Happy and full of life, Claudiu helped deliver your gifts

At seven years of age, Claudiu has to be one of Blythswood’s youngest shoebox distributors. And, of course, there was one for him, too, after he had helped to hand them out in the compound where he lives with his family, in small-town western Romania.

“Claudiu is a very loving little boy, happy all the time and full of life,” says Adrian Popa who oversaw the shoebox distribution, and who also leads the work of Talita Kum, Blythswood’s after-school programme in Jimbolia.

“He thoroughly enjoys the food at TK, brushes his teeth and takes showers.” For children from such poor homes, nutrition is of first importance. And finding a toothbrush and toothpaste in their shoebox helps to reinforce the idea that oral hygiene is something for home as well as for the after-school club.

Adrian says: “Claudiu has not had a very good start in life. But a Christmas present like this tells him that someone cares, that he is worth the trouble of sending a shoebox from a far-away country.”