Helga Sellu

Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Helga was born and lives in Sierra Leone. She graduated with an HR degree but her vision and passion was always to work with disadvantaged young people and so she now works full time for Teams4U looking after the various in country projects.

Helga lives in the capital Freetown with her daughter and sister.

“Experience they say is the best teacher, little did I realised the intensity of the statement until I became a victim of what experience has taught me. I was once harassed sexually, abused and molested when I was a child trying to be educated. It was an emotional, psychological and social torture that I went through. Was it the fault of my parents? This answer was definitely no as they tried their best to let me be educated but the economic situation was not favourable for them as at that time. It was during this period I was faced with all forms of abused.“

“I however transcended over them all and today I am part of the Teams4U squad. The journey started when I first met with the team from UK who came for a humanitarian visit to Sierra Leone. I was introduced to them by my Pastor and we had some brain storming conversation and later agreed upon establishing a Vocational Centre that will cater for deprived youth especially women. At the centre, I serve as the coordinator for the program with the focus of reducing the rate of dependency of women and help them be partners in development to the house and family which will have a ripple effect to the community and society as a whole.“

Home Of Hope

Ben and Ana Boingeanu

Location: Braila, Romania

Ben and Ana are one of 4 pairs of house parents in a private orphanage run by the Evergreen Foundation.

They are parents to 12 children of all ages up to 18 but also have close contact with those who have left already. Many have succeeded in getting to university and that will help getting a good job.

In 2018 Ben and Ana partnered with Teams4u in distributing shoeboxes over a very large area in the county of Braila.

Sunlight Camp

Nicu and Elizabetha Dinu

Location: Tulcea, Romania

Married to Elizabetha who helps in the kitchen preparing food for the children.

Nicu and his wife run an after schools club where they receive a meal and help with homework and can enjoy the games area both inside and out. 

In the summer he runs several residential kids camps for poor children and those less able giving them a chance to take part in a wide range of crafts, games and even river boat trips on the Danube.

In 2018 Nicu partnered with Teams4u in the distribution of shoeboxes in the Danube Delta including some small islands only accessible by boat.

Friends Hope For Humanity

Raul Gherle

Location: Oradea, Romania

I was involved in the area of social care for the last 20 years in different forms, from volunteer to CEO of organisations. Most of the time I was a project manager for a variety of projects, fostering, school reintegration, adoption, homeless, families in needs, single parents support. I was born and grew up in the middle of a nation fighting with poverty, corruption and several other needs. I know very well the problems we faced because it was not stories I was told, but the fact that I lived through it here in Romania.  During all of this time I learned from the people that to do this social work better I needed to involve my heart and my skills.

At this moment we work with homeless people and poor families. We have 4 meetings per week. Every Saturday at THE ‘Friends’ HUB (this is where we also have our office) we give food for more the 25 people, from there we invite the ones with special needs or different needs to come in the following week Tuesday and Thursday to talk, to have a warm drink and something small to eat.

We work with them to solve different issues that they may have. We work on identity paper, disability, social assistance, medical support, social income, school file etc. Every Friday evening there is a meeting in The ‘Friends’ Hub for girls and young ladies. This meeting is to give advice and support and is organised by several girl volunteers. We are also involved with the shoeboxes distribution in partnership with T4U at the Christmas time.

Stefan Cel Mare University

Lucian & Aurelia Pascut

Location: Suceava, Romania

I am currently a physics professor and researcher at Stefan Cel Mare University, Suceava (USV). Before returning to Romania for my full-time job at the University, I have been living in various countries like the USA, the UK and France, where I was studying and doing research. Since 2012, while I was in the US, I started sponsoring children in orphanages and since 2019, when I returned back to Romania, I got involved in helping/motivating children from orphanages to go to the university.

Over the last few months, I got involved in helping the refugees of the Ukraine crisis through the “USV Refugees Counselling Centre” which was set up at the Stefan Cel Mare University (USV) in Suceava. In helping the refugees, we had help from the Teams4u charity. In addition, working together with Teams4u charity I manage to distribute a lot of humanitarian aid to the refugees inside Ukraine. time.

Life For Kids

Dima and Katya Nachyna

Location: Minsk, Belarus

Dima was once a street kid in Minsk. After serving as a paratrooper in Belarus he is now married to Katya. Katya is from Ukraine and at the age of 12 had to bring up her siblings as her mother was a drug addict and her father was in prison.

• There are over 27.000 orphans in Belarus.
• Every other orphan commits a crime.
• One in five becomes homeless.
• One in seven attempts a suicide.
• Only 16% start families.
• Only 1% gets higher education.

Dima and Katya run an organisation called ‘Life for children’ where each day they visit orphanages. Weekly they attend 4 orphan schools with 460 children. Their team hold cooking clubs monthly. They also run summer camps in Mogilev for orphans and young adults who have gone through the orphanage system and need a  new start in life

In 2019 they facilitated a national training conference on foster training. They also are challenging families to consider fostering

Their hope next is to hold another training conference for the care givers and care workers

Teams4u support the summer camps they run and also support them through monthly donor sponsorships.

Alexandru Sanduleac

Location: Cupcini, Republic of Moldova

History : Born in Ukraine to a missionary family in 1973, and when the family fled soviet persecution, moved to Moldova. Father was ordained as pastor, mother sang in church choir. Organized and conducted church brass orchestra with 35 participants and wrote arrangements. After graduating moved to Cupcini.

 Involvement with Teams4u : Since autumn 2019, Christmas boxes distribution planning and coordination in Moldova.