Projects

Creche heating and sanitary facilities

COUNTRY  |  Romania
PLACE/ CITY  |  Timisoara
YEAR  |  2003

Creche heating and sanitary facilities

After the Warmth for the Children Foundation was founded in 2003 from the Rensa initiative, it is up to the Foundation to spend the gifts that have come in (and fortunately still come in) to improve the conditions under which children are taught in schools in Romania. .

In 2003, three primary schools were provided with heating. For the fourth project, a kindergarten and crèche were chosen. This is located in the city of Timisoara. Why this choice? In this kindergarten, children between the ages of 4 and 6 are not only taught, but these children stay there all week because their parents are unable to care for the children during the week. The reason for this is that this concerns parents who or both work outside Timisoara and are only home for the weekend, or children whose parents are divorced or either parent has died. The heating system of this building functioned very poorly and there was no hot water. Children were washed with lukewarm / cold water, for which only 50 children were available for 50 children. The heating did not work because it concerned a district heating installation whose pipes were leaking. It was too expensive to repair these pipes as they ran under a block of houses.

The only solution was to install an individual heating system and disconnect the district heating. After consultation with the municipality, it agreed that a permit should be granted for the construction of such a central heating installation. That still had some feet, given the stricter regulations in the field of gas installations. Eventually, the permit came loose, and the municipality agreed to install a gas pipeline and pay for the rebuild needed to make a boiler house and a breakthrough in the outer wall of the school for access to this boiler house.

Then the work could begin and a budget was made for the purchase and construction of the installation. To save as much cost as possible, it was decided not to replace the existing cast iron radiators, but to rinse them clean. This was a pagan job but much cheaper than installing new radiators. Labor costs in Romania are very low, hence. In addition, a Ferroli boiler of 135 kW was installed and a stainless steel chimney flue was installed outside the facade. Thanks to the donation from a few companies, we were also able to immediately install a large boiler so that there would be enough hot water to wash the children.

Finally, the job started in July during the school holidays. In early October, everything was ready just in time for winter. The municipality took the opportunity to paint the entire school building from the inside, to install new laminate floors in the classrooms and to purchase new school furniture. The squeaky beds for the children were also replaced by new sturdy cots.

The director, Mrs. Vasilica Filip, and the school team were very happy, and of course the children too! After the renovation, the number of children increased to the maximum capacity of 75. Because parents hear from each other that the conditions at this day-care center are so good, they take their children elsewhere to place them at this day-care center!

It is great to experience again that our help ends up in the right place and is certainly not a drop on a glowing plate! For many children and their parents, this is a huge improvement and it means a lot.