Another year has gone by, in which we seem to be pushed to love more and appreciate more what we have, seeing that everything can change from one day to the next. Whether we’re talking about a cancer diagnosis, a highly contagious virus or a war, everything we know now can change in a second, so we need to change just as fast. So we learn to value the second that is simple and give more of ourselves to those who have a difficult second. We have seen this year that together we can overcome whatever is and will come.

This “Together” has changed in value, taking on greater meaning, year after year.

If 4 years ago “together” we were looking for solutions to make a psychological centre for people affected by cancer, 3 years ago “together” we opened the first Sus Inima, 2 years ago we were looking to be “together” while staying apart, this year “together” means more. Whether we are supporting people affected by cancer, or refugee people from Ukraine, the word “together” is the basis of everything we do, and by doing more and more, the number of those who “together” do good things grows, and even if it is the same word, its value grows.

Thank you for being part of “together” with us, for being with us every step of the way, and for always helping, together, those who needed a home, a meal, a therapy session, a kind word, a treatment, an information, and even a school.

Because TOGETHER, we are SUS INIMA.

Carmen Chindriș

I have noticed especially since the pandemic that there is a filter by which we measure our actions: what good is x action/context/person to me?

How does this affect my life? How does it affect me? Based on this analysis, contexts, situations, persons are being labelled. No matter how non-objective this kind of analysis is. Thus I will have a situation, context or person that will be good or bad, closer or distant, friend or foe, worthy or not worthy of help… etc.

The problem with this analysis is a simple one: how do you know the quality of something if you only judge it by its compatibility with your expectations and desires?

SUS INIMA has been an oasis of selfless help all these years and will remain so as long as we choose daily to help others and not “label” their lives, difficulties, choices and personal dramas; based on compatibility with our expectations and desires; and we consciously choose to help so that no one goes through it alone… not just cancer…. but through hopelessness, despair, darkness… [fill in with what you see fit, the palette is wide…]

I wish us all to take examples from those who help selflessly, to be human and no matter what happens to not forget our humanity in a pocket of a coat hanging on a hanger!

SUS INIMA!

Lu Knobloch

365 more days have passed. Thousands of problems. Since February, the Ukrainian crisis and our hearts have been beating faster and faster. A tumult of problems, some would say. SUS INIMA, we said. When I say and write WE, it’s all those who stood with US in all that represented our work.

Thought of thanks is too little.

Perhaps if you had seen the faces of the children, mothers and grandparents who discovered the love of a nation they thought was unforgiving with them, I mean our own nation, let’s be clear, you would truly see the gain of the daily work. Nor with our beneficiaries have we slowed the pace, but they have been involved, fully, by prayer and deed, in supporting us.

Sometimes the war is more shattering than one’s own fear, than one’s own sickness.

Pain shared with those together in pain becomes comfort in the Spirit of God.

Because you are US, I thank you!

Because WE are SUS INIMA, I thank God!

Constantin Necula