Constant problem with the heating system. Not only old and defective but each month the diesel price is going higher. It was time to change the system, to a pellet (wood) heating.

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Markku Sosimaki (Dada), the head of AMURT Romania, agree the conditions were improved and private orphanages did quite well but many children were not prepared to leave the care system when coming to the age of 18 years old. They did not just lack emotional support – they also lacked basic life and work skills such as how to cook, iron a shirt, keep a job, or solved an argument through compromise.

“When they leave orphanage… they didn’t really have a choice about what to do next,” he said, pointing to the slab of concrete under a billboard that is home of many homeless youth of Bucharest today.

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Many homeless youth have not learned basic skills that most adults, and even other youth, take for granted. Because they have never kept a job, vacuumed, ironed a shirt, cooked a meal, balanced and account, or solved an argument through compromise, so life skills training plays an important role in the transitional living program of the Center for Transition towards Independent Living.

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Ateliere Fara Frontiere (AFF) provides such possiblities and few of AMURT’s beneficiaries attended an interview and got enrolled in the program. AFF mission is social and occupational integration of people in need through workshops and joint economic activities: recycling and reconditioning computers.

AMURT Romania is developing a new approach to the problem of integrating young people at risk of social exclusion into society, in its work with homeless youth, and those leaving the care system.

The aim of this new approach is to facilitate such young people in shifting away from a dependent relationship with the public and private welfare systems towards an empowered role within the provision of such social services for others. It is a profound transformation of a “beneficiary” mentality towards a “benefactor” mentality.

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The AMURT Christmas, 23rd December, was again special for all of us. It was the second Christmas with our beneficiaries having fun and nice time to get to know each other. Few of the previous beneficiaries also join including the staff of AMURT.

Same as last year, the invisible storekeeper of Santa Claus, who this year was 201 years old surprisingly one year older than Santa (last year he was younger), magically became visible for those in Domnesti when pushing the boxes of gift to be delivered in Hungary. Empty cookie jar got filled, clothes taken from the air, and magical salt converted boxes of gifts.

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The Emergency and Safety Skills training discuses about the provision of First Aid. Beneficiaries and AMURT staff learned the basis in First Aid.

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To integrate into the society is not only about having a job and apartment, but even more fundamentally to change the behaviour and appearance.

Integration has three steps. They are time limited by the two programs of the Domnesti Multifunctional Center project: Transitional Life and Independent Life. The two first stages in the centre focus on the beneficiaries’ behavioural change. In the third stage (Integration) clothes shopping is an important activity. The shopping gives scope for them to change their physical appearance by giving them free scope to choose their clothes but the clothes must be of more grown-up society standard dressing. Sounds simple but this is a challenging task…. an excellent personal development exercise.

Just imagine how the beneficiary’s self-esteemed improves and how proud they feel about themselves, when they are well dressed. This goes a long way to remove that lable of being a “street boy”.

The day-to-day duties such as cleaning, shopping, and cooking were given to the new youths who joined the Centre in early February. For the older youths, the assigned specific duties are Office Incharge, Storage Incharge, Laundry and Personal Items Incharge, Renovation and Construction Incharge, and Heating and Medicine Incharge.

The life skill training of Domnesti Centre is divided into two programs, the “Transitional Living Program (TLP)” where the youths receive housing, motivational counseling, and life skills in day-to-day activities. In a subsequent “Independent Living Program(ILP)” outside the Center, they learn the real independent life in an apartment, holding a job, paying rent, and taking care of other related life matters by themselves.

There are three stages, (1) Identification in discovering youth’s personal needs which were left unmet because of homelessness, increase their self-confidence, self-respect, and raising the level of responsibility in order to regain their dignity. (2) Adaptation a process of re-socialization, which is the learning of new norms and values that occurs when joining a new group or activities. (3) Integration by improving the level of knowledge and skills through educational activities that provide increased opportunities for integrating on the social and labor market.

The stage of Adaptation is practiced between the two programs (TLP and ILP). Much as possible the training in done in real-time environment where the youth face the real responsibilities, planning, and mental exercises. One of the tools for mental exercise is to maintain records and provide financial and inventory reports. It also includes money management and store keeping.