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Breaking Bread with Street Children
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Photo: USAID/Jay Sorensen
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USAID official Rodger D. Garner, right, delivers food to the Sfanta Macrina center in Bucharest before sitting down to lunch with Father Cazacu, right, and the homeless children he cares for. Father Cazacu says that USAID “has kept hundreds of children fed here at Sfanta Macrina.”
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USAID Director Rodger D. Garner is never too busy for Father Gabriel Cazacu and the street children of Sfanta Macrina. On March 21, 2006, he helped deliver a USAID-sponsored food donation before sitting down to break bread with Father Cazacu and the kids.
Sfanta Macrina is a residential and day center that provides social, educational, medical, and counseling support to street children, as well as job counseling and life skills training for young adults who grew up in group homes or institutions. Father Gabriel Cazacu, the warm and sociable priest who runs the center, plans to expand it to create a shelter for mothers in difficulty, to help keep “his kids” and their parents together. He says that since 2002, the annual food donation from USAID “has kept hundreds of children fed here at Sfanta Macrina.”
Sfanta Macrina is one of several humanitarian programs managed by the Diaconia Association, affiliated with the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Diaconia Association has a long history of partnership with USAID, whose funding has helped Diaconia create a network of Christian families that support children who have been reunited with their families after separation.
This year’s donation from USAID and its partners offered 75 metric tons of food to more than 80 organizations, including soup kitchens, hospitals, children’s homes, and HIV day centers throughout Romania. Worth approximately $150,000, these contributions will provide four million meals to 12,000 persons in need.
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