Christian help and social assistance in Desești, Maramureș

The commune of Deseşti, in Maramureș County is a real magnet for cultural and social events.

Eugen Cojocariu and Ion Puican, 31.12.2025, 14:00

In the commune of Deseşti, Maramureș County (northern Romania), there is one of the eight churches in Maramureș County that were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999, the Wooden Church dedicated to the Holy Venerable Paraskeva. Beyond this famous wooden church, the Maramureș commune is a real magnet for cultural and social events. A painting camp and the “Deseşti Poetry Evenings” are organized in Deseşti, now renamed the “Nichita Stănescu Poetry Evenings”. Now, during the winter holidays, Eugen Cojocariu discussed with the parish priest Ioan Ardelean about the social and charitable projects, with European money, that he has implemented and is implementing in the parish community. How did it all start?

Father Ioan Ardelean: “We do not know our life path. It seems that the work we do ends up having an impact on us too. In 1998 we had a first project, it was with PHARE funding, in which children from the Baia Mare Placement Center were placed in families from our community. They were host families for children who did not have permanent, lasting ties with their natural family. And one of the children who came to leave with the villagers in the first parish also joined our own family. She was a girl from a family of 14 children. You see, it happened that we became a family with 14 children. Because other siblings from her family also came into our family. There have been several projects over time, such as projects for reintegration into the natural family, projects through which abandonment was prevented, through which placement centers were closed and several other projects that are more recent, on integrated services that are given to families, because we were accredited as a social services provider and we have licensed services, a day center, community assistance service for children and for the elderly.”

What social projects is Father Ioan Ardelean, parish priest in Deseşti, carrying out at the end of 2025? The father spoke to us in particular about the therapeutic power of art within the community’s social projects: “Now we are in full activity. The programs with multi-fund financing, such as the “Operational Program for Inclusion and Social Dignity” open up opportunities for a social, cultural complex that we have called “Childhood Village”, where grandparents and grandchildren will meet. A day center for the elderly is now being implemented, with medical rehabilitation activities. A multifunctional center with cultural and sports facilities will come next. There are projects that have remained close to our hearts, such as the “Art and Solidarity Camps” that are related to all the other projects, and the “Brâncoveanu Martyr Saints Day Center” and the projects that are being implemented in this “Childhood Village” complex. Everything will be influenced by the beauty, the joy of art, because it is therapeutic. We started the mentoring relationship with this thought in one of the projects, “Art and Solidarity Camps”, so that they, the children in institutions, could vent all the feelings that they had gathered in their souls during the moments when they were unhappy, so that they could take in the beauty that is in the vividness of color in front of the canvas. I say it again, we do not believe in coincidence. Things end up having an impact on us too.”

At the end of the discussion, Father Ioan Ardelean gave us more details about the importance of artistic projects in Desești, about the history of art camps for children, and about the heritage gathered over time in Maramureș: “We have our doors open to all artists. It is true that we have had the great joy of having here people who have reached exceptional creative heights, such as Horea Cucerzan, who came many times, Dumitru Macovei or Aurel Dan from Maramureș, many, many artists. There are artists from all over the country who were won over, caught in our initiative by the generosity of the idea of ​​being with children. If at first it was children from foster care centers, from the structure of family-type homes, now we have our own target group of over 100 children who attend the activities of the day centers and who enjoy meeting with the artists. These camps have been organized for 22 years. Every year there are over 50 worthy visual artists who come and meet with the children. If 12 years ago we had this annual camp, and there was this hustle and bustle in the entire village, because the children were placed in the villagers’ homes, now we are moving towards the idea of ​​a summer school. There are groups, 5-7 groups and more annually, who come and work with the children and leave behind their works. Works that are their sacrifice, their gift to support these projects that need resources. On the other hand, it is a heritage that is created in the “Art and Solidarity Collection”, as we call it, located within the “Brâncoveanu Martyr Saints Day Center for Families and Children”, and from here, it will be placed in the “Childhood Village” complex.” Said father Ioan Ardelean in the end of Society today. (LS)