Giving Blessings Forward

When school starts in the fall, children and parents have to choose backpacks and school supplies, but some children do not have the privilege of choosing their favorite backpack. However this year, thirty children from Ion Luca Caragiale experienced the joy of getting a new backpack through the generosity and loving gesture of a mother.
"I have been greatly blessed by God and I want to pass this blessing on," says Sister Nicoleta Stroe. "The village where I was born bears the name of the great Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale and it is a beautiful village with nice people. On one side of the village, some people live who are very special because of their ethnicity. Most of these people do not have a steady job and their work changes from season to season. In spring and summer, they gather linden blossoms, St. John's wort, and nettles and go to the markets to sell them. In autumn they gather mushrooms and geese from the forest and sell them, and in winter they crack walnuts in their houses and sell the kernels. The men also work as day laborers. The children marry very early, around 14-15 years old, and have children of their own.
I am one of them. I am a child raised in this area and I remember from my childhood, how I was at the market, around the age of 9, selling lime and St. John's wort with my mother.
I got involved and tried to help these children learn to read, go to school, and have a better future. I worked with them for seven years. Since the pandemic, I have stopped, but my thoughts always turn to them and I pray to God to watch over them!
I can't imagine life without school, without education, that's why I want to motivate my children to learn. This will help them to face life with all that it will bring. I believe that God can help us, lift us up, so that the area on the outskirts of the village will be blessed with a different kind of life."
Sister Nicoleta is a seamstress by profession and runs a tailoring workshop, but her desire to continue her studies remains strong. By God's grace, she passed her baccalaureate this summer and is now a first-year Management student.
Liliana Radu, director of the Women's Ministries Department, Romanian Union