Constant practice is vital if you are to acquire a new skill. It’s true for all of us, and especially for Olivian, now 22. During his last three years in secondary school he had gained a qualification in catering. But growing up in in the care of the state he had no opportunity to cook at home.

So, when Blythswood News asked him what he had learned in two years at Blythswood’s Daniel Centre, learning to cook was top of the list. “Olivian is very happy now that he has the opportunity to cook for himself,” says social worker Dani Ciupe. “He has really got involved at the Daniel Centre and enjoys cooking for himself and for the other boys.”

The Daniel Centre on the outskirts of Cluj, Romania’s second city, provides safe accommodation and life-skills training to young men leaving the care of the state. The next two items on Olivian’s list of lessons learned are skills which teenagers normally pick up from living with their parents. “The Daniel Centre has taught me how to handle money, how to budget,” he says. “And it has helped me to manage relationships with colleagues and to deal with my own emotions.”

This is especially important to Olivian who struggled to accept the demands of steady, fulltime employment. He gave up on trainee roles in factory work, in construction, and as a security person – a role which he describes as “spending all day doing nothing”. “We told him he would have to work or leave the Daniel Centre,” says Dani. “Then he started a new job, training to be a firefighter, and that really suited him. He had to deal with an emergency on his first day and since then he hasn’t looked back.”

Olivian has no contact with parents or siblings, having been placed in care from the age of six months. But now with a steady job, he is focussed on saving money to get his own flat and ultimately would like to have a family of his own.

Now trained as a firefighter, Olivian has proved to himself and others that he is a good worker.