MISSIONARY OFFERS HELP TO ROMANIAN CHILDREN

Heike Klein helps Romanian children who don't have anyone else to care for them. It is her mission, and the work is supported by churches around the world.

Klein, 34, works with a children's clinic in Romania that houses infants and toddlers who have been abandoned or are severely handicapped or developmentally delayed.

Klein spent several days in Cape Girardeau this week as part of a visit to friends in the United States. She spoke Sunday at New Plymouth Community Church, telling the congregation about her mission work. Fred Poston, pastor of the church, helped to start Klein's home church in Germany.

Klein has been working at the clinic for 4 1/2 years. She previously had been a geriatric nurse in Munich, Germany.

Many of the children, mostly girls, at the clinic have been abandoned by their families because of illnesses, handicaps or because the family was too poor to care for them, said Klein.

Klein plays games, holds the children and tries to help speed up their development. About 50 percent of the children will go to orphanages after they leave the clinic at age 3.

Klein talked about Maria, a 10-month-old girl who needed surgery to repair a cleft palate. But the child cannot have the surgery without parental permission.

"We have sent letters to get the approval from her parents," Klein said. "But we got no response. We went to the village to look for them, but couldn't find her parents. Nobody knows where they are."

There is no birth certificate for the child on file at government offices, and until her grandparents or other relatives can be contacted she can't get approval for an operation, Klein said.

"She was probably abandoned because of the handicap," she said. "She is very delayed and cannot sit up on her own."

A foster-care program started by the clinic has helped many of the children because they can live with foster families instead of being sent to orphanages.

Most of the children that are adopted from the orphanages are adopted by American families, she said.

Klein first heard about the clinic during a visit. The clinic is run by an American and a Romanian. Many different churches help support the work of Our Little Home Foundation which helps train older children with job skills for use after they leave the orphanage.