We have received fantastic news from the tax office in Comanesti, Romania. After applying for our VAT back on capital expenditure on the building from January 2005 - August 2006, we received this money back!!! It's taken almost eight months and a lot of discussion with various local and national government representatives and now, it's finally in our account... but not for long!...
…Pressing on…
We're committed to investing this money back into the construction of Casa Albert. Having received this money, we were able to agree more works with Nova Casa (our friendly builder).
- To complete the internal partitions.
- To complete the internal plastering and plaster skim.
- To complete the full electrical installation.
- To complete the heating and hot water installations.
- To complete the drainage works.
This work will be complete in time to allow volunteer groups to paint the inside of the building between 5th May and 1st June! Click here to find out more about these mission teams.
Signing this recent contract has meant that we have committed a further 85,000euros. This commitment has exhausted our construction budget.
We still need funds to complete building works at Casa Albert. Generally, the remaining works are as follows:
- The installation of a septic tank.
- The installation of floor finishes.
- The installation of kitchen and bathroom suits.
- The installation of doors, frames and skirting boards.
- Provide an access road and parking areas.
- External paving and landscaping.
If you feel that you can help in any way either by donating money towards an element of works or organising / taking part in a fund-raising activity, let us know.
…Pictures speak a thousand words - a quick tour of Casa Albert…
The corridor to the in-patient area. All doors to the ground floor of the building are wide enough to allow beds to pass, making the entire ground floor of the building accessible to children who are bed-bound. For this reason it is particularly important to ensure that the corridor is wide. The other reason that the corridor is 3m wide is that we will locate a nurse station within the corridor to ensure that all nurses are easily contactable by the patient. The stairs that you can see lead up to the 1st floor office area.
The window that you can see at the end of the in-patient corridor is front facing, where the majority of the site is in easy view. The area just behind the stairs provides the patients an area to sit, talk or play.
This room is located on the 1st floor, within the 'conference zone'. We hope to leave this room very open and flexible. This will allow it to be used for either; conference participants dining area, volunteer bedroom, a bedroom for parents of patients, a meeting room, a second conference room. Probably all of these uses, depending upon the need at the time!
This is the main conference room, which will seat up to 70 people comfortably. This room will be used for our multi-disciplinary medical team to provide training to other public funded and charity funded health care professional in palliative care. This is paramount as we strive towards our vision of helping to develop palliative and hospice care within Eastern Europe. This facility will also be used to host international medical conferences and we hope that some income can be generated by hiring it out to local businesses. The window to the front of the room overlooks the chapel, depending upon funding, we would love to provide a stained glass window here.
The entrance to the chapel. This entry area will be filled with resources for the patients. Maybe a couple of computers, books, literature on dealing with incurable illnesses and prevention of HIV spread.
And this is the chapel. The mezzanine floor to the right hand side also link to the entry lobby to the conference centre on the 1st floor. Just behind the camera is another room which will be used for counseling patients, family members and carers.
This is the corridor to the office areas which will provide office accommodation for the community nursing team, the medical team, the social work team, the fund-raisers / PR / volunteer coordinators, the administrative and IT staff.
We'll keep you posted with the latest photos / up-dates with the project.
Jonathan Harris
Project Manager (Romania)
Casa Albert Project