Thank you very much for your support of Nightingales Children’s Project in 2019, without people such as yourselves we are unable to offer the opportunities to the young people in our care.

We have had a year with many highlights and some low points:

The young men from the football team, on the pitch have not had the results they would have wished for but we now have a large percentage of them in full-time education and employment. This means these young men are working hard to becoming positive members of Cernavoda and Constanta. Twelve of them had the opportunity to go to Scotland to participate in a course run by Street Soccer for 12 days. It was an experience they will never forget, and a fantastic time for us to invest in them as people. 

The young people with learning disabilities have had their bathroom and kitchen renovated thanks to a huge team effort of a number of volunteers putting in some amazing work there, and thanks also to the generosity of Stand International and Dauntsey’s School. These young adults continue to enjoy working at the charity, spending time hanging out with the young people that come to the day centre, whilst being the most amazing team of cleaners.

The girls in the mentoring scheme have enjoyed a good year, they have worked hard. One of the girls has graduated High School and is in full time employment, all of the girls passed their year at school. One of the original six girls from the scheme had a baby and got married. The social enterprise the girls run has expanded from candles to greeting cards to Christmas tree decorations. This has helped them earn money and learn new skills.

The coffee shop continues to be a great source of employment for the girls in the mentoring scheme, at present 5 girls are employed there. They are learning useful skills of how to excel in the workplace that will help when they gain full-time employment once they finish school. It continues to offer a great service to the local community, a holiday camp in the summer run by Dauntsey’s School for over 150 people from Cernavoda, each Friday an arts and crafts session provides fun activities for the local community and through a partnership with a local school we sponsor 3 places each week for those who have done well at school that week. In November we opened a children’s library, a space where families and schools can come and help get children and young people enthusiastic about reading. Whilst still being the number one place for parents to spend time actively playing with their children and celebrating their children’s birthdays.

In the last month we have also started supporting a local initiative that has seen people donate goods, clothes and toys which are still in good condition so that they can be sorted and shared amongst the poorest members of society in Cernavoda and in the surrounding villages. It has been great to see the response from the town, and also how people have been interested in volunteering and supporting those who need help. We hope in 2020 that we are able to work together with the people involved that the help and support becomes effective long-term and reaches the people that need it the most. 

These are just a few highlights of the year, there has been so much more going on. If you are interested you can follow us on social media and stay more up to date with the work that we are doing, Instagram @nightingales_romania and Twitter @NightingalesRom.