The Daniel Centre helps young men like Andrei to acquire basic life skills

Rules for a purpose help Andrei achieve his goals

Believing in young people in Eastern Europe – Gift Code R1

“You don’t want to stay there – they have really strict rules.”

Andrei had heard about Blythswood’s Daniel Centre long before he agreed to give it a try. And five months after moving in, he’s glad he did. He had left Romania’s child care system at 18 and shared a tenancy with another lad in the same circumstance. But when his flatmate ran into money problems, they separated, and Andrei found that he couldn’t pay the rent alone.

After a month of being homeless on the streets of Cluj, the Daniel Centre’s rules didn’t seem so unreasonable. “The boys agree to be tested for drugs,” says social worker Luiza Fechita. “Synthetic drugs have become a problem for young people in Cluj, especially in the last two years.”

Andrei is glad to have escaped the culture of the streets and already feels that he is making progress. He admits that when he received his first wage packet from his new job in a fast-food chain, he squandered it in three days. “Now Luiza has helped me to work out a budget and she makes sure I stick to it,” he says.

He is clear about his objectives. Personal hygiene is important to him, especially with the memory still fresh of living on the street. Having stable employment matters too. He is keen to learn to drive and Luiza is helping him apply to a local charity which helps disadvantaged young people to obtain a licence.

Weakness from an untreated childhood leg injury may hinder his dream of becoming a sports teacher but one way or another his heart is set on achieving independence and having his own home and family.

Since opening 24 years ago, Blythswood’s Daniel Centre has helped 140 young men to acquire basic life skills normally learned through family relationships, equipping them to participate in mainstream society.