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“ANDREI!” I call his name and I stare at him and smile. He knows how happy I am to see him.

Andrei: “Present!” We’ve been practicing for days and he knows what to say.

Then I call “FLORI!” And I look at Flori who is fixing her dress of excitement and joy.

Andrei helps her: “Flori, say ‘present’!” And Flori shouts, “Flori,” not knowing exactly what the other word means.

And one by one I call out one by one: “MĂDĂLINA! ELENA! DANI! MIRUNA! ANASTASIA! BOGDAN! IONUT! ROMINA! ….”

This is the first of three groups of children enrolled at the school outside. Each group consists of ten children. We know them by name and we notice when one is missing and immediately ask about them.

When a child is missing, the saddest answer is: “He’s in Brasov!” That actually means he’s begging in town and won’t be back until later in the evening. He’ll have to make some money before he can get home.

And I know he didn’t want to go, because the outside school is so much fun and we serve snacks. But, he had no choice…

With a sad heart that one is missing, we begin the activity. We wash our hands with soap. We throw the napkin in the trash after wiping our hands and then we sit down at the table. We wait for the lesson because we have so much to learn before school starts in the fall and we have to be ready.

At school outside we learn to come on time, sit in our chairs, pay attention, take turns talking, hold a pencil. We learn about colours and how to draw. We learn which is our right hand and which is our  left hand, or ‘the other right’.

Outside School is a program for children who have never at on a chair at a table and never held a pencil in their hand. It is a support program designed to prepare children for school in the classroom.

We found Grandpa Vasile reading from the Bible by a stove where no wood was burning. Mutulica rushed to show me that there was no firewood in the padlocked shed.

I then learned that the old man had worked all his life without a contract, and now, at 72, he has no pension and no other income.

So, we created a pension for him. Because we value Grandpa Vasile’s dignity, that’s what we’ll call this monthly allowance that we want to give him for the rest of his life.

In December 2020, we brought his first pension. With joy and frozen hands, we handed him a pen. He, teary-eyed, searched for the place where he had to sign. I also asked him for his ID, just like the officials do, and then handed him the envelope with his first “pension”.

It’s hard to build when you first have to fill a hole so deep, dug by deprivation, ignorance and despair. This is what we are doing now. We try to bring them up to the level of dignity and then build with them.

“An ingenious solution”, the Brasov newspapers called our Bread Voucher programme. We created some vouchers and signed a contract with a local bakery. With these vouchers, which we give out to our children and elders, people can go and buy a loaf of bread, and then, once a month, we collect these vouchers and pay for them. We have given out around 3000 bread vouchers so far in FIser and Rupea.

In the autumn we enjoyed the harvest in the garden. Grandma Mihaela opened her doors to all the children in the neighborhood. We prepared food outside in the yard on the wood stove, potatoes and “big cucumber”, which is also known as zucchini. The children entered the yard and they stood in line as Grandma Mihaela put a plate in their hands. “Here, have something to eat.” Their eyes sparkled with joy and with a smile they walked carefully so that they didn’t drop their food and sat down on the floor and found a place next to the other children. That’s how the children in Africa used to sit.

Grandma Mihaela knew them all by name. “Come and join us! I think this child hasn’t eaten since yesterday,” she assured me that the most hungry children in the village were there with us.