The Salvation Army opened the Patvērums Childrens Day Centre in March 2002 to provide a safe environment for underprivileged children from the local community in Riga.
Monday, February 19, 2007
This week...
It's a busy week for us with many different things going on.
Today and Tuesday Inese and Vineta are out and about doing some home visits, before then centre opens for the children, as we have two families in very difficult situations at the moment. Hopefully they will be able to help, support and offer advice to them.
On Wednesday we have an interview with one lady for the Social Workers position at 13:30 EET. Unfortunately only 3 people applied for the job. One wasn't suitable and another has already found work so that leaves us with one! Let's pray she's the right one! Then at 14:00 we have the visit of a lady from the Sweden Sponsorship department.
Thursday is a 'normal' day, we'll wait and see what that means and then on Friday we have the visit of 3 people from America who are visting various children's homes and centres in Riga!
Last week we had the Work inspection. It went well and we should be able to collect the paper we need from them this week. There are still few more things to get done but we're getting there slowly!
Last Saturday evening Graeme and myself along with Chris and Goran (new Regional Commanders) had the pleasure of being 'honoured guests' at this years charity Burns night supper organised by the British Chamber of Commerce. The reason for this was that for 2007 and 2008 The Salvation Army is their chosen charity and this year the money raised is going to Patverums!
So Graeme, Chris and Goran put their best Salvation Army uniforms on and I had to do my best to look suitably 'dressed up' with a bump for a black tie event!
As you will see from the pictures below we enjoyed ourselves and the evening went really well. The 4 of us had the honour of being part of the procession walking in behind and Scottish bagpipe player, British Ambassador and his wife and joining them on the top table! Not something Graeme and I thought we'd be doing when we set up Patverums almost 5 years ago!
Graeme's put a lot of hard work into this over the past year so we're really thankful to him and although we're still waiting for the final figures to come in it we know that the event has raised around 4,000ls (that's about the same in pounds) for the centre which is AMAZING!!!
The photo's are from www.bccl.lv The couple behind Graeme and I in the second photo are the British Ambassador and his wife!
After yesterdays post I feel the need to write again and update those of you that regularly read!
The day continued to be a bit stressful but by the end of it, together with a number of wonderful staff on Headquarters, we had got to the bottom of what was needed. So next week Inese, Vineta and I will be working on these extra papers. One does involve another inspection so we will hopefully be able to arrange that quickly.
To update you on the leadership of Patverums, last week Chris and I met with Inese as she had shown an interest in taking on the leadership of the centre. Inese has been with us for over 3 years and has been a key person in the life, work and development of Patverums. After a good meeting we agreed that this week Inese and Chris would meet and look at the job description of the centre leader (Chris and I wrote it on Monday!!) and then she would be asked to make a decision.
So today at 11am EET they met and I am very pleased to say that she has signed it and so from 19th March will be taking over Patverums as I will be going on maternity leave then. I will still be the leader on paper until August when our contract finishes and we return to the UK, but she will be leading the centre!
It's a huge step for us all and for the centre. It's a daunting but exciting time!!
Inese and I now need to spend time going through the day to day jobs, paperwork etc of the centre. We also need to write a letter to inform the families of the changes.
We are still advertising for a new social worker. This week we have had 2 CVs come in, both are good so once the various adverts have finished we will organise interviews and hopefully find a suitable person for the position.
Finally, Vineta and Irena are in and amongst all these changes and so I'm very aware that it's a lot for them too. Having a new member of staff join the team and have a former colleagues become their boss!
During all these stressful times I have been aware of God's timing in all of it. Someone told me a few weeks ago that God raised up Patverums and He has it all in his hands. I totally believe this, even when I maybe haven't acted as if I do, and I know that God still has great plans for the centre.
I spent about 45 minutes this morning with Ilga (SA's director of social work) going through all the final bits of paper that need to be done to apply for the official statues. I thought we were close and in one way we are but suddenly having these new things ready makes it feel like it's so far away again. The main problem is my lack of Latvian as these final papers don't involve inspections and practical things but explainations as to how we do things at the centre, why we do them, who does them etc and so I'm feeling a bit lost (this of course is not for the first time and I'm sure it wont be the last!!!).
Inese and Vineta are arriving now so in a bit I will go down and show them what needs to be done and hope they get it!
