An aristocratic title is not enough to ensure a noble behaviour. A person's greatness comes from acknowledging the mistakes and agreeing to correct them.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
The Wichita Eagle
Rodica Comardici told an audience at the Heartspring center for children with special needs Tuesday afternoon that they were lucky.
"You have here a fairy tale," she said. "A fairy tale from Wonderland."
To show them why, she took the audience on a tour of a very different place for children with special needs -- Special School No. 11 in Bucharest, Romania, where she is the director.
Her presentation showed a school where nearly 300 children are taught with few supplies. The school has six donated computers, but no funds to buy chairs for use with them.
Children with special needs are often shunned in Romania, she said. Most parents are not involved with the school, and the teachers have to buy supplementary materials out of their $250 monthly salaries.
"The things (you) throw away would be a treasure," she said.
The lack of resources means the staff must be creative, using toothpaste as a painting material instead of watercolors and selling at local fairs and conferences crafts the students make to raise money.
Heartspring brought Comardici to America to present her with an international program award for the work being done at Special School No. 11.
She has spent the past two weeks observing and collaborating with her American colleagues, learning techniques she will take back to Romania.
Heartspring has also worked with schools in Croatia and China, sharing knowledge and letting faculty in other nations know they are not alone, president Gary Singleton said.
"We want to let them know we support them, and that we'll help them however we can," he said.
With her country opening up after nearly 50 years of Communism and about to join the European Union, Comardici was confident that the atmosphere for children with special needs will improve.
"I'm absolutely positive in 10 years or 20 we'll have a Heartspring in Romania," she said.
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