Being there: the beating heart of the mission of the Pope John XXIII Community in Bucharest

For over 20 years, the Pope John XXIII Community has been committed to building a welcoming community on the Romanian territory, where each person feels part of a big family, where sharing and solidarity are the basis of all relationships.

In Bucharest, Community members and volunteers are a dynamic presence for and with the territory: two evenings a week they go out on the streets, meeting the people who live there, making them feel seen and considered, offering them a hot meal. They work alongside the friars of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in homeless shelter activities, bringing comfort and support. They offer moments of recreation and joy to children in the poorest neighborhoods, collaborating with Mother Teresa's sisters. They go to institutions that take in orphaned and disabled children or youth, offering them sharing and closeness. Beating heart of the mission is to be there, to be there, to listen, to welcome and to walk together.

Now they need a car to get around the city and have more time for the most fragile

Currently in Bucharest, there are Valentina and Mariaserena who are part of the Community and take care of a guest house, where they live with two young people in community service and three young people who have been taken in. They like to call their house a lake port because in addition to overlooking a beautiful lake, during the day so many people knock on their door: the young people they meet during the street units, the many young people who come to experience community and sharing, people from the neighborhood, families they met by attending the parish, co-workers, those who just drop by for a coffee, a movie or a chat while admiring the lake and enjoying this joyful and numerous company.

For daily activities in the city, medical appointments, accompaniments, home visits and commuting to work places they rely on public transportation, but travel times, even for short distances, often prove exhausting. Bucharest is a very large city, and getting around by transportation alone or on foot becomes very challenging. Currently the workers and volunteers have only an old minibus, which, being bulky and worn out, is used only for trips or to pick up clothing and food.

Therefore, they now need your help to purchase a car, the cost of which is 15,500€. Together, we can help them achieve this goal, allowing us to move with agility and speed, without having to sacrifice precious time that we could instead devote to supporting those in need.