Caminul Felix believes family is the key to helping abandoned and neglected children and is the foundation of their success. Families are comprised of a married couple who dedicates their life to raising a “family”. They may or may not have children of their own, but they will begin to take on children over a 2-year period, up to 16-18 children in all, and they will raise them as a family unit. Each family is placed in a home that was built by donors. There are currently two Caminul Felix villages; eight families in each village. All together they care for over 200 children but have raised an additional 400 that are now grown with families of their own. Once a family reaches its full capacity (16-18 children), that family will remain unchanged until all the children eventually move out of the home. When a young adult moves out, another child is not brought into the family unit to fill the void, so the unit stays constant and children are not constantly coming in and out. This is important in keeping the family unit strong, and eventually allows parents to phase out of service after 25+ years of dedication, unless they decide to go on to care for a second generation of children.

 

Construction projects at the Caminul Felix Village can range in scale and type depending on the current needs of the village. The majority of construction at the village is building homes for young adults who grew up in the village, and can then go on to purchase these homes at material cost. This is an amazing program that provides these young adults and their new families an affordable means of settling down. Since the children do not have a traditional family structure with financial help for buying or inheriting a home, this initiative gives them the security and opportunity of home ownership within their community. In order to become eligible to buy a home, the young adults must volunteer 500 hours working on building projects around the village. This helps to give a sense of ownership and value. On an average day we will have anywhere from 3-5 of these young adults working alongside us. Having them on the team will give us opportunities to build close relationships with them, learn more about the village through the eyes of those who have grown up in it, and learn some Romanian language and about their culture.

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The Project 

Due to limited funding and volunteer concern over the ongoing war in Ukraine, the physical event was cancelled and a grant of $5,000 was provided to Caminul Felix through the Jacobs Collectively Grant. With this money they were able to waterproof a house that was under construction. There was concern over being able to complete this house before the winter, and so this funding came at the perfect time. With the $5,000 grant, they were able to purchase structural timber, complete half of the outside insulation which is a Styrofoam, fiberglass mesh and grey plaster assembly, as well as install pipes and valves inside the home, complete all electrical wiring and purchase enough consumables such as nails, screws, circular disk saws, etc.

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Thank you to Jacobs and all the people who helped make this project a success!

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