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Community Group

Christmas festivities begin

NOW Friday last saw what I suppose was Ireland’s launch of the Christmas festivities. The nine-o clock news music came to an end and up popped Ryan Tubridy. All the children of Ireland were allowed to stay up late for the toy show and the ‘Official launch” of the Irish Christmas festivities

As Kilkenny gets ready for our Covid19 interrupted Christmas Yulefest our Twin City in Malbork is getting ready for its 31st edition!

Soon Malbork will start the 31st edition of the “Christmas in Art” Festival. For over 30 years, together with its citizens they have been creating one of the most important cultural events in Malbork, which has become part of our Malbork tradition. The festival has been enriching the Christmas and New Year period for years, and thanks to the whole community can actively and creatively participate in fes-

Community Group

The abandoned children of Romania

PART TWO

IN this week’s edition we will look at the adoptions that happen by virtue of love and compassion for children separated from their parents.

In these cases, the sacri cial capacity of the adoptive parents is remarkable. Such a motivation brought after 1990 many parents from all over the world, to adopt “unhappy little ones from Romania”. e parents came from America to a country like Romania, at the end of the world, to adopt a child. ey wanted to adopt them even if they had an obvious disability, hereditary or acquired after separation from the parents. e e orts of these parents are best described by an adoptive mother from Austria, who adopted a child from Romania. e day the adopted child returned home from school complaining about the misdeeds of his mocking colleagues by telling him that he was adopted, his mother taught him to answer: “Yes, I am adopted! at means my parents loved me so much that they went out into the world to look for me and to bring me home. e children who went abroad arrived in loving families, who welcomed them with open arms and called them from the rst moment our son or daughter. is is also the case with Bryan in 1991. A vemonth-old baby weighing less than three kilograms passed from his father’s hands to those of Geraldine, an Irishwoman. For the frail baby, that moment seemed just a hug that changed with another, but it was the moment when his life, his destiny, his luck changed.

In the early 1990s, the Mintons saw on television the images of the orphanages of horror, with the eternally lost children of Romania and decided to go to Romania. ey requested the help of a “guide” who helped foreign nationals nd children to adopt. ey found Elijah, a malnourished baby who had two older brothers at home. e child was so frail that his parents thought he would not survive and even thought of leaving him somewhere in an orphanage, but his mother couldn’t do that, Bryan says. ey ended up giving him to the Mintons. “I know they gave me to save me. ey gave me because they couldn’t take care of me and because I wouldn’t have survived.”

When they had to give the child away, his mother could not go down stairs and put him in the arms of another woman. His father did it. Did his adoptive parents buy him from his natural parents?

“I never asked and I never want to know. If I found out that I was bought, it would be like having a price. I don’t want my life to have a price, Bryan answers. It is one of the few things he does not know for sure about adoption and his relatives in Romania.

Arriving in Ireland in 1991, the child blossomed. His mother, a psychiatric nurse, and his father, the head of a hospital, gave him all the opportunities to grow, to develop, to become whatever he wants to be. ey encouraged him to do sports, they helped him overcome the di culties in mathematics, to make a portfolio for college. He studied design in Ireland for two years and concept development in the Netherlands for one year. As a diploma thesis, he made a lm that tells in extremely emotional scenes, the story of nding his family and his Romanian origins. Only one person is missing today from his life story, the one Bryan longed to meet, his natural mother, who died before Bryan could see her.

International adoptions were blocked by Romania in 2004, due to the scandal triggered by tra cking in children from orphanages or simply sold by their own families. In 17 years, however, things have changed, Romania has joined the European Union, the legislation has been tightened and adapted to European norms, and the protection system has improved.

Now, after 30 years, the classic orphanages have closed their gates forever and the children abandoned by their parents, in incomparably smaller numbers than before 1989, live in family-type houses and apartments, and are cared for by foster carers or are in family placement with relatives or foreign families.

tival activities in the area of various fields of creativity – music, literature, theatre and art.

The activities planned as part of the “Christmas in Art” Festival are possible thanks to the commitment and work of people who have been creating this Festival for years, for which our great friend Mayor of Malbork, Marek Charzewski thanked all the contributors and Volunteers for their years of dedication.

This year, the Organizing Committee of the Festival, with the support of the Malbork Center for Culture and Education, Radio Malbork, the Municipal Public Library, the Sports and Recreation Center, the District Art Center, the State Music School of the first degree, the Malbork Pantry, the Parish of St. John the Baptist and other institutions, prepared many festival activitiess that attract people from all the nearby cities and towns.

All residents and visitors will have access to a prepared festival calendar, which is available on the websites of the City of Malbork, the Malbork Center for Culture and Education and individual institutions cocreating the festival. Everyone is invited to participate in the Municipal Santa Claus Party on December 6th, an outdoor performance with a Christmas and Santa Claus theme combined with fun and illumination of the City Christmas Tree and Christmas lighting. A novelty will be the Christmas City Fun on ice with Christmas hits, which provides free admission to the ice rink for people dressed in clothes with a Christmas theme. Of course, as part of the festival’s attractions, there will be various competitions, classes, workshops, games, concerts, exhibitions and performances. So, there are a lot of attractions ahead of for all.

Now in Kilkenny we have the Yule fest and like our friends in Malbolk we encourage you to participate in festival activities, which will certainly provide us with enduring sensations and impressions in the sphere of culture