Your support for Blythswood’s Basis Project relieves Irma and others like her of the stress of living on very low incomes

Irma belongs to a generation that spent their best years working in the fields of communist Europe for scant reward and now face old age with little claim on the new prosperity which surrounds them.

Her village is not far from the booming economy of Cluj-Napoca, Romania’s second city, and the location of high-tech businesses such as Bosch and Emerson. Her home, originally her parents’, belongs to a different age, almost a different world. A solid fuel stove cooks and warms. Above the kitchen table, Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus share the wall with Irma’s father in his army uniform, and family from the past, frozen in monochrome print.

But Irma has no family to help her now and her allowance from the state equates to just £100 a month. “That’s her sole source of income,” explains Agnes Csiszer, who runs the Basis Project for Blythswood Romania. “Since her situation was brought to our attention, volunteers from the Reformed Church have delivered a Blythswood food package to Irma each month, ensuring that she has the food she needs.

“This makes a big difference to Irma and relieves her of some of the day-to-day stress of living on a very limited income.”

Basis currently supports 33 low-income households – approximately 135 people – in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca. “Irma and others in her situation are deeply grateful for the assistance and for the companionship,” Agnes says. “Even when they are too reserved to talk about personal religion, they are happy for someone to read from the Bible and to pray.”