From Kate Pierce, Campaigns Manager, The European Children's Trust:-

PLEASE help us to give a mum the best Mother's Day present ever this Sunday - a chance of life with her baby.

Most of Romania's 100,000 orphanage children have mothers who, because of poverty, feel forced to leave their children in state care. For these mums, Sunday, March 14 will be just another day - another painful day without their child. But there is an alternative.

Given support, these mothers want to care for their children and, thanks to The Trust's Maternal Centre in Bacau, Romania, some can. The centre provides accommodation, training and counselling for mums at risk of leaving their babies. They can stay until they are able to support themselves or are accepted back into their families, many of whom initially reject them, particularly if they are unmarried.

So successful has it been that The European Children's Trust needs your help to open three more such centres in Romania to give more mothers and babies the right start in life.

If you can help keep a mum with her baby this Mother's Day, please call us on 0171 248-2424.

64 Queen Street,

London EC4R 1HA.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.