







Gabriella Saftiou was a student that George Bartlett of Windham met in Ramnicu Valcea, Romania during his first of 16 trips to that country while representing the Sebago Lakes Rotary Club. Saftiou has visited Maine twice, once on a tour with other students and while working at Bartlett's laundromat one summer. PHOTO BY GEORGE BARTLETT |
“From there, we emailed a few Rotary Clubs in Romania to start an initial conversation and we discovered that they needed assistance with their orphanages and hospitals,” Bartlett said. “In 1998, six Rotarians representing the Southern Maine district traveled to Romania and spent about 10 days to check out the exact needs. The hospitals were in really bad shape – not much equipment to speak of and very few beds for the sick.”
