MARCH 2025 NEWSLETTER

Fr. Sean was finally able to make a trip to Pro Vita in mid-March and brought back lots of news.

But first —A very enthusiastic ThankYou  to all the donors who made Holiday. End of Year and January contributions.  The Board’s matching commitment of $2500.00 was quickly subsumed, causing us to eventually make a matching contribution of $12,500!  Our donors included Wendell B., Mary Ann S., Cara C., Beth & Jamie M., Fotini C., Narcis A., Rafael A., Samsung (corporate matching), Ho K., Matthew C., Steve K., Jennifer D., Adrienne F., Matthew C., David C., Dennis & Leigh M., Dibby C., Barbara & Harry H., Phyllis S., Mary & Hank Z., and several Anonymous donors. Most recently, donations came from Maria, M., Fotini C., and Wendell B..

In late January, Donna attended the annual St.John’s Feast at St. Mary’s Orthodox Church in Falls Church, VA.  Fr. David Subu encouraged his parishioners from the pulpit to attend  the home-cooked Romanian meal following Mass and contribute to Pro Vita.  Over $5,000 was raised and sent to the AFPVO.  Fr. Subu has also promised to make the Parish’s contribution part of the annual budget, ensuring that we can expect a very generous contribution every year.  All of you and the St. Mary’s parishioners are extremely generous and AFPVO and Pro Vita are so grateful!

News from Romania — The Ukrainian elderly, their caretakers, and Fr. Roman returned to Ukraine, leaving the large house in Valea Plopului after 2 1/2 years in need of major refurbishment.  Whether to restore or tear down and rebuild is still an open question.  The large freezer units share the property with the old house.  To properly accommodate the Romanian elderly who had moved to various locations so that Pro Vita could house the Ukrainians in March 2022, Pro Vita is in process of constructing 4 new Elder houses about 1.5 kilometers from the Social Center.

Pro Vita now has approximately 450 beneficiaries, 100 of whom are Ukrainian.

Mihail and Melanie have finally received all the permissions needed and have some donated materials to start building a new house for some of the Ukrainian teens on the Social Center property.  AFPVO has sent $20,000 to Pro Vita to start the construction of this 4 bedroom house, underwritten by a very large contribution from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the U.S.. Much gratitude to His Eminance, Metropolitan Antony for the amazingly large gift.

The remodeled Police Station which morphed from being the new Admin Center to housing the Ukrainian teens’ overflow is now providing a medically secure home for the Ukrainian teenagers with HIV.

Taking a fun break during the long Romanian winter, many of the Ukrainian teens enjoyed a day at the Zoo and the Games Arcade  They are teenagers, after all.

The Ukrainian government is still sending teachers to Pro Vita on a rotating basis to maintain the kids’ fluency in Ukrainian and other subjects.  Almost all the teens attend a special education school in Valenii de Munte; a few are in the local high school. After several years of residence they now speak Romanian fairly fluently, given their intellectual disabilities.

Several of the long-time Romanian residents have moved on - Alexandra is now working for Amazon in Germany; Nicoletta and Christina have reunited with their father and older sister in Romania.

Spring means that all the bikes donated by KPMG/Bucharest and ridden hard will be repaired or replaced as the Ukrainian teens have grown (as teens do) .  The trampolines also need replacement as they were a favorite outlet for teen energy.

Another winter is passing with little snow so Mihail’s snow removal business has morphed into doing a variety of concrete and foundation work in order to raise some money. 

Pro Vita did receive an 80,000 Euro, multi-year grant from the European Union, and the Tanases are once again working on identifying and training local residents on setting up small entrepreneurial businesses.  An earlier effort was de-railed by the Covid epidemic.  They also received a smaller EU grant which enabled them to hire a resident social worker.

With everything else on their plates, the Tanases decided to postpone the 100K fund-raiser run that had been planned for 1 June 2025.  Planning for this event is so very time-consuming.

Despite everything that fills their days, the Tanases have decided to once again accept volunteers and the volunteer work goals will be defined in advance to ensure their time is productive.

Just a reminder — Pro Vita continues to face financial challenges.  Your contributions to AFPVO go directly to support Pro Vita’s incredible work.  Without this financial lifeline, Mihail and Melanie would not be able to continue providing the warm, loving care to so many.  Don't forget to check if your employer will match your gift!

Please consider making a donation via PayPalGiving (charges no handling fee; please fill out your identuty data unless you want to remain Anonymous),  regular PayPal or via check sent to:

AFPVO

45001 Audubon Square, Apt 507

Ashburn, VA 20147

Happy Spring!,

Fr. Sean Cavanaugh, Chairman

Donna Shelton, President

Frank Doe, Treasurer

Kerry Garikes, Design & Communication