Sue helps orphans worldwide

Aid worker to speak at charity clothes swap

Rescuing orphaned children and placing them in loving homes is all in a day’s work for Sue van Schreven and her New Zealand charity, Orphans Aid International.

Little did she know when she visited a Romanian orphanage 10 years ago, that her life’s mission would be to rescue thousands of children in numerous countries.

‘‘ My greatest joy is seeing children placed in a loving home environment.

‘‘To know they had nobody and now have a family, makes all the difference,’’ van Schreven said.

Van Schreven set up Orphans Aid International to help save children like Andrei, who was three when she met him. He couldn’t walk, talk or eat. ‘‘Now he’s 13 and doing well at school like other children his age. We love him to bits,’’ she said.

Angela Bensemann of Pukerua Bay-based WorksWonders said van Schreven was a real inspiration.

‘‘She’s a down-to-earth normal Kiwi mum, a Kiwi mum on a mission,’’ she said.

Van Schreven will be the featured guest speaker at WorksWonders’ charity clothes swap on Saturday, October 18, 2pm, at Pukerua Bay School Hall. Entry is $5. WorksWonders has run several clothes swaps supporting different charities.

‘‘We figured out that women like nothing better than bargain shopping and supporting a great cause at the same time.

‘‘We decided to combine the two and came up with the concept of Clothes Swap for a Cause,’’ Bensemann said.

Anyone wanting to hear van Schreven speak, or support Orphans Aid International and swap some clothes till they drop, should head to the clothes swap with a few good, quality unwanted items of clothing or accessories.

Helping hand: Orphans Aid International chief executive, Sue van Schreven, with Andrei. He was abandoned at birth and rescued from a hospital cot when he was three in 2004.