Last week Wendy had the opportunity to go with the Humanitarian Missionaries and visit an orphanage in Northern Moldova. Grinauti (pronounced "Green oats") is a village in the northern Ocnita (Oak neetsa) county, one of the poorest in Moldova. The school is officially the Auxiliary Boarding School of Grinauti. It provides housing and schooling for 116 mentally challenged children ages 6 to 16 years from that county. Most do not have parents or are from single parent families with no means to provide schooling or food to eat. (Even socialists require fees from parents for children to attend school and the local schools do not cater to children with mental challenges or learning disabilities).

The school now has running water, new windows in the dorm buildings, heat in the school and dorm rooms in the winter, a root cellar to store the produce the school grows and a new woodshop. Some refurbishing of the kitchen has been accomplished also. The Humanitarian Services of the LDS Church provided assistance with the new boiler system, the root cellar and the wood shop. The Community and Humanitarian Assistance Program (CHAP) of the U.S. State Department with funds (yes, your tax dollars) approved by Congress to assist people from satellite countries of the old U.S.S.R. provided all the new windows and well restoration for the water. The staff and students have helped by providing labor for all the projects including 5000 hours for the latest project: building the wood shop.

Wendy had a difficult time seeing these wonderful children and the humble circumstances they live in. Thanks to the humanitarian efforts of our church and the US Government, their lives are made a little better.