Meet Felicia

All five people involved in running MWB’s After School Club in Simleu are actually volunteers. They have understood the need in their community and decided to be part of the solution. 

Felicia, one of the volunteers and a beautician by trade, said, “I’m here two or three times a week, depending on my personal work schedule. 

“I had a hard time in the beginning with the children’s discipline. It was extremely difficult to get them to sit still, eat properly and talk nicely to each other. They’re very loveable though, and so I keep persevering even when it’s very challenging, especially because I don’t speak Hungarian and I can’t understand them when they do. 

“Some of them are willing to really push themselves and it feels really worth your time and energy; others are not very consistent. Some days they don’t come to the club if they’re not in the mood, even if they have a lot on at school. 

“Romanian is one of the hardest subjects for them, but because they attend the After School Club, all of them managed to pass the class. They do speak Romanian, but grammar and writing in Romanian is hard for them. They’re making progress and I love seeing them succeed. They’re smart and they achieve excellent results when they want to. They don’t do anything at home by themselves. All their homework is done here. 

“When they realised that the volunteers are helping them just because we care, this really earned us their respect. We assure them that we believe in their dreams and that we want to see the police officers, the doctors, and the teachers, that they dream of becoming. 

“Some days, things are still hard, but we’ve come a long way. We started with small steps like teaching them how to greet others, and now we’re at the point where even they are surprised by the things they can do or say, like encouraging one another or picking up the rubbish and leftovers when they’ve finished eating. 

“There are definitely many other things they still need to learn, or things in their lives they need to work on, especially when it comes to relationships. It broke my heart when they had to go around and say something nice about their mothers while celebrating Mother’s Day, and some of them didn’t have anything to say.” 

Help Volunteers like Felicia Help Children in Need