Abandoned orphans in a remote Romanian clinic, many of them with AIDS, will have a happier Christmas this year thanks to the generosity of Fifers.

The food, clothing and toys they have donated to the Romanian Appeal charity run by ScottishPower employee Dougie Galloway and his team will arrive at the clinic in time for Christmas.

It's situated in the town of Tirgu Mures, one of the poorest and least accessible parts of the country.

The emergency supplies are being driven into the country by two members of the charity, Alister McLeod from Lewis and Christine Morrison from Perth, who will be staying with the children over the Festive period.

And Dougie, a driver at ScottishPower's Methil Power Station in Fife, is already busy gathering more vital supplies for the Romanian Appeal's next mercy mission, early next year.

It will be Dougie's eighth trip since he and ScottishPower colleagues from the power station and the company's business headquarters in Glasgow helped launch the charity, now one of the most active in Fife.

The clinic was originally provided with specialist medical aid through the BBC programme 'Challenge Anneka'. Since then the charity has tried to meet its own daunting challenge of providing basic maintenance and improving the primitive catering and bathroom facilities in the rundown building.

The clinic looks after children - many of them with the AIDS virus - ranging in age from newly born babies to 10 and 12-year-olds. Most are abandoned and can expect to be transferred to the state-run orphanages when they are older.

Many of those who leave become ill because of the poverty and unsanitary conditions in rural Romania and end up back in care.

On his trip Dougie will be accompanied by a doctor who will give advice about AIDS as well as on basic hygiene and sanitation.

The team will also be utilising their expertise in plumbing, joinery and electrical work to split the main ward so the clinic can qualify for extra nurses. Apparently nurses are employed by the State on the basis of one per ward regardless of the number of children involved.

Help will also be given to an old peoples' home and a gypsy village in the locality.

Dougie says the clinic is one of the few local facilities catering for the unwanted children that resulted from a state edict requiring families to produce more children for the fields and factories.

"It was heartbreaking at first to see how the children were living in the clinic but over the years we have managed to improve their basic living conditions, " said Dougie.

"They are much brighter now and though their plight has been overshadowed in the news by other major tragedies, we will continue to raise funds for our young friends in Tirgu Mures," Dougie added.