Thanks to Victoria Dunford the Director of Mad-Aid and her Moldovan charity, we in the CWUHA had the chance to go back and see what things were like in Moldova since our previous trip in 2011 and, most importantly, visit our on-going project, the ‘Phoenix Centre’, an old school building that is being renovated and turned into a centre for disabled children. This new centre will have its official opening in early September.

The Tony Hawks Centre for disabled children in Chisinau, which we also visited, is an example of what can be done. That Centre provides much needed care and physiotherapy for disabled children whose families cannot afford treatment. We managed to provide most of this Centre’s wish list too with specialised zimmer frames, sensory toys, nappies, wipes, a sensory chair, sweets and CWUHA Anniversary Teddies, now known as ‘Tuzla Ted’. The British Ambassador Phil and his wife Jo both active supporters of the Tony Hawks Centre kindly turned out to help us unload and welcome us to Moldova.

Some of the aid we took was destined to be re-delivered to the to the Children’s Ward at the Oncology Hospital in Chisinau at the request of Diana, the Director of the Centre.

When completed, our Phoenix Centre will provide full time day care for around 30 children with varying degrees of disability. It will have physiotherapy rooms, massages, sensory equipment and language therapy. In total the Centre hopes to help around 400 children a year.

The majority of aid from our CWUHA vehicles was for the ‘Phoenix Centre’ and hundreds of vulnerable families. Thousands of pounds of aid such as food, bedding, clothing, pots & pans, dinner sets and microwaves were distributed to families via town halls or delivered directly to their homes.

Altogether, the May 2015 convoy was unbelievably successful. Everything we set out to do was accomplished. We are now looking forward to the September convoy and the opening of our Phoenix Centre then.

Finally, our sincere gratitude to Royal Mail who loaned us the wagons, CWU Branches who sponsor vehicles, BT for providing all our communication handsets and making a sizeable donation along with Walkers Union Solicitors used to purchase specialised equipment for the Phoenix and Tony Hawks Centres.