Dorothy Tarrant Honored for Community Service

On Monday evening, September 27, Mission Corps missionary Dorothy Tarrant was honored by family, friends, city officials, and clients and staff of Veritas, the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries organization which she founded. The occasion marked 15 years of Tarrant’s social service activity in the community of Sighișoara, Romania, and the handing over of Veritas to its first Romanian director. The celebration even included a presentation by the vice-mayor of Sighișoara, awarding Tarrant with honorary citizenship.

Before coming to Sighișoara in 1995, Tarrant had served as German language professor and head of the campus counseling center of Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) in Quincy, Massachusetts, USA. In 1993, she had been asked by ENC to develop a new study-abroad program in Romania. After three semesters in Bucharest, Tarrant relocated the Romanian Studies Program to Sighișoara.

Under Tarrant’s leadership, students quickly began to meet community needs – ministering to abandoned babies in the local orphanage, children from impoverished families, and isolated elderly shut-ins. Tarrant founded the organization Veritas (meaning “Truth” in Latin) as the legal structure to hire Romanians who had first served as translators for students, but who were soon assuming leadership roles themselves.

During a time of academic restructuring, ENC removed its sponsorship of the Romanian Studies Program in 2001. Tarrant chose to resign from ENC and remain in Sighișoara as a volunteer – continuing the work she had begun with Veritas and the Romanian Studies Program.

Today, with 25 Romanian staff members, Veritas offers accredited social services for children, teens, elderly, disabled persons, and domestic violence prevention, as well as educational programs, community activities, and a coffee shop. Veritas is recognized as a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries center and is a participant in the Nazarene Child Sponsorship program. The Romanian Studies Program has continued to attract students (over 400 to date) from several American colleges and universities who combine academics with service learning and cultural immersion.

The evening of festivities, under the banner “Together for the Community,” included choral selections, Romanian folk music, and traditional dances performed by those in Veritas ministry groups – the Gospel Choir, special needs program, senior adult club, and youth group. Several members of the community shared about how their lives have been improved as a result of Veritas. Approximately 250 were in attendance to honor Tarrant.

The evening also marked the public recognition of Petra Popa as the new executive director of Veritas. Popa came to work for Veritas in 2003 as the director of the domestic violence prevention program. For the past four years, she has also served as coordinator of social services. Thus, under Tarrant’s direction, a study-abroad program for American students has given birth to an ever-expanding organization under Romanian leadership.

For more information about Veritas and the Romanian Studies Program, please visit: www.veritas.ro and www.RomanianStudiesProgram.org.


Photos:

Dorothy Tarrant (left) and Petra Popa (right) share their vision for Veritas.

The Veritas Gospel Choir sings praises to God to open the evening

A man from the Veritas Special Needs Program sings a Romanian folk song from his wheelchair.

Women from one of Veritas's senior adult programs sing a song they wrote about the fellowship they have together at their Elderly Club.
The refrain of the song says, "Thank You, God, that our eyes aren't sad anymore."

Some of the teenagers from the Veritas youth program perform a traditional Roma (Gypsy) dance.

Photos used courtesy of Paul Benham.