Russia September 2006
In the fall of 2006, a small Red Dot 100X vision team traveled to the regions
around St. Petersburg, Russia, and Trastevere, Romania, on a
fact-finding mission to review several projects advocated by Buckner
Orphan Care International designed to improve the lives of children in
those regions. The projects mostly targeted orphanages in northern
Russia and foster homes in Romania. The team met with local and
regional goverment officials to discuss their needs, tour facilities,
and discuss proposed plans in depth to determine which, if funded by
Red Dot, would best serve the children who suffer in these areas.
There were two projects Red Dot was honored to fund.
One was the installation of a water filtration system in an orphanage
in Efimovsky just north of St. Petersburg that suffered terribly from
the presence of iron ore in their water wells. The water could not be
used for drinking, bathing or cooking due to this condition requiring
hard-to-find funds to be allocated to the purchase of water.
The second was the major renovation of an existing building and staffing for a child development center in Tarnaveni, Romania, which provides early childhood Chrisian education for children of the Roma (commonly known as Gypsies). This former industrial town is home to one of the largest concentrations of Roma in the country who suffer from tremendous poverty, unemployment and crime. Their plight generates many of the orphans that crowd the Romanian system. This child development center provides many poor families in the community with the ability to feed their small children at least one meal a day until they reach school age in addiion to the quality Christian education each Roma child receives.
Although we did not have as much daily interaction with the children as we usually do on most mission trips, the chance to serve these beautiful children and make their lives a little better with what we do here at Red Dot means the world to me. -Roy Clay, Red Dot Romania/Russia trip member
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Team members: Red Dot 100X - Roy Clay, Thomas Faulk, and Tony Beck / Buckner - Randy Daniels and Russ Dilday (Buckner trip leaders)
