|PIC1|Where do we stand in our attitude to children with disabilities? I ask myself this having just returned from Romania, visiting some of the projects supported by World Emergency Relief. Two of these are centres for disabled children run by an amazing group of people under the banner Hand Rom.

I first visited one of these two centres, Hand Rom Marina in Curtea De Arges, central Romania, some five years ago. The quality of love, care and education being given to the children was a world away from many of the Romanian orphanages I had visited in the 1990s, and I felt privileged to be part of it.

On my most recent trip I visited the latest Hand-Rom centre, which was established just last year by the parents of a disabled girl and which is the first of its kind in rural Romania.

I met Remos and his wife Nuti who had discovered last year that their daughter Mihillia was not being looked after properly in the state-run centre she attended.

They brought her to the Marina centre and, within just a few weeks, saw a huge transformation in their daughter. Costel, the director of Hand Rom, challenged Remos and Nuti to set up their own Hand Rom centre in the small town where they lived and so the rural centre opened this summer.

It was a joy to see such a beautiful facility with bright rooms and the best of equipment. But even more striking than that is the care, love and commitment which shouts out as soon as you enter the building! This is what it should be like. These children deserve the best.

Mixing with the children and talking with parents and therapists, I could not stop the tears. It was such a blessing to see the progress in all the children. My heart was full!

And then I came home and saw the television programme 'Bulgaria - the forgotten children'. Words cannot describe the pain I felt as I saw the abuse and total lack of love in the institution featured. My heart, so full from visiting the Hand Rom centres, was momentarily empty.

I was reminded that there is still so much to do and it made me think again about WER and our work with disabled children in various countries.

Many of our supporters are Christians and yet when we specifically try to raise money for work with disabled children rather than, say, a feeding programme in Africa, an overwhelming majority of people are just not interested in giving their money. WHY?

Did Jesus not call for the children to be able to come to Him? Did He not spend more time with the needy, the lame, the sick and those that society would prefer to reject or at least ignore? I believe that we ignore disabled people at our peril, especially if we are Christians.

Can it be right that we will give our money to feed or educate a child in Africa but we will not give to save the life of a disabled child in Romania or to help provide a wheelchair for a child in Guatemala?

Let us at least examine our own hearts and our attitudes. Jesus went over the lake to release a human being from a severe disability. How far will you go? How far will I go?


About Alex Haxton:

Alex has been Director of Operations at Christian humanitarian agency World Emergency Relief (WER) for the past seven years and before that worked as a consultant to the charity.

His business career was spent in the catering equipment industry for over 20 years before he moved on to Christian ministry which is how he first came to go to Africa.

A few months spent at Roffey Place Christian Centre brought a more radical change than anticipated, and it was there that Alex met a Pastor from Burundi who became a central influence on his life, even to this day.

He has since worked in Christian ministry, which he describes as "a call of God we must not ignore".

It was the work in Burundi and Rwanda, post genocide, which eventually brought Alex into contact with WER as he sought funding for relief and medical work in those countries. He remains heavily involved with humanitarian and development work worldwide through WER.

About World Emergency Relief:

World Emergency Relief is a non-denominational, global fellowship of Christians, working together, and with others, to help people in need. Underlying World Emergency Relief's efforts are God's love for this WORLD He created, the physical, emotional, spiritual, social and economic EMERGENCIES afflicting millions, and the RELIEF we can bring to hurting people, especially children, thanks to God's unending mercy coupled with the generosity of our donors.