A team of kind-hearted volunteers from a community shop in Leatherhead flew out to Transylvania last week to hold a collective birthday party for a remote village in Romania still recovering from a tragic car crash last year.
Shop workers and volunteers from B@titude in Kingston Road, Leatherhead, have been visiting the village of Csekefalva for three years in annual attempts to help the tiny village’s impoverished residents.
B@titude volunteer Christine Harmer with a child from Csekefalva, Romania
During the team’s most recent trip between Tuesday, May 10, and Sunday, May 15, they worked with the villagers and held a birthday party for about 30 of Csekefalva’s residents.
Jenny Moore, manager at B@titude, who led the expedition, said they held a collective ‘birthday’ party because there was “no capacity” for the villagers to celebrate birthdays normally.
Children in Csekefalva play with their new toys
Her group gave new footballs to the boys and colouring books to the girls on a day filled with arts and crafts, music, dancing and a big barbecue.
Ms Moore said: “Life is really tough (for them). There were a lot of tears (in the morning before the party).
“To think that someone from another country could come and walk up this hill was just unbelievable to them.
“They welcomed us. The children came running down the hill and threw open their arms.”
Children in Csekefalva, Romania
Shortly after the trip last year, seven people from the village – including two pregnant women and a three-year-old girl – died in a car crash on the way back from Hungary where they were looking for work.
Ms Moore said: “That devastation and loss in the village was enormous. They are still recovering from that.”
The team co-ordinates efforts with Transylvanian charity Heart for Romania, to bring supplies the villagers need most.
This year they took over essential items such as first aid kits, underwear, toothbrushes, cutlery and blankets.
Ms Moore said: “Last year we took gardening supplies – secateurs, spades, and forks. This year they showed us their gardens.
“That was wonderful.”
A young girl in Csekefalva, Romania
The B@titude team also picked up medical prescriptions for the villagers. Ms Moore said one girl has an “horrendous harelip” and a young boy is going blind, but the village’s isolation makes accessing medical help difficult.
She explained: “People need operations and they can’t get them.
“One of the most basic things we can do is gather medical prescriptions and basic medical supplies for them.”
She said: “(Helping the residents of Csekefalva) is heart-breaking. It is challenging. It is joyful. And it is a complete privilege.”
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