When Calin left a government-run care home at the age of 18, he thought he could manage on his own. “The truth was, I couldn’t,” he admits, looking back 15 years at that most vulnerable stage in his life. “I soon found myself living on the street and I didn’t know what to do.”

So how did he get to where he is now, with a wife and a steady job and his own home? He traces his success back to the two years which he spent at the Daniel Centre, a residential programme run by Blythswood near Cluj, Romania, designed to give essential life-skills training to young men leaving the care of the state.

“I learned about the Daniel Centre in 2010 from a friend who had been there,” Calin remembers. “The programme helped me a lot. I learned to cook, to manage my money, to be a good worker and to save money so that I could get my own home.”

Asked what are his best memories of the Daniel Centre, Calin mentions the times of Bible study. “Even before that, when I was on the street, I once went into a church and the message affected me in a big way,” he says. “Now I attend a Pentecostal church in Floresti and have a few words of encouragement for the congregation.

“Before I came to the Daniel Centre, I was scared to talk to anyone. It taught me to interact with people. It was the right help at the right time. Elvira and Otilia [the Daniel Centre’s social workers at that time] were a great help to me. My life is rich and really blessed.”

Today the Daniel Centre continues to provide practical training and Christian guidance to those who lack the support normally provided by family. Social worker Daniel Ciupe says that young people leaving the protection system may find themselves facing responsibilities for which they are unprepared: “At the Daniel Centre we offer a safe and guided environment where they can develop the skills toward a stable and independent life.”

Calin: ‘The Daniel Centre gave me the right help at the right time’.