Eyewitness: Stranded for three weeks, with no power, food or water...
ROMANIA- Anca Bejenaru, Communications Manager with World Vision Romania recounts her visit to a remote village in the mountains of Buzau County in Romania, which has been hit by the worst winter in six decades. One father told me, “We have no power, we have no water supplies and the electricity ran out. I gave oats to my children to eat….so far we have received no help".
I don’t know what I will remember the most – the story of 10-year-old Adelina who told me that her father had to escape from a window and dig a tunnel through the snow to get out of the house or the cries of ‘God bless you’ as World Vision staff left Sarile village after an emergency aid distribution.
The elders of Sarile village say they have never seen snow like it. Others are pronouncing this winter in Romania the worst in six decades.
All of the families here speak of being stranded for three weeks. Their electricity was cut and they have run out of food. They are melting snow for drinking water.
"Many families with children have had nothing to eat"...
About one third of Sarile’s residents are children under age 14 and many of the caregivers are older widows. Sarile is home to Romanians and people who identify themselves as ‘Roma’. Their homes are scattered in clusters on semi-steep slopes of hills and some homes are hidden in valleys.
Sarile village stands at an altitude of 900 metres near the Buzau Mountains, about six kilometers from Sarulesti in Buzau County. To get here we took a secondary road that winds through forests, up and down several hills and across three valleys. The day before we arrived, the road had been cleared by the major of a neighbouring village and volunteers who rented a bulldozer to clear the road over four days.
We arrived at the local church to distribute 160 emergency kits containing food and blankets for the most vulnerable families with children under the age of 14. Around 560 people, including 200 children, will benefit from the supplies which had been packaged up the day before by the parents of children who had also benefitted from an aid distribution in the other village, Sarulesti.
"From the beginning we had no way to replenish ourselves. The snow was more than one metre high on the road. At my home there is a three-metre wall of snow. Until now we have received no aid," shared Sorin V at the distribution at the church where two communities come to worship.
"To get out of the house, my father went out through the window and cut a tunnel," shared 10-year-old Adelina who came to collect the food and blankets for her family.
"We have no power, we have no water supplies and the electricity ran out. I gave grains of oats [porridge) to my children,” said Gheorghe Cristea.
Marian Dragu, the village priest explained that Sarile is home to many poor people and this winter has made their lives even more bitter. “Many families with children have had nothing to eat,” he said.
Leaving us in the churchyard, the people shouted "God bless you" and they said it from the bottom of their heart.
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The Roma people of Sarile village leave the area in April to "work with the cows" and they return to the village in late October. When they finish the supplies they dig into the local slope of salt, crush the salt and exchange it for food or money. The Romanians remain in place, living their mountain life with domestic animals in the yard or going to work in villages closer to Buzau.
The village priest and the vice mayor who also lives in the village supported World Vision with the distribution at the church. Two kilometres before arriving to the destination, the Gendarmerie’s (police) truck became stuck in the snow and we had to move the supplies to other vehicles.