I'm here to repay a debt a debt of
gratitude but to begin I have to take
you back to 1989 I was married with four
children and living in the seaside town
of Folkston on the south coast of
England I was also a police detective
this earlier life was all about justice
now it is about tackling injustice
intolerance and the inequality
I hate injustice I hate it when people
are denied the same opportunities as the
rest of us enjoy simply because they can
be bullied into compliance towards the
end of 1989 I witness see extraordinary
revolutions that were taking a place
sweeping across Europe ending with
Romania and the hasty trial and
execution of the child chess cruise
although I was aware that there was an a
big historical event happening Romania
could have been a million miles away
soon the media pictures turned from
revolution to the thousands of Romanian
children living in squalid state
institutions shocked I wanted to help so
I drove from the UK across Europe to
Romania with a pediatric nurse we
borrowed a van and we'd filled it full
of things that we thought would be
needed such as baby food disposable
diapers clothes toys those sort of
things when we arrived in Bucharest we
met with some British nurses who invited
us to work with them in an institution
in Platt arrest in the county of collar
ash they were working with children
known as the Iroquois bubbles those for
whom nothing else could be done
nothing prepared me in my life for that
moment the building was surrounded by a
large wall when I entered inside the
smell of excrement and vomit overwhelmed
me
I heard children screaming hysterically
other children were muttering excitedly
in a language that was in comprehendible
to the rest of us the miserable room
that I worked in contained twenty
children aged eight years they were all
half the size of my daughter who was the
same age the children lay motionless in
rusty white cots with vertical metal
bars giving the impression of little
prison cells side by side carmen lived
in her cot at the back of the room her
wrinkled and frail body looked like she
was an 80 year old woman trapped in a
toddler's body come and died the week
after Florentina occupy the cot on the
other side of the rim a beautiful Roma
girl for a mop of black curly hair with
enormous eyes but almost blind
klaudia lived opposite Florrie another
beautiful child who simply just lay in a
cot staring at something the rest of us
could not see all the children had
swollen stomachs and I couldn't help
liking him to the images of starving
children in Africa like those children
flies congregated around the eyes and
the mouth mouths of the children who
seen neither
to enjoy the sensations that they were
giving them the attention that they were
being given or simply too lethargic to
brush them away meals were delivered in
metal buckets twenty babies milk bottles
with a bit of milk some milk and crushed
maize covered with a cloth it was more
economical to feed these children with
bottles than it was to give them solid
food we had to do something this was
crazy we had to do something positive so
against the directors wishes we wean the
children onto solid food the vomiting
and the diarrhea ended we took the
children out of these cots they were
protesting it was the only world they
had ever known and we put them on the
floor and they began to interact for the
other children around them some learned
to walk
which opened up a vast world for them to
explore some of the children all of the
children just stared blankly at the toys
that we had bought so we taught them how
to play we took the children outside for
the first time ever and they felt the
Sun warm their pallid bodies we hung a
colourful sign above each cot with the
child's name we called the children by
their names and the children began to
learn that they had an identity sanity
at last was becoming was returning to
one of the rooms at least during 1990
and 1991 I visited Romania many times
and worked with the children
plat arrests in April 1991 I organized a
convoy of 100 vehicles that left the UK
drove across Europe to to Romania the
convoy was broken up into groups and
each of these groups delivered aid to 15
institutions throughout the country and
more importantly carried on supporting
these institutions long after they went
back home life could not only be unjust
it can also be unfair just before
Christmas 1991 my oldest son John was
killed in a traffic accident a few days
after its 90th birthday my life was in
turmoil and I found it increasingly
difficult to comprehend the world around
me I decided I would try and run away
from all the hurt come to Bucharest with
a British charity out set up to help the
children and Platt arrest
I hate intolerance I hate it when people
are denied the same opportunities that
other people enjoy simply because they
can be bullied and forgotten because
they are different when I arrived in
Bucharest with 3 other volunteers
British volunteers we moved into a small
apartment block which had been provided
to us by the Ministry of the Interior to
hold the project the house the project
the building was identical to seven
others in in the same area and this area
was known as za brutes
in Bucharest with the worsening economic
situation and poverty on the rise in
Romania these blocks soon attracted
hundreds of desperately poor Roma
families looking for a place to live
although the area was a no-go area for
the police and everybody else I felt
quite comfortable living there I mixed
the easily with the locals in the cafes
