The story & purpose

As sports enthusiasts we came up with an idea to have our athletic effort help support children in Holland and Romania: a very challenging, sponsored cycling tour to help raise money for children in Holland and Romania, called Bike4Children: a group of about 12 passionate cyclists, and their attendants, will hop on their bikes on May 12th 2010 in Raamdonksveer, Holland and subsequently cycle to Cluj-Napoca in Romania to arrive there on May 21st. 2.000 kilometers in 10 consecutive stages. A challenging 200 km per day! And through this cycling tour we hope to raise a tidy sum to give these children a better and brighter future.

With this cycling tour we hope to raise funds for Kika in Holland and the Peter Pan foundation in Romania. Kika (Children with Cancer) initiates and supports innovative research to cancer in children and focuses on less pain, hardship and suffering, more cures and higher life quality at an older age. The Peter Pan foundation was formed by a group of passionate volunteers who try, with help of sponsors, to realize sustainable projects: in Lupeni, Romania a school for disabled children in the age of 5 to 15
Centrul the Pedagogy Project Curativa Hunedoara

Both the children in Holland and those in Romania fully deserve your support!

Partly inspired by the fact that within our immediate surroundings we are regularly confronted with the disease cancer, we collect sponsorship money serving this foundation. The objective of Kika: raising funds for innovative research and other activities on childhood cancer, focusing on less struggle and pain, more cures and a higher quality of life at an older age.

The Peter Pan foundation consists of a group of enthusiastic volunteers who, by sponsors, realize sustainable projects which include Romania. The Peter Pan Foundation ensures that the sponsorship money is properly spent. The selected project is a school for disabled children from 5 to 15 years in Lupeni, Romania. Centrul the Pedagogy Project Curativa Hunedoara

The project
The school in Lupeni, Romania

Disabled children in Romania who need your support. (Novum/AP) - In Romania mentally handicapped children are still detained in degrading conditions in homes for adults. It's in a Wednesday report from the interest group Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI).

The report possibly complicates the next year's entry of Romania to the European Union. Later this week, a comprehensive report of the European Commission is awaited on the prospects of the country for EU membership. The report might even frustrate Romania’s entry to th European Union next year.

That psychiatric patients, particularly children, were treated badly in Romania came to light in 1989 after dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had been overthrown. Their treatment rapidly improved. But Secretary Bogdan Panait, responsible for Child Welfare, admitted that much remains to be done. He says the worst problems will be resolved this year. The report told about children being tied down in chairs or lying in stinking beds all day . Many children constantly hurt themselves. One of the authors of the report, Laurie Ahern, told about the conditions at a section with sixty infants and toddlers: "There was nothing to hear. No cooing, no baby crying. It was completely silent and it was very scary and strange."

According to Ahern it was clear that the children changed during their stay at the department. A two months old baby still responded, she says. "But the two year olds were already two years in those cribs and only when getting a clean diaper or a milk bottle they were touched. They couldn't walk, they didn't crawl, they were only in those cribs." Even more shocking were the older children she says, they rocked back and forth, chewing on their hands and responded to nothing, not at a glance and not at a touch. The report describes the case of a girl called Adinana, wrapped in a sheet as a mummy. She looked like 4 or 5, but was 17 and weighed no more than ten kilograms. When staff removed the sheet, the skin of the girl came off. ,,Another boy was as big as a baby, but was 7 years old. He was wasting away. His legs were covered with sores and his fingers were bitten and swollen", said Ahern. Romania aims to adopt mentally disabled people into society, instead of hiding them in homes, but that goal is by far not reached according to MDRI. Moreover, the situation in Romania is not unique. In Turkey, Peru, Kosovo, Mexico, Russia, Hungary and Uruguay, MDRI found similar conditions. In Romanian homes are, according to MDRI, also unwanted children, whose treatment got them in mental state of decline.