Four years ago, Nicoleta Ionita (43 years old) was a person who needed help. She was living with her husband and children in one room, children were sleeping in bed, parents on the floor. And in these conditions, their big boy had excellent results at school, even if he was doing his homework on the floor or on the kitchen table. After their story was published on a national newspaper, a Swiss man had seen it and decided to help. They succeeded in building another room to their house, and with the construction materials that left decided to help another family in need, whose house had been burnt. And that was the beginning. Today, four years after, Nicoleta has an association that helps hundreds of children in need – and is another wonderful proof that if you have a good heart, think about the good of others and unconditionally help, good things will happen in your life.

In 2015, things were not easy at all for her and her family. Parents and two children were sharing one room in Targoviste, children sleeping in bed and parents on the floor. A national newspaper published their story, and afterwards a Swiss man contacted them, impressed and willing to help. And he did – initially sent her money to buy a bed, then more money to buy kids clothes for the Easter. “I told him children grew up, they did not need clothes, they needed a room of their own”, Nicoleta remembers, and the man told her it was a test, so she should buy construction materials and start doing another room.

Many other people helped, after the article was published – so when the second room was ready, constructions materials left. “I could’ve easily sold them, but few kilometers away from us a house had been burnt, the priest rebuilt a piece of it, and we donated the materials that we did not use”, Nicoleta says.

Help for hundreds of children in need

It was the moment a beautiful road started – after you get a lot of help, you decide to do yourself as much good as possible for others in need. Their protector continued in supporting them, so they set up an Association, called “Give and Help”, and started to do good to many others.

Other families got help. For one of them, for instance, they had built a new room – they were living 5 persons in one room only, and their daughter had excellent results at school. Then hundreds of children from two villages nearby got food for school package. “There are a lot of children who go school flemish”, Nicoleta explains, so she went to local church every two weeks on Sunday to give them food, sweets, fruits, to make themselves packages for school.

Last year did the same thing, in another village, every Sunday – took food for sandwiches to be made at school, “because there were children who did not feel good at school because of hunger”, she says. Her dream is to have an afterschool there – and she will certainly succeed in doing it.

Children got birthday presents, medical cases are helped. These days, 60 children had written letters for Santa Klaus – and good people buy for them what they wished. Other 100 presents are prepared for others.

When heart stops in a child’s hug

She was not alone on this road. Good people came near her, willing to help. “I don’t know if I know 30% personally. The rest are people who had seen what I’m doing”, she says.

All these years, wonderful people she had met and could help, changed her a lot. It’s something you can’t understands until you actually start doing good for others – what you do for them is wonderful, what you do for yourself is priceless.

“My heart stops every Sunday, once in two weeks, when I go to the church and children hug me as if they would never let me go. Good things we do turn back tenfold – not today, not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow but when you need it most. I think we all can be good – many of us don’t want to or we don’t care. We don’t take with us anything when we leave this world – behind us remain just people who will remember we had helped them in the most difficult times for them”, she says.

Her biggest satisfaction is when she sees children she had helped evolving – when realizing child’s road was changed in a good direction. “You will never meet a child who refuses help – the biggest satisfaction is when you see you had changed his road”, she says.

You can find out more about Give&Help Association on their Facebook Page, HERE, and on their website, HERE

PHOTOS FROM PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Do you know a very special person? Someone who has followed his dream, built it piece by piece, with passion, energy and lot of soul? An usual, simple person who did something in life, who you can identify with, who can be, for others, a source of inspiration? Tell me about that person and let’s tell the others his/her beautiful story. Write me at specialstories00@gmail.com, here, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.