{"id":18146,"date":"2024-04-16T05:07:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T05:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=18146"},"modified":"2024-04-16T08:16:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T08:16:23","slug":"healing-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/healing-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15 April 2023| Pula, Croatia [Vanesa Pizzuto and David Neal]<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helping Hand opened its doors to the public on 9 May 2021 in the ancient city of Pula, Croatia. Its mission is as simple as it is powerful: to lend a hand to anyone in the community who needs support with their health, emotions, relationships, and spirituality\u2014all without any charge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCOVID was a trigger point because we realised everything was changing. People were very lonely, even angry&#8230;\u201d explained Dr Lidija Godina, former social worker and lecturer serving at the Helping Hand Centre. \u201cWe were really worried about it and decided to turn our worries into action by helping people with their [physical] health, mental health, and spirituality.\u201d Thanks to the generous and collaborative support of the Trans-European Division (TED), the Adriatic Union Conference, the Croatian Conference, and the Pula church, a dedicated team of professionals now stands at the heart of this 3,000-year-old city, ready to make a real difference.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_62146\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eG9_was4HRk?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Helping Hand\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Pastor Mi\u0161o Havran, Health Ministries director for the Croatian Conference and founder of Helping Hand, the essence of the centre lies in its unique blend of health and spirituality. \u201cI think we offer a great health message, a spiritual message and prayer too. We combined them together and opened this centre,\u201d he said. While Helping Hand openly embraces its Christian identity,\u00a0it&#8217;s important to note that prayers and spiritual workshops are optional and available only to those who seek them out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Individuals turning to Helping Hand face a myriad of challenges\u2014addictions, fractured relationships, depression. Yet, the feedback echoes a common theme: the centre is making a tangible difference in their lives.\u201cPeople say this is exactly what they needed. Some people call us angels, which we are not. But we are doing our best to support them, and especially thankful to God for the opportunity,\u201d shared Godina.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18150\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18150\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18150 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B.jpg 630w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/group-pic-630-B-350x197.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Captured together in the heart of historic Pula, representatives of the collaborative support for Helping Hand, from left to right: Lidija Godina (Pula church), Mi\u0161o Havran (Croatian Conferfence), Vanesa Pizzuto (TED), and Neven Kla\u010dmer (Adriatic Union Conference).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a world often marred by isolation and despair, Helping Hand stands as a beacon of hope, offering not just assistance, but a community where individuals find support and the courage to rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Featured image: Vanesa Pizzuto and Lidija Godina engaged in good conversation for <em>tedNEWS<\/em> at Helping Hand counselling centre.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Photos: David Neal].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Impact of Helping Hand in Pula, Croatia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1580,7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albania-croatia-slovenia","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18146"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18160,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18146\/revisions\/18160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}