Day 14: Meeting Emotional Needs

It is hard to believe how quickly our time in Romania is coming to a close! Today the Regent team went out into different areas of the community to minister to families, provide counseling, and in many cases simply sit and listen to whomever is in front of us. Dr. Reese’s team spent time meeting with families and the homeless population in Oradea. While Smiles Foundation staff provided them with supplies to meet the family’s basic physical needs, Trauma Team members took opportunity to learn more about their situation and provide therapy for their emotional needs. Dr. Keyes’ team provided services at the Cihei Family Center, where they conducted play therapy with the children and offered basic parenting skills to the single mothers receiving services through the foundation. These children and single mothers are those whose histories include domestic violence, which is a major problem in this area and a major focus for the foundation.

Dr. Harris-Keyes’ team also conducted home visits through the foundation’s Family Care Project, a program in which families are sponsored by donations to receive food and hygiene products each month. The families receiving services often face the challenges of extreme poverty, unemployment, alcoholic parents, and other such related issues, therefore the team was able to assist these families with related psychological issues. Finally, R. LaVerne Washington’s group returned to the family center in Gepiu to join the village’s senior citizens for a monthly luncheon. The team conducted reminiscence group therapy to connect with the elderly before participating in a traditional Romanian meal. While many elderly people readily identify with the problems associated with aging particularly as it is compounded by poverty, this therapeutic technique is designed to balance negative bias and assist them with the resurfacing of more positive emotions. The team members were blessed by the delicious food (especially the sarmales), and enjoyed hearing the senior citizens sing hymns.

The Regent team, as a whole, accomplished many positive things in the community today and was touched by the lives they encountered. We have one day left in Romania before beginning the long journey home…but not before a short stay in Paris to cap off the last two weeks.

-Jason Boling