Women in need

Jill Mihai has been working full time in Romania for several years.

Jill's work is primarily for gypsy women and children, for whom life is hard. Families are large and there are many mouths to feed. Alcoholism and domestic violence are major problems. As a result of poverty and lack of sex education, many women have multiple abortions - in one case a lady in her 40's had had a total of 40 abortions, beginning from her early teens. The impact of this on a woman's physical and emotional health can only be imagined - certainly, many are left infertile and suffering serious internal problems.

Jill's first step was to purchase a property, now known as Casa Vietii - which translates as "The House of Life" - that she could use as a centre for health education and abortion counselling. The building needed major repairs and reconstruction. She did most of the work herself, hiring labour on a daily basis from the local gypsy village.

Case Vietii is now almost finished - Jill just needs the final funds to finish the roof area which can be used as a short term womens' refuge or to house a workshop to train women in sewing skills.

Jill's next project is to construct a medical centre to provide for people with a variety of health problems, with further accommodation for use as a women's refuge.

Jill also spends time visiting the villages, holding womens' meetings covering a variety pf topics, from bible studies to basic health issues. Women in the villages often have only a rudimentary knowledge of sex education and child development. She also offers abortion counselling, using visual aids to show women how a baby develops in the womb. This is totally amazing to people who have no access to the technology we take for granted in the UK. By seeing the child's development in the womb, many women decide not to go ahead with the planned abortion. Jill then provides the things they need throughout the pregnancy and early life of the child - for instance, milk and vitamins for the mother, transport to hospital for ante natal examinations, nappies and baby clothes for the new baby.

Jill would dearly love to buy a scanning unit to further help with this work.

Many women and children in the area suffer from AIDS. There are no specialist facilities available, little knowledge of the disease, and no hospice to offer care for the dying. Jill's long term dream is to set up an AIDS centre, and to train local Romanian nurses in the specialist skills necessary.