The Girl's Home 'Osana'
History
Association Mana opened its first family residential care home for up to 10 girls under the age on 18th December 1999. This house is called “The Girls House Osana”. The girls chosen for this home were selected through our day center program and the child welfare department. Most come from broken and dysfunctional families and it is unlikely they will be able to return to them. They live permanently in this home and aside from going to school, enjoy a wide variety of activities including both summer and winter camps.|
Objectives
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Girls House Team
Permanently living with the girls is a couple with both counselling and social work experience. During the day a cook and an administrater also come to help with the daily running of the house. A part time social worker and accountant are also employed.
Results
In October 2003 the first rehabilitated girl (20 years old) left the girls house and became a contributing member of society. She is now married, has a job and is involved in various activities in the country she is residing in, New Zealand.
Our desire is that each girl would leave the girls house emotionally and spiritually healed from their turbulent pasts. That they would have the educational and life skills needed to become a contributing member of society and would have a full and happy life.
The Girl's House Osana - Update 2011
In September 2010 three of our girls started back at school for another year, each having completed the previous grade and moving on to the next class. In October we bought two turkeys and the girls were involved in raising them until Thanksgiving when we celebrated this special day with some American friends and others invited to the girls house.
At the end of November we started rehearsals for a Christmas play and puppet show which we then presented in different places such as an English club, a church, to all our neighbours and a kindergarten. Every body enjoyed performing in these plays and all those who saw them were impressed and reminded of the real Christmas story.
In January one of the girls went back home to live permanently with her family and we took in two new girls, so at present we have 6 girls at the girls house.
In February we started swimming lessons again and as weather has permitted we have been on many outings with bicycles, rollerblades, to the zoo, movies and indoor bowling.
At the beginning of April as a special treat we went to an Aquatic Park in nearby Szeged, Hungary. During the Easter break, three of the girls went on a youth camp to Oradea and those who remained at home went away for a few days to a cabin in a village about 2 hours from Timisoara.
Carmen finished two training courses in 2009/2010 and although she has worked as a cook’s helper for the past two months she is once again out of work and looking for a job.
As we do every year, we have planted our garden at the girls house and each girl has her own plot and is responsible for taking care of it. Due to the long winter we are only just beginning to enjoy the fruit of our labours - fresh vegetables.
Climbing Frame in the Garden of the Girl's House
One of our Girl's Story
"My name is Carmen. Maybe you are wondering how I arrived at the Girls House? My parents were poor, my mother was a cleaning lady and my father was unemployed spending what little money we had on alcohol rather than on food. One day, because of the constant stress and beatings my mother received from my father, she finally moved out with my younger sister Aurelia and I. Not long after this my father died of alcohol related problems. My mother started living with another very poor man who decided to send my sister and I out onto the streets to beg. We begged in many different cities before ending up in the capital Bucharest where we slept in the train station and became infected with lice and sores. We didn’t stay long in Bucharest because we had problems with the police and weren’t making enough money to make it worthwhile.
I was seven or eight years old when we came to live in Timisoara. After a few years my sister decided to run away as she was tired of begging so my mother decided not to let her do it any more. As I was the only one left begging, when I didn’t bring home enough money, both my mother and her boyfriend would hit me as a punishment or I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink during the day. I would stand for hours at traffic lights in the scorching heat during the summer months and then freeze during the cold months of winter.
When I was 14, we moved from Timisoara to another city an hour away called Arad because my mother didn’t have an identity card and she had lots of unpaid fines due to our begging on the streets. After two weeks I couldn’t take it anymore as my mother had punched me in the face because I hadn’t brought home enough money once again. On our way home that day my mother stopped at a shop to buy bread and told me to wait outside. I saw my chance to escape and ran as fast as I could to the train station, boarded a train without a ticket and went back to Timisoara where I rode the buses all day until 12pm. After that I went to the house of a woman who had befriended me on the streets. The next day she took me to a transit center for children where I stayed two months before finally arriving at the girls house Hosanna on September 11, 2001.
Eventually I got used to life at the girls house but I had a very bad attitude, I would never say good morning when I woke up nor did I want to participate in camps or in any other activities. When I was 17 years old I decided I needed to change so I gave my life to Jesus and a year later I was baptized. God saved me from the streets, He gave me a home and He blessed me with many sisters. They also have problems but He has changed them and is still in the process of changing both them and me. He also gave me Cerbu and Nadine who encourage me, give me advice and are helping me to find my way in life. I’ve learnt many things at the girls house which I never knew but the greatest thing I have learnt is that Jesus died for me, for you and for all mankind. Because God loves us, He sent His only son to die for our sins, and then after three days He rose again and now sits on the right hand side of God, knocking at the door of our hearts, waiting to enter in and free us of all our sins and give us a new life."