David and Hilary’s story
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Hilary first heard about Anglof Regional Foundation & Humanitarian Relief Agency (ARFHRA) when she saw our founder Mark Cook on This Is Your Life in 1999.
As Hilary watched that TV programme, hundreds of miles away in Romania, David and his two older brothers became orphans when both their parents passed away.
Aged just seven, David ended up confined to the Victor Babeș orphanage for preschool children in Baia Mare.
He was among the last generation who, when his family were no longer able to look after him, was sent to an orphanage.
In the past 20 years, here, and across Romania, we have worked with local partners to replace orphanages with loving family-based care.
A year later, Anglof Regional Foundation & Humanitarian Relief Agency (ARFHRA) supported the authorities to close the orphanage, and David moved into one of the two new family homes we established so the young children could grow up in a caring, family-type environment instead.
In 2010 Hilary passed away, and as a passionate supporter of our work, she left us a gift in her Will of £10,000. It was this legacy that helped us continue our support of the children from the Baia Mare orphanage. We had found David a loving small family home and, as a young man, he attended technical college and combined it with paid work to start saving for his future.
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Recently we helped David secure a modern apartment of his very own, and he continues to work hard to equip his new home with the essentials.
“I have always had this dream,” David tells us, with a smile.
“To learn, to leave the child protection system, and to have my own home… I am very grateful. Thank you, everyone.”
In Maramureș County alone, where David’s orphanage for preschool children was located, we closed a further nine institutions to make it entirely orphanage-free. Today, tomorrow, and for generations to come, no child in Maramureș will ever have to experience what David went through.
Of course, Hilary and David never met, but in choosing to leave a gift in her Will to help children grow up in a family, she gave David the support and love that enabled him to build a happy life and future for himself—a lasting legacy that also helped change a generation.
It’s a lovely thought, isn’t it? That in the future a child with a place in a loving family and a life full of promise will have a connection with you.
