Proton June 2013

One of Proton’s primary projects in 2013 is in Moldova, said to be the poorest nation in Europe. The history of this nation tucked behind Romania is intriguing and fascinating as you begin to explore some of the relatively new history. Prior to the Second World War it was a part of Romania, post Second World War the country was annexed from Romania and became a part of the Russian republics. Russian is rarely spoken here but Romanian seems to be the preferred language for communication and interaction. The nation has a number of anomalies. Unknown to most people in Western Europe, it’s a huge wine producing nation with 14 kilometers of cellars underneath the capital city Chisinau. Most of this wine goes east, very little comes west.

Official statistics tell us that the average salary is $100US a month. Having made several trips there in the last 12 months one would find it quite difficult to believe that it is possible to live on that amount of money. The diaspora is constantly sending money back to families who are in this landlocked nation to supplement what income can be generated from inside the country. The international office of migration indicates that Moldova per head per capita receives more money from its residents outside the country than any other nation.

Another intriguing point of consideration is the orphanage system, more recently the term has been used and they are now classified as boarding schools. They take small children from as young as 3 up to 16 years of age. There are currently over 60 orphanages caring for 8,000 orphans. Most of these orphans would be economic orphans as parents have left the country to find work and employment elsewhere or there was an inability to financially sustain the children that they have given birth to and so put them in the hands of the state. These care homes are quite challenging environments in terms of culture and demeanor, and the fabric of most of these homes are in need of great repair.

At 16 years of age the children are given about $30US plus a bus ticket to their place of birth and told to fend for themselves. It is incredibly challenging after being institutionalized all their lives to then have to face a society that has very few safety nets.

It has come to the attention of the Proton Foundation that an economic future has to be found for these young people. Either they will leave the country like many hundreds of thousands of others or they may well find themselves in the darker side of society. In June a group of entrepreneurs taking part in Global Shift, will be visiting Moldova to explore the possibilities of what business, commercial enterprise or social enterprise can be created to employ orphans as they leave the orphanages and to assist them in career progression and to establish an economic future for them.

Plans are underway in the UK, to reform youth custody, the aim being to see young offenders appropriate-ly punished while at the same time learning to take responsibility for their actions and gaining the skills and qualifications they need to lead productive, law-abiding lives. A recent Government consultation document readily admits that the current system costs too much and, with over 70% of young offenders going on to reoffend within a year of release, it is delivering poor results both for young people and communities.

The Government therefore wants to consult with agencies and NGO’s to consider a radical new approach to youth custody.

Chris Grayling MP, The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, recently stated, ‘Custody provides the chance to end the chaos, to confront the multiple challenges these children face, and to impose boundaries that have all too often been lacking. But that is not enough. It is through education that young offenders will gain the qualifications and skills for employment, as well as come to understand the importance of individual respon-sibility, self-discipline and self-respect.’

There are 1,500 young offenders currently held in Young Offender Institutes, local authority secure units and privately run secure training centres across England and Wales. The latest reoffending statistics for 2011/12 show 73% of young offenders reoffended within a year of leaving custody compared with 47% of adult offenders.

One of the Foundation’s charitable aims seeks to promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential as individuals, responsible citizens and members of their local, national and international communities. Proton is currently working here in the UK to develop partnerships and programmes that will support those coming out of the criminal justice system, and alsoincludes those that may be at risk of offending or re-offending. We are seeing this as one of our key priorities in 2013 for our development work. Our vision primarily is to create a holistic support programme, that is not just based on trying to get people trained and ready for employment but is devoted to caring for and supporting every aspect of their lives: eg social needs, educational needs, housing needs, spiritual and mental needs and physical needs. Our secondary objective will be to help integrate them into the community, preparing them for work and in some cases providing work training opportunities. The scope of this initiative is massive, but already we are in dialogue to see this achieved through collaboration and partnership.

Our Re:Style Charity Shop in Coventry is just one small seed of this much bigger programme. We have seen over 20 volunteers work with us since the store opened some 9 months ago. We have had the pleasure of seeing several go on into paid employment with other employers on the strength of that experience and our references. Only this week one of those fortunate volunteers stated as he shook hands to leave ... “This shop has been a God-send. It has kept me going. Without the shop, I would simply have given up. Can I come back and have coffee from time to time, I love working here!” This is why we do what we do!! Of course ... our door will always be open.

Poiana, a small community 6 kilometres outside of Constanta in Romania where poverty and affluence live side by side.

Travel has been an unbelievable educator for me. Having been to 78 nations, 5 different continents, into all kinds of different economic zones; from the wealthy to the poor, I’ve met incredible people in all of those zones and learnt amazing life lessons.

A few weeks ago we had another one of those rich experiences as the Proton team travelled to Poiana, a small community 6 kilometres outside of Constanta in Romania. There we met Alex and Heather Chalmers, a Scottish couple who are the salt of the earth, who are immersing their lives into bringing community transformation in a village that is faced with incredible extremes. For example, we had the opportunity of meeting an older woman who squats in an ex communist government building and has to live on $30US per month. Then in contrast we drove down a street that had large palatial homes that city boys have built and use as weekend retreats, travelling out for respite from their busy working weeks.

Unemployment in this community is over 80%; there are one or two small factories but most people are not in a position to gain regular work. There is some seasonal work through the summer period as people labour in the fields and bring in the harvest. We were confronted head on with systemic property as a result of a lack of employment, little opportunities for personal progression and not much of a stimulus in the education system to progress beyond basic reading and writing skills.

This community has incredible needs and they are beginning to be met by the Chalmers as they give away their lives to bring social and spiritual change in this community. What confronted us as a team was the fact that there would be no route out of systematic poverty unless some form of employment could be created for the local peo-ple to provide for themselves, their families and for their futures. Deeply stirred about this challenge, we have arranged a Global Shift Week that starts with two days in London, two days in this community and three days in Moldova. Taking a team of experienced entrepreneurs that will help us brainstorm, blue sky think and create a pathway for people to have a better future, a better life and secure pathway out of poverty and into economic prosperity.