Heartbeat International has kept you apprised when it comes to the incredible work that is being accomplished by our friends in Romania, and we are overjoyed to share that a new counseling and support center has opened in Bucharest! Here is an excerpt from the center's first newsletter: 

"Dear pro-life friends,

You have just opened the first newsletter sent by the Counseling and Support Center for Parents and Children “Saint Alexandra the Empress”.

What seemed impossible a few years ago could be accomplished this year and happened at the beginning of this month: the inauguration in Bucharest of the Counseling and Support Center for Parents and Children “Saint Alexandra the Empress”.

The center offers counseling and social services to women in pregnancy crisis, to young and teenage mothers, to families in need and to parents who prepare to give birth to a child or wish to prepare for that.

Among many other services, the center offers: free psychological counseling, free pregnancy tests, baby-boxes with all the necessary baby products for women who are about to give birth or who have just done so, emergency social assistance (clothes, food, diapers according to possibilities), references to social services within the community (legal consulting, gynecologists to monitor pregnancy, breastfeeding courses, vocational counseling, professional training), support groups for mothers and for post-abortive women.

The center is staffed with one psychologist and a social worker who offer confidential professional help to those who ask for support.
The inauguration of this center has been a great joy for me, since on a daily basis I meet women who lack support and are under great pressure from their partners, their families or their jobs. I know women in pregnancy crisis need to know there is a center where they can ask for help and which can meet their needs. I wish to thank all who have been supportive in the opening of this center.

With joy for life,
Alexandra Nadane
Executive Director
Asociația pentru sprijinirea femeii însărcinate și a familiei
(The Association for Supporting Pregnant Women and Families)"

(Text and photo taken from Romania newsletter)