and there is nothing in the way of practical support in Romania for children with disabilities.

Today they asked if they could go out to the local market and leave the boy with us. We were delighted. For the first time, we produced poster paints and pieces of wallpaper to do colouring. He absolutely loved his first experience of this kind of paint. You can imagine, just like a tiny child, this big 11-year-old got paint everywhere - all over us, the doorposts, the bathroom, the floor, his own clothes. But he was so proud of his pictures. He showed them to his mother and grandmother when they got back, laughing and waving his hands in the air.

We are so privileged to work with this young boy.