Since 1997, we have been working among the street children in Galati , Romania . In May of 1999, Dan Richters came to visit us. During his month-long stay, Dan spent much of his time employing his artistic talent by drawing portraits of the children.
This was something new for children who live on the street. They are used to being ignored or despised by their families and society. But Dan sat with the children and transposed to the sketchpad their individual characteristics and contour – that which was unique to each child. The children rarely have someone pay such intense attention to them. Each of these “wild” street children sat unbelievably still for a half hour to an hour as Dan studied their faces. He was able to look deep within the children and bring light out of lives inundated in so much darkness. As they posed, the children held a serious look, as if they wanted to relate their history – inexpressible with words, comprehensible only through their faces.
One could see on these faces of silent stories the reiterated reality of the poor: voicelessness. This injustice motivated me to search for words that could articulate their untold stories. As I wrote, I tried to follow Dan\'s lead of presenting the children in radiance and dignity. I also attempted to detail different aspects of the children\'s lives, thus depicting a broad picture of their world in all its reality.
In compiling these stories, we have been motivated by passionate desires. We passionately desire to make the viewer aware of children forced to grow up without a childhood; we desire to help the viewer to pray for the children; we desire that the viewer would reach out to the children and help them regain their lost dignity; and we desire that the viewer would discover in these resilient little ones that the children are our hope and future.
On behalf of my little friends in Galati , I thank Dan Richters for pouring his heart into the drawings, Olivia Reichert for her corrections and creativity, Vali Stefan for relating the children\'s stories in Romanian, and all those who are giving their lives so that the children may find theirs.
I hope that the children\'s drawings and stories would open the viewer to the realities that children suffer each day, that they would evoke compassion and an active response to see these children taken from the streets, and that they would enable us to take the outstretched hands of the resilient children and let them boldly lead us into our unpredictable future.
david chronic
Galati , Romania
29 July 2000
