While working as a nurse in Romania Miss Noreen Walsh witnessed the suffering of Romanian children stricken with the HIV virus.

Now she plans to educate people in Bermuda and make them aware that many countries still have severe problems even thought they are not featured on the news every night.

Miss Walsh, a midwife at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, especially had a lot to say about the countries of Eastern Europe.

She told the Royal Gazette that thousands of Romanian children were infected with the HIV virus and developed AIDS during the country's regime under Ceaucescu.

Any child admitted into a hospital, orphanage or institution during this time was given 10 millilitres of blood, which was thought to prevent malnutrition.

Tainted blood caused thousands of Romanian children to become infected by the HIV virus. Many children were also infected by mothers who had the disease or because of unsterilised needles.

St. Laurence Children's Hospice was opened by the Romanian Children's Aid (now Children in Disress) in February of 1993. The four-storey, 100-bed hospice was established to provide a warm, comfortable home where these children, many of whom had been left to die, could receive tender loving care. Approximately 90 percent of the children at the hospice are HIV positive.

Afraid of contracting the HIV virus, the townspeople shyed away from the hospice children at first. Now the townspeople invite the children to their homes and every Sunday about 100 town children attend the Sunday School at the hospice.

Many of the children, who had short life expectancies, began to thrive so a special residential school was opened in October, 1994 in a house on the hospice site.

Miss Walsh described her time at the children's hospice, loving and caring for terminally ill children, as the happiest time of her life.

" There was no electricity or running water in the hospice when it first opened but we called it the `House of Joy', because that's what it was,'' she said.

The roots of the hospice began in September, 1990 when a team headed by the Rev. Dr. John Walmsley, the then-Vicar of the St. Lawrence church in Barkingside, Essex in the United Kingdom went on a goodwill trip to Romania.

On the trip home Dr. Walmsley told the team he believed God was calling him to care for the children of Romania. It was then that the Romanian Children's Aid, now known as Children in Distress, was born.

In April of 1990 work began in Cernavoda, a small town between the Capital, Bucharest and the Black Sea port of Constanta where St. Laurence is now located.

Children in Distress also plans to open a hospice for street kids in the capital, Bucharest.

A lot of children, some as young as four, live on the streets, separated from their families. As a result they resort to stealing to stay alive.

The new hospice will be furnished with a cafeteria, library, day care centre and housing for 30 children. It will act as a safe haven giving the children food, education and an experience of community living.

In the winter of 1992 Dr. Walmsley crossed the border to Albania and found children, though not suffering from AIDS like the Romanian children, dying and suffering from illnesses that could be cured.

Illnesses such as German measles and chicken pox were killing Albanian children daily.

Dr. Walmsley changed the name of the charity from "Romanian Children's Aid'' to "Children in Distress'' to mirror the expansion of the mission throughout Eastern Europe.

St. Luke, a hospital with a hospice wing, was begun in the town of Saranda in southern Albania.

Almost all construction materials had to be imported making the project costly. St. Luke is scheduled to open in October 1995.

Children in Romania which had short life expectancies are now happy thriving children in need of long term care. Children in Albania need medicines and food. They all need doctors and nurses from their own countries to work with and learn from nurses from the United Kingdom.

If any one wishes to contribute to the charity they can send a cheque to Children in Distress Unit 2/1, Thirsk Industrial Park, York Road, Thirsk North Yorkshire, YO7 3BX, England.

Miss Walsh is willing to give slide presentations and talks to any organisation that wishes more information on the work in Romania. She can be reached at 293-4551.

Miss Noreen Walsh PULLING PUNCHES -- A Romanian orphan looks playfully at the camera. Thousands of children in Romanai were infected with the HIV virus under the Ceausescu regime when they were injected with blood which was supposed to protect them from malnutrition.