The Maria Ward
social centre
We supported the music room of the Maria Ward social centre in Rădăuți, in northern Romania, which looks after children living in very difficult, sometimes shattered, family situations.
We supported the project by helping to get it going: instruments, materials, and the link with the people who keep it running on the ground.
The idea
The centre helps children to grow, to learn and to socialise, but above all to picture a future other than the street. Music is a powerful catalyst for that: a music school adds to their education and lets them look ahead with some optimism, despite a childhood spent in a harsh setting.
Our goal here, as everywhere, was to leave behind something self-sufficient: equipment, volunteers and teachers with musical skills who can carry on without us.
“A proud country, full of beauty and of extraordinary people who work hard to make their land better. A country they love deeply. But I also saw a country full of difficulty. That is how the wish to do something, to do my part, came to me.
In Rădăuți, in north-eastern Romania, I got to know the work of Sister Felicitas Butacu at the Maria Ward social centre, which helps children to grow, to learn, to socialise, and above all to picture a future other than the street. And music can be a very powerful catalyst.”
Piero Pegoretti
Where things stand
The music room is there and the centre carries on under its own steam. We helped at the moment it was needed; there is no open fundraising for Romania today, but we stay in touch with the people running it.