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Bright Beginnings, the flagship of I.C.A.F., is a
program which offers a solution to the much publicized problems of the thousands of abandoned
babies and children who are living in orphanages in Romania. Their problems include being tied to
their cribs because there are too few staff to care for them, never being held or touched, and
having little or no daily stimulation. The results of these problems include being behind in
school, a lack of motor coordination, the virtual lack of speech and language, little or no ability
to form attachments with others, and a lifetime of endless difficulties that serve to separate them
from their peers, their community, their world, and their Lord and Savior. |
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| The Bright Beginnings solution hires and trains young
Romanian women (whom we call educators) in an early childhood curriculum which teaches them the
developmental stages of children from birth to six years of age. In addition, educators learn basic
healthcare as well as the skills that correspond with each stage and a wide variety of games and
activities that serve to further develop these skills in the children. Each educator is able to
assess the developmental stage of each of their assigned 5 children and work to assist that child
in being able to bring their skills up to his chronological age. |
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Bright Beginnings trainers, last year, conducted the
first mainstreaming initiative in Romania. As part of this effort I.C.A.F. moved 30 children with a
wide range of developmental disabilities and developmental delays from a ‘home for the
irrecuperables’ to a baby unit at which Bright Beginnings is housed. The children range in age
from 6 to 16, but for the first time, they are learning language, how to interact with their peers,
and through the educators, to meet the Lord. Special education, and working with special needs
children, are neither taught nor practiced in Romania, and authorities from around the country have
come to watch the educators. This past August, Bright Beginnings trainers were invited to train
state orphanage teachers and staff members in Bulgaria. |
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| Bright Beginnings not only assists children, it also
teaches parents and state orphanage directors and staff throughout the country to become more aware
of the individual needs of their children, and their need for the Lord, as they see His mighty hand
reach out across Eastern Europe. Bright Beginnings is energized through prayer and the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit and it is dedicated to the glory of God. The children that Bright Beginnings
serves are our brothers and sisters through Christ. The children need your help to bring them into
a relationship with the Lord and to support the work of the educators. If you have the love of the
Lord in your heart that impels you to reach out to abandoned children, if you are experienced
working with special needs children, if you have experience teaching preschool, or if you feel
called to work with what many consider to be “the least of them”, then come with Bright
Beginnings on its next mission trip. |
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