“I grew up in the placement center for abandoned children in Costesti. Petruta, my ‘’mother’’ – as I like to call her – picked me up from streets, literally, when I was thrown out of the placement center, on a rainy day, because I had just turned 18.
Petruta hosted me and other teens in my situation in the building which is now the Hercules Center. Back then, the house was being renovated, and, for a little while, I could stay there until we found a more permanent home.
Today I have a daughter, Larisa*, who has been coming daily to the Hercules Center since she was six year old. My husband left me and I raise her on my own, with my 200 lei (45 Euro) monthly salary. I sell newspapers at the local newspaper kiosk. Larisa is a good child and has good results in school because she gets help at the Hercules Center. I would neither be able to help her with her homework, nor would I have the money to buy all the books and school supplies, clothes and shoes she needs to go to school. Instead of staying home alone after school, without supervision, or instead of sitting with me in cold or heat at the newspaper kiosk, she does her homework at the Center, spends time with other children and learns new things every day. She also receives food and clothes.
I honestly do not know what I would do if there was no Hercules Center in our lives. I really want my child to study and not to have such a tormented and bad life as mine.”
* Names changed due to data privacy reasons.
