LIKE many others, I find it impossible to contribute to all the good causes who send heart-rending appeals to use at this time of year, but after a talk by Cris Creelman, team leader of Pendle for Romania, and seeing the slides of children living in wretched conditions without adequate clothing in unheated "homes," I am convinced that we should all do our best to support our "home grown" charity every way we can.

Yes, Anneka Rice did a wonderful job, but that was only one part of a large country.

So Let us be proud of the aid workers for this charity who take no salaries, and pay £250 each trip which lasts ten days and work practically non-stop.

The children were dumped in those terrible "homes" because a mad dictator decreed that every mother must produce five children.

Unfortunately he lavished the country's wealth on his own life style while the workers were on starvation wages.

One thing above all sticks in my mind. Appeals for all kinds of things are responded to with great generosity.

But unfortunately problems arise when a firm or a hospital asks the team to collect huge amounts of sheets or mattresses, which would be disposed of as waste if not collected.

The warehouse where the goods have to be kept until the next trip has a leaky roof, and the rent is £350 a month!

Please can some firm let Pendle for Romania have somewhere to store these goods at a reasonable rent?

Young people in Romania are also giving their help to the charity, working alongside our volunteers, who include plumbers, carpenters, physiotherapists, and ordinary young people prepared to save up for a "holiday" with a difference.

Those of us who cannot give our strength and skill to this worthwhile rebuilding can try to support Pendle for Romania any way we can, collecting clothes, making soft toys, etc.

"Charity begins at home" -- and this is one we can be very proud of, knowing that whatever we give goes to the kids who need it and not into the pockets of bureaucrats.

RUTH BRAITHWAITE, Edmund Gennings Court, Chatburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.