LECTURER Vic Brown recently made his third trip to Romania to produce a film on how street children cope with life in the former Communist country.

Romania is still suffering from the aftermath of the rule of dictator President Nicolae Ceausescu who was deposed in December 1989.

Vic, 53, from Crawshaw Drive, Reedsholme, Rawtenstall, works part-time lecturing in IT at Accrington and Rossendale College and kept a diary of his week in the country and the harrowing scenes he videoed.

He made the decision to go out to Romania after he saw a presentation by somebody else who had taken time out to help with the building of the hostel for the street children.

The scenes that were witnessed on the trip were like watching something out of a movie for Vic, with children starving and begging on the streets, selling their bodies for little more than the cost of a decent meal and existing in sub-zero winter temperatures.

This all made Vic determined to help make a difference to their lives. All of this has inspired him to raise funds, provide supplies and medicines for the hostel which the Methodist charity Steps is helping and maybe provide volunteers.

MONDAY

I am bound for Constanta in Romania on a mission to produce video footage for a film about street children. Someone has estimated that if you were to count the world's street children at the rate of one a second, it would take more than three years!

The sea port of Constanta on the Black Sea has an estimated 2,000, who daily live a miserable existence begging and stealing on streets and sleeping in the subways and sewers crisis-crossing this bustling city. They are prey to paedophiles and rapists.

TUESDAY

I arrive in Constanta railway station, a small, scruffy figure approaches me, his bright eyes darting from side-to-side, viewing my camera bag with interest.

He asks me for some money telling me that he has not eaten all day. He is little more than 11 or 12, but looks 16. His sister hovers in the doorway. Tonight they will sleep in the subway opposite the station, or down the sewers under the road.

Steam pipes, which heat the flats and offices, provide some respite from the icy blasts of the Romanian winter, when temperatures can fall as low as -20 degrees C. The rats and insects that also enjoy this warm, dry environment are the only soul-mates of these abandoned scraps of humanity.

WEDNESDAY

As I enter the hostel Steps hopes to help, two mangy dogs tug at a scrap of cloth. Nothing can prepare me for the sight that greets me inside the building. Water is running through the floor from the blocked waste pipes of the first-floor showers -- 50 children and support staff have to share two dark, smelly toilets and just three washbasins. Tomorrow it's Tualama -- sounds exotic -- in truth it is a thick gruel of garlic, flour and water. These children are fed on little more than £1 a week. A pale-faced, scruffy lad is ushered into the office. He has recently come to live here and there are no shoes to fit him, he is given £5 for trainers and he grins from ear to ear.

This boy is one of the lucky ones.

Two young girls arms piled high with washing walk down the corridor laughing and giggling. The younger one was raped aged just six and forced to perform indecent acts -- her friend carries a knife and is not afraid to use it.

Since coming to the hostel life has become more normal and they are developing self-respect.

THURSDAY

At the main hospital in Constanta piles of rusting beds lie next to a brand-new boxed whole body scanner. Who knows when it will finally be in operation?

In the paediatric section I see pictures of infants and babies who are patients with their limbs twisted at weird angles because of malformations and many with severe burns.

Then I see it for real: on the ward there is a baby with a colostomy bag; a street child with burns all over his body; two children in intensive care hanging onto life by a simple thread.

We promise a consultant from the UK will visit and a new theatre light will be provided -- in return the street children will be treated for free.

Outside the hospital is a sad-faced girl, no more than 14, offering her body for less than £2.50 to any man.

A group of children are coming down off drugs, we decide to return later and give one money for food.

FRIDAY

After collecting food we return to the street children we saw yesterday and the group, aged 17 to four years old, eagerly take the bread and salami we offer.

A young girl of about ten protects a four-year-old girl. We look on in absolute astonishment. The police arrive and start to bundle the children into a van, even the four-year old is arrested. We are told it is illegal to photograph or feed street children without a permit and we are ordered to the police station. Only a name in a high place prompts our release.

The fate of the children is not so fortunate. They are not returned and nobody in authority seems to know where they are or when they will be released. How can this sort of thing happen in the 21st Century?

Anyone who wants to see Vic's film can contact 01706 226533 or the Steps charity on 01928 727418 or view the website www.romanian-children.co.uk