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September 29, 1998Woman reaches halfway around the world to help save orphansRosalind Stump plans her fourth trip to aid the street children of RomaniaBy SCOTT ANDERSONRecord-Eagle staff writer CHARLEVOIX - An enduring symbol of a fallen and brutal dictatorship - the penniless and homeless street children of Romania - would seem to have little to offer. Halfway around the world, though, Charlevoix area resident Rosalind Stump may need them almost as much as they need her. In January, Stump, 53, will return for the fourth time to Romania to help build a kitchen for a makeshift orphanage. Through the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church in Petoskey, she's already done missionary and fund-raising for a home for 15 to 45 boys and girls who otherwise would have to live on the streets. Now she's pooling 21 other volunteers from around northwestern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula for the kitchen project this winter. The kitchen would allow the Romanian woman who tries to feed the children who literally live in the sewer to keep warm. Organizing it all is a mammoth endeavor for anyone, particularly someone with cancer. Stump was diagnosed five years ago with breast cancer. She thought she had it beat, but last November just before her third trip to the country, cancer was found in her bones and had spread to her lung. Her doctor gave her permission to proceed with upcoming project but only for two weeks. "Everybody thought I was crazy to do this," she said, after savoring a sip of a strawberry milkshake at the Petoskey Big Boy. "You set goals. My five-year goal for me was a real milestone. I had been sick for quite a bit. And later they kept saying you're OK, you're OK, but I knew I wasn't." The decision to try another trip to the country became clear to Stump through her faith and by watching the Romanian woman, Laura, and her father, a pastor for the church, run the inadequate kitchen everyday in the city of Arad, 15 miles from the Hungarian border. She likened their battle against poverty with her battle with cancer. "I can either allow the disease to consume me or I can allow myself to take charge, to do what I can do to fight the disease and keep on living," she said. Under the authoritarian rule of communist dictator Ceausescu, who was overthrown in 1989, women were forced and reimbursed by the government to have as many children as possible to keep the country's army strong. When Ceausescu's dictatorship fell to rebellion, many families could not afford to feed so many mouths without government assistance. Many parents turned their children over to orphanages or abandoned them. "They run like packs and live in the sewer," Stump said of the children. "They live together, they steal together, they do what they can to survive. The government has labeled them the 'talking animals.'" Stump told volunteers at a meeting Monday that the trip is as much about nurturing and loving the children as it is about building a kitchen. She told them they risk the possibly of getting head lice just from hugging the children. "You can always go to a doctor to remove the lice, you can't go back to give a kid a hug," she said. Philip Pfaltzgraff, pastor for the Petoskey church, said Stump's dedication to the project in the face of her illness is amazing. "To me it's a huge project," he said. "A church has got to have a vision that takes us out of the walls. Having Roz do this is a big part of that." Stump, a former Charlevoix school bus driver who now works part time at Integrity Auto Repair and South Point Auto Sales, said she's trying to raise money for the estimated $20,000 project. That price tag does not include airfare and other expenses. The group of volunteers includes two licensed contractors to help reshape the kitchen, which has inadequate plumbing, a tiny refrigerator and a feeble stove. Stump wants to buy all of the new appliances in Romania to support the local economy instead of shipping them overseas. |
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