Monday 15 December 2008

Letter to Santa Claus


As Christmas Day gets closer, children write letters to Santa and ask for the presents they wish. Some kids do more than that. This is a story that deeply touched me.

Students from a small village in Galati county (one of the poorest parts of the country) sold pies to their fellows villagers on Tuesday in order to collect money for the purpose of repairing their over 50 years old school. The action was rather an awareness call to the authorities concerning the precarious conditions in which children learn. The 200 students sold 200 pies and managed to obtain 200 Lei, that is almost 60 Euros.

The building is in an advanced state of decay. The walls are cracked, and the ceiling may collapse at any time. Overall, the school has six classrooms. In two of them no lessons can take place because the walls were cracked and there is a risk that students are wounded. Out of the other four remaining rooms, two are almost as affected as those closed.
The school's headmistress believes that the current building can not be rehabilitated because the structure of the resistance is seriously impaired. According to her, the place needs a new school. The local authorities have drawn up a draft for a new building, but the beginning of the work has been delayed from one year to another.

Contacted by telephone, the school general inspector said on Tuesday that he was up to date with the situation in the village and promised that he would follow it closely. "I know the situation there. In fact, I sent an inspector to take pictures. I made some efforts to start a rehabilitation and to bring the school to a normal state. For now, it's hard to estimate when it will be ready," the inspector said.

Does anyone reading this blog know Santa?

2 comments:

caluad said...

We all may know Santa, a particular Santa. The problem is the school needs something different. Not Santa, but Resposibility, as you label the entry, Justice, Comitmment.
And it's mroe difficult to reach these other Santas by letter.
Children's hearts are more powerful than politicians' ones. Unfortunately, the second group has the money.

ivasil said...

Unfortunately, it will always be so. And there comes a day when all kids find out that Santa is not real.