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Every story here is real, and it belongs to the person who lived it. These are glimpses of what happens when people show up for each other, again and again, in Essex and in Romania. Some are years in the making. Others are just beginning. What they have in common is simple: someone was loved, and something changed.
Yasmina is sixteen, one of nine siblings, and learned to carry responsibility early. Her father passed away when she was small, one of her brothers was born blind, and for a time her mother had to work away in another city. Yasmina stepped in: cooking, cleaning, caring for the family, in conditions that grew increasingly harsh. Then our team built them a new house, with space, heating and an indoor bathroom. While the build was underway, her mother came home, and the family was reunited.
With her mother's permission, Yasmina joined one of our centres as an intern, and Big Love now covers her scholarship so she has a little extra for herself and her family each month. In the centre she's always calm, always smiling, first to help with whatever needs doing, and a natural with the younger children in her care.
We've known Tisi since he was seven, helping with food, housing and school as his family moved often. He kept asking to stay with us, so we found a way. Now he's interning at Big Love Farm: working in the greenhouses, caring for the cows, and growing into a confident young man with people around him who believe in his future.
If you need help in Doi Moldoveni, there's a good chance someone will tell you to call Elisei. Need a job? He'll call around until he finds one. Struggling at school? He probably knows your teacher, and quite possibly the headteacher too. Need someone to pray with, or just a hug? Elisei will make time. "I love you" are words he says many times a day, and he means every one of them.
Elisei didn't have an easy path himself. When he needed it most, people from Outstretched Hands and local churches believed in him and gave him hope. Now, through Big Love's monthly support, he leads the centre, passing that same hope on to the children and families around him.
Eighteen years ago, a friend of ours adopted a little girl from an orphanage, a child carers said would never walk or talk. Loved, prayed for and cared for every day, she began to walk, then talk, then go to school. Today Iuliana is a qualified nurse, working at one of our centres, caring for children the same way she was once cared for.
Alongside Outstretched Hands, we run two children's centres in Romania, providing teachers, meals and education clubs for around 60 children across Oltenița and Vlad Țepeș. School bags and equipment help them arrive ready to learn. It's steady work that helps children build confidence and move successfully into local schools.
In May 2026, Kian and his fifteen-year-old daughter Niamh joined a Big Love trip to Romania, an experience neither of them expected to be quite so unforgettable. Niamh arrived thinking she'd mainly be helping with arts and crafts, but she quickly threw herself into everything: laughing with the children, building connections, and growing more confident with every day that passed. Watching her, Kian says, made him an incredibly proud dad.
For Kian, it was a week he'll never forget too, one that left him reflecting on gratitude and on what it means to give back. Both are returning: Kian this time to work alongside the community centre leaders, sharing skills that can strengthen the work already underway, in the hope of helping them do even more for the children in their care.
At Christmas, we put together food hampers and distribute them to families through Thriftwood School, Mildmay School and The Ark Centre in Essex. We ran the same initiative in Romania too. In 2025, we reached over 300 families across the UK and Romania with what they needed for a proper meal.
Reach Every Generation has become a brilliant part of the Big Love story, joining us both in the UK and in Romania. Their founder, Gavin McKenna, gives his time to work with young people, sharing honestly from his own story and encouraging them to recognise their value and believe their future can look different. That's taken him from youth nights in Chelmsford to sitting with young people at Teen Challenge in Romania, walking through addiction.
What we love about this partnership is that Reach Every Generation simply brings what they already carry: their experience, their story, their heart for young people, and uses it wherever it can help. You don't need to have everything figured out. Bring your people, your skills and your heart, and together we'll find where they can make a difference.
Blended Aromas is an independent UK brand hand pouring soy wax candles, made with care using simple, ethical ingredients. Kindness and community sit at the heart of what they do. They support Big Love's Hope Course by running candle making workshops: creative sessions where women connect, learn a new skill, and make something special to take home.
In 2025, Grant Builders and Murrill Build, two Chelmsford construction firms, joined us in Romania to help finish a new house. Working alongside the local team on the eaves and roofing, they brought practical knowledge and steady hands, making sure the home was safe and secure for the family who'd live in it.
We're grateful for the support of Starpowa, who provide vitamin gummies for children at our centres in Romania. Shared regularly alongside the wider care they receive, it's a small, practical way of supporting their health and wellbeing. We love partnerships like this, where a business simply takes what it does well and finds a way to make a difference.
Sam Gowan had been to Romania with Big Love twice before he brought a team of students from Trinity Church Nottingham. What stayed with him wasn't just their time in Călărași; it was what happened after. One team member came home and got involved with a homeless ministry in Nottingham. A trip, it turns out, can matter long after the flight home.
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