The Hearth Kept Warm

If you travel through Romanian villages, sometimes you come across small huts, crudely whitewashed, which may seem abandoned, but which are still homes to the elders of the village. Many times they have no children or grandchildren to rely on, but they do have plenty of stories. In such an area, close to the town of Onesti, in eastern Romania, no less than 196 houses were consumed by fire last year, and in half of those cases the cause was clogged chimneys that were neglected. Considering the situation, two associations, Zi de bine and SufletESTI had an initiative to sweep chimneys and provide firewood to homes of elderly people in remote villages, under the slogan The Hearth Kept Warm.

Claudia Udrescu, from the communication team with the Zi de bine Association, told us about it:

“ The Hearth Kept Warm is the project we started in December, and the name leads you to think of your grandparents, because we are taking care of 31 grandparents in villages around Onesti. As part of the project, we are sweeping and securing chimneys from their homes, who have almost no help from anyone, after which we provide them with firewood, to help them weather this winter, which will be cold, as usual. Also, right now we are in full economic crisis and a firewood crisis. After which we return after about two weeks to bring them some food, because they need to have some reserves in their pantry for this complicated winter.”

When thinking of their countryside grandparents, people remember the gentle people who told them stories to tuck them in, at the light shed by the flames in the hearth. For many adults nowadays, their grandparents' home means a house with a porch, with rose bushes, a dog, and a warm hearth. Time has passed, and some things have changed. What is left, though, are the old people still in those homes, waiting for someone to step in and help. Here is what Claudia Udrescu said:

“ The Hearth Kept Warm is a project we started with Mihai Zarzu. Mihai is the man who is at the core of the SufletESTI Association. Last year, Mihai started sweeping the chimneys of elderly people, the grandparents that he got to know through other actions. He started doing this because in the countryside we have many fires which are unfortunately caused by improperly swept chimneys, or defective ones. So this year we joined his association and a team of real chimney sweeps. It was great watching them in action in the field. We made a promise to sweep chimneys and provide firewood to help them through the winter, and to help them avoid chimney caused fires. The number of these fires has been on the rise, unfortunately. The problem here is that people are poor, and they put in the hearth and light on fire all kinds of refuse. We have a vicious circle, because then the chimneys get clogged, and the danger of fires is highest during the night, when people huddle at home to get warm.”

Winters are heavy in this area, and the sky is often very clear and full of stars, the sign that what follows would be a deep freeze. Claudia Udrescu told us:

“The grandparents we reach out to with this project have different life stories, have a pension or not, often they have very small pensions, about 1,000 lei per month, what is a farming pension, because they used to work in communist cooperatives. Some did not work, they just grew their own food. They either don't have children, or they have children who live far away, each has their own life stories, and all are living their old years with a lot of dignity.”

The plan is to provide the elderly with firewood to last them a year. We found that the oldest grandma aided by the good people at the two associations this month has already turned 93. The volunteers want these aging people to feel warmth, love, and gratitude, although they are not their direct relatives, as Claudia Udrescu told us:

“These people from a few villages in Moldavia that we are telling you about, that we take care of as part of the The Hearth Kept Warm project, remind us of our grandparents, because many of us are already at the age when we have none left. In this way, we are making them our grandparents, even if they are not. We invite everyone to join us in this campaign, you can find all the details on the website bine.ro, and we would be very grateful. We just want to have healthy grandparents next year too. We want them to light their hearth fires in safety, and to get through the winter healthy.”

If your birthday falls in December, you can actually donate it to this project. If not, you can still help, donating directly on the web page zidebine.galantom.ro/fundraising.