and the bars and soon learned that I was
being referred to as englais zl--
neighborhood the crazy Englishman so
what we were going to do the plan was
that we were going to convert this
building into large apartments where we
could provide lifelong foster care to
some of the children 40 children from
SATA rest the project proved to be a
nightmare the Romanian government broke
its promises
despite refusing to pay bribes officials
continued to demand inducements for
essential documents although we had
resources and we were attracting skilled
volunteers from all over the world to
work on the building work was slow
because the authorities still hadn't
rehoused many of the families that were
living in the block when we took it over
we found it more difficult to raise
money and material donations and we
found that less and less volunteers for
volunteering to come over so in the
autumn of 1994 the project
eventually collapsed the British side of
it collapsed for me
my life was also buckling around me as
well slowly at first our them been
increasing speed until I found myself
without a home my life savings gone and
the painful divorce night and day often
fused together as I lay in bed wallowing
in self-pity and refusing to acknowledge
a future I had to face my demons each
one in turn
I hate inequality I hate it when those
who have a great deal do not help those
who through a lack of opportunity or
choice have have a place it was
heartbreaking to give up on providing
long term foster care to the children
from plateresque but if any good came
from it it was that we were able to
reuse the block and make it into a
Resource Center so we renamed the BOK
from p1 to joann house originally and
what we did was make new Romanian
partners bring them together and help
them to create projects in this building
so in a short five years the building
with the Resource Center boasted a
residential school for children with
profound disabilities a halfway house
for young people leaving institutional
care and equipping them with life skills
essential life skills a computer
training center for adults with physical
disabilities so that they could enter
into the job market and the socio
medical center
for the and kindergarten for the local
Roma families living in the area in the
winter in 1997 the mayor for Bucharest
asked me to open the first night shelter
in in the country since between the two
second the two world wars I thought it's
strange because I had no experience with
homelessness at all so in those days in
the gue Google was in its infancy or the
internet was in its infancy so I could
hardly Google was a night shelter but
they didn't know who I could ask for
advice so June the next couple of weeks
colleague and I visited homeless men in
and around the guard the Nord and
eventually I asked them what a homeless
shelter was what do they think of a
homeless shelter and I was amazed to
hear them ask me to tell them what it
was because I was the expert well ok I
even had a room to live in when I was in
there in the ghetto but I mean these
guys have got nothing and I helped and
understand that realize that through
their experience and unique insights
into living on the streets without
shelter they were actually the experts
through lived experience so together
they agreed what a night shelters a
night shelter would be and we helped set
it up they helped with the renovation
work where you put it with 20 beds and
lockers for personal belongings
we created a kitchen for them and we
employed two homeless people to be the
supervisors I'll always remember that
first night we opened the dignitaries
were horrified that I was entrusting the
homeless shelter and its residents to to
homeless people
they called me crazy that word again and
warned me that everything would be
stolen in the morning
well I found 20 very happy people and
for one it been the first time he had
slept in a bed in five and a half years
another told me he was so comfy he
didn't want to lose it or waste it by
sleeping there were many Vigna trees
have visited the the shelter including
Prince Charles King me hi Queen Anna and
revoking vice president of the World
Bank so we had lots and lots of visitors
slowly but surely the demography of
homeless has changed and more and more
homeless families were ending up on the
street and that's when cusamano decided
then to work with those particularly
vulnerable people today we're a very
successful organization with a committed
staff team and volunteers after a major
refurbishment we have two shelters now
two centers provide safe temporary
accommodation a lot of comprehensive
support to women and children
experiencing domestic abuse have family
homelessness as for me I've been on a
journey that has taken me from the life
of a police officer helping to establish
justice to a life where our witness much
inequality intolerance and heed and
injustice I found that the key to
unlocking these three rungs is
opportunity when we have the courage to
show others another way those that have
been bullied into compliance then we
give them opportunity when we look what
the past what makes us different and
invite people to participate then we
create opportunity and when we give
people there is simple resources to move
on with their lives
then we empower them to make
opportunities for themselves it's
important and I want to say a big thank
you a big thank you to those who
continue to give a big thank you to
those who care your support is so very
very much needed so thank you
[Applause]