Sister Basil Crean

Romania

Sister Basil returned to Romania after ten years to work once again with orphan children. Sister was accompanied by four other volunteers from New Zealand, two men and three women. She lived in the city of Ramincu Valcea two hours North of Bucharest. Sister Basil worked in number two orphanage which was for children with physical and mental disabilities between the ages of 2 ½ - 16 years.

Sr Basil The orphanage provided separate rooms for the children according to age and ability. Sister saw this as an advance from her first visit in the early 1990’s. The orphanage sponsored by World Vision was clean and bright, the children were well dressed and the food had improved. She lived in an apartment block with the two women and they worked at number one orphanage with babies. The two men lived in a different apartment block but worked in the same orphanage with Sister Basil. There were three orphanages altogether in the city. The work involved Sister interacting with the children from 9am to 1pm. On arriving at the orphanage the children would mob her for notice and after a short time she would take one or two children to give them individual attention. Sister Basil would get the children to play with balls, blow bubbles and to look at books. She also found it important to get the children to interact with each other in these activities. Part of the mornings programme included a child being selected by a staff member for Sister Basil to work with in activities like painting. Sister worked with an autistic child in this way. The volunteers and Romanian staff would take the children to the park. Some of the children’s reaction to the open spaces was fear yet in the main they enjoyed the swings and their picnic. Two children in particular Sister Basil encouraged to talk. By the time she left one of the children was beginning to speak both English and Romanian. Sister Basil spent six months with the children before going on to England to be with her family. While with her family Sister Basil cared for her older sister who had undergone major surgery.