I met Mafuta and Wickliffe in 2019, at the beginning of my activity at Help One Child Thrive. Those were boys that no one wanted to help. Usually, older kids barely receive any support.

Amazingly enough, those two boys got lucky quite fast and they managed to acquire the support and love of two lovely persons, Donna from England and Andreea from Romania. The support received was well deserved: the boys were polite, hardworking, they always came along to help us with the heavy lifting and unloading of food, they did everything to the best of their abilities.

They wanted to learn, so we helped them. Both boys were enlisted into Prime Vocational Institute, where they studied car mechanics and engineering for a year. To their misfortune – to the misfortune of all of us, Covid had spread into the region and a full lockdown has been declared, preventing them from finalising their studiea on time.

But finally they did. In June 2022, Mafuta and Wickliffe received their diplomas with high honours and they became skilled and respected members of the community.

It is such a great feeling, to see the growth and the progress of a child. They were part of HOCT, once; now, they are grown-up men, ready to start their own work, their own families, ready to give back to the society.

Moments like these make all of efforts well worth.

Congratulations!

Veronica Anghelescu