It’s a beautiful Monday ❤

Work lovingly done by Mugoya Swaliki & Veronica Anghelescu
Media by Mihaela Florentina Stoica

Sometimes, rarely, we lose children. Their health and physical condition are so fragile, that we cannot save their precious little lives. This is the hardest moment of my activity. To lose a child is to lose a part of myself, because I hold them all so dearly in my heart.

Kato was a child that lived in pain, even though he was dearly loved. He was born with a terrible deformity, a severe curvature of his spine, which gave him an almost… round shape, and greatly impeded breathing. He could not stand, walk, crawl, nothing.

He grew up in a family where 16 other children reside, and he was loved by his siblings. He was always in someone’s arms. At HOCT, we were blessed that Kato was nurtured and loved by one of our long-distance parents, a true heart of gold who did not look at the fact that the child was so ill – she saw the needed, and did not hesitate to help him. She was a bright light in Kato’s short, but precious life and she helped him with everything she had. I am grateful. Kato was loved.

And now, he is gone to rest in a better world, one in which little children do not have to suffer.

Today, even the nature cried for the little Kato.

If you want to make a small donation towards Kato’s family at this tragic time – there are 16 more children in the household – it will be very kindly appreciated, as we want to buy them some food.

PayPal: contact@helponechildthrive.com

So wonderful to see the children at school!

Some of our children study at Victory School, so today we went to visit them.

Just enjoying the mood ❤

Work lovingly accomplished by Veronica Anghelescu and Mugoya Swaliki
Media by Mihaela Florentina Stoica

A lot of things happened today at HOCT.

We visited our children at their respective schools, we distributed food and we updated some of our technology.

Life is beautiful at HOCT.

I received an email with an interesting question, so I thought I’d write a bit about it.

The person was asking: so what do you do at HOCT? How does HOCT even function?

At Help One Child Thrive (HOCT), we pair each person willing to help to a child in need. We have many, many children on the waiting list, so there is always someone you can help.

Usually, people take a long-time commitment (1-2 years at least) and become “long-distance parents” developing a true bond of affection with their child. We facilitate phone and video communication, letter exchange and we provide monthly updates of the child’s progress. People see their children as often as it is humanly possible, and many children call the sponsors “mother” or “father”.

How much does it cost? This is a frequently asked question. Now of course, us being a charity, we cannot fix prices. Each person donates according to their own possibilities. However, a minimum of 25 euros per month offers a good batch of food to the child in your care.

I usually pick the food items and my colleague, Mugoya, buys and distributes them. HOCT is coordinated by us two, with love and patience and a lot of hard work. We never take days off and we are always present to help the children and to answer the sponsors’ questions. We deal with all the legal aspects of our work and we always make sure to comply to all international regulations.

What else?

You can help a child for a longer period of time, or to offer a one-time donation. You will receive the same feedback as anyone else: a photo with the child receiving the food from you and a small letter of gratitude, which the children love to write (and we encourage them, because we must all practice gratitude).

In our work, we are blessed to see the good side of humanity each day. If you want to see a bit how life is at HOCT, you can send a one-time donation through PayPal at: contact@helponechildthrive.com, or via our IBANS. If you want to use Revolut, I can help you with some instructions.

How can we be reached?

By Email: contact@helponechildthrive.com

By Facebook, my profile is public and Facebook-verified. You can send a message through there or a Friend-Request, I do not mind.

Also on Facebook, you will find our official page, Help One Child Thrive.

If you need me, I am at your service!

Choose to do well and feed one child!

With love,

Veronica

It’s been a long week… but we work with love.

It was a long, complicated day at HOCT. My mind was also rather scattered, I could not focus well. A little bit of burn-out accumulates.

We worked on many children, some of which have various malformations. Joseph Bumba has a very oddly-shaped skull; little Kato has a deformed spine and his whole body is like a ball; Igalo suffers from sickle-cell disease and is very weak; Kitimbo is the girl whose life we saved when she was suffering from macrodactyly (you remember? She had two huge fingers!).

Those types of malformations are often occurring; I don’t really know why. I presume that the environmental factors, the polluted water, the poor nourishment of the pregnant women – all of these contribute to the birth of such children.

But I love them nonetheless.
Few are the brave people who accept to take care of a sick child. Over the course of our long activity, we sometimes lose some of them. It crushes me every time. I hope we will have no more losses and that all those little ones will have a good, comfortable life, with nourishing food and plenty of love from us.

We should never give up trying to heal our wounded world.

To see them happy and well – this is all the reward I ever need.