I first met Andreea Mondoc in Budila, a Roma village located thirty minutes from the city of Brasov, Romania. She was a quiet ten year old with hungry eyes wanting to make something of her life and now she has. After eight years of dedicated hard work, Andreea has overcome her circumstances of living a doomed life in a gypsy village and has graduated from high school with hopes of going to university. Her goal is to become a social worker so she can help her own people.
Firm Foundations Romania (FFR) decided to help Andreea obtain her high school education, as we believe education is the key to help change the future of a Roma citizen. With her mother’s agreement, we embarked on an experimental journey for Andreea;
we helped her enroll in a local high school and sponsored her accommodation, food, clothing. We took Andreea on as one of our own children and played the role of a parent, attending parent-teacher meetings, hiring a tutor when necessary, and cheering Andreea on to succeed in school. Living in the big city was quite exciting for Andreea yet challenging as she initially lived in a high school dorm where drugs, sex, and bad influences were distracting Andreea from her studies. Not only that, but the academic level was higher than in the village where she came from so Andreea was behind her other classmates in her educational knowledge. However, Andreea pressed on, diligently attending school and studying hard which showed us that she was dedicated to her goal of graduating high school.
After two years of living in the dorm, we decided to remove Andreea from the bad influences of dorm life as this was not a safe place for a young girl, especially one who was committed to living a Godly lifestyle. FFR was not only interested in helping Andreea educationally and physically, but also emotionally and spiritually so they encouraged her to learn more about God by going to a Christian church. Little by little she came to understand what Jesus has done for her and she received Him as her Savior. In 2013 FFR ventured into another new experiment and rented an apartment in town where a Christian “Den Mother” would live and house Roma teens who were attending high school in Brasov. This setting would provide a safe, wholesome place where teenagers could focus on their school studies, be closer to the high school, and have a Godly influence in their lives. Andreea was the first teenager to move into the apartment.
After four years of hard work and dedication, Andreea graduated from high school this past May! She has overcome the challenges and difficulties of the educational system in Romania, her father passing away from alcohol abuse, her mother and siblings moving around Romania in search of work; and she continues to move forward with the goal of attending university to become a social worker to help her own people in the Roma community. Andreea also hopes to one-day visit America in order to better her English and to see a different lifestyle and social system. Andreea says, "I am in awe that God saw me in that village and choose to take me out, to bring me close to Him and to follow Him. Thank you Lord and thank you to the people that He used in my life to bring me this far. Thank you Firm Foundations Romania."
We are so proud of Andreea. Through much prayer, dedication, and love Andreea has become a success story with hopes and dreams that she knows can be fulfilled through persistence and hard work. FFR has other girls in their program who are progressing each year towards completing their high school education. In the near future plans are being made to expand the size of the apartment where the girls are staying in order to accommodate more students and to also open an apartment for teenage boys. Each child deserves a chance at an education and like Andreea, to become a high school graduate.
President/Firm Foundations Romania
Abandoned Fear. Embrace Hope
www.firmfoundationsromania.com
www.sarahvienna.com