The Regional Seminars Lead to a Transformative Vision on the Social System

Next week, we organise the meeting of a few counties in one region in Romania, for a conversation on the national strategy in childcare, and on the priorities of allocating EU funds in our country, in the period 2014 - 2020. So far, we have conclusions and ideas coming from five such regions. Which means feedback from 36 counties. The discussion are interesting, and the ideas and contributions are full of value and based on experience. The dialogue groups are not large - approximately 14 leaders participate to each seminar, which ensures a communication ground where opinions are in-depth and solid. And so they should be, as these will shape the way in which childcare and EU funding allocation for Romania on social service is going to look like.

Some conclusions can be draws so far from all seminars:

1. The de-institutionalisation process has to be accelerated, up to full eradication of institutional care for children in our country, in 2020.

2. The capacity of action and intervention in preventing child separation from their families has to be created and imposed. Because no child should ever grow up without the love and affection of a family.

3. The capacity to sort out the massive challenges youngsters leaving care face, especially by granting them social housing. Otherwise, thousand of youngsters leave the childcare system  and then end up in it, this time as adults needing protection.

4. Care should be offered on the basis of family-like protection, for people with special needs. Without this, without family-based care, we simply tolerate unimaginable abuse on our kind.

5. The passage from a paradigm of ”social allowances” (in the form of very, very small funding to every person in need) to a paradigm of ”social services”. In this way, we can eliminate the simple surface intervention, in favour of interventions centres on the individual needs of individual persons.

Indeed, these are capital, transformative moves, with a tsunami-like effect on the social macro-system, but these can definitely lead to a vision of a country where I would not be ashamed to live: a country valuing its citizens for what they are, on the basis of common sense and humanity.

We will do whatever we can to make this happen. So that photos like the one below cannot be taken on children in our country.

Pirelli Romania Supports the Building of a Family Type Home in Slatina

We are in process of building the first family type home for youngsters with disabilities in Olt county, due to Natalie Pinkham"s initiative. On this context, Pirelli Romania got involved directly, by funding the project with Euro 25,000. Such support allows us to achieve the project quicker, and therefore allow 12 youngsters benefit from life in a family-like environment.

The house is in a nice part of Slatina, and it gives youngsters the opportunity to spend time outdoors, in fresh air, playing and doing activities which would help them develop their potential and build on their strengths. Being part of the community, going out, to the parks, for walks, or simply saying "hi" to people passing on the street, means so much for any person, as this gives the feeling of being included and enjoying the dignity any human being should have.

Thank you for your support, Mr. Giuseppe Cangelosi!

When the Lack of a Home Keeps Children Torn Apart from Their Parents

Noua locuinta

For too many families, the main hardship is the lack of a home. Many live in huts, many more than you could even imagine. Than is why the children are torn apart from their parents, ending up in institutions.  The photos are of such a family. Together with people in that community, we managed to build a house where they can live with their children. So they took their three children back home. We managed to build the house in a month.  We celebrated the house with Benita Foundation, the family, the Towh Hall, and the people who helped do this project. Three more children are happy again, with their parents.

Natalie Pinkham, F1 Sky TV Anchor, Visits the HHC Programmes in Romania

She has started today, in Bucharest, then goes on tomorrow, in Bacau, and ends Thursday, in Slatina, where the Sky TV Formula 1 Anchor finances the creation of a family type home for youngsters with severe disabilities. For the construction of the house, but also for the most vulnerable children and families in Olt county, the celebrity raised Euro 200,000, which allows the running of the programme in the region. In each county, Natalie Pinkham visits old style institutions for children, prevention of abandonment situations, reintegrations and situations of independent life support for youngsters leaving care. On Wednesday, she is inspecting the family type home work site, which she totally funds, by fundraising she has done in the UK.

She came to Romania straight from the Formula 1 competition in Belgium. I have enormous respect and admiration for Natalie Pinkham, for what she does for our country. Many Romanians could follow her example. Then, this country could be a different place.

More Than 500 Children and Youngsters in Families, in Botosani

We opened five family type homes and a recuperation centre, in cooperation with SERA Romania, for children with severe special needs. However, this is but the part of the iceberg one can see. Behind the scenes, there is a two-year project, which managed to keep or bring more than 500 children and youngsters into families. Without our action, they would have all been included in state care, and would have generated costs worth 2,300 lei/month/child. We made reintegrations back into their families. We supported youngsters, so that they could become independent. We worked directly with families, so that their children could stay with them. We avoided the trauma, the torment the children would have gone through, with unimaginable consequences in their lives.