30.07.06 White Cross Mission Update
Lately, our money has been going specifically towards the Children's Development Programme a scheme which entails work-related learning for the residents of Casa St Nicholas. The programme was such a success that all but two of our orphans are now undergoing the Supported Living Programme this scheme looks at the mix of skills the orphans have, and divides up working roles' for the orphans so that they can get that step closer towards independence (for example, one will be focusing on cooking, another on cleaning, etc.)
Adam and Eva, unfortunately, were unable to complete the SLP,
and so are going to be moved to Casa St Peter, where they will
be able to receive 24 hour attention. 
As for the others however, as they learn more and more, we will
be able to reduce the number of paid staff working at Casa St
Nicholas, and the orphans will become pretty much self-sufficient a
rather unprecedented notion.
Still the highest-flyer of the lot, Gabor has now been promoted from the slaughtering of pigeons and chickens to the slaughtering of pigs, and with the money he is earning, he has actually bought an old computer for the house which can play CDs and DVDs.
The White Cross Mission hopes that, in the next few years, four of the five farm-homes will become totally independent, and I have been assured that the One Percent Scheme's donations have definitely helped St Nicholas become one of those homes. This is massive for, as Jenny Townsend (WCM trustee) said, I was once told by the authorities that these children will never be able to do anything for themselves how nice to prove them wrong.Ross Dickinson, July 2006